Is it easy to score 40 or 50 points in today's NBA or are the players incredibly talented?

[sunsbg]

60 is the new 40.

[Chuck Everett]

[JonFromVA]

The "players are more skilled" argument really only applies to one skill: 3 point shooting. I reject the ball handling arguments since the rules are applied so differently now for them that it might as well be a different sport compared to pre-2000.

The homogenization of skill sets and playing styles really hasn't made the game more appealing. The league basically has just emphasized one skill over all others to the point where they are verging on being obsolete.

How fun would the NFL be if they made an even further gigantic reduction in the amount of defensive physicality allowed and the rules were also changed to allow teams to have as many eligible receivers as they wanted? So now it's essentially just one QB with 10 wide receivers going against some glorified traffic cones on defense. Positionless football with every team strategy feeling the exact same and the personnel feeling weirdly redundant? Would make for a super crappy product.

That kind of feels like where the NBA has been headed.

First off, let me point out the NFL did change the rules to really open things up for the offense. It forced defenses to adapt and what we ended up with is a decent mix of wide open offensive games as well as defense dominated games. Strategies and schemes have never been more important.

What I hope some of you who want to reject that anything has changed might understand are two very important concepts:

1) Yes, players build on the past - always have - always will, but the talent pool has expanded many times over while the number of teams has remained basically the same. In addition the money is insane - even a bench warmer is going to be set for life if they can manage their money.

2) The second thing I wish people would consider is what affect the level of play has on the sport. When offensive players get taller, faster, stronger, and more skilled so do the defensive players. So consider a 5 on 5 of prime Michael Jordan clones might not actually end up looking like idealized perfect basketball, it might actually turn in to a defensive slugfest because every clone knows exactly what the other clones want to do and how to counter it.

Oh and fwiw, the step back jumper can be traced back to the 80's. Want to know why it didn't become crazy popular 40 years ago? Simple... there were easier higher percentage shots available most of the time. Heck, at 7ft tall how often was Dirk Nowitzki going to get his jump shot blocked if he didn't bother with his patented move?

[DCasey91]

Basketball had their Baseball shifts in the mid to late 90 and into the early 2000's

Pack one side and ISO Jordan that was legit the play heck in the 98 Finals out of everything had 6 calls before half time

Lot of nostalgia

Measure out the space of the half court... everyone has to guard that whole area thts not the case decade's past. Yes great teams existed but everyone can shoot, you dont the ball in hoop well your getting minimised.

I thought there should be admiration for a fundamental skill in the sport not crybabying so things have gone bad.. no players can shoot all 5 of them cant cheat on defence anymore no chance.

[evilpimp972]

Remember we got the answer to this question last playoffs. Scoring went down when physical defense was allowed.

The players are also extremely talented, more so than ever on average with the international NBA.

Remember when the league tried to be more physical a few years ago? ALL numbers went down.

And this year, they do the high five rule, it's ridiculous.

[sunsbg]

Players get 20+ FTAs, shoot 3s on 3-on-1 fastbreaks. Game has dumbed down, just like the society.

[FarBeyondDriven]

it's never been easier. They allow offensive players to pretty much break every rule in the book. Can you imagine MJ, Bird or Magic in today's league? They'd average 40 pt triple doubles with many 50-60 pt games each season. Shaq and Wilt would feast since there's no centers to stop them. They'd foul everyone out and average 45-25-5. This league is a complete joke

[ItsDanger]

Its easy.

[Old_Blue]

On the one hand, I agree with people saying that offensive players are allowed to get away with murder these days. On the other hand, it seems like we have more devastating injuries these days than ever before. I don't know what the answer is. The League is doing its best to protect the players. And, despite that, they're still going down at an alarming rate.

[pepe1991]

Current season is off to fastest pace since 1985 and second highest PPG in history. But in most hilarious fashion possible, this is also most FTA teams are attempting since 1990 and it's second most 3 FGA taken ever.


I feel like gather step pretty much destroyed any ability of defense to control game, in playoffs refs just allow more physicality and that drags pace down a bit. What is being promoted as "eurostep" is glorified travel. You have players often taking 4 steps driving layups.

Traveling as rule has been destroyed. People often take second step before even releasing ball. It's borderline comical.

But hey, in league were commissioner calls league " highlight league " and admits "nobody watches games" what do you expect?

League's only interest is to manufacture "superstars" that are called that based on nothing but their cartoonish, inflated numbers. Every team has "superstar and allstar" .

Counting stats don't mean what they used to. Average not-top-20 players now have numbers that in past were considered All-nba -first team.
Wade in 2011-12 averaged 22 ppg 4,8 rpg, 4,6 apg. That was enough for all nba 3rd team.
This year, how it's played, you will have 3rd stars on 40 wins team with similar stat lines (Looking at you RJ Barrett )

[tribulations]

Austin Reaves is a nice player but a near triple dub 50 piece is a pretty good litmus test of how diluted counting stats have become

[JN61]

Markkanen with 51. First time over 50 points by Utah player since Malone apparently.

[TheCage4]

Silver & Co. have changed the rules so much that it's like watching NBA2K in real life. I also believe that player effort on the defensive end is at an all time low. Defense just isn't "fun" for the majority of players.

How can people watch the game and think there's less effort today than in the past? if the effort was the same as in the 90's teams would average 150 a game...

Defensive effort in the 90's was a few hits shy of football. Teams like the Pistons and Knicks didn't just try to shut you down, they tried to hurt you. That EFFORT does not exist today.

[Daddy 801]

Both answers are correct. Too easy and the players are that good.