Phil Jackson questions efficacy of 3s in playoffs, Steve Kerr doesn't care

Live by the three, die by the three. And if you can't do either, complain about the three.

That appears to be the axiom employed by many of the more old-school thinkers in basketball, with the growing importance of the 3-point shot in an NBA offense apparently going against the sensibilities of some.

New York Knicks president and 11-time NBA champion Phil Jackson is the latest to question whether teams that rely heavily on outside shooting can exceed in the more grittier confines of the NBA playoffs. It's been a discussion point with the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets struggling some in the second round of the playoffs, so it's difficult to roll eyes too aggressively at Jackson's tweets on Sunday.

The issue with this line of thinking is that outside shooting and penetration are inextricably linked. Strong outside shooting stretches a defense, opening up space and opportunity inside the arc, while strong penetration can break down a defense and create better outside looks. One hand washes the other, and a drive-centric strategy is not mutually exclusive with a 3-point heavy strategy.

During the regular season, the Warriors ranked seventh in percentage of field goal attempts taken from long-range, somewhat inaccurately earning a reputation as a team that relies too heavily on outside shooting. They ranked second in offensive efficiency, but a cold stretch from outside has dropped them to fifth in playoff offense.

Asked about Jackson's question Sunday, former charge and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had the appropriate response.

It's true that Golden State's offense has struggled over the last two games against a difficult Memphis Grizzlies defensive front. The Rockets, the league's most 3-point-reliant team, have also lost 2.3 points per-100 possessions off of their regular season rate, and the Atlanta Hawks' drop-off has been more than twice as large.

Damning evidence, were it not also for the Los Angeles Clippers, who ranked third in 3-point frequency, rolling along just fine and the Cleveland Cavaliers, second in 3-point-reliance, owning the best offense in the playoffs. The Washington Wizards have surged in large part because they've turned their customary mid-range looks into threes, shooting triples almost 50 percent more than in the regular season.

As it turns out, the playoffs represent a small sample where variance can happen, and specific matchups can limit or heighten specific advantages and disadvantages. This is no different for 3-point shooting teams than it is for, say, the Toronto Raptors, who lived off of foul calls that disappeared when the whistle loosened in the postseason, or the Chicago Bulls, whose perceived interior advantage has been flipped on its head when Pau Gasol's on the court against Cleveland.

Basketball isn't as simple as to reduce it to "3-point shooting doesn't work in the playoffs" or "defense doesn't win championships." The playoffs are far more nuanced than that.

Not that Jackson's Knicks would know.