For a three-year period between and , the league reduced its 3-point line distance from feet and nine inches to feet in an attempt to combat the decreased scoring. They're holding the ball more. Although few players like Steve Kerr and Dell Curry cashed in and set 3-point records, overall the shortened line didn't serve its purpose. The total points per game were still dropping which prompted the change to push the line back to its original distance of feet and nine inches at its longest.
Since , that distance has remained the same while NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has had discussions with his competition committee regarding the possibility of pushing the current line back instead of adding a four-point line.
The league shot An inability to curtail 3-point production has surfaced at lower levels, too. Arseneault notes that in his second season in Reno, the Bighorns led the G League in both 3-point attempts and 3-point percentage. After a moment of thought, Arseneault suggests that frequent switching on screens might help; indeed, NBA teams like the Rockets have invested in this strategy as well.
While defenses scramble for answers, offenses have continued to discover new advantages in the evolving league environment. Early 3-centric attacks homed in on the corners, but as defenses learned to send extra help in those directions, offenses responded by changing the types of 3s they hunt. Corner 3s still have the highest expected value because of their shorter distance from the rim compared to elsewhere around the arc, but other spots carry their own perks.
A team can generate above-the-break 3-pointers—i. And, perhaps most important, they generate lanes to the hoop. The greatest enemy of an ever-expanding 3-point total might, ironically, be its offensive complement: the layup.
As mighty as the 3 may be, coaches say a point-blank shot is still the goal of any offensive possession. An effective 3-point attack actually generates more opportunities at the rim because of the resulting manipulation of space. He says he wants his guards driving for a layup or defensive foul if possible, with a kickout for a 3-pointer a secondary—and still high-efficiency—option.
Cycle through enough fast-paced forays into the lane on a single possession and even the sturdiest defense will make a mistake while scrambling. This season in the NBA, players are shooting 5 percentage points better on catch-and-shoot 3s than pull-ups 37 vs.
I view the benefit of testing it as higher than the cost. The average length of a 3-point shot has slowly increased over the half-decade, and the total volume of 3s from 28 feet or longer with end-of-quarter heaves excluded has increased four-fold just in the past five years, per Basketball-Reference, and more than doubled just in the last two.
Just ask any of the defenders trying to keep up. Several factors have pushed the youth game in that direction, he explains. This shift is particularly noticeable among players with size, who were traditionally pigeonholed as back-to-the-basket big men from an early age.
In , players 6-foot or taller took about 4, 3s; in , players in that height range took more than 10,—an increase of greater than percent in just five years. For reference, players shorter than 6-foot saw their 3-point attempts tick up by 35 percent in that span—still a boost, but nowhere near as large. From the through drafts, only five players 6-foot or taller became a top selection after taking at least one 3 per game in their final college season.
Shooting is a teachable skill, but it helps to have a head start. So if more players than ever before, and bigger and more athletic players than ever before, are entering the NBA with many more hours of shooting practice, but the defensive development still lags behind offensive progression at all levels of the sport, there is every reason to expect teams to feature even more shooting going forward. The NBA is in the midst of a feedback loop: The best teams win with 3s, so copycats take more 3s, so their competitors take more 3s, and so on.
Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. It was a peculiar way for James to finish off longtime foil Stephen Curry. After all, Curry is the 3-point specialist among the two, and as incredible a shot as this was, it's one that Curry has made dozens of times in his career.
James, for all of his gifts, lacks such a reputation as a marksman, and as a result, he isn't getting quite the credit he deserves for one of the biggest buckets his career. Fans and prominent media members alike have tarnished the shot by calling it lucky. There's a grain of truth in that sentiment that isn't exclusive to James.
Most heaves at the end of the shot clock require a degree of luck, especially when they are accompanied by blurred vision in the final minute of a game. But Curry's track record insulates him from such claims. A shot that is lucky to mortals is ordinary to someone like him. James isn't Curry because nobody is, but over the past several years, he's come far closer than anyone wants to admit. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, and ever since his Cleveland days, James has been preparing for a moment just like this one.
No, this does not mean he's been practicing one-eyed jumpers at least that we know of. What James has done is steadily deepen the range on his jump shot to the point where foot bombs like this one are no longer extreme outliers.
This was the fifth consecutive season in which James increased the number of 3-pointers he attempted per possessions, but the distance of those 3-pointers has risen just as consistently. When LeBron arrived in Miami, the majority of his 3-point attempts were close to the line.
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