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Should the NBA abolish the 3 point line?

NUMBERICA said:
That players are just hoisting shots so haphazardly and it’s considered valid because of the math.
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Throw enough **** and some of it will stick to the wall.
 
For the record, I don't think teams shooting too many 3's is really a problem. I think the main problem with the NBA is how it's covered and the incentive structures. "Championship or Bust" league is incredibly boring.

Also way too difficult to watch the games when you want to.
 
Let me ask you this:

Does anyone under 30 think the NBA is ruined because it's geared towards 3's and dunks now (due to analytics and because those are the things casual fans tend to like anyway)?

No?

Well, there's your answer. The NBA is sports entertainment and the only demography they really care about these days is young people.

Nobody's going to make any sweeping changes to the game because a bunch of 40 to 60 year olds are nostalgic about the game they watched when THEY were young.

Now, I understand the basic issue of esthetics very well. I too enjoy an NBA game with variety, scoring from all over the floor (as long as it's efficient), different roles for different players and body types. There was a time when the NBA game was more like that. But the thing is – once I remove the nostalgia tinted glasses and put emotion aside, I understand that as much as I liked it, that was an inferior, more inefficient brand of basketball. The game had not been "solved" yet. Now, due to analytics, the genie is out of the bottle, and trying to put it back would destroy the whole bottle.

As I joked above, there's still plenty of inefficient basketball to watch. Plenty of bad midrange jumpers, all 10 guys inside the arc at all times, non-shooting playmakers dribbling around, coaches screaming. The NCAA is still there.

Like it or not, the current form of NBA basketball is the most highly evolved version of the game the world has ever seen. The speed is out of this world, the team defenses suffocating, the level of athleticism insane.

We can always make small adjustments to the rules but that won't really change anything. The basic form of basketball with freethrows, 2 point field goals and 3pt shots has been solved and we can't do anything about it.

Try watching an old game from the era before the 3pt arc. Terrible. Nobody can seriously say that was a better brand of basketball overall. It was simply natural evolution when the arc was added to the game, and from that point on, there was a clear path towards analytics and "solving" the game. It simply had to happen.
 
Tremendous Upside said:
Let me ask you this:

Does anyone under 30 think the NBA is ruined because it's geared towards 3's and dunks now (due to analytics and because those are the things casual fans tend to like anyway)?

No?

Well, there's your answer. The NBA is sports entertainment and the only demography they really care about these days is young people.

Nobody's going to make any sweeping changes to the game because a bunch of 40 to 60 year olds are nostalgic about the game they watched when THEY were young.

Now, I understand the basic issue of esthetics very well. I too enjoy an NBA game with variety, scoring from all over the floor (as long as it's efficient), different roles for different players and body types. There was a time when the NBA game was more like that. But the thing is – once I remove the nostalgia tinted glasses and put emotion aside, I understand that as much as I liked it, that was an inferior, more inefficient brand of basketball. The game had not been "solved" yet. Now, due to analytics, the genie is out of the bottle, and trying to put it back would destroy the whole bottle.

As I joked above, there's still plenty of inefficient basketball to watch. Plenty of bad midrange jumpers, all 10 guys inside the arc at all times, non-shooting playmakers dribbling around, coaches screaming. The NCAA is still there.

Like it or not, the current form of NBA basketball is the most highly evolved version of the game the world has ever seen. The speed is out of this world, the team defenses suffocating, the level of athleticism insane.

We can always make small adjustments to the rules but that won't really change anything. The basic form of basketball with freethrows, 2 point field goals and 3pt shots has been solved and we can't do anything about it.

Try watching an old game from the era before the 3pt arc. Terrible. Nobody can seriously say that was a better brand of basketball overall. It was simply natural evolution when the arc was added to the game, and from that point on, there was a clear path towards analytics and "solving" the game. It simply had to happen.
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Are you under 30? If not, how would you know what that demographic thinks about the current NBA?
What I know is that NBA viewership has decreased by 48% since 2012, which coincidentally is when the "rise of the 3" really became a thing in the NBA, and has become more prevalent with each passing year.
Also, no is suggesting getting rid of the 3 point shot, just trying to find a way to make the game more enjoyable.
 
What's more exciting than watching Steph Curry make an impossible 3 point shot
Every player, every kid wants to be Steph Curry
Even a 7 ft 6 inch 400 pound giant wants to shoot the 3 point shot
 
-Allow hand-checking beyond the arc
-Eliminate three foul shots on shooting fouls beyond the arc (except in the last two minutes since teams will just hack shooters when they go up).

Conversely:
-if a defender’s foot plants in the shooters landing area, that’s an automatic shooting foul.
-if the defender’s planting foot makes *any* contact with a shooter’s foot, it’s a technical foul
-if the contact causes any kind of twist it is an automatic flagrant two.
-if the shooter incurs an injury that causes missed games, the defender is suspended for the duration that the shooter misses games due to that injury (maybe this tamps down on some of the Draymond ****, maybe Zaza Pachulia doesn’t go ahead and alter the course of NBA history by being a dirty piece of ****).
 
Tremendous Upside said:
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Viewership reflects how entertaining the league is. Value represents the money that is being made by the owners and players. Do we really care about how well off owners/players are more than how entertaining the league is? Just because more money is made does not mean the product has become better.

The league is less entertaining....not because players shoot more 3's but because everyone involved in the NBA (players/teams/media) has basically told you that the games don't matter. There is no excitement on a day to day basis because all that matters is the championship, and once the championship is one it's all about clowning on who didn't win.

I am all for the players in their ongoing labor negotiations with league, but the fact is both the league and players spit in the face of their fans and diminish the product.
 
purplegreengold said:
Are you under 30? If not, how would you know what that demographic thinks about the current NBA?
What I know is that NBA viewership has decreased by 48% since 2012, which coincidentally is when the "rise of the 3" really became a thing in the NBA, and has become more prevalent with each passing year.
Also, no is suggesting getting rid of the 3 point shot, just trying to find a way to make the game more enjoyable.
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Access to games and the way too long and way too injured NBA season is much bigger reason. Also the NBA's failure to market future stars and clinging to guys like KD/Bron/Curry as they age.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
Access to games and the way too long and way too injured NBA season is much bigger reason. Also the NBA's failure to market future stars and clinging to guys like KD/Bron/Curry as they age.
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I would agree that there are many reasons, like you state, for the decrease in viewership. But the rise in the reliance on the 3 point shot and analytics does have a part to play as well.
 
The only thing I really think that sucks about the new NBA being so 3 heavy, is that it results in more lopsided games.

But I dont see how that would affect viewership. If you turn a NBA game on LP, and turn it off halfway through (because it's a blowout) I would assume that still results in a count towards viewership.

Also lopsided games are much more of a result of the benefits of losing, not the 3 ball, IMO.
 
Like, a guy who is really in on this talking point are people like Shaq/Barkley.

But if you've watched their broadcast, they've been complaining about the modern NBA even before the 3-ball revolution amongst all teams. They just want to complain to complain. They havent actually watched games since their retirement from the league.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
Access to games and the way too long and way too injured NBA season is much bigger reason. Also the NBA's failure to market future stars and clinging to guys like KD/Bron/Curry as they age.
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This is it.

The mainstream coverage surrounding the NBA is really short-sighted. They're like the guy at work who's been there for 25 years and still insists on doing everything with outdated software because that's what worked before and he's unwilling to endure the short-term pain of transitioning to something newer, even though what he's clinging to is becoming more and more obsolete by the day.

It's crazy how massive the difference is between what Zach Lowe talked about in his non-ESPN role (good insights on basically every team/tons of players) vs his ESPN role (LeBron this, LeBron that, sprinke a bit of KD/Curry in).

Then you have the dudes at TNT who openly mock the players and the sport. You can't treat future starts like garbage in your coverage and then act surprised when nobody watches them.
 
purplegreengold said:
Go to any NBA forum, and you will find multiple threads about to many 3's. These are the people who are really watching basketball, people are sick of watching a crappy, boring product. I'm going to take my argument over yours.
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People misrepresent themselves all the time. Kind of like a child who screams they want chocolate ice-cream, then they get it and decide they actually wanted vanilla.

Or like when people say they want a president who isnt corrupt and for the people, and they vote for Donald Trump. Some people are just stupid and dont know what they want. They just know the thing they have is not what they want and are easily swayed by what some talking-heads say. Add a heaping dose of nostalgia of "Wasnt this thing better back in the day" and you arrive at people directing their reason for not watching to the 3 ball.
 
I do think there is something to people being tired of the meta. When a strategy becomes so universal you have to employ it to be competitive.

But isnt the more annoying part of the meta, and something that has always been the meta, the fact that you need a top 5 player to win a ring? You know, the thing that makes tanking the only real way to a ring, which is what makes many NBA games unwatchable, especially as the season gets into the 2nd half?
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
People misrepresent themselves all the time. Kind of like a child who screams they want chocolate ice-cream, then they get it and decide they actually wanted vanilla.

Or like when people say they want a president who isnt corrupt and for the people, and they vote for Donald Trump. Some people are just stupid and dont know what they want. They just know the thing they have is not what they want and are easily swayed by what some talking-heads say. Add a heaping dose of nostalgia of "Wasnt this thing better back in the day" and you arrive at people directing their reason for not watching to the 3 ball.
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You know, @onebrow would love this discussion. Miss that guy.
 
Talking heads ruined the sport. Constant talk about where stars will go next or what could happen in the future. The talking points on the NBA seem to be the same whether the season is active or not, because the actual games are the thing people care about (or at least are talked about) the least.

Major generalization of course. But I think that is the heart of it. The difference between a pre game NFL show and a pre game NBA show could not be more stark. Now I guess that is a chicken and egg debate, did they stop talking about the games because people were bored by it? IDK, but they've completely lost the plot at this point. SAS and his ilk is what has 'ruined' the sport. And I don't think changes to the 3pt line is going to cure the real issues the league has. If a fan feels like they can stay in the loop on any public talking points about the league just by scrolling twitter and watching zero actual games, that's a problem.
 
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