Why ‘such a bad shot’ is now Hornets coach James Borrego’s favorite

Growing up in Albuquerque, N.M., James Borrego was a low-post scorer at the high school level, a devotee of the way forward Kevin McHale did it in the lane for the Boston Celtics.

Later, as a young San Antonio Spurs assistant, he worked on teams built around Tim Duncan. Former Wake Forest star Duncan was such a polished back-to-the-basket player entering the NBA that he earned the nickname “Big Fundamental.”

So naturally Borrego appreciated the conventional post-up style of basketball with two true big men starting. Then, the Spurs had to figure how to counteract the Golden State Warriors’ and Houston Rockets’ long-range shooting in the Western Conference. That made now-Charlotte Hornets coach Borrego a late convert, but a convicted one, to the dynamic power of the 3-point shot.

Flash ahead to the first eight games with Borrego as Hornets coach: The Hornets are currently tied for second in the NBA, with the Warriors, for most 3-pointers made at 104. They are third in 3s attempted at 276. Thirty-eight percent of the Hornets’ total shots from the field this season have come outside the arc, compared to 31 percent last season under then-coach Steve Clifford.

This is no coincidence or small sample size: From the day he took the job last May, Borrego has told these players to launch from 3 whenever they are open.

That includes players such as Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Cody Zeller, who in the prior five seasons had combined for nine 3s made. So far this season, those two are a combined 3-of-7 from the arc.

“The game has changed so much since when I first came in,” said power forward Marvin Williams, in his 14th NBA seasons. “You had the two traditional bigs - the true power forwards and centers - and now your power forwards and centers are Nic Batum and myself at times” launching from the perimeter.

“I think I saw Brook Lopez making five 3s in Milwaukee - a very good 7-footer who can shoot - and (Joel) Embiid (Philadelphia’s center) is taking 3s. (Centers) all around the league are taking 3s.”

‘Felt like such a bad shot’

The NBA has had a 3-point shot since the 1979-80 season. The arc is 22 feet from the rim at its closest (near the baselines) and as far as 23.75 feet above the lane. What once was a shot for specialists such as Ray Allen, Reggie Miller and ex-Hornet Dell Curry slowly became more commonplace.

Rick Pitino coached a Providence team of limited talent to the Final Four in 1987 to a great degree by pushing his players to launch dozens of 3s. But that didn’t take universal hold as a tactic, even at the NBA level, for decades.

“Coaches were just uncomfortable with that shot. It felt like such a bad shot. It looked like the only 3 you wanted to take was a wide-open 3,” Borrego said.

“Some other (NBA) teams were starting that trend - picking up the pace and taking more 3s - and the math sort of caught up to it. It made sense for everybody. With the spacing now and the athleticism out there (around the NBA) it fits.”

Curry’s son, former Davidson star Stephen, won two NBA Most Valuable Player awards with the Warriors as much as anything with his 3-point shooting. Houston’s James Harden similarly became one of the NBA’s most feared scorers because of his combination of long-range accuracy and aggressive ability to get to the basket and draw fouls.

The math says the three most efficient scoring opportunities in the NBA are at the rim, the foul line and the 3-point line. That has made the mid-range jump shot, the foundation of NBA offenses in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, almost quaint these days.

Hornets point guard Kemba Walker had his breakthrough in his fifth NBA season primarily by improving his 3-point percentage from 30 percent to 37 percent. That forced opponents to guard him differently in the pick-and-roll, making him even more dominant driving to the rim for layups and free throws.

Williams says Borrego has told every Hornet if he’s open from 3, launch, particularly if that open 3 is along the baseline. And the Hornets’ new coach says this is no cyclical thing, either for the Hornets or the league as a whole.

“I don’t think we’ll see it trend in the other direction,” Borrego said. “I think it just becomes a math equation now.”

Math and skill

Once more NBA players became proficient from NBA 3-point range, the math wasn’t particularly complicated: If a team can make around 35 percent of its 3s, then trading 3-point goals for 2-point goals wins a lot of games. But this is about more than computer models.

As Borrego said, it’s also about the skill sets players arrive with when they enter college basketball and then the NBA. As he noted, Duncan might not have been a finished product when the Spurs drafted him No. 1 overall in 1997, but he had back-to-the-basket moves and shots that typically aren’t being learned in any refined way anymore.

“If you’re going to combat (3-point barrages) by playing two big guys through the post, you’ve got to find two big guys who can make them pay for that. I’m just not sure in today’s basketball we have back-to-the-basket players anymore.

“It’s hard to develop them in that once they get to the NBA. Either they are or they’re not.”

With 7-footers practicing their follow-throughs instead of their drop-steps, nobody is sitting around waiting for that to correct.

This story was originally published October 31, 2018 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Why ‘such a bad shot’ is now Hornets coach James Borrego’s favorite."