Under legendary head coach Gregg Popovich, the San Antonio Spurs have established a standard in moving the ball and creating high-percentage shots. But it turns out that the outspoken coach is not a fan of today's pace-and-space game as Popovich says that he has hated threes for the 20 years already.
Complex' Alex Galbraith wrote about Popovich's statement on how the three-point shot has modernized and influenced the game of basketball.
“I hate it, but I always have,” Popovich said of the shot. “I’ve hated the three for 20 years. That’s why I make a joke all the time [and say] if we’re going to make it a different game, let’s have a four-point play. Because if everybody likes the three, they’ll really like the four. People will jump out of their seats if you have a five-point play. It will be great. There’s no basketball anymore, there’s no beauty in it. It’s pretty boring. But it is what it is and you need to work with it.”
The Spurs are currently sitting on a 10-11 record, arguably one of their most disappointing starts for the past decade. With an average of 24.7 shots from beyond the arc, they are ranked at 28th in three-point attempts. Popovich's unwillingness to give his shooters a trigger-happy green light to chunk up the ball from deep could be founded on the fact that the three-point shot is still the lowest percentage attempt in offense.
But interestingly, the Spurs have found success from beyond the arc this season. They are ranked third in three-point percentage with an impressive 38% clip. It remains to be seen if Popovich will play the analytics game and give his team more freedom to shoot from deep.
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