Joe Hassett (1981-1982)
The year a Golden State Warrior had (maybe) the NBA's most prolific three-point shooting season ever and I'm not talking about a Splash Bro
Later today, Friday, March 25th, the 4-seed Providence Friars (+7.5) will face the 1-seed Kansas Jayhawks in the Sweet Sixteen. In the past 48 years, the Friars have made it to the Regional Semifinal of the NCAA Tournament just three other times: 1974*, 1987 and 1997. (The tournament field was expanded from 32 to 64 teams in 1985.) That 1974 team featured a freshman guard who would go on to be the schools 8th all-time leading scorer and become one of just four players to score 500+ points in three straight seasons at the university.
Joe Hassett played for the Friars from 1973 to 1977. During that four seasons stretch the team would have a 93-31 record, including two Top 20 finishes. One of best shooters in college basketball, Hassett was known for taking very deep shots, despite there not being a 3-point line.
“He was one of the few players I’ve ever seen that didn’t go into pressure. But what he did was back up, he’d just keep backing up until he was 30 feet from the basket, and then someone would throw him the ball and he would shoot it.” - Providence teammate, Mark McAndrew
He also won a gold medal for the United States in the 1975 Pan American Games. Hassett now holds the honor of being in four Hall of Fames: Providence College, New England Basketball, Rhode Island Heritage and Rhode Island Interscholastic League.
Despite his collegiate success, he was not a top NBA prospect and went 52nd overall, the 8th pick of the third-round, in the 1977 NBA Draft by the Seattle SuperSonics. In just his second season, he won an NBA Championship with the 1978-1979 Sonics but Hassett played in just eight of the teams 17 playoff games, an average of less than two minutes per game. The team was coached by another Providence legend himself, in Lenny Wilkins.
The following season, 1979-1980 was a transformational year for the NBA and Hassett himself. That was the rookie season of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. The league also adopted the 3-point shot for the first time. Hassett however, coming off a championship season in Seattle was released in the off-season but quickly scooped up by the Indiana Pacers. With the new team, came opportunity.
The Pacers were an American Basketball Association power. From the leagues inception in 1967, Indiana won three championships before the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t not continue that success, missing the playoffs their first four seasons in the newly reformed league. Hassett, however, was given his first chance to show his best skill: shooting, especially from deep. Although his playing time was nearly doubled, he still only averaged 15.3 minutes and 7.1 points per game. However, in the league’s inaugural 3-point season, Hassett managed to rank with the leagues best:
3PTA per game (1979-1980):
Brian Taylor (LAC) - 3.1
Rick Barry (HOU) - 3.1
Joe Hassett (IND) - 2.7
Chris Ford (BOS) - 2.1
Mike Newlin (NJN) - 1.9
The Pacers would finish the year 37-45 and leave Hassett exposed for the 1980 NBA Expansion Draft. The newly founded Dallas Mavericks would make Hassett one of their 22 selections. If you are an elite NBA trivia buff, maybe you can name a few of the other 21 players who were selected.
In the first game in Maverick’s regular season history, Hassett shined and there was a surge of optimism. Dallas had their first NBA franchise playing in the brand new Reunion Arena for modern day eyebrow raising $27M. The Mavericks would beat the San Antonio Spurs (52-30, winning the division) and Hassett scored 14 points to lead all bench scorers. Unfortunately, that may have been the peak of their season as they went on to lose 16 of their next 18 games, and ended up releasing him. Ironically, they would also lose their next 11 games and finish the year 15-67.
After three months without an NBA team, the Golden State Warriors picked him up. Despite a winning record at 30-28, and in the thick of a playoff race, Hassett was moved into a key role where he played 18.1 MPG off the bench. The Warriors would finish a game back of the final Western Conference playoff spot, but in the 24 games with the Warriors, Hassett averaged 4.8 3PTA per game. Again, that might not seem like a lot today, but in 1981, if he had played the full season at that rate, it was more than doubled the next highest, Mike Bratz at 2.1 3PTA. In fact, if you include his 17 games with the Mavericks, Hassett averaged 3.8 3PTA per game. Bratz, played 32.4 minutes a night. Hassett? 17.4 MPG.
After the season, he was brought back to Golden State, where he would play his final full year as an NBA player. The Warriors would finish the season 45-37, a six win improvement, but again, finish one game out of the playoffs. Hassett actually took on a lesser role with his minutes dropping to just 11.6 per game. So why would this specific year be the focus of the article? I’m going to discuss the rate at which he was shooting from deep. A true outlier.
During the 1981-1982 season, Hassett lead the entire NBA in three-point attempts at 214. Let that sink in for a second. He played 68 of 82 games and only played 11.6 mintues per game, but still took more shots from deep than anyone. The next highest in that 1981-1982 season was Don Buse, who played 78 games at 30.8 MPG, but finished with 189, 25 less than Hassett. He was actually the only player in the league that year to have more three-point attempts than two-point. A record he would hold for a very, very long time amongst qualifiers.
To take it one step further, Hassett actually shot more three point attempts, again, in only 68 games and less than 12 minutes per, than entire NBA teams that year. Joe Hassett shot more threes in just 787 minutes played than 17 other NBA teams that played over 19,000 minutes each. If Hassett himself was a TEAM himself, here is how he would stack up:
Los Angeles Clippers (338)
Golden State Warriors (325)* Joe’s team
Indiana Pacers (316)
San Antonio Spurs (252)
Washington Bullets (236)
Joe Hassett (214)
New York Knicks (214)
Detroit Pistons (213)
Chicago Bulls (213)
In that game above, Hassett scored a season high 20 points on 7/12 shooting, five rebounds, three assists and no turnovers. It was arguably his best game of the season, especially when you consider it was against the eventually champion Los Angeles Lakers, on the road.
Now, we are going to get really nerdy here. Let’s compare his rate based on per 100 possessions. Of course, this just a fun statistical exercise as I’m not suggesting if he played that many minutes his rate would remain the same, but if you have made it this far, I think you will enjoy. That season, here is the 3PTA per 100 possessions:
Hassett - 12.9
John Roche - 4.5
Freeman Williams - 4.5 (Also a statistical outlier, see the link)
Bratz - 4.0
In last years NBA, Steph Curry lead the entire NBA at 17.5 3PTA per 100 possessions, quite a bit higher than Hassett. However, the next few behind him where far closer than the gap in 1981-1982:
Curry - 17.5
Jordan Clarkson - 16
Ben McLemore - 14.8
Damian Lillard - 14.3
Hassett’s rate is about 3x higher than the next closest player. If Curry was to do that, he’d have to shoot about 30 threes a game.
Basketball Reference has a stat called “Adjusted 3-Point Attempt Rate” otherwise expressed as 3PAr+. Basically, it’s to measure how often a player is shooting a three-point shot when compared to the rest of the league. In the ‘82 season, Hassett had a 3PAr+ of 2,165. That means he was 21.65x more likely to shoot a three when compared to the rest of the NBA.
For many teams, coaches, and players, they saw the 3-point line as a gimmick. A holdover from the ABA that was forced upon the NBA a few years after the merger. Some of the legends of the game at the time weren’t in favor of its addition. Even his own coach that year, Al Attles, thought it was a bad shot to take.
“When you shoot 3-pointers during the game, it disrupts the regular offense.”
Maybe Attles was right? Maybe Hassett’s game or the evolution of basketball just wasn’t ready to embrace a team regularly taking a shot from deep. In a 1982 article from the Associated Press, “Only the Golden State Warriors have a player who is used primarily for his ability to hit the 22-23 footers, 6-foot-5 guard Joe Hassett, who calls himself ‘basketball’s version of Manny Mota,’ one of baseball’s top pinch-hitters.”
Maybe that’s a better way to look at Hassett’s season. A three-point pinch-hitter. The NBA’s first true three-point specialist. Probably a decade or more before we were even calling players that. But not even players like Kyle Korver, Klay Thompson, Reggie Miller nor Ray Allen, shot threes at such a higher clip than the rest of the league.
While he displayed a willingness to shoot throughout his collegiate and NBA career, this particular season stood above the rest. A frequency of three-point shooting the league has honestly, at least statistically, never seen since. Joe had a true shooter’s mentality, like many other all-time greats.
"He would say to us, you know, if you shoot 50% from the field, and you miss your first 10 shots, the chances of the next 10 going in are 100%. That’s his math.” - Providence teammate, Paul Oristaglio
He’d play just six more games in the NBA. In total, Joe Hassett played six seasons in the league for four different teams, averaging just 5.9 points per game for his career. After his playing days were over, Hassett moved on to a different career as an investment banker and the current color commentator for the Friar’s basketball team on 103.7 FM radio, for more than 30 years.
Photo credits:
NBAP/NBAE via Getty Images
The Providence Journal
NBAP/NBAE via Getty Images
NBAP/NBAE via Getty Images
NBAP/NBAE via Getty Images
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