Author Topic: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?  (Read 13253 times)

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Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #45 on: October 02, 2017, 05:41:46 PM »

Offline jambr380

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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.

I've always hated offensive goaltending. I don't really understand why an offensive player can't dunk back a ball that isn't completely off the rim. I suppose it's because once a shot goes up, the offense is no longer solely in possession of the ball, but it just doesn't matter that much (and it is a somewhat rare occurrence anyway); a lot of should-be points get taken off the board for what seems like a technicality.

Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #46 on: October 02, 2017, 06:02:57 PM »

Offline PhoSita

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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.

I've always hated offensive goaltending. I don't really understand why an offensive player can't dunk back a ball that isn't completely off the rim. I suppose it's because once a shot goes up, the offense is no longer solely in possession of the ball, but it just doesn't matter that much (and it is a somewhat rare occurrence anyway); a lot of should-be points get taken off the board for what seems like a technicality.

I've always assumed that the idea behind the rule is that allowing offensive goaltending would give teams too much incentive to simply park a 7'+ guy with super long arms right next to the rim and have him dunk in every missed jumper as soon as it touches the rim.

These days, the prevalence of the three pointer pushes so hard in favor of the perimeter game that I think it might be a good thing to tweak the rules to favor tall guys a little bit more.
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Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #47 on: October 02, 2017, 07:53:58 PM »

Offline Eja117

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Right now is a great example of what I don't like about this era.  Jayson Tatum is playing essentially PF right now in the first minutes of his first preseason game.

It's like....hey did you play PF in high school? Do you have an outside shot? This is the NBA. You're good to go. You can be PF. No problem. Just do what you do.

Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #48 on: October 02, 2017, 09:17:34 PM »

Offline crimson_stallion

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Honestly?  Yeah, I do. 

I don't like today's style of game because I feel it dilutes the game.  There are certain aspects of the game such as post skill, midrange game and general toughness that seem horribly lacking in today's game because everybody is just too [dang] obsessed with three point shooting. 

If you're a guy who has developed other elite skills but cannot shoot the three (e.g. Jahlil Okafor, Al Jefferson, Dwight Howard, Andrew Drummond, Greg Monroe) then there is effectively no place for you in this game, and I hate that.  I grew up in the 90's and while that era had issues of it's own, I feel it was far more balanced.  There was a place for guards, a place for bigs, place for rebounders, for post players, for rim protectors, for perimeter defenders, for pure playmakers.  It didn't really matter hat your specialty was, if you were great at something, there was a place for you.  And that meant there was incentive for different guys to work on and different skill areas. 

I can already see the nature of today's era affecting guys coming in.  New upcoming bigs are putting less time into learning post skills, and putting more time into working on their ball handling and outside shooting.  It's only a matter of time before you find that out of 300 or so NBA players, the number of guys with a skilled post game will be able to be counted on one hand.  It almost feels like we are already at that point. 

Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #49 on: October 02, 2017, 10:48:47 PM »

Offline guava_wrench

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Any claim you can't be great in the modern game without a 3 is ignoring Wade. Wade is horrible from 3, but an all-time great who played in the modern era with modern rules. DeAndre Jordan is doing quite fine without a jumper.

The players who have a problem are skilled low-post bigs because teams can really clog the lane in the modern game. And teams do it.

Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #50 on: October 02, 2017, 11:48:16 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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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 don't like eliminating the corner 3 entirely - too odd to have angles from which a 3 is impossible - but that does bring me around to one of my pet rule changes that will never happen, widening the court by a few feet.


Quote
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.

That's the rule I mentioned - I think you can still goaltend in the cylinder (both ways) but once it contacts the rim anyone can touch it. I'd be more open to that change than say DeAndre Jordan just dunking home a dozen teammate jumpers a game.

Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #51 on: October 03, 2017, 12:01:43 AM »

Offline action781

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The reason I find it boring is because NBA offenses feel so predictable.  Lead guard (or wing) drives to the lane thanks to being freed by an illegal screen set by his big man, lead guard draws help defense, kicks out to shooters spotting up in predictable spots on the floor for either a jumper.  If defense actually closes in hard on shooter, then he swings it to the next guy open on the perimeter for an open 3.  You see this exact play run what feels like 30 times a game from each team.

Also, 3's are a high variance shot, that's where the saying "live by the 3, die by the 3" comes from.  If you're playing the high volume 3 point game, you're placing the outcome of the game in luck's hands a little bit unless you're a truly excellent shooting team like GSW.  I don't like that.

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Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #52 on: October 25, 2017, 09:59:46 PM »

Offline Eja117

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It seems to me quite a few traditional centers are suddenly getting some revenge on this league.

Great starts to the season for quite a few bigs

Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #53 on: October 25, 2017, 11:06:34 PM »

Offline hodgy03038

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I have to say I do find it a little boring.

Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #54 on: October 26, 2017, 12:09:05 AM »

Offline Snakehead

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I don't like the removal of the big man.  While I like fast basketball, I like big men who defend and play defense.  Many of those guys throughout history have had issues with free throws.  I hope they adjust the rules there, but also I hope the NBA looks at other possibilities.  I think losing the big man/post game so thoroughly hurts the game and is making some of it samey. 

I do think the big man talent pool was lacking for a few years though and is growing again so I will be curious if better play can't balance things out itself some.  But as someone who enjoys post play and post defense and things like that, I hope it doesn't go away.
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Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #55 on: October 26, 2017, 12:26:34 AM »

Offline rocknrollforyoursoul

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I don't like the removal of the big man.  While I like fast basketball, I like big men who defend and play defense.  Many of those guys throughout history have had issues with free throws.  I hope they adjust the rules there, but also I hope the NBA looks at other possibilities.  I think losing the big man/post game so thoroughly hurts the game and is making some of it samey. 

I do think the big man talent pool was lacking for a few years though and is growing again so I will be curious if better play can't balance things out itself some.  But as someone who enjoys post play and post defense and things like that, I hope it doesn't go away.

This sums up a lot of my feelings. I don't know that I'd call the 3-ball era "boring," but it certainly saddens me to see guys who have been blessed with being ~7 feet tall and 250+ pounds standing 25 feet from the basket.
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Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #56 on: October 26, 2017, 01:54:10 AM »

Offline PhoSita

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The reason I find it boring is because NBA offenses feel so predictable.  Lead guard (or wing) drives to the lane thanks to being freed by an illegal screen set by his big man, lead guard draws help defense, kicks out to shooters spotting up in predictable spots on the floor for either a jumper.  If defense actually closes in hard on shooter, then he swings it to the next guy open on the perimeter for an open 3.  You see this exact play run what feels like 30 times a game from each team.

Also, 3's are a high variance shot, that's where the saying "live by the 3, die by the 3" comes from.  If you're playing the high volume 3 point game, you're placing the outcome of the game in luck's hands a little bit unless you're a truly excellent shooting team like GSW.  I don't like that.

The spread pick and roll you describe does get run a ton of times each game, but is it more prevalent than the low post iso plays that dominated for the 90s and much of the 00s? Does it have fewer possible outcomes?

The nice thing about the pick and roll is there are so many ways it can resolve assuming the players involved are skilled.

I feel like we tend to judge the current style of play by the average team and judge previous eras by how the most talented teams played. I imagine there were a lot of really predictable post up teams for much of the fifteen to twenty years preceding the pick and roll era brought on by Steve Nash etc.
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Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #57 on: October 26, 2017, 05:56:02 AM »

Offline moiso

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If we could stick an average team of today into the 90's it would blow people's minds.  They would be one of the most popular teams in the league easily.  We still talk about that RUN TMC team even though they weren't a great team. 

Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #58 on: October 26, 2017, 07:30:22 AM »

Offline CFAN38

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I love basketball but feel like we need a middle ground between the current college game and the game. The college game feels to bogged down, ugly and lacking in skill while the NBA is like watching an elite boxer to Tae-bo ( speed and skill with out the pop). The little I have watch of elite euro league basketball seems to be in the middle ground. I like to see elite passing and shot making placed in a well run offense that features BOTH post play and perimeter shooting. On defense tick tack fouls are ruining the NBA game. I do not want to see the 90s return in terms of physicality but the league needs to continue to do something about the elite perimeter scorers playing for the foul calls. 
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Re: Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?
« Reply #59 on: October 26, 2017, 07:46:29 AM »

Offline Eja117

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I'm beginning to think it's not so much the traditional big that is going away. It's the mediocre big. In some cases certain mediocre bigs are being replaced by different mediocre bigs. Like instead of Sully the league has KO.

Or maybe another example is Tyler Zeller gets no play time at all (till someone gets hurt).  Because you can always find a faster big forward that can shoot better, rebound about the same and play defense about the same