I'm starting not to like basketball

[Roddy B for 3]

I'm currently watching Raptors vs Heat and I counted 8 3pt shot attempts one after another. I know this is where the league has been shifting for a while now and people have talked about it before but this is going too far. I think the reality check for me was seeing how my favorite team Suns has been built for this season. To shoot 3 pointers...

The game has become more tactical yes, but it has led to everyone trying to find open 3's. I'm not sure if I can watch basketball if it keeps going this direction.

Do you think we will need rule changes sooner or later? Because this is getting less and less entertaining. It's getting similar to being in a casino. Is the three gonna go in or not...

Y'all have an ATGfloor generalpG who is the best clutch scorer in the NBA because of his mid ga and a #1 pick stud who didn't even average 1 3pta per game.

Your team also has DBook who hit a midrange jumper at the buzzer over two elite perimeter defenders for one of the shoots of the season.

Your role players all shoot threes to keep space open for dBook iso and Ayton in the post.

Your team specifically is very old school, with new school role player shooters.

[donnieme]

Defeatist mentality. If a product is clearly inferior then you have a right to protest until change happens.

Inferior? We're talking about 10 guys putting a ball through a hoop regulated by an arbitrary set of rules. There's no objectively inferior or pure form. Don't get people trying to phrase it like some pretentious wine-tasting hobby. Just enjoy every era for its style

People pay good money to watch an entertaining game and if the product is no longer fun to watch then you will lose fans and therefore revenue. Many people do not enjoy the three-fests that every game has deteriorated into these days.

but there's no indication that these people are but a fraction of the overall consumers. If it was large this notion would gain more traction outside of the occasional thread on a message board. On all the places audiences tend to congregate like twitter, instagram, youtube comments, reddit there's no indication this is even an issue with the average casual consumer

[DaPessimist]

I'm not a baseball expert, but I think that game is trending the same direction as the NBA the last couple seasons. Analytics are showing that players are better off just swinging for homers, so we're seeing more homers... and more strikeouts, and less base runners. I personally find small-ball and base running more exciting than homers, but I imagine we will see less small-ball as time goes on.

[Texas Chuck]

There is no joy to the game. It’s more interesting to “follow the nba” (the news, transactions, drama, business of basketball etc.) than it is to watch the games. That has to catch up to the league at some point imo.

Hey its a transaction league and I get that.

I just think part of it is the NBA twitter hipsters are on this kick right now and its sort of become the cool thing to complain about how the game's not fun any more plus the internet is just a negative place and people love to complain way more than they like to enjoy.

I consume a ton of basketball--NBA, WNBA, local high school live(non-COVID) times and while the game is way different from when I played in high school and we had one legit 3-pt shooter, it's more different than worse. At least to me. Yeah teams shoot a lot of 3's but there are a myriad of ways to generate them that aren't boring.

And yeah Dallas has Luka and most teams don't, but I find even Houston with Harden pounding, pounding, pounding and drive and kick repetitive basketball enjoyable because they were a real-time experiment at the highest level of basketball at just how extreme you could take the strategy--it drives the game forward.

I'm old. So I remember East Coast games where it was first one to 80 wins and teams played PF's at SF and never played multiple ballhandlers together and offense was just sludge. And I loved that. But I love basketball. But anyone thinking that those were the good old days I think has forgotten how it really could be.

It's just like football. I love watching the academies who still run the triple wishbone. I love it. Back when EA had college football I would always be Nebraska or Wisconsin and I'd run the option and my friends always mocked me because nobody runs in video games. But I appreciate that in Texas some really smart high school coaches realized they could mask a lack of size or skill position talent by spreading it out and playing hyper fast and their advances have led us to Mahomes and Jackson and Wilson and just glorious football.

New isn't always bad. Now maybe I'm really as alone as this thread makes it appear, but I doubt it. Maybe you guys only post here about the transactions and the gossip and the scandals--I'm sure some do. But give the game a chance. It's still awesome. It really is.

[DonaldSanders]

The issue is more in the regular season than in the playoffs. The playoffs were still fantastic, as the refs always allow a "tougher" more "old school" defensive game.

Regular season games are rarely as chippy as the playoffs, but RS games often feel like they don't have much of an edge now. Before all the post play/bigs jockeying brought that angry sauce almost every night. Now it feels more ho hum.

I don't know what the change needs to be, it doesn't have to be drastic, just something to push us into generating a little more post play and a little less of the 3.

[Gabe Ball]

I feel like the game will evolve to fit what the fans want. If basketball is still making bank while most players continue to focus on shooting three's and few fans complaining, then I don't see it changing.

On the flip side, I feel like people will get a bit bored after a few more years, numbers will go down, and they'll essentially try to bring back dunking and layups by putting in new rules to make 3's harder. Actually, that would be a pretty cool comeback, and I guess the real argument is whether we want that shift now or in a few years.

[jazzfan1971]

I'm with you. This modern product is a lot less watchable than it used to be.

[ayyayyron]

I still enjoy basketball with my whole heart, though it frustrates me when I see a fastbreak 3 with an open lane. Same goes for a Duncan Robinson-type player taking the heavily contested 3 when his teammate is wide open

[hoosierdaddy34]

Apparently you miss all those 77-73 rock throwing fests of the mid-90s? But seriously calm down and relax, the Lakers just won the title without a single lights out 3 point shooter on the roster. Or did you sleep through the entire bubble?

[Johnny Fontane]

My interest is definitely waning in the NBA and basketball in general since probably the start of last season. It's almost like every team is going for the same blueprint with the same kinds of players. There's really just nothing particularly special about anything that happens in today's game. It's just such a cheapened product

[MINDKCUF]

yes the relentless 3's from every player and their mother is ridiculous. i know..i watched every rockets game last yr.
if not for westbrook's drives i my head would have exploded.
some players shouldnt be shooting the 3's they do but if they dont then people want to sh*t on their "deficiencies".
analytics is just running numbers with people bouncing like balls.

basketball was/should to be more than that.

[JellosJigglin]

Apparently you miss all those 77-73 rock throwing fests of the mid-90s? But seriously calm down and relax, the Lakers just won the title without a single lights out 3 point shooter on the roster. Or did you sleep through the entire bubble?

Scores were lower because they played defense. I personally loved that era. Ironically I fell in love with the game because of Magic Johnson and the showtime era. But I loved the slugfest defensive battles. Those games were tense all 48 minutes because every single possession mattered. A game isn't better to me just because "MORE POINTZZZZ!!". Honestly the amount of points on the board doesn't indicate the quality of basketball being played.

[sfernald]

Do you think there's room for a new league with the old pre-3pt rules? Lots of scores in the paint and defense is allowed again? Maybe allow pets to the game?

[Cactus Jack]

Maybe you guys only post here about the transactions and the gossip and the scandals--I'm sure some do. But give the game a chance. It's still awesome. It really is.

If we're doing a headcount? Well...

I don't watch. Only login to hear the latest happenings.

I love Football. Pretty hardcore NFL fan. NBA just isn't watchable for me (anymore). I'll occasionally tune in to watch a matchup that I think is worth it. But most of the games/product is well....

[AbeVigodaLive]

Sometimes. I agree.

Earlier this week... Gorgui Dieng caught a pass and the near-7-footer was directly in front of the rim without a defender near him... and passed it to out for the corner three.

Personally... all I think that's needed is for the officials to open up post play to even things out. Right now... any near-contact on a jump shooter gets a foul call. Meanwhile, any post player is getting shoved, punched, pushed, and pummeled in the post. Often by a guy 6 inches shorter. To make matters worse... should that bigger player simply turn around to face the hoop with the ball... the smaller player will DEFINITELY flop.

And an offensive foul will be called quite often. When that's the payoff... why bother playing in the post.

[Anticon]

Apparently you miss all those 77-73 rock throwing fests of the mid-90s? But seriously calm down and relax, the Lakers just won the title without a single lights out 3 point shooter on the roster. Or did you sleep through the entire bubble?

This is a strawman, because the league is clearly never going back to this.

But allow tightening up defences and considering rule changes to even out shot selection (like getting rid of corner threes) would give the game more variety.

[JellosJigglin]

My interest is definitely waning in the NBA and basketball in general since probably the start of last season. It's almost like every team is going for the same blueprint with the same kinds of players. There's really just nothing particularly special about anything that happens in today's game. It's just such a cheapened product

Yes, this is what I've been saying for the last few years now. Everyone is trying to copy the same style. I miss the variety we used to have and watching teams who were great at THEIR style of the game go up against each other. That is what excited me as a young fan more than the superstar matchups that the league always promoted.

For example I didn't just watch the MJ Bulls because of MJ and Pippen. I watched because they had a unique system built around 2 wings, which was pretty novel at the time, and a quirky head coach. I loved watching the TD Spurs because I knew they were so fundamentally sound that you had to play a nearly perfect game to beat them. It was always about style for me, over superstars. That is what made me excited about other teams around the league. I used to keep up with what every team around the league was doing. Now my interest has dropped and I just don't care. I know every team is working to build the same style.

But I'd just like to note, the Lakers didn't really go down that route. They went big and they dominated on the defensive end. They're about as old school as you can get in this era.

[Ben-N1ce]

New game is a chuckfest. There is no doubt about it. Players get rewarded for flopping and there are too many soft whistles. Id rather see a defensive battle then those games where a teams win by shooting a less trash percentage from 3

[hoosierdaddy34]

Apparently you miss all those 77-73 rock throwing fests of the mid-90s? But seriously calm down and relax, the Lakers just won the title without a single lights out 3 point shooter on the roster. Or did you sleep through the entire bubble?

Scores were lower because they played defense. I personally loved that era. Ironically I fell in love with the game because of Magic Johnson and the showtime era. But I loved the slugfest defensive battles. Those games were tense all 48 minutes because every single possession mattered. A game isn't better to me just because "MORE POINTZZZZ!!". Honestly the amount of points on the board doesn't indicate the quality of basketball being played.

It was a lot easier to play defense because you had a bunch of defenders on the floor with very limited offensive ability. You had guys standing outside and no defenders within 10 feet of them. The era was fine but the brick fests got really old as well.

[NYPiston]

It's funny how the narrative changed. I remember a ton of fans from the mid 90s through the mid 2000s that soured on the league because it was too low scoring and defensive minded. Now that the three point shot is being emphasized and scoring is up, there's a ton of fans who long for the "old days" again.

I don't know, as the game evolves either you evolve with it or move on to something else if you don't get enjoyment out of it anymore. Just my opinion.