Their discussion was:
Better shooters in general The NBA is selecting for shooting, pre-NBA and in NBA training is valuing shooting more. Good inside arc shooters expanded their shooting range because it was what was needed and asked for.
Off the dribble and isolation three'sMore players skilled at shooting off the dribble in multiple ways from 3PT range. Baron Davis wasn't a good shooter, low 70% FT, 32% 3PT, but a season like 03-04 we were all talking about his terrible shot selection (it wasn't great), but, his 32% 3PT that season was still more efficient than his 44.8% 2PT that year. But guys who actually made them like Arenas, 7.0 3PA at 36% in his prime, we were still kind of harping on his shot selection, while now, it's like, a guy with that range making them at that level with a lot of off the dribble and iso three's, this is good.
Defensive guys are much more likely to also shootDefensive role players are far more commonly also shooters. You don't have the Michael Curry, Ryan Bowen, Ruben Patterson, MKG, etc type players on rosters anymore unless they can also hit a three. That does significantly change how much space everyone else on your roster has, as well as your offensive output since you aren't spotting a guy up from 15 feet on the baseline.
Perception of early outside shots from bad to goodIn terms of pace, one of the things that they mentioned which I actually don't think of as much is the perception of early outside shots. Early three's and three's in transition have gone from a bad thing to the total opposite where teams are looking for them. I can vividly remember how on some possessions, guys would push in transition, and if the defense got inside the arc and protected the paint, they would pull it back out, wait for teammates and then set up the offense. Now, if the defense backs up too far, that shot is going up, and coaches want it to.
Analytics and more analytics No one could escape it, NBA certainly wasn't going to, especially with everyone wanting to find an edge. Encompassing a lot of the other things is just the influx of analytics. JJ citing how SVG in training camp said these are what these shots (three, layup, corner three, etc) are worth, and basically this is what we are looking for.
Players mentioned in recent years how teams have also increased three's by taking away the one dribble inside the arc pull up which most players grow up learning as a good shot, and the shot to take vs a hard closeout, and instead telling them to side step and take a three instead and saying, "here are the numbers when you do one or the other".
RulesLanding space helps you with off dribble three's since defenders have to be more careful with contests and can't go Bruce Bowening you all game.
Freedom of movement allows on average (there are always teams and games where things are exceptions) less clutching and grabbing off ball
Physicality was more in some ways, but it also wasn't a broad sweep like many think of it. The perception of physicality usually is based on the most physical team, which would be like us basing the perception of average defense today on Minnesota's defense. There were some very physical teams, but there others who were not particularly so.
Hand checking gets mentioned a lot, but it's additional legislation helped efficiency go from early 2000's back to like earlier 90's, but it was 10+ years before we got the additional burst in offense, so that isn't really much of a factor taking us from the level of offense we've seen in the past to the new wave offense.
Papi_swav wrote:ehh idk. To me there is a lot more ticky tacky fouls nowadays compared to early 00s and before. They abolished the hand check which hurts the defense alot. Yea I agree players are more skilled today and they go to the hoop more. But back then a little guy like Allen Iverson goes to the rim and Shaq is there to put him on his back, that doesn't happen as much in todays game where the big man deliberately knocks the little guards down on their behinds just for going to the hoop to intimidate them.
We can all agree the pace is much MUCH more faster today which helps scoring go up. Also back then the mid range was a huge part of the game. Most shots were from the mid range and the best scorers shot the ball from mid range most of the time. Now alot of the shots are from the 3 or layup. So it's higher percentage shots from the paint or the 3 pt line. Players don't shoot those long range 2s like the Duncan, KG, Webber, Durk, Kobe etc.. did back then, they might as well take the 3 if you're going to shoot a long range shot instead. All in all, yes the game has evolved kinda.
This is a hard one to track, because our memories simply can't actually accurately track this. We would have to take a sample of a few games and actually count ticky tack fouls vs just what we think we remembered. I remember one of the rule clarifications in the early 2000's was a clarify how fouls were called to reduce ticky tack fouls.
