Wizards' Bradley Beal Says Steph Curry 'Messed Up the Game in a Good Way'

Bradley Beal believes Stephen Curry has changed basketball for the better.

"He messed up the game in a good way," Beal said on The Old Man and the Three podcast (22:30).

Beal added that Curry might have hurt the youth game because kids only want to shoot threes, but it's made a positive impact at the NBA level.

"You can just see in the league, how we value the three-point line now," Beal said. "It's not just something that we just look at as a spacer. We value it at all five positions. We need everybody to be able to shoot the three."

Curry became the most prolific shooter in NBA history last season, passing Ray Allen before ending the year with 3,117 made three-pointers. He led the league in made threes for the seventh time in his career in 2021-22 and has made 42.8 percent of outside shots in his career.

Most importantly, it's led to success with Curry and the Golden State Warriors taking home their fourth championship in eight years.

NBA teams have been trying to replicate the strategy, valuing three-point shooting in drafts, free agency and game planning.

In 2021-22, 29 of 30 teams averaged at least 30 three-point attempts per game. Ten years earlier, only one team averaged even 25 per game.

Beal has also altered his own approach, especially in 2019-20 when he ranked second in the NBA with 30.5 points per game. The Washington Wizards guard ranked joint eighth in the league with 8.4 three-point attempts per game that year, although his shooting numbers have fallen over the last two seasons.