WS Chronicle

As a kid, I thoroughly enjoyed watching NBA basketball on television. Not only was I captivated by the dynamic athleticism, I watched to see how creative teams were to get easy shots. Nowadays, teams don’t really run plays, they just set screens, shoot three-point shots and dunk, which makes the game rather boring because every team is like a carbon copy of one another.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has noticed this trend and recently said the NBA is currently studying it. He said critiques of NBA offenses looking very similar is something the league should take seriously.

“The answer is yes, we are having many discussions about the style of basketball being played,” Silver told reporters Tuesday night before the championship game of the second-annual NBA Cup between the Thunder and Bucks. “I would not reduce it to a so-called 3-point shooting issue. I think we look more holistically at the skill level on the floor, the diversity of offense, the fan reception to the game, all of the above.

“I think the game is in a great place. I love watching the games, and I think we have some of the most skilled athletes in the world competing – and it’s unfair, I think, to the players to lump them into categories as 3-point shooters or a midrange shooter or big man playing under the basket. It’s an amazing game.

“Having said that,” he went on to say, “we’re constantly having discussions about whether there are ways to improve stylistically the game on the floor.”

I understand where Silver is coming from but if the league were to poll the average fan, they would learn that many feel today’s game can be rather boring at times. For me, it seems like every team is following the same formula to build their teams, but it only seems to be working for a few.

Adjustments and changes are inevitable and are truly needed. For instance, the Boston Celtics are averaging over 51 three-point attempts per game, which would easily shatter the current record for three-pointers attempted in a season.  The commissioner made it clear that any rules changes like moving the 3-point line won’t happen any time soon.

“Historically, at times, we’ve moved the 3-point line,” Silver said. “I don’t think that’s a solution here because then, I think when we look at both the game and the data, I think that may not necessarily do more midrange jumpers, if that’s what people want, but more clogging under the basket.

“Whether there’s some tweaks we should make, and my sense is I do think we should take seriously this notion of more diversity in offense. I watch as many games as all of you do, and to that extent that it’s not so much a 3-point issue, but that some of the audience, some of the offenses start to look sort of cookie-cutter and teams are copying each other. I think that’s something we should pay attention to.”

Silver was right when he said teams are starting to look cookie-cutter. I understand that a 3-point shot has a higher value than a 2-point shot, but if I can be honest, I truly miss when teams had a post player, and teams would play from the inside out. There aren’t many teams left that play with a post player and if they do, many of them can also step out and shoot a 3-point shot as well.

This has just made the game so predictable and truly unwatchable for the most part. It really doesn’t matter which teams I choose to watch because they essentially all play the same way.  

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzula doesn’t agree. He feels the game is fine the way it is and compared those complaining about the number of 3-point shots being taken to how fans of the NFL sometimes complain about higher scoring games.

“It’s an interesting perspective, because in the NFL, people aren’t like, ‘I want to see less scoring,’” Mazzula said. “They’re not going to make the field smaller. I guess my question would be why in basketball would scoring being up be an issue as opposed to other sports? Does anybody want to watch a football game and see less touchdowns?

“So I think at the end of the day, I think anything new or changed is different. But I don’t know.”

I couldn’t disagree more with Mazzula and I think he is off base with his comparison. Yes, NFL scoring is up, but they didn’t abandon part of the game. To make that comparison, you would have the say NFL teams have stopped throwing passes shorter than 10 yards and only throw passes over 20 yards to make the probability of scoring a touchdown higher.

My hope is that changes are made and made soon. Every other major sport has made dramatic changes to their sport, and they have all been better for them. The NHL, NFL and MLB all made recent rule changes to their respective sports to make them better and the NBA has to do the same.  

The 3-point shot has essentially eliminated the back-to-the-basket post player. I would love to see the league figure out a way to incentivize teams to bring that style of play back because I am truly sick and tired of seeing 40 to 50 3-point shots being taken night in and night out.