{"id":698024,"date":"2026-04-04T16:22:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698024\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T16:22:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:22:58","slug":"collin-gillespie-crushing-suns-decades-long-record-is-just-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698024\/","title":{"rendered":"Collin Gillespie crushing Suns’ decades-long record is just the beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it\u2019s officially official. With two 3-pointers made in the April 2 loss against the Charlotte Hornets, Phoenix Suns breakout guard Collin Gillespie is now the franchise leader in 3-point makes in a season \u2014 breaking a record that\u2019s stood for more than two decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gillespie now stands alone in Suns lore having made 227 shots from beyond the arc in a season, an organization record. The previous high mark was held by Quentin \u201cQ\u201d Richardson, who drained 226 long range looks during his lone season in The Valley in 2004-05 with the first iteration of Steve Nash and Mike D\u2019Antoni\u2019s \u201cRun and Gun\u201d Suns.<\/p>\n

But now, after more than 20 years and seeing Suns team records for 3s in a season fall year after year, Gillespie was finally the man up to the challenge of besting Q\u2019s record for single-season sharpshooting.<\/p>\n

And what a season it has been for Gillespie. After averaging just 14 minutes per game across 33 games (nine starts) in his first season with Phoenix a year ago, he\u2019s now averaging career highs with 28.9 minutes, 13.1 points, 4.8 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals per contest. He\u2019s been called the most surprising player<\/a> on one of the NBA\u2019s surprise teams, and he\u2019s set for a significant pay increase this summer when he enters free agency.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s a problem for the Suns to figure out in the future. For now, let\u2019s take a look at how Gillespie\u2019s record-setting season from long range compares to Richardson\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Volume isn’t the only impressive thing about Gillespie’s record<\/p>\n

During his short stint in The Valley, Q Richardson was encouraged to let it fly from long range in what became a new era of not only Suns basketball, but NBA basketball as well.<\/p>\n

Q\u2019s 226 3-pointers led the league in 2004-05, as did his 631 long range attempts. That was good enough for a 35.8% mark from distance.<\/p>\n

Gillespie has now hit 227 long range shots in 557 attempts \u2014 significantly fewer than Q launched some 20 years ago. As it stands, Gillespie ranks No. 15 in the NBA in 3-point attempts per game at 7.3 per contest. His 40.7% mark from distance is the best on the team and around the top 20 in all of basketball. For comparison, Q\u2019s 3-point percentage ranked 60th in the league when he set the record, and was significantly less efficient than teammate Joe Johnson\u2019s mark of 47.8% (which ranked second in the NBA that season behind Fred Hoiberg).<\/p>\n

The story with Gillespie was efficiency and consistency.<\/p>\n

While Q failed to net a 3-pointer 14 times during his own record-setting run, Gillespie\u2019s gone without making a 3-point look just six times all season.<\/p>\n

Richardson\u2019s volume stands out, as he made five or more triples a stunning 17 times throughout the 2004-05 campaign. Gillespie\u2019s sunk five or more 12 times, with a high of eight in a single game \u2014 which he accomplished twice.<\/p>\n

Q made nine 3-pointers in a single contest in a Dec. 29, 2004, win over New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Gillespie and Richardson are among the best outside shooters in the history of the Suns franchise, but now Gillespie stands alone at the top of the record books.<\/p>\n

Unlike Q, who was unceremoniously traded after his record-setting year, Suns fans no doubt hope that Gillespie will be sticking around a while longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, it\u2019s officially official. With two 3-pointers made in the April 2 loss against the Charlotte Hornets, Phoenix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-698024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-phoenix","11":"tag-phoenix-suns","12":"tag-phoenixsuns","13":"tag-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116347365155651291","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}