The trend in the league now is "3-and-D." Every team wants to have great defense and a lot of three point shooting. But I've gotten to thinking recently -- does the "3" part of that equation matter much more than the "D" part? You look at teams like Cleveland and Houston, and honestly they don't seem to have more than maybe two or three true defensive stoppers in their rotations. In fact, those rosters seem like they're disproportionately made up of the stereotypical "great at knocking down open threes but weak on defense" type of guys. And yet those teams are blowing their opponents out of the water night after night. In fact, right now the top 5 teams in each conference (aside from the Hawks) are GSW/SAS/HOU/LAC/UTA and CLE/TOR/BOS/MIL/IND -- which also happen to be the top ten teams in the league in 3P%. Probably not a coincidence, right? So for all the talk about how the three-point shot is taking over the league, do you think it's possible that we're STILL not giving it enough credit, and it's even more overpowered than we realize?
I think this question really matters for the Hawks, because they're the clear outlier to this trend right now. The Hawks are the #4 seed in the East, but they've gotten there with defense (5th best in the NBA) rather than three-point shooting (6th worst). In a way, it's actually pretty impressive and shows how good their defense really is. And considering how much more physical the playoffs are compared to the regular season, the whole "defense first" approach really might be the right way to go, and this whole post might turn out to be misguided in the end. But Coach Bud has talked before about how the Hawks need better outside shooting, and I think it's probably a big priority for our front office right now. We do have guys who seem like they could turn into consistently reliable three-point shooters -- Schroder, Delaney, Hardaway, Muscala, Prince. But is that enough? Bazemore, Sefolosha, and Millsap all seem to be struggling behind the arc, and the lack of shooting will only become more apparent in the playoffs as the bench gets shorter. Dunleavy isn't going to be a long term solution at age 36. So what should the Hawks do? Should they just keep trying to help Bazemore/Sefolosha/Millsap find their groove and hope that they're shooting hot when playoffs arrive? Should they make a move for one more wing shooter to pair with Hardaway and give all the postseason minutes to (e.g. Gallinari)? Or should they go even further in the opposite direction, and zag while the rest of the league zigs, and see if that's the key to beating them?
Or does three-point shooting not matter as much as I think it does and I'm just overreacting here?
Submitted January 14, 2017 at 12:02PM by Buteo_jamaicensis