Rudy Tomjanovich on the origins of Houston’s 3-point revolution

Newly crowned Hall of Fame coach Rudy Tomjanovich explains how Houston came to be known as the leader of the NBA’s 3-point revolution.

Under GM Daryl Morey and head coach Mike D’Antoni, the Rockets are known in the current era as the NBA’s most aggressive team at shooting 3-pointers. But Houston’s status as a leader of the modern 3-point revolution actually traces back to Rudy Tomjanovich in the 1990s.

The recently announced Hall of Famer and former Rockets coach took time Friday to respond to fan questions in an exclusive Q&A session with the NBA on Twitter. One of those exchanges went as follows (video):

Q: Your Rockets teams were consistently near the top of the league in made 3-pointers. Was that a function of your roster, your offensive philosophy, or both?

A: When a young coach gets a job, he must quickly develop a philosophy on how you’re going to play a style of play. I believe that philosophy should be based on the players you have it. The offense should be tailor-made to those players’ skills.

We had the great Hakeem Olajuwon, who was a great post-up player, and we know that other teams would have to double team.

So we went out and got the best outside shooters we could get. When they double teamed, Hakeem passed the ball out, we moved it around the 3-point line, and let ’em go. And it was a big part of our offense.

When Houston won its first championship in the 1993-94 season, NBA teams averaged 9.9 attempts from 3-point range per game. The Rockets were at 15.7, which easily led the league.

Perhaps buoyed by Houston’s success, the league’s average 3-point attempts surged in the following season to 15.3 per game. But the Rockets expanded their margin by even more to 21.4, which again led the NBA. And yet again, Tomjanovich’s Rockets went on to win the title.

That second title team featured what at the time was an unconventional lineup configuration, with small forward Robert Horry sliding to power forward (what’s now known as a “stretch four”) after the February trade of traditional big man Otis Thorpe for shooting guard Clyde Drexler.

Horry made nearly 38% of his 3-pointers, which helped provide additional floor spacing for Olajuwon — since the big man was surrounded by capable shooters from behind the arc at all of the other four positions.

Tomjanovich served as head coach fr 11-plus seasons from 1992 through 2003. Now 71 years old, “Rudy T” led Houston to a 503-397 (.559) regular-season record and a 51-39 (.567) mark in the NBA playoffs. To this day, he remains by far the winningest coach in franchise history.

Besides his extensive accomplishments as a coach, Tomjanovich was also a dynamic player for the Rockets ⁠— with averages of 17.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in 33.5 minutes per game over 11 seasons from 1970 through 1981. He was a five-time All-Star at power forward.

Tomjanovich and other members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 are scheduled to be enshrined on Saturday, Aug. 29 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Former NBA players to be inducted will include Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and the late Kobe Bryant.

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