Sports evolve over time. Baseball had the Moneyball era and a shift toward the “three true outcomes.” Football has leaned more and more heavily on the forward pass. Soccer has become a game of possession. Basketball has seen change too, as the three-point shot has radically altered the way the game is played, especially in recent years.
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Kevin Durant is arguably the most enlightened basketball thinker in the game. If there’s any such thing as a “pure hooper,” it has to be KD, and he may be the best representation of how the game has changed so much.
Durant is a 6-foot-11 forward with handles and one of the most unguardable jump shots in basketball history. Seeing him in action would have made James Naismith’s head explode.
KD joined The Draymond Green Show today to discuss, among other things, why he likes this current era of basketball above all others. “I love this era of ball, man, because it’s free-flowing. It’s a lot of space to work. We’re encouraged to shoot more shots, to shoot deep threes.”
Durant has always been given the green light to shoot from anywhere on the floor, but he thinks this era is the best because, unlike in the past, now every player is coached to be aggressive and let it rip.
That has resulted in the most efficient offenses in history, as the top 12 teams in offensive rating all played within the past three seasons. The 13th team? That would be Durant’s 2020-21 Nets.
Basketball coaches are encouraging players to shoot more threes than ever before
The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors shot 31.8 threes per game, more than any other team in the NBA. Drop them into today’s game, and that number would rank 29th out of 30 teams, just barely ahead of the Denver Nuggets.
Durant said people think it’s the players who have driven three-point attempts to record numbers, but“They don’t realize how much our coaches encourage us to shoot threes, like every day. We might have a film session strictly on, ‘We need more threes up.'”
KD also believes that the level of athleticism and skill in the game is the highest it’s ever been. Combined with the floor spacing and encouragement to shoot, that makes this era the most fun to play in.
There’s been pushback from some fans and NBA insiders who feel that the game is over-reliant on the outside shot, but in this age of analytics, teams are always going to try to maximize their efficiency based on the rules of the game.
Basketball is constantly evolving, so whether that means adjusting if the NBA pushes back the three-point line or finding new ways to exploit defenses that attempt to shut down the three at all costs, the game will keep moving forward.
