Two hours before the meeting between the Warriors and the Lakers, the performances of the day before by Luka Doncic (73 points), and Devin Booker, (62 points), were on everyone's lips. These two cards arrived just four days after Joël Embiid's 70 points against the Spurs and Karl-Anthony Towns' 62 against Charlotte. The NBA has never experienced such failures in such a short period, with different players.
Steve Kerr wanted to pay tribute to the talent of these four players, while pointing out the evolution of the game and the NBA rules over several seasons. Clearly, the current regulation penalizes defense.
“The players are so talented and there is so much space everywhere on the court… It's because all the teams want to play with shooters, and especially tall ones who can shoot 3-pointers, and therefore the defenses can't cover everything,” he remarks. “The offensive schemes take advantage of these spaces and that’s why we saw the offensive assessments increase in this way during the last two seasons. »
The benefit of the doubt benefits the attackers
Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry and the Warriors are obviously among the pioneers who have revolutionized the NBA game over the last ten years. The foundations of Golden State's dynasty rely on quantity and 3-point skill, and a fast pace to increase the number of possessions.
But if we transposed them into the current championship, the 2015 Warriors would still be the team that played the slowest, and one of the teams that would take the fewest 3-point shots…
Playing fast and taking 40% of your shots from behind 7m25 are now the norm. While attacks are innovating at great speed, defenses are not keeping the same pace. This is why Steve Kerr thinks the competition committee needs to look at the rules to be able to give a boost to defenses, as they did in the early 2000s to promote attacks.
“The final reason we see such offensive performances is how the whistles favor the attack much more than, say, 15 years ago. The rules have been changed to give attackers the benefit of the doubt,” recalls the Warriors coach. “We're entering a phase where we're going to have to take into account the direction of the modern NBA and review some of the rules to maybe adjust them the other way. »
How to strengthen the impact of defense?
What are these rule changes that Steve Kerr is talking about? He listed a few examples to support his argument.
“For example, defensive positioning. You have no idea how many times an attacker throws himself into the defense and the referees explain to me that my players were in an illegal position. It's systematic. The supports are also one of the simplest changes I can think of. During each match, players take walks that are not whistled, and that also helps the attackers. It's the interpretation of the rules which, I think, poses a problem because we wanted to open the game so much that it is now almost impossible to defend without making mistakes. he explains. “So there are changes to be made that are simple and the league has always been open to this kind of discussion and I'm sure it will continue to be. »
Steve Kerr also took the example of the playoffs. Traditionally, the hardness goes up a notch and the pace goes down. It is therefore generally accepted that refereeing changes between regular season and postseason.
This same kind of debate took place last season after the 71 points of Damian Lillard and Donovan Mitchell. The current style of play won't change anytime soon. Neither does talent. Refereeing is therefore the element that seems most likely to change to try to balance the forces present during the regular season.
Comments collected in San Francisco.
