Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?

[Kuberski33]

Game is exciting now because it's easier to make up big margins.  The team ahead goes cold and  one behind suddenly finds the hot hand and you can get some big swings.  There's also better ball movement.  That said, the low post game is virtually gone and there are way too many 3's.

Problem is I'm not sure how you change that.  Maybe you do remove the corner 3 but that might have the effect of drastically reducing the amount of 3's as not only will they be easier to defend but the corners give you the best chance of making them.

Personally what bugs me about the current era is Steph Curry. He's it's poster boy with his cocky little smirk. I'm not sure he'd have gotten off most teams benches back in the 90's and prior when you could get physical defending him and also close off his space a lot more easily.

[More Banners]

Chuckers. That's what they look like out there 63% of the time.

Don't care for it.  Quick pull-up 3's are celebrated, and used to be considered the worst move.

Instead of the post man forcing defenders to sag to help leaving the 3pt line open, they just pull up and chuck. Sometimes they pass it or dribble around the perimeter, but chuck it they will.

It's a shame.

Bring back hand checking.

[nickagneta]

I love basketball. Love all sorts of styles. I loved the fast break basketball of many of the 80's teams. I love the pace and space ball of today. Even the half court, center-centric games of the 70's. Never cared for the Riley in NY, clutch and grab stuff of the 90's however.

I think some relaxation of the contact rules and off ball contact would help the game some, but that's the only rules changes I would make.

Listen, the game changes all the time. Its a copycat league until someone gets a generational talent with a coach that can institute a style that makes the current game go away. This style won't last. It will change again.

[Boris Badenov]

I miss this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Td5QRfzj4

How much defense was played in those days outside of crunch time?

It just looks like no one is playing D in those highlights because the Celtics were so good.

But in general the defense was about 10 times more aggressive and physical than it is today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_lvkrXULXE

[KGs Knee]

Bring back hand checking.

Yeah, and bring back the illegal defense rule too. Also, how the refs call moving screens needs to be tightened up.

It's too easy for guards to get free for open shots, either at the rim or behind the three-point line. There is very little in the way of diversity on offense, teams pretty much run the same play or two over and over again all game.

I found the style of play form the 80's and 90's much more enjoyable. Post play was emphasized far more, and getting open shots required more creative sets. Yes, this style of play did also make isolation offense of greater importance, but that's a minor trade off in my opinion.   I liked the tough, physical nature of the basketball from the previous eras.

It's not that I find today's style of play boring, it's just not quite as enjoyable as it used to be. But I realize right now I am in the minority, the younger fans clearly prefer the way the game is played today, so I just accept it for what it is.

[Who]

I like isolations so long as they

(1) come out of ball movement. I thought Phil Jackson did a great job with the Triangle offense in keeping Jordan's teammates involved in the offense while still keeping a large amount of iso-opportunities available for Jordan.

(2) the attacker makes quick decisions. Always a big key for iso-players. If they make a quick decision and attack while the defense is still moving, they can be very effective and they are more able to keep their teammates involved. If they hold onto the ball for 6-8 seconds (Melo big offender), their teammates become stagnant. The opposition defense stops moving and loads up on them. They become easier to defend and their teammates are not involved in the action. ]

Phil Jackson's 3 second rule is a good measure for quick / slow decisions. For stopping an offense, allowing an opponent's defense to recover and load up on you.

(3) They don't involve lots of ball-handling. As Future of Stevens said, watching Iverson dribble the ball 20 times and hoist up a shot was awful. Again, quick decisions are imperative for good isolation play. Slow decisions lead to ineffective team basketball.

In the same vein as above -- the over-dribbling - I find a lot of today's basketball hard to watch for the same reason. They have PnRs and a bit more movement but there is still way too much dribbling for my liking. Because of that, I do not enjoy a lot of today's premier scorers.

(4) Needs to happen below the 3 point line. Needs to happen inside a team's defense. Not with 5 men standing in between the attacking iso player and the basket. No point in that. Generates too many bad shots.

[guava_wrench]

I'll take today's game over iso-backdown basketball of 20 years ago.

And don't forget that all those 3s aren't merely the result of the length of the line. The allowing of zones helped clog the lane.

Amen to both points. A lot of NBA games became borderline unwatchable for a lot of the 1990s -- the Knicks and Pistons especially.

The other thing about 1990s ball is that slow, beefy guards could make a living with hand checks that looked a lot like wrestling. I'm not disappointed, at all, that we now have lighter, quicker guys who play a more versatile game.  Somebody like Isaiah might still have been good in the 1990s, but he'd be a lot less good if the Mark Jacksons of the world could ride him with a hand and stop him changing speeds quickly.

Yeah, I find it crazy to hear people want to bring back hand-checking. That was such ugly basketball. And what would be the point? If you want to defend a guy, stay in front of him.

I don't get this preference for guys hitting other guys instead of having players use their skill and agility to get things done.

[Spicoli]

It's pretty much impossible to stay in front of your man when you get ran through multiple picks on each possession. The pick and roll has greatly neutralized man on man defense.

[PhoSita]

Two changes I'd suggest

1) Eliminate the defensive three second rule.  It's easy enough to punish big men for lingering in the paint now, with all of the stretch-bigs in the league.

2) Eliminate offensive goaltending.  Suddenly hyperathletic big men regain some of their viability.

[Who]

I think the 3 ball era has also led to too many players deep in their 30s hanging around.  Not good.

I don't like that either. They have it too easy to score today.

Jamal Crawford had an interview on ESPN a year or two ago and he said there was no way he'd still be in the league scoring 15-18ppg like he is today if they were still playing the same rules as when he came into the league (2000).

I liked him admitting that. I thought that was bang on.

[KGs Knee]

It's pretty much impossible to stay in front of your man when you get ran through multiple picks on each possession. The pick and roll has greatly neutralized man on man defense.

The change from the illegal defense rule to the defensive three second rule prompted this, though.

Previously, a defender would be called for a violation if they weren't actively 'defending' an opposition player. It didn't matter of they were in the lane or not, you couldn't just stand in the middle of the court, not particularly guarding anyone.

With today's rile, a defenses can basically play zone defense, with the caveat they cannot remain in the lane for more than three seconds unless they are actively defending a player in their immediate vicinity. This single rule change has been the biggest reason there is less space in the center of the half court for big men to operate. This forced to teams to find new ways to clear defenders from the lane, which in turn lead to the increased emphasis on three point shooting, and three point shooting big men, specifically.

Go back to the old illegal defense rule and a lot of this would change.

[action781]

It's pretty much impossible to stay in front of your man when you get ran through multiple picks on each possession. The pick and roll has greatly neutralized man on man defense.

Only because players are allowed to set illegal screens.  NBA Basketball would be a much better sport to watch (for basketball purists) if moving screens were called as fouls.

[fairweatherfan]

2) Eliminate offensive goaltending.  Suddenly hyperathletic big men regain some of their viability.

I might go for the "shot touches the rim and its fair game" rule but it's hard to do it asymmetrically where the defense has no right to touch the ball but the offense does.


I like the 3 ball game overall - it added a new dimension to the game when there are incentives to create shots both closer to and farther away from the rim. But the problem is that it's too easy for most players relative to being worth 50% more points. The real "solution" is to move the line farther away, but that'll never happen - it really can't from the corners.

[PhoSita]

2) Eliminate offensive goaltending.  Suddenly hyperathletic big men regain some of their viability.

I might go for the "shot touches the rim and its fair game" rule but it's hard to do it asymmetrically where the defense has no right to touch the ball but the offense does.


I like the 3 ball game overall - it added a new dimension to the game when there are incentives to create shots both closer to and farther away from the rim. But the problem is that it's too easy for most players relative to being worth 50% more points. The real "solution" is to move the line farther away, but that'll never happen - it really can't from the corners.

There are a lot of poor three point shooters in the league today who can shoot a good percentage on corner shots (see: Smart, Marcus).

They could keep the line at the same distance but change the arc so that it eliminates the corners (i.e. all 3 pointers are straightaway or above the break).

That would shrink the number of guys who can actually hit a good percentage.  But then again, it might just serve to shrink the floor again, since it would no longer be useful to have guys hanging out in the corners and staying out of the way of the action.



I think the offensive goaltend isn't a thing in FIBA games.  Doesn't seem to be a problem in that league.  But then, there are fewer hyper athletes over 6'10'' overseas.

https://www.sbnation.com/2015/4/29/8513253/clippers-spurs-deandre-jordan-nba-basket-interference-fiba

[CelticsElite]

Some of the suggestions to change the NBA rules  are terrible. Remove the corner 3? Really?

The shooting guard position has the worst performers in the entire nba. The days of  ray allen and Reggie miller  types are gone.  There are only a small handful of elite 3 pt shooters in the entire league. So why the push to make it hard? It makes zero sense

I've not seen any owners or fans outside this board who have any problem with the 3. The rules aren't changing