The Ringer : The NBA’s 3s-and-Layups Cheat Code Is No More

Moreyball is dead because everyone plays Moreyball.

 

But I read on CF that 3s+layups was gimmicky and would never work

 

Basketball is basketball, we all got fooled by Murray

 

Moreyball is a strategy and that strategy is not dead. It used to provide an easy advantage- that easy advantage is dead. It still provides an advantage if you are the best at it the strategy.

 

Point me to a championship caliber team that doesn't do Murrayball

 

It is kind of funny because if this was brought up to Charles he would say. "Kennah, they winning more because they got Durant and Harden and the Rockets don't."

And that's literally what I've taken from this article. The whole 'Mid Range' bad seems to be that no, it's not bad, you just have to make sure the people taking that shot can actually make that shot...

I mean, that's basketball. It's not like Phil Jackson was letting Shaq shoot midrange/long range shots. You put your guys in a position to make shots they feel comfortable making and you contest as many shots as you can.

 

Moves and counter moves….

San Antonio tried to zig when the league was zagging with limited results, however someone will figure it out.

 

My takeaway from the article is that Brooklyn has Harden and KD so they are way better even when they take worse shots. Cool story.

 

Correct.

Morey was enamored with mid range specialists Bosh, Pau Gasol, Melo, and CP3.

However, I will say Harden’s rigidity under the system would turn into “not taking what the defense was giving” in the playoffs.

 

Nice article. Something I have given thought to myself without the proper words to express it.

The player is more important than the system. A new system helps until others figure it out.

 

BUT WE SHOULD SHOOT MORE MIDRANGE! still says like I don't know how many people on this board.

 

It worked so well that the trophies are spilling out of Tayota Center. Analytics champs! Playoffs? Who’s talking about playoffs?

 

I still believe Harden removing the mid range completely out his game hurt him in late game situations.

I haven’t checked the actual stats tho.

Star perimeter players should be able to score at all 3 levels imo.

 

The Suns and The Bucks shoot plenty of midrange shots. They certainly arent off the the table.

 

Jendall Kennah?

 

Right..... and the "Moreyball" answer to that is to find another advantage and be on the forefront of that movement.

 

The 3-ball will always be the general better strategy unless NBA makes changes to the 3-point line or the ratio of points for example 3-4 points rather than 2-3 points. A 50% 2-point attempt creates the same points as a 33% 3-point attempt. It is almost impossible to close this gap.

But there are a lot of caveats to this.

1- The biggest effect this season is the change on foul calls. It allows defenders to put much more pressure outside. This makes it much harder for the offense to get easy 3-pt shots. Last season there were 13 teams shooting over 37% 3pt, compared to 3 teams as of now this season. And there is also the effect of causing more turnovers that does not go into this stat.

2- Lay ups also produce less points because of the changes in defensive calls.

3- A one-dimensional game is always bad. If the other team knows you have no midrange game, they will defend the 3pt line better and the advantage of the 3pt shot will go down. It will still be a good strategy (compared to old times) but the teams that mix it up will do better. Especially in the playoffs, and end of game situations.

4- And yes, if you have KD, midrange does not look bad at all. Just like the team should mix it up, individual players also benefit from it. A correct mix would also push KD's %s up. The problem is that players below a certain level skill set, cannot mix. And that is the coach's problem to solve.

On a side note, if you have not watched the Cavs, give them a look. They are doing great, actually better than what their record shows. Despite injuries they are holding up and they lost a number of games against strong teams in close games. And they would absolutely be much worse off if the fouls were called like last year in my opinion. So 3 ball is overall correct strategy, but with the new rules, there are more opportunities and teams need to adjust.