National Basketball Association

StaTuesday: Bucks' Novak is Mr. 3-pointer

Published Feb. 23, 2016 3:00 p.m. ET

foxsports

In baseball, when a super-speedy player comes in to pinch run, everyone gears up for a potential stolen base.

While you don't have pinch runners in the NBA, you do have Steve Novak. When he comes in, defenses better prepare for the taking of some 3-pointers.

No player in NBA history has taken a higher percentage of 3-pointers than the newest Bucks forward and former Marquette hoopster. In NBA and ABA history, 20 players have had 60-plus percent of their attempted shots be 3-pointers (keep in mind the NBA didn't institute the 3-pointer until the 1979-80 season). Novak is head and shoulders above anyone else (his former Marquette teammate, Travis Diener, is also one of the 20).

Novak is Mr. 3-Pointer.

From the 2011-12 season to the 2014-15 season, an incredible 82.9 percent of Novak's shot attempts were from 3-point land (he made 44.0 percent of those shots, by the way).

Player	Seasons	3-Point Attempts Pct.
Steve Novak	2007-current	77.8
Troy Daniels	2014-current	68.5
Pablo Prigioni	2013-current	68.3
Billy Thomas	2005-08	67.5
Damjan Rudez	2015-current	66.6
Isaiah Canaan	2014-current	66.1
Damon Jones	1999-2009	64.7
James Jones	2004-current	64.2
Dante Exum	2015-current*	63.5
Mirza Teletovic	2013-current	62.9
Luke Babbitt	2011-16	62.7
Mike Penberthy	2001-02	62.1
Yakhouba Diawara	2007-10	62.0
Rudy Fernandez	2009-12	61.9
Richie Frahm	2004-08	61.7
Robert Covington	2014-current	61.5
Reggie Bullock	2014-current	61.4
P.J. Hairston	2015-current	61.3
Joe Ingles	2015-current	60.9
Travis Diener	2006-10	60.5

Novak takes a lot of 3-pointers for a reason: He makes them. Novak ranks sixth all-time in NBA/ABA history in 3-point field-goal percentage at 43.14 percent. The five players in front of him are Steve Kerr (45.40), Stephen Curry (44.29), Hubert Davis (44.09), Drazen Petrovic (43.74) and Jason Kapono (43.36).

Together with Khris Middleton, the Bucks have their own, forward-centric version of the Splash Brothers (aka Golden State guards Curry and Klay Thompson). Both Novak (2nd) and Middleton (12th) rank among the top 3-point shooters in the game today.

In his debut with the Bucks, Novak briefly got into Monday's game against the Lakers. He took one shot. It was a 3-pointer, of course.

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Player	3-point pct.
Stephen Curry	44.29
Steve Novak	43.14
Kyle Korver	42.94
Anthony Morrow	42.63
Klay Thompson	41.84
Matt Bonner	41.50
Danny Green	41.09
Jose Calderon	41.06
J.J. Redick	40.93
Mike Miller	40.67
Brandon Rush	40.32
Khris Middleton	40.23