LAS VEGAS — With the Boston Celtics on pace to shatter the NBA’s record for 3-pointers attempted by a team, and with 3s being up across the league this season, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday night the league is studying the trend.
He also said criticisms of offenses becoming “cookie cutter” and that teams are copying each other is something he thinks the league should take seriously.
“The answer is yes, [we are having] many discussions about the style of basketball [being played],” Silver told a small group of reporters Tuesday night before the championship game of the league’s second-annual NBA Cup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks. “I would not reduce it to a so-called 3-point shooting issue. I think we look more holistically at the skill level on the floor, the diversity of offense, the fan reception to the game, all of the above.
“I think the game is in a great place. I love watching the games, and I think we have some of the most skilled athletes in the world competing — and it’s unfair, I think, to the players to lump them into categories as 3-point shooters or a midrange shooter or big man playing under the basket. It’s an amazing game.”
“Having said that,” he continued, “we’re constantly having discussions about whether there are ways to improve stylistically the game on the floor.”
The Celtics are averaging 51.1 attempted 3s per game, which easily would shatter the record for treys attempted in a season. Teams across the league are shooting more than ever due to the math of shooting more 3s, as opposed to midrange 2-point jumpers, bending the sport in that direction.
But Silver made it clear any attempt to change things on the fly, such as moving the 3-point line, is not likely to happen soon. He went through some of the complications with making that kind of decision as well as some of the things the league has done to try to address the notion of too many teams playing the same way.
“Historically, at times, we’ve moved the 3-point line,” Silver said. “I don’t think that’s a solution here because then, I think when we look at both the game and the data, I think that may not necessarily do more midrange jumpers, if that’s what people want, but more clogging under the basket.
“Whether there’s some tweaks we should make, and my sense is I do think we should take seriously this notion of more diversity in offense. I watch as many games as all of you do, and to the extent that it’s not so much a 3-point issue, but that some of the audience, some of the offenses start to look sort of cookie cutter and teams are copying each other. I think that’s something we should pay attention to.”
Silver touched on several other topics during his half hour with reporters, including the following:
– The NBA Cup might not stay in Las Vegas, according to Silver. The semifinals and championship game of the tournament have been held in Las Vegas in each of the first two years of the in-season tournament’s existence.
ESPN reported Tuesday there were discussions about potentially moving at least the semifinal games away from Las Vegas, something Silver confirmed, but that the challenges of trying to play the games in home markets involve conflicts with arena dates.
“Not sure,” Silver said when asked if the tournament would be in Las Vegas again next year. “Part of it is we have a new television partner in Amazon who will be covering the knockout rounds. There has been some interest expressed by teams in playing the home markets. It’s complicated enough scheduling on a neutral site. I think I’m not against [it, but] I think the question is, if we want to seriously consider that, how would that work from a scheduling standpoint?
“And also here, when you build a tradition, you have a lot of fans here who can circle these dates on their calendar and plan to come to Las Vegas, plan a holiday around it. I think that the teams are on both sides.”
– Silver said the new collective bargaining agreement is working as intended when it comes to limiting the way the highest-spending teams can operate in going over the “second apron” and that the CBA was intended to make life much more difficult on teams that do so. But after saying “maybe some of the teams didn’t quite understand how inflexible the system becomes” once they arrive in the highest-spending tiers, Silver said it was too early to tell whether there could be a chilled trade market this season because of the new rules.
“It’s my job to be concerned, but we’ll see,” Silver said with a smile, when asked if he thought the trade market could be negatively impacted. “I think there was a prediction there wouldn’t be any significant movement this summer, and then it turned out there was. I think also teams have to feel their way through a new system. I think that I hear some of the criticism that it’s overly complex. We have really smart basketball people at our teams. I don’t think that’s the issue. They understand the system. I think that there’s a large group of agents who need to understand it, as well.”
Silver acknowledged that for teams over the second apron, there will be less movement and an ability to trade or sign a free agent, noting that was the intent of the new CBA.
“So I think the right way for the league to look at it over time is where do those players go? Are we creating more competitive teams?” Silver said. “I mean, I think ultimately the goal is to have a system where every team is in a position, if well-managed, to compete for championships.
“I think, again, it’s not a perfect system and maybe over time there’ll be more tweaks to it, but I think we’ve gone a long way in getting to that.”
– Silver also discussed the dip in the league’s TV ratings early in the season. And though he said the NBA is doing “intense” research on the topic, he focused on the league’s pivot to streaming in its upcoming television deal as well as social media and other aspects of its reach to indicate he doesn’t believe the league has an overall interest issue.
“I would just say, to say it directly, ratings are down a bit at the beginning of the season, but cable television viewership is down double digits so far this year versus last year,” Silver said. “We’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programming on streaming than they are in traditional television. And it’s a reason why for our new television deals, which we’re entering into next year, every game is going to be available on a streaming service.
“And as we move to streaming services, putting aside how the actual game is played on the floor, it’s going to allow us from a production standpoint to do all kinds of things that you can’t do through traditional television. All kinds of new functionality, all kinds of new options and screens that are available.”
“So, at the end of the day, we are an entertainment product, and the vast majority of people consume us through media, not in person,” he added. “So, we have to pay a lot of attention to that. But if you look at other data points in terms of our business, for example, we’ve just come off the last two years of the highest attendance in the history of this league. We’re at a point where our social media audience is at the highest of any league and continuing to grow exponentially. So, there’s not a lack of interest in this game.”
– Silver reiterated that the NBA is “not quite there yet” when it comes to expansion and that there remains no timeline to begin that process.