Josh Smith nicknames himself ‘mid-range shawty’

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Yep...really long summer. We're arguing hypotheticals.

Not really. You simply have two differing opinions.

One opinion states that a 3 point shot in just about all situations is better than a long 2, because you get more points for a 3 than you do a 2.

The other opinion states that an inconsistent 3 point shooter shooting a 3, is not better than a guy who can consistently make a long 2 maker.

In other words

A 44% shooter from long 2 ( Paul Pierce ) is taking a worse ( or less effective shot ) than a 31% shooter from three ( Jamal Crawford ), because the effective value of Jamal's 3 is 46.2%.

If you truly believe this, then you'll disagree with my position and agree with AHF.

[AHF]

You had me right up until here. 20 years ago, point guards had much more to deal with defensively. Today's pg's are free to run rampant. Flagant 1 and 2, no hands, etc. The hand check rule changed everything. http://www.quora.com...rule-in-the-NBA If John Stockton or Isaiah Thomas in their prime could have operated freely without being manhandled and without fear of being clobbered if they drove to the basket, we'd be talking very differently about modern point guards. Doc Rivers or even a prime Mookie operating without the hand check. Today's point guards aren't studs as much as the rules greatly favor them offensively today.

I'm not sure how much easier life would have been for Stockton with today's rules (easier but not a quantum leap, IMO) but guys like Thomas, Kevin Johnson, Tim Hardaway, etc. let alone older school players like Nate Archibald would have been devastating offensively in this era. No disagreement about the handchecking rules making things much easier for PGs today but I'm not sure how that has anything to do with the fact that today's point guard's aren't the one dimensional 3pt chuckers that you were alluding to. We are in the golden age for point guards in part because of these rule changes that have led to this being the point in NBA history where point guards have the most impact on their teams in NBA history, IMO. But even if you disagree, you have to admit they aren't a bunch of guys who chuck bad 3's. You can count those players on one hand (like Brandon Jennings, although Jennings even shoots 49% efg% from 3 and only 46% on non-3's but I would argue there it is the total shot count that is more the problem than the ratio of 2's to 3's).