Welcome to the latest episode of Hot Takedown, FiveThirtyEight’s sports podcast. On this week’s show (March 1, 2016), we look at why basketball’s old-timers have come out against the Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry, we ask whether Mark Cuban is right that the NBA should look into moving the 3-point line back, and we wonder if the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Gerrit Cole deserves a higher salary. Plus, a significant digit on how 3-point fever is taking over high school basketball.
Stream the episode by clicking the play button above, or subscribe using one of the podcast clients we’ve linked to. Links to what we discussed are here:
- Ian Levy breaks down just how good Curry’s season has been.
- On Bill Simmons’s podcast, Kirk Goldsberry advocates for a unique solution to basketball’s supposed 3-point problem.
- ESPN’s J.A. Adande says Oscar Robertson will never understand Curry.
- Rob Arthur explains why baseball’s best players are only getting younger.
- Maybe baseball needs a safety net for younger players, says Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron.
- Significant Digit: 39. That’s the percentage increase in 3-point attempts between the high-school 3-point attempt leader in 2004-05 and the leader in 2015-16.
- Here is a video of that leader, Ashtyn “Syrup” Bradley, shooting bombs for his high school team. His true shooting percentage this season is 57.4 percent.
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