It’s clear that the NBA is in the midst of an offensive explosion. In January, four players (Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, Luka Doncic and Devin Booker) exceeded the 60 point mark in the space of a few days…
With the extensive use of 3-pointers, and more and more outside shooters, defenses have too many spaces to cover, which also opens up the rackets. And with the freedom of movement granted to attackers, the defenders' job is very complicated. Adam Silver dismissed the idea that there was a problem but Joe Dumars, in charge of basketball operations for the league, assures that the NBA still decided to look into the phenomenon.
“This is a subject that we are following closely”he recently explained at ESPN. “We're diving into it to make sure it's appropriate.
This offensive explosion is a long-term effect of the evolution of the rules, with in particular the disappearance of “hand checking” and illegal defense, in the mid-2000s, with the aim of limiting the use of “insulations”. And to relaunch the attacks in a league which had seen the scoring collapse…
Defense wins titles, offense sells tickets
For Chauncey Billups, the 2005 Finals between the Spurs and the Pistons, with their low scores, were a turning point for the league, with very poor TV audiences.
“When defense was favored like that, the game wasn't as popular. It's not fun to watch this.” assures the current coach of the Blazers. “It changed the game. Because if you get to the top like that, and the ratings are that bad, something has to change. This is what we saw. And that's why the attack is so important. Because that’s what sells tickets.”
For Adam Silver and Joe Dumars, it is therefore a question of finding a balance between attack, which sells tickets, and defense, which wins titles. Particularly in the regular season, because if we study the evolution of scoring and offensive efficiency in the playoffs, we realize that the explosion is much less clear.
“We’re not there yet”explains Joe Dumars, who receives a lot of phone calls from franchises on the subject, asked to know if the league should intervene to calm the phenomenon. “We are diving [dans les données] and watch a ton of movies to be able to tell if we have a problem or not. But we don’t make such changes based solely on anecdotal appeal.”
As for the actors, we are divided, Aaron Gordon explaining that the balance always exists, and that you just have to want to defend. As for Jrue Holiday, he calls for playoff arbitration all the time.
“The refereeing must be that of a playoff match, in each match”thus assures the Celtics playmaker. “You have to referee as if every match was important. I'm not saying it's not the case now, but in the playoffs, it's a lot more physical. We can, in quotes, do many more things (without receiving mistakes). That's when I feel like people are really watching the games. »
