By Gavin Claiborne, Oct. 8, 2024
Although the 3-point shot has become an integral part of the NBA and its global popularity since its league debut in 1979, it’s made the game worse today.
The overuse of the 3-point shot has led to a lack of variety in the sport, causing only uniformity in teams’ offenses.
Sports statistics website Basketball Reference, which details the NBA’s league averages from the league’s birth in 1946, recorded that NBA teams as a whole averaged 2.8 3-point attempts with 0.8 3-pointers made during the 1979-1980 season, which debuted the 3-point line. When looking at the 2023-2024 NBA season, however, teams were averaging a remarkable 35.1 3-point attempts with 12.8 of those attempts being successful. That’s a big jump between numbers, but there’s more.
NBA stats writer John Schumann provides notable statistics in his article, “NBA’s 3-point revolution: How 1 shot is changing the game.” Schumann details, in the 1987-1988 season, the Boston Celtics became the first team in league history to have 10% of their field goals in the regular season count as 3-pointers. Now, 10% isn’t a lot of 3-pointers by today’s standards when great shooters like Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard and Buddy Hield make a living knocking down these shots. But in the ‘80s, that was almost too many.
Fast-forward to exactly three decades after the ‘88 Celtics’ team achievement and you have the 2017-2018 Houston Rockets becoming the first team in league history to have 50% of all their shots in the regular season count as 3-pointers.
Unbelievable. Half of their shots taken over an 82-game period were 3-pointers. This increase in 3-point shooting over the years has essentially forced teams to undervalue other methods of scoring, such as post play and mid-range scoring.
According to James Kuria, a Cal Poly Pomona student and the manager of CPP’s Men’s Club Basketball Team, the 3-point shot is overused, but it’s essential for every player to be able to shoot it today, whether it be in amateur or professional play.
“To be in the NBA, you damn near pretty much have to be able to shoot,” said Kuria. “If you’re not able to shoot threes, you’re kind of a liability. It just makes the game harder.”
For decades, a defining characteristic of basketball has been post play, allowing players to use back-to-the-basket post moves in an effort to make high-percentage shots close to the basket. However, this style of play has become progressively uncommon over the years, so much to the point it’s practically obsolete.
The long-distance shot’s repetition has eliminated much of the game’s strategic aspect, too. Before the 3-point shot was ever established in the NBA, every field goal attempt counted as 2 points. Because of this, players and coaches alike understood the closer a shot was taken near the basket, the higher probability of a shot going in, which is why, traditionally, it was deemed pointless to shoot excessively from a longer distance when closer shots were an implication of more efficient results.
Luckily, post play hasn’t been completely decimated. During the 2024 NBA Playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets competed in the first round, a series which featured a matchup between big men Nikola Jokić and Anthony Davis. During the postseason, both teams had noticeably low averages for 3-point shot attempts. In addition, both teams consisted of big men who seldom shoot 3-pointers, but when they do, the shots taken are usually wide open.
Jokić is a sharp passer who uses his 284-pound body to maneuver to the basket for an uncontested shot or a pass to an open teammate when double-teamed, and Davis, who is known to be more athletic compared to Jokić, uses his agility to create his own shots, which are typically within 18 feet from the basket. The series between these two players served as a fine demonstration of teams that can succeed without making 3-pointers a top priority.
It’s more than possible for a basketball player to do exceptionally well in all facets of the game, and we’ve seen this time and time again. But if there’s one player I could think of who has embodied all these aspects, it would be Michael Jeffrey Jordan, someone who the vast majority of people on planet Earth consider the greatest basketball player to ever live.
In 15 seasons, Jordan averaged 30.1 points per game, the highest scoring average in league history. He was also a great defender, a solid rebounder for his position and a reliable playmaker. With all that being said, it’s difficult to pinpoint one weakness Jordan had as a player, but you technically can.
When referring to Jordan’s career statistics once more, it’s been recorded he seldom took 3-point shots, making only 33% of his attempts throughout his career. By today’s professional basketball standards, a 3-point shooting percentage of 35% or higher is considered good, and shooting above 40% is considered excellent. Jordan would be considered a bad 3-point shooter based on these numbers. However, this is where context comes into play.
Since Jordan played at a time when the 3-point shot wasn’t a necessity for players and teams to thrive in the NBA, he focused on finding the best — and most efficient — shots while simultaneously integrating his own style of play into the sport.
So, if a player who could be considered a bad 3-point shooter is also widely recognized as the GOAT, basketball players around the world need to wake up and stop prioritizing shots from deep.
Feature image courtesy of Markus Spiske