The NBA’s ‘shot desert’ problem is real. Could 3-point dunks save us?

Ja Morant is back and has Brook Lopez turned around. It’s November, and the electric point guard is leading the fast break in the third quarter against a porous Milwaukee Bucks transition defense. The slow-footed Lopez is the only obstacle between Morant and a thunderous finish at the basket. With Morant going downhill, this is a viral moment waiting to happen.

But instead of jetting through Lopez for a rim-rocking dunk, Morant does something unexpected. He slams on the brakes and pulls up for a 3-pointer, missing badly off the far side of the rim.

Morant didn’t dunk on that possession. Which, surprisingly, has been commonplace for the 25-year-old phenom.

This season, Morant hasn’t dunked at all. In eight games, Morant has not completed a single dunk, missing both of his attempts (including this all-time blooper). Coming back from shoulder surgery, his dunk-attempt rate is a sliver of what it used to be. His 360 layups are a thing of beauty, but dunks they are not. Meanwhile, Morant, a poor 3-point shooter, continues to launch freely from deep.

Morant represents the face of a growing grumble around the sport, that the product is suffering because the math says players should fire up 3s at a high rate, which some feel is at the expense of thrilling dunks at the rim.

On opening night, after the Boston Celtics launched 61 3-point attempts in a sleepy rout over the New York Knicks, FS1’s Nick Wright, in a clip from his What’s Wright podcast that generated millions of views on X, lamented the modern playing style and called for the league to change its rules. Among Wright’s proposals was the suggestion that the NBA should make dunks worth three points to incentivize a better product for fans who, as the tumbling ratings suggest, appear to be increasingly disenchanted with the television offering.

The Celtics welcomed in the season by shooting — gulp! — 61 3s. (Boston Globe via Getty Images)

“I know this sounds insane,” Wright said, “but at its core, the NBA is…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/the-nbas-shot-desert-problem-is-real-could-3-point-dunks-save-us-163055464.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-21 16:30:00

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