Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green is never shy about speaking his mind, and he sounded off on the state of the game early on Saturday morning during All-Star Weekend in San Francisco. Green called the modern NBA “very boring” and explained why he loves to compete against LeBron James.
The Los Angeles Lakers recently defeated the Warriors, 120-112, in a throwback duel between James and Steph Curry in which the latter went off for 42 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists, while the former put up 37 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Despite that result, Green said it’s “refreshing” to play against James because he makes you think.
“Every possession is some type of chess move,” Green said, via the Associated Press. “You don’t get that today in the NBA, often. … You don’t just get that on a regular basis. It’s just who can run faster, who can hit more 3s, it’s no substance. I think it’s very boring.”
Ironically, the Warriors are perhaps more responsible than any other team for pushing the NBA into this spacing and shooting era. Their small-ball approach with Green at center and Curry and Klay Thompson firing away from 3-point range not only helped them win three championships, but changed the sport forever.
Green is among many, though, who feel things have gone too far in recent years. The 2015-16 Warriors, who won 73 games, led the league with 31.6 3-point attempts per game. That mark would rank 29th this season. There are four teams taking over 40 3s per game, led by the Celtics at 48.3, which has them on pace to smash the all-time record for attempts in a season.
Indeed, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said the league is looking into the matter. During an interview with Colin Cowherd on Jan. 15, Silver said that changes are coming: “As stewards of the game, Joe Dumars leads our competition committee here, we will tweak it, we will correct those issues,” Silver said.
Adam Silver on NBA’s 3-point shooting boom: ‘We will tweak it, we will correct those issues’
Sam Quinn
Silver noted, however, that there’s no easy solution and the league does not want to make a reactionary decision.
“So I think we’ve just gotta be careful,” Silver said. “The one thing we don’t want to do is, I don’t want to just kneejerk move the 3-point line. We’re sort of going through a process now, seeing how these players are adapting to the new rules, and figuring out what changes we should make.
“To be honest, I wish it was as simple as just moving the 3-point line back, because then we would just do it. Part of the concern from the basketball folks is that if you move the 3-point line back, you’ll end up just sort of clogging up the area under the basket, and that’s not such attractive basketball either.”
It will be fascinating to see how the NBA decides to address the current 3-point shooting trend, and how that in turn affects the rest of the game. Whatever happens over the next few years, it’s clear that league is listening to Green and those who are frustrated with the current state of play.