NBA commissioner Adam Silver vows to fix 3-point shooting problem: 'We're on it'

The level of talent in NBA is as high as ever, but this season there have been questions about how to make the game more aesthetically pleasing after grades leaving much to be desired compared to other American sports.

Could one of those changes be an adjustment to the 3-point line in an attempt to reduce scoring?

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver appeared in Wednesday’s edition of “The Herd,” explaining the league’s stance on potentially moving the 3-point line.

“I recognize that to the extent that offenses start to look very similar, we lose (different team identities),” Silver told the host. Colin Cowherd. “At the same time, the league is undergoing a transformation.” Players love it Victor Vembanyamaplayers like (Nikola) Jokić they do things that great men have not done historically. It wasn’t that long ago in the conversations you had with (former commissioner) David Stern, we would complain about the lack of skill among some of the players, that there was a sense that there was too much physicality around the game.

“I don’t want to move my knee from the 3-point line. Now we’re going through the process, watching how these players adapt to the new rules and figuring out what changes we need to make.”

Silver dismissed the idea that the 3-point line should be moved back, but acknowledged that discussions are underway.

“Part of the concern for basketball players is that if you move the 3-point line back, you end up just clogging up the area under the basket, and that’s not very attractive basketball either,” Silver said.

“I assure you, we are on it. I think it’s a very fixable problem…we’ll fix it. We will fix those problems.”

Current champion Boston Celtics leads the NBA with 49.4 attempts from beyond the arc this season, while Denver Nuggets they are last with 31.1 attempts from distance; the Memphis Grizzlies leads the NBA with 122.9 points per game.

For perspective, Houston Rockets led the NBA with 32.7 attempts from beyond the arc per game in the 2014-15 regular season, while Golden State Warriors he led the sport with 110.0 points per game. Moreover, the Phoenix Suns led the NBA with just 24.7 field goal attempts per game in the 2004-05 regular season.

While the NBA traditionally relies on its marketable and more successful teams like the Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls — and whatever team LeBron James game for — a number of teams in second-tier markets, both from a media and population standpoint, have thrived of late.

Currently, the Cleveland Cavaliers (34-5) i Oklahoma City Thunder (33-6) boast the best records in the Eastern and Western Conferences, respectively; The Rockets and Grizzlies are the No. 2 and No. 3 in the West; The Nuggets are one season away from winning the NBA Finals, with Milwaukee Bucks beating the Suns in the 2021 NBA Finals.

Silver is enthusiastic about the current competitive nature of the NBA.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve had six different teams in the last six years win championships and, at the end of the day, we sell competition … if you have a soft cap system, it’s become more difficult, and it’s been more difficult when you have a full team to add a great player on top of that… we’re coming off a season last year and it’s continued this year, I think that we have more competitive teams than at any time in the history of the league,” Silver said of the competition in the NBA.

“I think the fact that we’re outselling the competition now in every market and from a television standpoint, whether it’s Oklahoma City, whether it’s Saint Anthonyis it Salt Lake Citythat those teams are in a position, when managed well, to compete in the same way that big markets can.”

Celtics, Nuggets, Warriors, Bucks, Lakers and Toronto Raptors make up the previous six NBA champions. That six-year streak comes at the end of the Warriors winning four championships in eight seasons and teams James played for winning four titles in nine seasons (Miami Heat twice, and the Cavaliers and Lakers once).

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