NBA 3-Point Spree Draws Fan Ire but No ‘Imminent’ League Fire

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Two years ago, it looked like the NBA’s 3-point revolution was nearing an end. In 2022-23, teams attempted fewer 3s per game than the previous season for the first time in more than a decade. In 2023-24, there were still fewer 3s attempted than in 2021-22.

Just over two months into the 2024-25 season, however, the 3-point explosion is back with a bang. Teams are attempting 42.4% of their shots from beyond the arc—an upward shift foreshadowed during the preseason. The 3-point rate has never exceeded 40% in a full season.

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Six NBA teams are taking at least 45% of their shots from downtown. Just two or three teams a year did that between 2019-20 and 2022-23, and only one did it last year, when 47.1% of the NBA champion Boston Celtics’ attempts were from deep. This year, the Celtics’ 55.2% mark is on pace to shatter the single-season record.

Out of the roughly 100 possessions per team in an NBA game, even 2.5 additional 3s per side is a significant uptick. In fact, it is the third-largest increase between any two seasons in NBA history (not counting 1994-95, when the line was moved in). This campaign, 22 of the league’s 30 teams are shooting more 3s than last year.

This particular bump, as opposed to the previous ones in NBA history, is not driven by simple arithmetic. Throughout the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, 3s were much more efficient shots than 2s on a points per attempt basis. That gap, however, had been closed by 2021-22 due to the gradual replacement of inefficient long 2s by 3s, and the relative value of 3s and 2s has been roughly the same ever since.

Now, teams’ motivation for bombing away is more about spacing the court and forcing the defense to cover maximum area rather than the basic 3 > 2 math that led teams to shoot more 3s in the past. Additionally, as shooting percentages at the rim have risen along with that more optimal spacing, defenses have reacted by shoring up their paint protection, which in turn has led to even more 3-point attempts.

The types of 3s that teams are taking more of have also changed. For decades, the increase in 3-point attempts was driven primarily…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-3-point-spree-draws-150000572.html

Author : Sportico

Publish date : 2025-01-07 15:00:00

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