Because I reached out to Greenie.
I didn’t just sign into Barstool Sports HQ and start slamming keys to write a scathing dunk blog.
Not for an argument.
But for a discussion.
THEN I went to Barstool Sports HQ.
That’s how it’s done kids.
I’ll get to that.
But let’s get to Greenies takes from his blog.
Because they’re bad.
But I’m going to give a shot to do the reverse steelman.
Let’s start with the first two paragraphs of Greenies blog.
I see this throw in of argument online and it makes my skin crawl.
Think about a genre of music you don’t like.
I’d wager to say whatever that genre is, you don’t listen to it.
Well, then how do you know you don’t like it?
That’s the logic of Greenies question.
for know, we must Bird Box ourselves to the TV and watch.
Just like the NFL with awful roughing the quarterback penalties everyone hates.
Here’s the real answer though, just to cater to the question.
That includes settling for threes with minimal ball movement in many instances.
Eventually we waive the white flag and turn it off.
Not all games are like this.
But enough that it’s a legitimate problem.
We need to talk about this JJ Reddick interview.
Which was the main point of Greenie’s blog.
Let’s start with the fact that we’re using JJ Reddick as his appeal to authority.
Convenient choice, I’d say.
Don’t get me wrong.
JJ is both smart and entertaining.
Including his “brief” response to the three-point issue.
I’d sip a cab and talk ball with him anytime.
But let’s not act like he doesn’t have a real potential bias here.
He’s a current coach.
You really think any coach is going to say what they teach their players to do is boring?
I mean, come on.
Any guesses, any guesses?
62% on 10,204 career shots (playoffs included).
Reddick 54.5% on 9,929.
Just so that doesn’t keep your brain from wandering.
I actually hate it when people disregard opinions because they presume a personal bias.
Let’s hear some of JJ’s actual argument.
We’re really going to do the chicken or egg thing?
Which one is it?
This argument is what terrible employees tell themselves when they don’t get a promotion for 10-15 years.
They blame it on their coworkers who said mean things about them doing a bad job.
Spoiler alert, it’s probably because of the bad job that they did.
If you build it, they will come.
If you knock it down.
It’s really that simple.
We’ve all seen it.
But to blame this on them for artificially building a false narrative is such a sad cope.
The tactics that spawn an uncontested look.
But for know that, you have to watch."
Miley Cyrus would agree.
And of course, not all threes are boring.
But overall, this isn’t the norm.
And that’s the problem.
The ratings are telling us that.
Down 28 percent from an already abysmal baseline of whatever the numbers were last season.
Yet other major sports are up.
Are illegal streams really that much better than 2023?
Are the x’s really that much easier to see?
One last thing to pick apart.
So things really aren’t that bad, right?
If there’s one thing I know, it’s when a graph is telling tricks.
This one leads you to believe the only thing that’s changed are long twos near the three-point line.
But you’ll notice it doesn’t distinguish between a short midrange from a long midrange.
That way you’re free to’t really see the finer details.
But the league-wide shot heat maps hide no details.
This is what people are talking about Greenie.
The x-rays shows all the broken bones.
The midrange is getting carved out like the middle class.
And we all know why this is.
Team’s would be dumb to not use the numbers and play to win.
That’s why something needs to change in the league office.
And that’s where Greenie and I agree!
BRING BACK THE HAND CHECK BABY!
I was shocked to learn he was on the same page as me here.
That and re-adjusting the officials to allow for physicality for something other than Giannis' left shoulder.
Want to chuck some threes?
Well you’re not going to get the space when you have a wrist on your waist.
There’s nothing wrong with having subjectivity on where too far is too far.
Think of the trenches of the NFL.
“They could call holding on every play” is a cliche we hear all the time.
But you know what?
The refs for all their foibles, do a decent job of policing holding calls.
But he’s right in the fact that the focus of the NBA’s problems aren’treallythree-point shooting.
That’s just a symptom.
It’s the loss of physicality.
2004 broke the NBA.
Changes were reactionary and not thought of long-term.
We’re seeing the result now, and have been for years.
I’ll end with this.
So why not take the bumpers off the lanes so we can see who the truly great players are?
The ones that can work through the physicality.
When everyone looks like Michael Jordan, no one looks like Michael Jordan.
