Today’s NBA is barely recognizable.

[Wham with the Right Hand]

From Zach Harper and Shams Charania in The Athletic:

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but the NBA needs to do something to help these defenses out. Everybody is too skilled, so it’s possible the scoring is becoming meaningless and watered down. Things often change for the postseason, when pace slows down and defenses can set up better, but the regular season is out of control.

Forty-five percent of the greatest team scoring seasons of all-time are happening this season. I know I sound like a narc – and maybe I am one now. But defense must matter for something.

Also:

Scoring across the board might have gone too far in this post-pandemic era. It feels absolutely out of control....

Sacramento is scoring 119.4 points per 100 possessions this season, leading to an offensive rating higher than last year’s Brooklyn Nets, who recorded the NBA’s highest single-season offensive rating since the league first tracked the metric during the 1996-97 season.

I guess when you allow 285-pound players to club defenders with a forearm, knocking them on their butt and there's no offensive foul called you're going to see a lot of points scored.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

From Zach Harper and Shams Charania in The Athletic:

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but the NBA needs to do something to help these defenses out. Everybody is too skilled, so it’s possible the scoring is becoming meaningless and watered down. Things often change for the postseason, when pace slows down and defenses can set up better, but the regular season is out of control.

Forty-five percent of the greatest team scoring seasons of all-time are happening this season. I know I sound like a narc – and maybe I am one now. But defense must matter for something.

Also:

Scoring across the board might have gone too far in this post-pandemic era. It feels absolutely out of control....

Sacramento is scoring 119.4 points per 100 possessions this season, leading to an offensive rating higher than last year’s Brooklyn Nets, who recorded the NBA’s highest single-season offensive rating since the league first tracked the metric during the 1996-97 season.

I guess when you allow 285-pound players to club defenders with a forearm, knocking them on their butt and there's no offensive foul called you're going to see a lot of points scored.

Pushing off with a forearm is his go to move, so it's not like the refs don't know to look for it. They just don't care.

 

[Sharpner]

I for one would fully welcome back the hand-check. There are probably better ways to level the playing field so offenses don't have such an advantage, but it would probably be the easiest to implement

 

[foucault87]

I have no idea what you guys are complaining about. High octane shootouts lead to more interesting gameplay than the snoozefest 72-66 scorelines from the late 90s where pace of play was headed towards football. The NBA has literally been more exciting other than the 2016 NBA finals.

 

[daddywags]

Even though they've cracked down some there's still way too much traveling going on IMO. Many step back 3s are technically travels if the guy doesn't dribble once while he's resetting his feet (or am I wrong about that?). Also they allow too much pushing off to create space. You shouldn't have to be pushed over or run into at full speed to draw an offensive foul. So, my suggestion is to start by enforcing the rules exactly as written and consistently for every player - star or scrub. And then eliminate the corner 3.

 

[Ohioplayer00]

I have no idea what you guys are complaining about. High octane shootouts lead to more interesting gameplay than the snoozefest 72-66 scorelines from the late 90s where pace of play was headed towards football. The NBA has literally been more exciting other than the 2016 NBA finals.

I love the shootouts but I still want to see players exerting energy on defense. I’m tired of seeing players getting beat back door night and night out, players not knowing how to defend a pick and roll, players sliding under a pick giving shooters like Curry, Lillard, etc having wide open shots, or letting players like Harden consistently go his left instead of forcing him right and of the laziness play in the NBA today….nobody wanting to put energy into denying the ball to a player who is hot and on a roll. And I don’t want to hear how great today’s players are on offense. This is about effort, hustle and basketball IQ

 

[cavsfever]

From Zach Harper and Shams Charania in The Athletic:

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but the NBA needs to do something to help these defenses out. Everybody is too skilled, so it’s possible the scoring is becoming meaningless and watered down. Things often change for the postseason, when pace slows down and defenses can set up better, but the regular season is out of control.

Forty-five percent of the greatest team scoring seasons of all-time are happening this season. I know I sound like a narc – and maybe I am one now. But defense must matter for something.

Also:

Scoring across the board might have gone too far in this post-pandemic era. It feels absolutely out of control....

Sacramento is scoring 119.4 points per 100 possessions this season, leading to an offensive rating higher than last year’s Brooklyn Nets, who recorded the NBA’s highest single-season offensive rating since the league first tracked the metric during the 1996-97 season.

I guess when you allow 285-pound players to club defenders with a forearm, knocking them on their butt and there's no offensive foul called you're going to see a lot of points scored.

This is so true and it’s a big reason why trying to build your team around defense is risky these days. The refs can at any point make it impossible for you to defend. To operate at a high level defensively these days teams need special dispensation from referees not to call bullshit fouls (or in the case of the Warriors, not to call entire categories of fouls like moving screens).

I’m worried that even the playoffs are not going to be a refuge from this stuff any more. The willingness of refs to decide games this season with borderline foul calls on last second game deciding shots is a very very bad sign.