How can NBA address 3-point boom? Ranking 12 potential solutions | Hacker News Reader

How can NBA address 3-point boom? Ranking 12 potential solutions

cbssports.com

21 pointsamichail38 comments

The three pointer isn’t the problem. I actually prefer the three point shooting. It also seems like it encourages athleticism over raw size.

The real problem, in my opinion, is the lack of aggression. It’s what made sports more interesting to watch in the 80s and 90s. It’s been toned down to the point where it’s not interesting.

Fine, I'll bite: why is this an issue and why does it need to be addressed?

Some people claim it makes the game more boring to watch and might drive down viewership.

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

> 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

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).

- 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

> 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.

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.

I mean post Christmas I was listening to local sports radio better part of the day while driving my wife and kid around … hours and hours and hours on this topic, caller after caller after caller…

- season is so long, who gives a shit about game on Dec 25th cause it is 100% meaningless

- why even play the game, make them just shoot 3’s like at NBA allstar game

- 7-footers making 3’s should be a rarity (Dirk), not every-fucking-player-shoots-more-than-Steph

- there is no flow to the game, they may as well eliminate coaching if 60% of your offense is “someone chuck it”

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

Shortening the regular season is the answer. Too many games, too many teams in the playoffs, means that no game has any impact vs an NFL game.

this year after week 2 of the nfl I was watching espn late and they were doing a full-on deep dive on what chances teams statistically have of making the playoffs after going 0-2!!! like week 3 and you are like “shit, can’t lose next week…”

what is fascinating to me as a european living in the US is that NFL is absolute garbage of a sport and it is insane that other sports are not more popular. NFL games are 3 hours of which 2 hours and 50 minutes not a damn fucking thing is happening. the TV broadcast people make more money than all but handful of players on each team (understandably so, they have to entertain you for 2 hours and 50 minutes of nothingness), there is just commercial after commercial… like absolute madness the sport is actually popular to watch. I thought maybe fantasy and gambling are main reasons but you can do both without watching the games

Agreed. I can't imagine what media-related news would make me happier than to hear the NBA is shortening their season to 65 games.

"analytics have caught up" this seems like an odd statement. For the longest time 3 point average was about 1/3 while the two point shot was around 1/2. So it doesn't really matter which shot you took, other than you have a limited number of shots. But once the odds of making the 3 pointer creeps higher than 1/3, then it becomes with more. Has nothing to do with analysis catching up.

very short-sighted… once the analytics figured out how much of a statistical advantage 3-pt shot is the whole focus becomes 3-pt, fucking david betrans made $84,668,582 - I would beat him 1-on-1 if he was not allowed outside of 3-pt line…

No, you wouldn't.

I was being facetious, of course I wouldn’t (though I rock the YMCA) :)

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.

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

> 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

interesting! thanks for sharing

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.

You could just have the three point line intersect with the edge of the court and there would be no three pointers at the baseline.

The article discussed this and had an interesting point (and some stats for evidence) - that shooters waiting in the corner create space for driving to the basket.

I think the author dismissed that too casually. Anything that makes the three less valuable will result in less space around the hoop. That's not necessarily a bad thing if we want to reemphasize the mid-range shot. The only way to tilt the game back that way is to change the math on the current dunks/layups & threes meta.

Why not create a pooled incentive if you keep 3s under x, you get 5 million that game either to split or just for the coach since they lead the plays and shit.

Money talks and the NBA is all about money. So just throw money at the problem.

I think maybe having a goal tending timer could work too... like 5 to 10 seconds after the ball enters the half court, goal tending is allowed on 3 pointers. So they'd have to take the shot quicker or do it around goal tending.

Many of these suggestions are ridiculous. I think either eliminate the three pointer or allow goaltending on three pointers.

Gregg Popovich was right in pointing out that it was a gimmick introduced by the ABA and makes the game worse. Every team plays too similarly now, and it’s not exciting to see the reduced athleticism.

Interesting that even the first option fails to consider the obvious: you can have numbers after the decimal! So instead of moving to 4 and 3 you can move just one number to 2.3 And then you can tune it to whatever the most watchable outcome would be

Simple solution: Get rid of 3 pointers in the NBA.

you should hit YT and watch some old games prior to 3-pt line addition to see how awful that was :)

Not a good comparison, modern athletes are better, so the result wouldn't be as bad

some of the greatest highlights in the history of the league are 3-pt involved, MJ on fire against Blazers, Reggie Miller scoring 9 pts in 30-ish seconds at the Garden, LeBron’s buzzer with Cavs… you can’t just take that away from the game. This would be like saying NFL should do everything imaginable to prevent passing - many moons ago NFL was mostly a running league and we have better athletes now so game would still be “interesting” if 80% of the plays were runs.

I feel like this article slapped a bunch of possible solutions together just for the sake of having a list, rather than to actually consider what might be a good idea. So if there's any fans of basketball here, I'd be interested in hearing what you actually think would be a good idea.

Why not make the points awarded for a shot equal to the speed at which the ball goes through the hoop?

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

Not just for getting talent, but also so people can feel closer to the sport. There's more of a connection when the game you're playing casually is the same as the game that you're watching the really skilled people play.

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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com