Adam Silver looking into critiques of three point volume

[ozgod]

LeBum has weighed in, saying  he thinks there's "a f***** lot of 3s being shot".



https://x.com/mcten/status/1869837077589962821

I take exception to LeBum saying we take too many 3s. I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with it if the Fakers were better than 21st in the league in 3FG%:



That said, we're not really as good at them as our propensity would assume...we're 15th in the league at 36.7%, which is good for mid-table.

[Phantom255x]

You know, I'm starting to think Brad Stevens and the analytics team here may have found something. I know we hate the approach, but when you think about it, it does seem to win a lot of games if you can ideally build a team with shooters and guys who aren't liabilities on defense.

Think about it this way. Golden State was a dynasty with Curry and Klay sort of transforming the game with their 3 point shooting, but those guys could also play defense well. Who was their biggest threat technically? The Houston Rockets. Yep, those Rockets teams with D'Antoni, Harden and a bunch of shooters that Morey got because Morey seemed to recognize this too. You need to shoot a bunch of 3s to battle some of the great teams now. What hurt those Rockets teams were Harden choking in the postseason and their defense wasn't that great, but they still came super close in 2018.

Even though Golden State played Lebron/Cavs often in the Finals, it was those Rockets teams that gave GSW the most trouble in their dynasty run. Lebron/Cavs weren't a great 3-point shooting team, which predictably might also be why Lebron is having sour grapes about it now.

Again, I know many hate the approach, and yes, we can lose games like this. But then again, we lost 3 games in the postseason last year in total, and it'll be hard for teams to beat us 4 out of 7 times. C's are gonna keep shooting 3s, and so are other teams. There will be other teams in the near future who start to jack up 50+ regularly as well. The key is supplementing the team with shooters and guys who can at least play above average defense. Brad Stevens has done outstanding with that.

[SHAQATTACK]

Keep shooting threes C?s

Don?t want no ? bad Shooters ?

[mobilija]

It?s gonna keep raining 3s for the Cs and the league.

Celtics % is down considerably from last year when we?re 1 or 2 in the league. Jrue and Hauser have a lot to do w this I think. Hauser needs to get healthy and his % will return. But Jrue, had a career year last year, I doubt he can repeat that. Is volume also a factor in effecting the percentage?

[SparzWizard]

You know, I'm starting to think Brad Stevens and the analytics team here may have found something. I know we hate the approach, but when you think about it, it does seem to win a lot of games if you can ideally build a team with shooters and guys who aren't liabilities on defense.

Think about it this way. Golden State was a dynasty with Curry and Klay sort of transforming the game with their 3 point shooting, but those guys could also play defense well. Who was their biggest threat technically? The Houston Rockets. Yep, those Rockets teams with D'Antoni, Harden and a bunch of shooters that Morey got because Morey seemed to recognize this too. You need to shoot a bunch of 3s to battle some of the great teams now. What hurt those Rockets teams were Harden choking in the postseason and their defense wasn't that great, but they still came super close in 2018.

Even though Golden State played Lebron/Cavs often in the Finals, it was those Rockets teams that gave GSW the most trouble in their dynasty run. Lebron/Cavs weren't a great 3-point shooting team, which predictably might also be why Lebron is having sour grapes about it now.

Again, I know many hate the approach, and yes, we can lose games like this. But then again, we lost 3 games in the postseason last year in total, and it'll be hard for teams to beat us 4 out of 7 times. C's are gonna keep shooting 3s, and so are other teams. There will be other teams in the near future who start to jack up 50+ regularly as well. The key is supplementing the team with shooters and guys who can at least play above average defense. Brad Stevens has done outstanding with that.

Things haters will say to discredit the Celtics run last year:
Miami - no Butler, no Rozier
Cleveland - no Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen, Caris LaVert
Indiana - No Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin, Jalen Smith
Dallas - Garbage team, Luka was tired having to carry them the first three rounds etc

[Big333223]

I wouldn't mind some adjustments.  Widening the court, moving the line back, etc.

I think they should widen the court and make the 3pt line the same distance all the way around the arc?no more of the short corner-threes.

This is exactly what I would do.  Players are so big and so fast now, widening the court would not only allow you to extend the distance for the corner 3, but also give more court to work with in general.  This could lead to more ball and player movement.

Spreading the court right now only applies to one direction or dimension, out from the basket/end line.  If you spread the court in the other two directions, parallel to the end line, I think it would improve the game.  Right now, the corner is kind of no-mans land.  You can barely move with the ball or you step out of bounds.

You could simply make the whole rectangle wider or you could taper the court.  Keep it 50' wide at half court and then taper out to say 56 feet at the end line.  If it were me, I would just make the whole court wider but the tapered idea I think would achieve the goal and may be kind of cool.

Otherwise, I think the 3-point shot is here to stay and if they try to do anything silly, like make dunks worth 3 points or whatever, I think it will only make things worse.

It'll never happen but this is the answer. Widening the court would not only make that corner 3 a little more difficult but it drags the corner defender that much farther from the basket, opening up the lane for players to drive.

I can't confirm but someone said the number of points in the paint has actually stayed pretty consistent as 3-point attempts have continued to rise. I don't know if anyone has any data on that.

Anyway, I think the NBA is better now than it was 25 years ago. There's a lot more movement and strategy involved. 25 years ago it was mostly 1-on-1, either in the post or on the perimeter and not much else.