A’ja Wilson has dominated the WNBA in almost every way imaginable, particularly when she gets to work around the basket. Yet, for all her accomplishments, there has always been one part of her offensive game that fans wanted to see develop further: her three-point shooting.
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Speaking in an interview, a video that USA Sports shared on Monday, the Las Vegas Aces superstar expressed that she knew the conversation was there. She heard people telling her to “develop a three” and understood that adding that dimension could make her even more versatile. But Wilson was not interested in forcing the process simply because the crowd demanded it. And for her, that is the lesson young hoopers should take from her journey: development should happen on your own timeline.
“Probably my three-point shot,” Wilson said, when asked what aspect of her game she worked on in the offseason. “My three-point shot was something that I really wanted to kind of buckle down on. I think the biggest thing I want to tell young hoopers is don’t let the crowd rush you in what you need to do. I think a lot of times the crowd was like, well, she needs to develop a three. Obviously, yes, I know that. But in due time, I will do that.”
“So this season, it was time for me to start expanding my game to be a little bit more versatile. I’m not out here having to shoot seven threes, but I can knock down the ones that I feel confident in. I’m not out here having to shoot seven threes, but I can knock down the ones that I feel confident in. So I think that’s key for me is just focusing on the little things and kind of dribbling within small spaces, depending on the defense,” she added.
Looking back at A’ja Wilson’s history with three-pointers, the numbers seem to agree with her revelation. Wilson was a classic low-post and mid-range operator under coach Bill Laimbeer and initially under Becky Hammon, making a grand total of just 32 three-pointers across her first five seasons in the WNBA. Thirty-one of those came in a single outlier year in 2022. In fact, from her rookie year in 2018 through 2021, she attempted just two three-pointers.
From 2023, however, her attempts and makes from beyond the arc saw a gradual increase, starting with nine three-pointers off 29 attempts in 2023. It then rose to 19 makes off 60 attempts in 2024, and 25 makes off 59 attempts last year. This 2026 season has seen her attempt the most three-pointers in her WNBA career, launching 90 attempts and sinking 36 of them.
Of course, A’ja Wilson is not yet near the elite three-point shooters of the league like Kelsey Mitchell, Rhyne Howard, and Sabrina Ionescu, who would generally make between 90 and 130 three-pointers in a single 40-game regular season while launching between 250 and 320 attempts. However, the progress she has made is quite significant.
And it is safe to say that Wilson does not really need the three-point shot to establish herself as one of the league’s premier scorers. She has finished as a top-three scorer on five different occasions, led the league in scoring over the last two seasons, and this season she is also leading the WNBA, averaging 26.2 points per game.
But with the efforts she is putting into her three-point shot now, and the progress she has made so far, perhaps the WNBA should be getting ready for a three-point-shooting A’ja Wilson. That version of the four-time WNBA Most Valuable Player will definitely add another intriguing dimension to an already dominant offensive game.