Do you find the 3 ball era to be boring?

[moiso]

The teams that win the championships are great 3 point shooting teams, both in volume and percentage.  Obviously it works.  Obviously the math geeks were right.

[Sophomore]

There is a whole era of players that pulling up for a three is pretty much all they know. Just now is a great example. Tatum is at the top with 6 seconds to go. No thought whatsoever to driving to get the foul or to drive/dish or to drive pull-up. None. Just jack it up.

I guess I'm wondering why Tatum is wrong in this example. At this stage in his career, a Tatum iso is often going to fail - especially if it is rushed at the end of a play where the defense didn't break down. When he has a lane to the basket, I typically see him take it; when the lane isn't there, with the shot clock winding down, shouldn't he shoot the 3?

The fact that he's often hanging out at the line also makes sense to me. A good offense needs to force defenses to make difficult choices until they make a mistake and create a great opportunity. Some players are in motion, coming off screens, forcing the defense to guard the player moving toward the basket or the player stationed at the 3-point line.  Having Tatum out there at the 3-point line a lot of the time makes good use of his skillset *and* fits into a scheme that makes things very hard for the defense. When he gets a closeout he can attack, or when he can execute a cut, he does that too. But he's still growing into his game.

[Sophomore]

It's the style of offense that is boring. The 80's also had the 3-point line, but it was used sparingly. The offenses focused on players moving, the ball moving via the pass and not the dribble and many of the sets went thru the post.

Now, there is very little back-to-the-basket scoring and offenses are started and run by the dribble. Most sets start with a ball screen and the possession is played on the edge of a foul or a turnover. There are two dominant shots - the 3-pointer and the dunk.

Agreed. I hate it. The amount of time the ball spends 25 feet from the basket, the over-dribbling, the offense revolving around dribble penetration all the time.

It is the hand-checking rule changes.

I find it ugly to watch. I am watching less and less NBA over last few years.

Everybody's got their own taste; I get the appeal of great post play and passing. But I didn't like the handcheck era. Too many great players being neutralized by much less skilled players who'd grab and hold them. The 1990s New York Knicks were probably the most unwatchable team in my lifetime. Terrible, ugly basketball. I don't want to watch, say, Stanley Johnson turn Kyrie into an ordinary player by letting him deliver a forearm every time Kyrie tries crossing him up. That's not better basketball.

It wasn't only hand check that ruined the 1990s. It was probably even worse that people figured out the defensive help rules made interior defense impossible against really huge bigs, which slowed the game to a crawl. Dump the ball into the post, have four players watch the big pound, pound, pound the ball until he got close enough for a hook shot or a dunk. Yawn. It slowed the game way, way down. In the mid-1980s, when the league still had a decent balance between inside and outside play, the league average was about 100 possessions/game. In the mid-1990s the game slowed to about 90 possessions/game.

I'd like to see the interior defense rules tightened a little to help the big guys score more efficiently, but basically the product seems pretty good to me. Possibly a bigger court or moving the line back 6 inches. But the spacing and pace of the game makes for a lot of variability in player and team styles.

[Donoghus]

I don't mind it for the NBA.

It sucks for pickup, though.  Every kid & their mom thinking they're Steph Curry & chucking shots from 25-30 feet out.

[Eja117]

Watching this game I'm starting to get terrified someday I'm gonna hear "Grandpa Grandpa. Tell me about the NBA back when you were young a million years ago."

"Well. Back then we had slashers, penetrators, and dunkers. Guys like Iverson and Michael Jordan, and then Vince Carter and his cousin TMac and Kobe and Paul Pierce and they could get to the hoop or drive and dish or pull up for a mid range jumper.  You could try to defend them with very athletic wings like Scottie Pippen or you could go to your big men and try to clog things and draw fouls and double teams. Guys like Shaq, and KG, and Duncan.  And every once in a while you had a hybrid guy like Dirk or something. And sometimes you had playmakers to set up picks and rolls. Guys like the Mailman and Stockton or Steve Nash or J Kidd."

Then I'll hear "Wait a minute. You mean they didn't just all stand around taking threes?" and I'll say "Well there was this one guy Antoine Walker, but nobody thought that would ever really happen. That was before the rule changes where you couldn't guard people any more. Before the dark times."

Nobody slashes and dunks anymore? What NBA are you watching?

I'm watching the one where Marcus Smart and Karl Anthony Townes are outside shooters.

[bopna]

They should make a rule change... The three ball is only applicable in the last 4 min. of each qtr. This discourages teams from jacking up ill advice shots from beyond the arch. At least for the first 8 min. Then come fourth qtr it can be used anytime.. An exception is when ateam is up by atleast 10 over the other then a three point shot at anytime of the game is counted for the team that  is down to encourage rallying. I believe these changes will make the game closer in such that even lower tier teams have a chance to beat top teams.

[Big333223]

Watching this game I'm starting to get terrified someday I'm gonna hear "Grandpa Grandpa. Tell me about the NBA back when you were young a million years ago."

"Well. Back then we had slashers, penetrators, and dunkers. Guys like Iverson and Michael Jordan, and then Vince Carter and his cousin TMac and Kobe and Paul Pierce and they could get to the hoop or drive and dish or pull up for a mid range jumper.  You could try to defend them with very athletic wings like Scottie Pippen or you could go to your big men and try to clog things and draw fouls and double teams. Guys like Shaq, and KG, and Duncan.  And every once in a while you had a hybrid guy like Dirk or something. And sometimes you had playmakers to set up picks and rolls. Guys like the Mailman and Stockton or Steve Nash or J Kidd."

Then I'll hear "Wait a minute. You mean they didn't just all stand around taking threes?" and I'll say "Well there was this one guy Antoine Walker, but nobody thought that would ever really happen. That was before the rule changes where you couldn't guard people any more. Before the dark times."

Nobody slashes and dunks anymore? What NBA are you watching?

I'm watching the one where Marcus Smart and Karl Anthony Townes are outside shooters.

Karl anthony Towns taking three 3's a game means nobody dunks anymore?

[Eja117]

So in the 4th quarter tonight....Oladipo dribbled into the middle and kicked out for Myles Turner who drained a three. Then Smart went and drained a three. Then Myles Turner drained another three and said "hush" to the crowd.

And that's everything that is wrong with this league.

[jambr380]

I don't mind it for the NBA.

It sucks for pickup, though.  Every kid & their mom thinking they're Steph Curry & chucking shots from 25-30 feet out.

It's God-Awful to play pick-up ball nowadays! There have always been less than impressive players taking too many 3s when they should be passing the ball around, but now everybody does it. Even worse is the person who dribbles the ball over half-court is usually the one who takes the shot. Getting an offensive rebound and put-back is almost considered a failure of a possession.

On a related note, I HATE 2s and 1s in pick-up. The group I played with for years always only played 1s only, but having 3s be worth twice as much in pick-up has only made this 'era' of basketball that much worse.

[KGs Knee]

I don't mind it for the NBA.

It sucks for pickup, though.  Every kid & their mom thinking they're Steph Curry & chucking shots from 25-30 feet out.

It's God-Awful to play pick-up ball nowadays! There have always been less than impressive players taking too many 3s when they should be passing the ball around, but now everybody does it. Even worse is the person who dribbles the ball over half-court is usually the one who takes the shot. Getting an offensive rebound and put-back is almost considered a failure of a possession.

On a related note, I HATE 2s and 1s in pick-up. The group I played with for years always only played 1s only, but having 3s be worth twice as much in pick-up has only made this 'era' of basketball that much worse.

I haven't played pickup basketball in quite a while, but this was something I always thought was stupid.  Like I'd literally ask people if they understood math at all.

But being someone that could actually make quite a lot of threes I never complained.  Usually by the 2nd or 3rd game people were demanding to play by normal scoring or just have all shots count as 1 point.