There’s no question that three-point shooting has been the primary source of scoring in the league for nearly a decade. While it spreads the game out and makes the process of getting buckets convenient for players, is everyone in the league good at it? Gilbert Arenas doesn’t think so.
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While discussing the current state of three-point shooting in the league on an episode of Gil’s Arena podcast, the former NBA star got into a heated debate. With the counter view coming from Brandon Jennings, Arenas went on to decimate every point made by his co-host.
Although Arenas is livid at every team practicing the same philosophy today, he used the Boston Celtics as an example. The three-time All-Star noted that the Celtics are shooting 50.5 threes a game. Not limiting his criticism to just one team, he believes that all the teams in the league are shooting too many threes.
As for the output from these attempts, the Celtics are making 18.8 per game. He said, “You’re shooting a 151.5 worth of threes to pull in 56 points.” Jennings still stood his ground and stated that it’s how the game is set up today and the Celtics are consistently winning games. So, Arenas pulled out an analogy to help his co-host understand the severity of it.
Brandon: "Everybody is a shooter today… everybody is a threat."
Gil: "No, they're not! That's the problem. Everybody wants to be a shooter, nobody is a shotmaker today!"
The Arena gets heated over NBA teams shooting too many threes. pic.twitter.com/hAL7s1awDX
— Gilbert Arenas (@GilsArenaShow) November 26, 2024
He said, “That’s like going in a bank, there’s a $150 million. You’ve got 24 hours to get all of it, there’s no security. You’re a** walk out with $56 million.” While this analogy isn’t the most apt as no team would ever come close to ‘walking out with $150 million’, there is some validity to it.
The updated data suggests that the Celtics are now taking 50.6 threes per game and making 18.6 of them. It’s not surprising that the Celts are shooting as many threes as they are given that head coach, Joe Mazzulla, once said, “I love 3-pointers. I like math.”
However, missing nearly 100 points per game isn’t sitting well with Arenas, and he’s not the only one to stand against it.
Shaquille O’Neal raised concerns over the heavy reliance on three-point shooting
The advent of three-point shooting in the league is directly associated with the rise of Stephen Curry. While Steph is an incredible shooter, arguably the greatest ever, not everyone else in the league can shoot at his level. However, everyone is trying to mimic his game. Shaquille O’Neal is not a fan of this recent trend.
He said on The Big Podcast, “Everybody’s running the same plays with the damn top-of-the-key dribble handoff. I think everybody’s looking at the same thing, and Steph Curry and those guys messed it up. I didn’t mind when Golden State was shooting threes back then However, not every team is good at it. So, why is everyone using the same strategy?”
Shaq believes that this is causing the decline in the viewership that the NBA is generating today. In his opinion, every team following the same pattern has made the league boring, because across 30 teams, essentially the same thing is on display.
