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Will The Three-Point Line Be Beneficial?

The New Three-Point Line

Actually, it's the old 3-point line. You know, the one before they went to a uniform 22-feet around the basket. Now, the line is 23 feet, 9 inches from the basket, except near the sidelines where it's truncated to allow players to actually stand behind the line and be in-bounds.

I think you should have been aware of the change by now.

Will The Wizards Benefit?

Originally, I didn't think this would be a big deal. But then I ran across an article (Effects on the Three Point Line) from the guys at OnHoops that predicted that one of the teams that would highly benefit from the new 3-point line would be the *gasp* Wizards!

from OnHoops:
The Wizards lost more than a few games at the hands of a team raining threes on them. Rod Strickland won't need to launch as many to keep up with what was expected of the modern point guard, while Tracy Murray has legit trey range. The post play will become a bigger factor and they should be on pace to win more than fifty games and perhaps even more than fifty five.

Now, this didn't totally match with my thoughts on the subject, but it raised some interesting points I hadn't considered. I agree that the spacing generated will be beneficial to the post play of Muresan, CWebb and Howard. I agree that Murray becomes even more dangerous with his legit long range and accurate shooting. It also probably opens the floor up more for Cheaney to drive and pop for his favorite intermediate jumpers (where he belongs) and for Strickland to drive and penetrate.

I still have questions about our other 3-point threats, Chris Whitney and Tim Legler, and how effective they will be from that range. And, for that matter, CWebb (the leader in 3-point accuracy on the team last year). But all were reasonably accurate before and they should be decent still.

The writer makes a good point in the first sentence, which I hadn't considered - other team's outside accuracy generally will decrease, and most Bullets fans of last year will know how often they got rained on from outside. However, the increased spacing may mean these shooters are still open because of the Wizards sometimes-scrambling defense, but maybe they can win a few more games because of reduced outside accuracy.

It's an interesting point, that's for sure. I'd love to hear your opinion on the mailing list, because I'm still undecided on the topic.

wtf 25 August 1997

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