[HN Gopher] How can NBA address 3-point boom? Ranking 12 potenti...
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       How can NBA address 3-point boom? Ranking 12 potential solutions
        
       Author : amichail
       Score  : 10 points
       Date   : 2024-12-28 20:28 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.cbssports.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.cbssports.com)
        
       | amichail wrote:
       | Why not make the points awarded for a shot equal to the speed at
       | which the ball goes through the hoop?
        
         | bobnamob wrote:
         | Hacker: love it, rig up a rpi and a pair of light sensors,
         | score on a sliding 0-5 scale
         | 
         | Ball fan: Borderline impossible to officiate at non-
         | professional level.
         | 
         | Keeping the "casual" game relatively similar to the
         | professional game is important for talent feed
        
         | Kon-Peki wrote:
         | That would incentivize more 3s and dunks. The article spends
         | plenty of time describing why incentivizing dunks is a bad
         | idea, and of course, the question is about how you get fewer 3s
         | attempted.
         | 
         | Here's my suggestion: reduce the rim diameter slightly. This is
         | something that could easily be tested in the development
         | leagues, especially if it were a removable insert.
        
       | silisili wrote:
       | A lot of these are almost nonsensical, but a few rational ones
       | exist. Probably the most reasonable is just adding another 5 feet
       | to the three point line all the way around(which yes, means
       | widening the court).
       | 
       | Drawing your own lines, or another 4 point line? I feel things
       | like that would actually exacerbate the problem.
        
         | bdangubic wrote:
         | what do you think would be logistics of changing every arena to
         | accomodate larger court - not just in the US but
         | internationally? changing court size is out of the question for
         | sure.
         | 
         | to me the main problem is that 3-pt used to be reserved for
         | only a couple of players on each team that could make them with
         | high enough percentage that coaches would allow them (imagine
         | bill laimbeir shooting 3's on MJ's Bulls...). Steph changed
         | that - he made shooting cool and new generation of ballers grew
         | up shooting (including 7-footers). NBA needs to make a change
         | such that only handful of players on each team can make 3's
         | again (like before) and for that moving the 3-pt to 27+ feet
         | and eliminating corner 3's is the only sane-ish way forward
        
           | silisili wrote:
           | > what do you think would be logistics of changing every
           | arena to accomodate larger court - not just in the US but
           | internationally?
           | 
           | I don't know about every court, especially internationally,
           | but most courts are assembled on site and have plenty of room
           | to work with. I pasted a link below of a typical court being
           | assembled. Notice there is plenty of room all around when
           | done, usually for bench, scorekeepers, random floor seating,
           | etc. They could make it work if they wanted.
           | 
           | Is it a rational ask? I don't know, one would have to collect
           | data and feedback from all professional courts. But I don't
           | think it's as big as having to redesign or reconstruct an
           | entire building.
           | 
           | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7YULqWbKsDw
        
             | bdangubic wrote:
             | interesting! thanks for sharing
        
         | HelloMcFly wrote:
         | I don't feel like a suggestion that materially widens the court
         | is actually a serious solution. There's too many gyms built,
         | too many other leagues playing on the standard court size,
         | widening the court fundamentally changes the game too much in
         | ways that are too integrated with literal physical
         | infrastructures across the globe and levels of play.
        
       | GenerWork wrote:
       | Fine, I'll bite: why is this an issue and why does it need to be
       | addressed?
        
         | polski-g wrote:
         | Some people claim it makes the game more boring to watch and
         | might drive down viewership.
        
           | bdangubic wrote:
           | it is not _some people claim_ though, viewership is down and
           | getting worse so much so that NBA is doing crazy shit like
           | in-season tournaments and silly pick up games shit for All
           | Star ( https://www.nba.com/news/2025-nba-all-star-game-new-
           | format )... the league and game itself are a shadow of their
           | former self and main culprit lies in the fact that today's
           | game is just chuckers chucking 3's
        
             | 1659447091 wrote:
             | > viewership is down and getting worse so much so that NBA
             | is doing crazy shit
             | 
             | That's surprising to see as the WNBA is steadily growing
             | and had a large jump this year--supposedly due to Caitlin
             | Clark Effect[0] (a generational player). But they had been
             | growing viewership steadily before that. I don't really
             | care for basketball in any form, too many points, but I
             | would catch headlines on espn & other sports channels and
             | the WNBA was taking up a lot of real estate in the top
             | headlines this year and before that it was usually about
             | another attendance or viewing record. Curious what they are
             | doing different than the Men's game?
             | 
             | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caitlin_Clark_effect
        
               | bdangubic wrote:
               | WNBA has a bonafide star for the first time ever - a
               | full-on household name! my daughter who isn't even a
               | basketball fan made me get tickets when she played the
               | Mystics. If she sticks with playing in Europe WNBA
               | ratings next year will be comparable to synchronized
               | swimming at the Olympics (I hope this doesn't happen and
               | WNBA can build of this momentum).
        
         | bdangubic wrote:
         | - NBA has become unwatchable
         | 
         | - not my opinion, the ratings are down through and through
         | 
         | - Christmas used to be owned by NBA, this time only 12% of
         | sports fans watched the game. NFL has two games on Netflix that
         | killed all hopes of decent viewership
         | 
         | - that analytics have caught up that 3-pt is not a little more
         | than 2-pt, it is 50 (FIFTY) percent more
         | 
         | - the entire game has now become chuck 3's for 48 minutes (I am
         | more than casual NBA fan and I tried watching a local game few
         | days ago, LaMelo Ball shot 10 3's... IN THE FIRST QUARTER)
         | 
         | NBA needs to figure this shit out and faaaaaast as even someone
         | like me who generally watches 50+ games per year before
         | playoffs on TV and dozen or so in person is losing interest in
         | the product
        
           | HelloMcFly wrote:
           | > NBA has become unwatchable... not my opinion, the ratings
           | are down through and through
           | 
           | First of all, this is _clearly_ an opinion. It isn 't
           | debatable that the ratings are down, but since the ratings
           | are down for all broadcast and cable TV broadly it isn't that
           | damning of NBA specifically, and certainly isn't a strong
           | supporting fact that NBA games themselves are "unwatchable".
           | 
           | > Christmas used to be owned by NBA, this time only 12% of
           | sports fans watched the game
           | 
           | The NBA can't compete with the NFL on ratings, and it's a
           | fool's errand to make that the standard. The NFL is _the_
           | ratings juggernaut in America, nothing compares to it. The
           | NBA 's viewership numbers for Christmas saw a substantial
           | increase this year with the highest viewership since 2019.
           | 
           | A big issue has been how hard it can be for many fans to
           | watch their own team's home games due to regional sports
           | networks and blackout rules for cable, or high expense for a
           | standalone streaming network. Whether the new broadcast deal
           | helps or hurts this remains to be seen - I think splitting
           | the games up across so many services is going to have a
           | continued negative effect even if it's very lucrative for the
           | league.
           | 
           | That said, I can't argue with your lived experience. I do
           | think the idea that every time plays the same way is out-and-
           | out preposterous, but I think the bigger issue is a) an
           | overall soft whistle has made it hard to play defense esp on
           | three-point shooting and b) refs are inconsistent at best,
           | arbitrary at median, and petty at worst.
        
             | xhkkffbf wrote:
             | I think the poster was saying, "This isn't just my own,
             | lone opinion. Many others seem to feel the same way."
             | 
             | And that becomes a problem for the business, despite your
             | own stat about the Christmas numbers.
        
             | bdangubic wrote:
             | _ratings are down for all broadcast and cable TV broadly it
             | isn 't that damning of NBA specifically, and certainly
             | isn't a strong supporting fact that NBA games themselves
             | are "unwatchable"._
             | 
             | you are right, the ratings are down but not for all the
             | sports, I think NBA specifically has an issue they need to
             | resolve. and my words were harsh but I spoke my mind so-to-
             | speak - I am losing interest watching games where it is not
             | uncommon to see more than half the shots taken be 3's...
             | 
             | I agree with both your points A and B. the article does
             | mention hand-checking outside the box etc which totally
             | makes sense. If I was Silver I would
             | 
             | - SHORTEN the season. I would make Christmas opening night
             | of the league. If NFL wants to take over everything NBA
             | needs to either admit defeat or fight a bit, opening on
             | Christmas would help both with making season shorter and
             | making it more attractive.
             | 
             | - Both your A and B points
             | 
             | - Move 3-pt line back to 27+ feet
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-28 23:02 UTC)