The NBA three-point stripe is way the heck out there. It doesn’t look like much on the screen, but in real life, man, it’s seriously far back. You get used to the high-school distance (like I did), and that’s all fine and good, a nice and comfortable shot, and then you go out to the NBA distance and it’s like you have to arrange your arms like a trebuchet just to get it to the rim. I’m pretty decent from the high-school length, but I estimate that I drop down to about 10 percent from NBA range. That might be being generous.
So Aron Baynes has the right idea when he shoots threes. He sticks the ball way out in front of his body, puts his arms out as far as they will go, to make the distance a little shorter. Add in the significant forward jump he takes, one that results in him landing ahead of the stripe, and he’s cutting serious distance off those long balls. I don’t want to say he’s shooting three-point floaters, because he’s not, but he’s maybe closer than any other current NBA player. At least until LaMelo Ball shows up in the league. That dude will shoot floaters from anywhere.
Tonight was a career night for Baynes from downtown. He hit four of them, and each time you could feel the Memphis crowd get more and more deflated. Especially that last one that he banked in. It was only a 10-point game at that point, and Baynes put a serious dent in the Grizzlies’ hopes with his goofy-looking fling at the basket. That’s Baynes for you. Destroying franchises’ hopes and dreams. Just talk to the Golden State Warriors.