concordtom said:
Big C said:
HoopDreams said:
Chabbear said:
I say there are multiple eras, not two.
3point shooting did not begin in 1979, but much later. Decades from now we'll see that Steph and Klay ushered in a new era: small ball. His record will be surpassed.
The bad boys and thug knicks ushered in the worst era. Thank god the league toughened up the contact rules!!
Two graphs re the rise in NBA 3-pt attempts:
The first graph shows that, on average, there are ten times as many 3-pt attempts per game now than there were in 1979-80, the first year the NBA had the 3-pt shot.
The second graph shows that 2014-15 was the first season in which the volume of 3-pt attempts exceeded the volume of mid-range 2-pt attempts outside the paint (sometimes called "non-paint 2s"), and that difference widened steadily after that. The volume of shots inside the paint has stayed pretty constant, but players are attempting far fewer non-paint 2s and attempting 3s instead. Coaches emphasize this as well, encouraging 3-pt attempts and discouraging non-paint 2s.
It makes sense analytically if you look at the success rates of shots in each area and the average number of points per shot in each of the three areas. Really, the only way to justify a high volume of non-paint 2s is if a player makes them at 60% or better, and AFAIK Kevin Durant is just about the only player who does that.