Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban may say he wants to be a Republican, but his comments show he hasn’t done his homework on the party.Mark Cuban said over the weekend that he thinks the NBA should move the 3-point line back.
OK, we’re open to discussing that.
First, though, moving the 3 back would require widening the NBA court. We are 100 percent in favor of that.
NBA guys are much bigger than ever and much faster than could have been humanly imagined with James Naismith hung a peach basket in Springfield, Mass., back in the late 1800s.
(Before we go any further, please know we are not suggest changes to the college floor or especially the college 3, since a majority of the 3s chucked in the college game are questionable shots to begin with.)
Bigger NBA courts make sense.
As for the 3-point line, well, if that’s in an effort to space the game, OK.
The value of an NBA big is decreasing as teams play with smaller lineups and the analytics of making 33 percent of 3s rather than 50 percent of 2s is the same and the accuracy is increasing.
In fact, Max Hooper, the Oakland University guard who touched our hearts on Senior Day last weekend, has attempted almost 300 shots this season. All of them are 3-pointers. He may be the extreme statistical outlier, but the 3-point wave of strategy and advantages are here.
For that reason, Cuban’s idea has merit.
Now, if that idea is looking to reign in Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, well, this is basketball version’s of the early-2000 plan of Tiger-proofing golf courses.
You remember that idea, right? Courses, even Augusta National, were flummoxed about Woods hitting overpowering drives and attacking par 5s in two with 8-irons and 450-yard par 4s with wedges.
So they moved the tees back, lengthening the holes to the point that not even Tiger could reach some of the Par 5s.
And what did it do through the 2000s? It actually strengthened Tiger’s advantage because he was still longer than everyone else, which made the adjustment for him easier.
The same would be true for the Warriors, who have built their offense around ball movement and playing with a small lineup. They are content if you find success inside against that smaller lineup because in the end they believe they are trading 3s for 2s.
Golden State shoots almost 42 percent as a team from 3-point range on just less than 31 attempts on average per game. That means on those 31 possession, the Warriors average almost 39 points per game. To do that on shots inside the paint, a team would have to make 19.5-of-31 shots on average, or roughly 63 percent.
Stretching the line would play into that advantage in a lot of ways because the Warriors shoot at such an efficient percentage. (The next closest team in 3-point percentage is San Antonion, which is shooting a very impressive 39.8 percent from behind the arc. Not surprisingly, the Spurs have the second-best record in the NBA at 50-9, behind the historic pace of 54-5 of the Warriors.)
The current NBA 3-point line is 22 feet in the corners and 23.75 feet around the arc. If you move it back say 3 feet, it plays directly into Curry’s hands especially. Curry is 35-of-52 on shots from 28-to-50 feet this season. That’s better than 67 percent, which ranks better than every other player except Clippers dunk machine DeAndre Jordan in total shooting percentage.
So, for clarity, Curry’s percentage from 28-plus feet is better than LeBron or Durant or any current super star from everywhere.
Moving the line may help the game space out, but it assuredly will only add to Curry’s current place as the most effective offensive weapon on the planet.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop at the Signature Flight Hangar at Port-Columbus International Airport, Tuesday, March 1, 2016, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Super Tuesday
The Trump prism shapes everything in the political discourse.
Think of it this way: Fivethirtyeight.com, Nate Silver’s brilliant pop culture and political web site, led this morning’s breakdown down of Super Tuesday with, “It was a Super night for Hillary Clinton. It was a semi-Super night for Donald Trump.”
OK, apparently the dozen or so delegates of American Samoa is the overarching difference between Super and semi-Super.
Trump won seven of the 11 states voting Tuesday, taking Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and Massachusetts; Clinton won eight of 12 states voting in the Democrats primary Tuesday, taking Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts and American Samoa.
Yes, Hillary landing Texas was a nice boost to the delegate count, but still.
Is there another election in history where American Samoa carried that much distinction.
Truth of the matter is the people doing the talking do not really want Trump and the people doing the voting really like Trump.
His presence is an indictment on the American media – yes, and I am part of that – as it is one the American political structure.
Trump getting one endorsement from a fellow politician has become headline news. Chris Christie has become an internet punchline because he has flipped to Trump’s side.
There has not been a single mid-size to big-city newspaper that I know of that has endorsed Trump. The TV talking heads blast his words and his style and lead the first 10 minutes of every newscast with what he’s done next.
Whether the establishment in Washington or the fourth estate want to admit it or not, Trump’s inexplicable rise and unbelievable staying power is the voting public’s message that what they see from their leaders and the messages they get in TV, radio and print are not acceptable.
Other than Christie, who is the most renowned or connected Trump supporter? Heck, New Jersey newspapers are calling for Christie to step down as governor after he endorsed Trump.
Folks, whether you want to believe it or not, the groundswell of support that Trump has generated and sustained is staggering.
And it’s real. And it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere either.
Buckle up.
FILE- In this Nov. 5, 2015, file photo, Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel walks off the field after the Browns lost 31-10 to the Cincinnati Bengals during an NFL football game in Cincinnati. The Browns said Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, that Manziel was diagnosed with a concussion late in the season by an independent neurologist, countering an NFL Network report they lied about the injury to cover up the troubled quarterback showing up intoxicated for practice. (AP Photo/Frank Victores, File) Johnny Football
Johnny Manziel, again. Here’s a link with a video post that is NSFW. We have reached the point that nothing really surprises right? If we had video of Manziel in an adult video we’d shrug. If there was talk of him being found in three-day old clothes outside the MGM Grand smelling of bubbles, tequila and cigar smoke, it would be met with little more than a ‘Well, OK.” Chances dude is out of the game and will be found on a celebrity reality show about dancing or living in a house with Gary Busey and made one of the Gold sisters.
It’s a funny hypocrisy how there are talks about the NFL needs to get him help – and it’s tragic that those talks have in part been led by Manziel’s dad.
In fact, here’s saying that blaming organizations – be them the NFL or college sports or Hamilton County schools – for not doing enough to ‘raise our kids’ to be adults is at best tiring and at worst excuse-making to the highest order.
We are too focused on finding who to blame for a problem rather than fixing it. Yes, there’s a lot of that crosses a number of social issues from divorce to income to what have you.
But the lack of individual responsibility is in a lot of ways arguably the biggest problem we have in our society today. That single swirling problem generates so many others that directly or indirectly – be it through crime or cost or taxes or terror – effects us all.
Period.
Manziel’s is a problem child who can’t get out of his own way. OK, you know what? So is Rob Gronkowski, who is having an MTV-like Spring Break party on the S.S. Tantric with booze and girls and gambling and no one bats an eye.
Why, because Gronk produces? OK. So if Johnny Football was making plays and doing Johnny Football things, we would not be troubled by these videos of him making it rain cash at strip clubs and drinking from a bottle less than a year from his rehab stint?
Maybe that would be the case.
But please save the “NFL needs to help Johnny Football” pleas please. Johnny Football needs to help Johnny Football.
Soon.
This and that
– TFP SEC ace David Paschall dropped his pen in the golf ink today with a very well-put together story on form Baylor School golfer Luke List’s stellar start to the 2015-16 PGA season. Enjoy.
– Vandy hosed UT last night and UK landed a big win at Florida. Vandy looks like it has punched its NCAA ticket. Florida is on thin ice.
– Very well-done column on Jim Harbaugh’s move to practice in Florida this week by YahooSports ace Dan Wetzel. Well-played indeed.
– Hey the Braves played a spring training game, and they didn’t lose. Yes, they tied, but still. That’s pretty big news.
Today’s question
Great answers yesterday and thanks for the insight and views to the UTC question about a one-and-done in the Big Dance or a long stay in the NIT.
We have two Rushmores on birthdays today.
First, Rushmore of Doctors, since today would have been Dr. Suess’s 112th birthday. (He died in 1991.)
Secondly, Rushmore of three-named stars. Today, Jon Bon Jovi turns 54.
Whatcha got? And remember the mailbag.