Celtics
“That is the best strategy. That is also terrible television.”
The Celtics are firing away from the 3-point line again to open up the 2024-25 season, which seems to be to the dismay of some.
In their season-opening win over the Knicks, the Celtics matched the NBA’s record for most 3-pointers made in a single game with 29. They also put up a whopping 61 attempts, though 13 of those came in the final eight minutes as they were chasing the record. They followed that up by shooting 45 3-pointers in Thursday’s win over the Wizards, making 17 of them.
As Boston keeps shooting from deep, some analysts believe that its style of play might be grounds for a rule change. Fox Sports’ Nick Wright believes that the NBA might soon be dealing with an “existential crisis” due to the number of 3-pointers that the Celtics and other teams shoot.
“Because there’s a 50 percent premium on 3-point shots, the smart way to play is probably what the Celtics did on opening night – shoot 60 of them things,” Wright said. “Have it be your entire offense besides dunks and free throws. That is the best strategy. That is also terrible television.”
The Celtics have employed a mentality toward shooting more 3-pointers since Joe Mazzulla became their head coach. They were second in the league in 3-point attempts in 2022-23 (42.6 per game) and remained around that number last year (42.5 per game) to lead the league in 3-point attempts.
If the Celtics’ first two regular-season games and preseason matchups are any indication, they plan on shooting more 3-pointers this season. They averaged 52.6 3-point attempts per game over their five-game exhibition slate, which was five more 3-point attempts per game than any other team in the NBA.
Mazzulla has often backed his approach by pointing to the math advantage 3-point shots give. He’s also emphasized the importance of spacing in order to maximize their perimeter opportunities over the last couple of years.
But as the Celtics are taking advantage of the rules, there are some others who feel the samy that Wright feels about their 3-point approach. CBS Sports NBA writer Sam Quinn agreed with Wright’s take, writing “3’s CAN be entertaining. Steph [Curry]’s version of 3’s are awesome. It’s cool to see movement shooters run laps to create space. It’s cool to see pick-and-roll pull-ups. What’s boring is when guys just camp out in the corner and fire.”
There was some dissent, though, toward Wright’s take.
“One thing I don’t get on the [3s] things: the Warriors are the most popular team of the last 25 years,” the Action Network’s Matt Moore wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “That was ENTIRELY built on threes. Why is it cool and awesome when one team does it and boring when another does it? Motion offense, I get that. But is it just ‘because Curry makes 7 percentage points more of them?’”
The 3-point shot was a catalyst for the Warriors’ dominant run from 2014-22, ranking in the top five in attempts in three of their four title-winning seasons. Of course, Golden State also arguably had the two best 3-point shooters of all time at the height of their dynasty years in Curry and Klay Thompson. So, it’d make sense to play to their strengths.
However, the Celtics also have a strong cast of 3-point shooters. The eight players who received the most minutes for them last season have all shown the ability to be a plus 3-point shooter at some point over their respective careers.
All eight of those players also shot above 35 percent (which is considered to be the average mark for 3-point shooting) from behind the arc last season. Furthermore, the Celtics had three players rank in the top 15 and four rank in the top 50 in 3-point shooting percentage last season, which were both the most among any team.
As the Celtics have had success from behind the arc, The Dunker Spot’s Nekias Duncan believes the way they generate looks has been organic over the last few years.
“The Boston 3s conversation feels limiting anyway because, outside of a few outlets (ahem), not enough respect is put on *how* they generate the looks they do from out there,” Duncan wrote on X.
To Duncan’s point, the Celtics did a good job of generating open looks from behind the arc last season. They ranked first in 3-point attempts and make percentage on shots characterized as “open” looks (closest defender is four-to-six feet away) last season, per NBA.com’s tracking data. They were seventh in 3-point attempts on shots characterized as “wide open “(closest defender at least six feet away) last season, but they were first in 3-point percentage on such shots.
Last season, 36.4 of the Celtics’ 42.5 3-point shots per game were characterized as “open” or “wide open.” Ninety-four of their 106 3-point attempts through the first two games of the season were characterized as “open” or “wide open.”
So, it isn’t as if the Celtics are forcing 3-point attempts for the sake of trying to get as many as possible. Still, Wright believes the style of play should be the cause for a rule change, coming up with a couple of proposals to possibly fix it.
“The simplest way to fix the 3s problem is to change the scoring, but they’d never do it because the records would be thrown out,” Wright said. “If it was 4s and 3s instead of 3s and 2s, it instantly fixes it because then there’s a 33 percent premium instead of a 50 percent premium. But that’s not going to happen, so you’re going to have to adjust.
“Have the 3-point arc truly be an arc, meaning it never flattens out and you get rid of the corner 3s,” Wright added. “You could also do something super radical and be like, ‘Guess what, you know what else is also worth three points? Dunks.’ I know this sounds insane, but at its core, the NBA is at its best when dudes are flying over people, meeting them at the rim. That’s when it’s at its best television product.”
For those curious, the Celtics were 11th in corner 3-point field goal attempts per game last season (9.3).
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