The NBA's top teams have realized that the corner 3 is a winning shot7回复 418浏览

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The NBA's top teams have realized that the corner 3 is a winning shot

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By Ric Bucher
ESPN The Magazine
Archive

Are you one of those who like to wail that the midrange shot is a lost art in the NBA? Is it your way of suggesting that sound basketball has given way to an infatuation with dunks and 3-pointers?

If so, this could be a painful NBA postseason for you to watch. Because you're going to see some of the league's most fundamental, execution-driven teams -- starting with the Spurs, Cavs, Celtics and Magic -- running offenses intended to create one of three shots:

• Free throws

• Layups/dunks

• Corner 3-pointers

Why? Because, according to league-wide statistics, those are the three most practical shots in the game, and the creation of each of them is interwoven with the others. Drive hard, and you're either getting to the rim, getting fouled, or drawing so much attention that someone in the corner to your left or right should be open.

So while a pull-up 15-footer off the glass might conjure warm memories of the olden days for some, the fact is that in today's NBA, with its quicker, longer-limbed, better-prepared and more committed defenders, that's simply not a quality shot. Not when it counts for only two points. And especially not compared to a player, with his feet set and knowing the location of every defender, firing from 22 feet away for three points.

Why the difference between 23 feet 9 inches (the distance for most of the 3-point arc) and 22 feet (3-point range from the corner) is so dramatic is the subject for another story, but rest assured it is.

"I tell my guys, 'I can make that corner shot,' as a way of making my point," says Cavaliers coach Mike Brown. "There are guys in this league you'll let take a 3 from up top that you don't want taking it from the corner. That's why we're committed to not giving up the corner shot as well as finding ways to shoot it."

The Eastern Conference battle could, in fact, be decided by who shoots and defends the corner 3 best. The Cavs lead the league in defending 3s overall and rank eighth in accuracy from the corner (41.4 percent). The Celtics are fifth in defending 3s overall and are second in the league in corner 3s percentage (45.1). The Magic took a league-leading 652 corner 3s (hitting 39.2 percent) and are second in defending the perimeter.

The Cavs have become so enthralled with the shot that they've added plays to create corner treys for both center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and power forward Joe Smith. "If LeBron penetrates, it's instinctive for the defensive big man to step in to help," Brown says. "I watched Z make 3-pointer after 3-pointer when he came in over the summer to shoot. That's when we decided to add a play for it."

The Cavs are just joining the crowd. Every team considered a title contender this year has the personnel to run an offense with only one post player and four perimeter players, or four-out/one-in, in basketball vernacular. That's a move from the more recent standard of three-out/two-in. It requires having a "stretch four," as in a power forward who has 3-point range. The Magic (Rashard Lewis), Lakers (Lamar Odom), Spurs (Matt Bonner) and Cavs (Ilgauskas and Smith) all have one, and the Celtics did (Kevin Garnett).

[+] Enlarge

Fernando Medina/Getty ImagesOrlando's Courtney Lee is money from the corner this year, hitting 43 of 98 (.439).

The simplicity of the corner 3 also has developed into a way to keep a defensive stopper on the floor, since the ability for teams to play zone D under the current rules often necessitates having five shooters on the court. The Spurs' Bruce Bowen was the first to go from offensive liability to threat simply because he developed that one shot. Now, a whole legion of Bowen 2.0s -- defensive stoppers and corner-3 threats -- is emerging. The Rockets' Shane Battier, the Magic's Courtney Lee and the Lakers' Trevor Ariza are already in that role, and the Thunder's stopper, Thabo Sefolosha, has been sent to the corner for the summer. "You can't get away with specialization anymore," one Western Conference GM says. "The corner 3, offensively, is like a sandbar. It's a way of keeping a non-shooter on the floor."

Credit or blame David Stern for the corner 3's increased popularity. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich believed in stopping the shot long before he made it part of his offense, but changes and new interpretations in league rules made it too valuable to ignore. The combination of eliminating the complicated and constricting illegal-defense rules and reducing a defender's ability to bump an offensive player dribbling into the paint forced defenses to commit more bodies to stopping a quick guard -- like Tony Parker or a healthy Manu Ginobili -- from getting all the way to the rim. Helping out and getting back to, say, Bowen, in the corner was simply too much to ask.

"The rules changed the whole game," Popovich says. "Penetration is so easy now. But I'm not complaining. I think it was a good change."

So says an old-school coach, unafraid to let go of an old-school idea. Are you ready to join him?

Ric Bucher is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.

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