NBA League Averages: How the Game Has Changed
NBA league averages since 1980 — three-point attempts, scoring, and true shooting by season, with where today's numbers stand historically. Every chart ends with where today stands against the full history.
Three-point attempts per game
The three-point revolution in one line: from 2.8 attempts per game in 1980 to the high 30s today.
Points per game
League scoring by season — the 90s-2000s trough and the modern offensive era.
League true shooting %
Shooting efficiency including threes and free throws — the baseline every player's TS% should be judged against.
Sources & method
League averages fetched from the sport’s reference-standard database (Basketball-Reference) league year-by-year tables. “Where today stands” lines are computed live from the full series — percentile of all seasons on record plus the long-run median. Seasons for NBA/NFL are keyed by starting year.
League-wide averages — team and player context varies. Updated after each season.
Frequently asked questions
Why did three-point attempts explode?
Analytics: three points beat two. Once teams quantified shot value in the 2010s, attempts roughly doubled in a decade — from ~18 per game in 2010 to the mid-30s today (Basketball-Reference league averages).
Is NBA scoring at an all-time high?
Points per game in the mid-110s is the highest since the early-1980s era of fast pace — check the chart's context line for exactly where the current season stands.
What is a good true shooting percentage today?
League average is about 58% — so 60%+ is efficient and 65%+ is elite for high-volume scorers. In 2000 the league averaged ~52%, which is why cross-era comparisons need the era context our TS% calculator applies.