Add Bomani Jones to the list of sports commentators growing sick of the modern NBA.
After an opening week in which the Boston Celtics tied the record for most 3-pointers made in a game and the breakout star of 2024, Anthony Edwards averaged 13 attempts per game from deep, Jones is yet another sports media veteran sounding the alarm.
“It’s become the jab, basically. Every boxer’s got a jab,” Jones said of the 3-point shot. “But (the 3-point shot)’s not supposed to be a jab. It feels like it’s supposed to be an uppercut, an option, something that you have.”
After Nick Wright warned the NBA last week that the game’s modern style is not “sustainable” and longtime Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan again railed against the overuse of the long bomb, Jones tried to remind his audience and the league that nothing is sacred.
Jones explained that a sport’s rules and styles should be based on what is most compelling, not on teams finding edges to dominate. The Right Time host illustrated his point by using longtime midrange killer DeMar DeRozan.
“Hoopers talk about (DeRozan) much differently than the people watching because we’re looking at it in terms of the numbers. But in the end, we watch basketball because it’s fun to watch,” Jones said.
“And DeMar DeRozan is fun to watch. I like watching artists. And this current style of play and where I think people have got this misunderstood is the rules incentivize certain styles. So people are going to do that. Styles make fights, and you typically have to juke the rules a little bit to then encourage people to play in a lot of different ways. There aren’t that many guys that I think about where I’m just like, I love their game.”
Beyond a sweet midrange game from a player like DeRozan, Jones pointed to post-play and creative drives to the basket as other bygone skillsets in today’s NBA. The influx of statistical analysis into the league gradually changed players’ styles to focus beyond the arc.
“We enjoy those things, but three is so much more than two that everybody’s going to stand out there,” Jones said. “And next thing you know … Anthony Edwards is taking 13 threes a game so far this year.”
Last NBA season, rest and load management took center stage. The league instituted games-played minimums for awards, and players slow-rolled the All-Star game to the extent that it drove even Commissioner Adam Silver to exhaustion.
This year, the perimeter-oriented style that is mimicked around the league will be a central talking point. It’s not just that Edwards or Boston are embracing that shot. Every player and team is. Games are won and lost simply because of a team’s ability to take and make the requisite number of threes to keep up with their opponents.
That makes for some pretty repetitive games and moments during the regular season.
Jones isn’t the only one tired of it.
[The Right Time with Bomani Jones on YouTube]