Spurs' Popovich hates 3-pointers: 'I don't think it's basketball'

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is admittedly set in his old-school ways.

The 66-year-old has been forced to begrudgingly accept the ever-evolving trends he has witnessed first-hand throughout his near three-decade career in the NBA.

Having never been one to mince words, Pop voiced his displeasure about the increasing reliance teams place on the three-point shot.

"I still hate it. I'll never embrace it. I don't think it's basketball," Popovich said. "I think it's kind of like a circus sort of thing. Why don't we have a 5-point shot? A 7-point shot? You know, where does it stop, that sort of thing.

"But that's just me, that's just old-school."

The primary source of Popovich's ire towards three-point shots should come as no surprise.

The reigning champion Golden State Warriors lead the league with a 43.8 percent success rate from behind the arc - tied with the Houston Rockets for attempts at 31 per game. Conversely, Popovich's squad takes only 18 treys per game - cashing in on 36.6 percent of said long-distance hoists. Their conservative approach in terms of attempts has the Spurs ranked 26th in the league in this regard.

Although Popovich would prefer to see teams employ tactics featuring big men more often - a slow, grinding strategy that would undoubtedly favor his own group - he is not completely averse to using the three-point shot as a weapon, having seen what it's done for the Warriors.

"To a certain degree, you better embrace it or you're going to lose. And every time we've won a championship, the 3-point shot was a big part of it," Popovich said. "Because it is so powerful and you've gotta be able to do it. And nobody does it better than Golden State, and you know where they're at. So it's important. You can't ignore it."

Throughout their 82-game run toward the 2014 playoffs - a season in which the franchise won the fifth NBA title in its history - the Spurs shot a total of 1,757 threes. This figure was only 52 less than the Miami Heat's championship team the previous year.

Putting both of those teams to shame was the 2014-15 Warriors, who attempted 2,217 triples en route to their game-changing postseason push toward hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

And so, as Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and company force the rest of the league's hand, the the old adage of "If you can't beat them, join them" is likely going to prevail in San Antonio.