Painful Departure: Luka Dončić key player is gone…
Painful Departure: Luka Dončić key player is gone…
The league has established records for offensive efficiency six times in the last eight seasons, and this season’s scoring averages are the highest since 1969–70.
Stars are producing jaw-dropping performances at a rate not seen since the heyday of Wilt Chamberlain. Four players in January scored sixty points or more in four days: Joel Embiid on January 22, Karl-Anthony Towns on January 23, Luka Doncic on January 26, and Devin Booker on January 26.
In the league’s midseason showcase, the Eastern Conference All-Stars became the first team to score more than 200 points in less than a month.
Following the game, which ended in a lackluster 211-186 victory for the East, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers was questioned about the recent surge in offensive statistics in the league.
After making his record-tying 20th All-Star appearance on February 18, James remarked, “This is what a lot of the [regular-season] games are starting to look like too,” inside Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“We aimed to increase the game’s tempo. We desired additional shots. We desired a more fluid gameplay style for the game. It delves deeper into the discussion of how to strengthen this game.”
Editor’s Selections
What’s causing these absurd figures when NBA players are putting up 60 and 70 points like it’s nothing?
28dESPN.com
NBA draft: Can this be the oldest class in recent memory and what are UConn’s chances?
13 minutesGivony Jonathan and Woo Jeremy
The Paul George trade, OKC’s ascent, and the perpetually profitable blockbusterIt’s not just Tim MacMahon James who enters that conversation. Years of debate have focused on the issue of whether offenses have become excessively severe.
The NBA’s management is currently having those conversations as well.
A key member of the defensively dominant “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons in the 1980s, Joe Dumars, the league’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations, told ESPN that the competition committee of the league has formally started examining whether the game has shifted too much in favor of offense and whether adjustments should be made to achieve better balance.
Earlier this month, Dumars told ESPN, “We’re keeping an eye on this topic.” “We’re diving in right now to make sure that we’re on the right side of this.”
And even though the NBA looks more closely at the generational shift in offensive and defensive parity, it will be difficult to find a remedy, if one is needed.
Rudy Gobert, the center for the Minnesota Timberwolves and the front-runner for his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award, told ESPN that “the rules really favor offense, in general, right now.
Are NBA offenses now too skilled? An example provided by ESPN
In the NBA, rising point totals are a relatively new development. Scoring started to drop after the 1984–85 campaign, when it established an NBA record with 110.8 points per game. In the end, it dropped to 93.4 points per game in 2003–04, the lowest since the shot clock was implemented in a season without a lockout.
Before a game in Brooklyn last month, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, the star guard of the 2004 NBA champion Pistons, remarked, “When defense was prioritized like that, the game wasn’t as popular.” “It’s not fun to watch that.”
One of the lowest-rated viewerships in league history, the 2005 NBA Finals, was cited by Billups as a turning point in the series. The average winning point total in that seven-game series between the champion San Antonio Spurs and Billups’ Pistons was a mere 93.0.
The game was altered, according to Billups. “Because something needs to change if you reach that high point and the ratings are that low. That’s what we’ve observed, then. And for that reason, the offensive is so high. And tickets are sold because of that.”
On Sunday, March 3, the following games are on ABC: the Warriors at the Celtics at 3:30 p.m.; the Knicks at the Cavaliers at 7 p.m.; Thunder at the Suns at 9:30 p.m.
All times are Eastern.
In response to that offensive low point, the league changed the rules in a significant way. Owner of the Phoenix Suns at the time, Jerry Colangelo, persuaded commissioner David Stern to form a special committee in 2001 to address the issue of too few points.
The league took additional action after the committee’s first modifications, which included adding zone defenses and reducing the amount of time before a backcourt violation from 10 to 8 seconds, were found to be insufficient. The league began enforcing the previously established rule—which prohibited hand-checking on the perimeter—strictly in the summer of 2004.
The effect was felt right away. With MVP guard Steve Nash and offensive-minded coach Mike D’Antoni leading the way, Colangelo’s Suns scored 3.8 points more per game in 2004–05 than they had in 1969–70. This was the largest gain in points between full seasons since 1969–70. Even yet, teams were only scoring 100.0 points per game on average ten years later. The attacking efficiency did not increase between 2005 and 2016.
