Steven Adams opened the Thunder’s game against Dallas with a three-pointer.
Yes, you read that right.
Though there’s been a lot of talk about Chris Paul and Adam’s relationship when it comes to pick-and-roll situations, the first play of the preseason was a Paul pass to Adams waiting in the corner for what Erik Horne of The Oklahoman called a “wholly intentional” three.
And it found nothing but the bottom of the net.
As Horne noted, the three-pointer was the first of Adams’ career and only his eighth attempt since coming into the league in 2013-14.
Adams had said has said in the past that he has no intention of becoming a three-point shooter, telling ESPN’s Royce Young in January 2019 “you don’t have to shoot bloody 3s”.
“Points per possession — I get it. I get it. But it’s not a machine. You can’t just throw throw s— in there and the product at the end should be, ‘This, according to our calculation.’ That’s not how it works.”
“There’s other players out there that I’m pretty sure I could beat them in a 3-point contest, other bigs. But they’ll shoot one in a game,” Adams says. “Hey, their coach allows it, that’s cool. I don’t give a s—. Do whatever you gotta do.
Adams was asked ta Thunder media day if 2019-20 “was the year we’d see him step out and start shooting some threes”. He responded by saying”it depends on what the game plan is”.
“If that’s a thing, then yeah. I’m not just going to come out and be like, maybe now is a good time to jack up a couple threes,” Adams said. “This isn’t like rec center basketball. It’s still taken very seriously.”While fans probably shouldn’t expect to see many more threes from Adams this year, it’s a fun wrinkle to put out there during the preseason.
While fans probably shouldn’t expect to see many more threes from Adams this year, it’s a fun wrinkle to put out there during the preseason.
