The 3-point shot has never been more prevalent in the NBA, and the Boston Celtics are the best example.
The Celtics are on pace to break league records for the most 3-pointers attempted and made in a season. It’s been a successful strategy for the Celtics, who have reached the NBA Finals twice in the last three years, including a 2024 championship. They also went to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals during that span.
The Celtics aren’t the only team putting up 3s at a high rate, though. Every single team in the league is taking 30 or more 3-point shots per game this season, led by the C’s at 51.1 per game. Ten years ago in the 2014-15 season, only one team — the Houston Rockets — attempted more than 30 3-pointers per game (32.7).
NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke to reporters in Las Vegas — the site of the NBA Cup semifinals and final — earlier this week, and he noted, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, that the league is having “many discussions about the style of basketball [being played]. 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.”
There are a few ways to potentially impact teams’ and players’ willingness to take a lot of 3-pointers. One would be to eliminate the corner 3-point shot, and another is moving the 3-point line back a little bit.
The last time the league moved the 3-point line was ahead of the 1994-95 season because scoring had declined in the early 1990s. The line was moved in, and teams ended up shooting around five more 3-pointers per game in that first season. The league went back to its original 3-point line, which is 23 feet and nine inches (22 feet in the corner), ahead of the 1997-98 campaign. It hasn’t been altered since.
It doesn’t sound like Silver or the league is considering changing the 3-point line right now.
“Historically, at times, we’ve moved the 3-point line,” Silver said, per Bontemps. “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 the 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.”
One of the reasons why the Celtics take so many 3-point shots is head coach Joe Mazzulla. It’s a huge part of his gameplan, and you can’t argue with the results.
He was asked Wednesday about criticisms over the abundance of 3-point shots league-wide. Mazzulla made a comparison to the NFL.
“It’s an interesting perspective, because in the NFL, people aren’t like, ‘I want to see less scoring.’ They’re not going to make the end zones smaller,” Mazzulla told reporters.
“They’re not going to make the field smaller. Scoring is up across other spots. 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 fewer touchdowns?”
The rise in 3-point shots taken isn’t likely to subside anytime soon. The best teams win games because of these shots, and the worst teams need to take these shots because they don’t have as much talent and/or depth. And from a math perspective, it makes more sense to take a 3-point shot than a mid-range jumper.
But it’s not like entire games are 3-point shooting contests. Defense still matters a lot. Being able to drive to the basket and finish at the rim matters a lot. Coaching and adjustments between games matter a lot. The Celtics do all of these things at a high level, and that’s why they are the defending champs and might win it all again this season, too.
