(The original text was published on January 13. The author is Ric Bucher of Fox Sports. The content of the article does not represent the translator’s point of view)
The reality is: NBA’s offensive correction triggers a scoring frenzy, and the statistics of players every night seem to be surreal.
Judging from the current average offensive efficiency of each team in the alliance, this is the highest value since there are statistics on offensive efficiency. What about the player’s individual scoring performance? There are still 3 months left in this season, and there have been 14 individual shows of players who have scored more than 50 points in a single game.
How many times have you scored more than 50 points in a single game in the 2012-13 season? Three times!
I found members of various factions of the league, including the general manager, senior management, coach, scouts and players, and asked them a simple question: why did this happen?
These people gave me profound and varied answers.
The attacking skills of the players have improved on the whole, especially the top players in the league. Some particularly young league executives are more inclined to support building these stars. Formulate rules that are more conducive to attack, such as the latest rules that restrict intentional fouls in fast attack and the increased malicious fouls in order to protect the shooter’s falling space.
All of the above points to the same point of view: this is what the alliance wants to see. With the increasingly fierce competition for consumers and corporate sponsors, the alliance’s idea of increasing the entertainment of the competition is becoming more and more obvious. Sun Guard Damien Lee said: “The league now supports increasing scores, which is not a bad thing. Because what do you want to do to make the game have a higher audience rating and make the fans watch more vigorously? It is not just to reduce the pause of the game and increase the score. There was a game in yokiki, who only shot five times and got three pairs. He also led the team to win, but there was no heat. On the contrary, some people (Brunson) cut 44 points empty, and the team’s loss can also attract everyone’s attention.”
The transformation of the league has lasted for several seasons, and there are gradually fewer defensive experts, outside defensive leaders and basket guards in the league, such as Chuck-hayees, Tony-Allen, mutombo and Ben Wallace. Enjoy the game between Gobel and PJ-Tucker while you still have a chance. This kind of player will soon disappear in the league. They are being replaced by players like Damian Lee. The 1.96-meter-tall defender averaged nearly 4 points (3.7) and nearly half of the three points (%), at the same time, there are stable means to kill the inside line and cause foul.
Earlier this week, a large number of stars were absent from both sides in the match between the sun and the Warriors, while Damien Lee adopted the same attack strategy against the old club: hit some three-pointer early (2 shots and 2 shots in the first quarter), then attacked the warrior’s defensive artificial foul and stood on freethrow line. Facing the old club warriors, Damien Lee set a new career record in 14 shots on the free throw line, winning a new season high of 20 points, helping the sun reverse and win. Divenzenzo, a warrior defender who witnessed Damien Lee’s outstanding performance at close range, said: “The players are very smart and they know how to score from you. When you want to increase physical confrontation, they will suddenly stop and let you hit it. Or when they attack the basket, they will first cause physical confrontation and then change the line of attack. At this time, it is easy for you to compensate for the foul because of too much action. This is how punishment is played in the game. Tough physical confrontation is disappearing from the game. Smart attacking players know how to cause physical confrontation.”
Sun striker Mical bridges is considered to be one of the best outside defensive players in the league. He admitted that the current rules are more inclined to attacking players, at the same time, he also recognized that the scores of the top players in the league have undergone qualitative changes. Every high-scoring star has the ability to score goals or cause fouls at any position on the court, such as donchic, Tatum, Curry, Durant, enbyd and alphabet brother. Bridges said: “Curry’s shooting can kill the match. His fengshui ball is crazy and fast. If you meet him, it is easy to foul, and it is very difficult to defend him. I know the referee’s blow penalty cannot be perfect, but I still have to pay tribute to those really outstanding players. It is very difficult for players like me to defend them.”
An Eastern scout said more bluntly: “You can’t meet anyone on the defensive end, especially those stars, so you can see them operating in various shows. There are still many inexperienced referees in the league, favoring the stars and blowing some undeserved fouls, so those top players have more free throws.”
In this way, the team coaches who are aware of this preferential treatment are trying their best to give the ball to their stars.
Another eastern scout said: “The team knows more and more how to allocate the ball power to the most efficient players.”
The emphasis on the attacking side is also reflected in the players’ salaries. In the 1990-91 season, the three players with the highest salaries in the league were all cap centers: olajuwang, Ewing and John Williams. All three can score, but their salary level is more based on defensive ability than offensive ability. In contrast, the six players with the highest income in the league this season are curry, weishao, James, Durant, Bill and Lillard. No center or cap players are particularly good at defending at this stage of their career.
A former NBA player who transformed from a player to a scout mentioned player empowerment, believing that it had changed the mentality of the players. He said: “I hope the players can play happily, and what makes them happy is attack. In particular, changing the defensive rules can hardly limit anyone’s score. Defenders must play nearly perfect defense at any time. There is no one to be proud of, and they only focus on attack. If you get 140 points and I get 142 points, then I will be better than you. This is the mentality now.”
The definition of increased aggressiveness has shifted to seeking shooting opportunities, especially downtown shots. Sun guard Landry-Shamet believes that people’s attitude towards the once irrational three-point choice has changed dramatically. He said: “Now there will be no doubt whether it is a good choice to vote for three points or ordinary three points at receive the ball. Three points are reasonable. With this alone, the players’ self-confidence and the mentality of the whole team will change, because it will make you score more points.”
Others talked about the nature of competition among top stars. A scout in the West said, “The players catch up with each other and the 71st night of Mitchell will soon be overshadowed, this season, a player will decide to catch up with Mitchell’s score on a night of feeling explosion, which may be Tatum, East chichi, Morant, curry or Booker. High-efficiency shooters also have high usage rates, and they can get high scores as long as they want.”
Damien Lee approved the view that players would compare with each other. He said: “I don’t know if this is the case in every team’s dressing room, but I can definitely say, especially in the West, the players will see how the players in the East play before the game.”
Of course, the disadvantage is that the significance of breaking some historical records has been devalued. Nowadays, the rhythm of the game is never seen before in the 1980 s. There are more and more three-point shots. The introduction of various rules makes it difficult to complete these three-point shots.
In the 2000-01 season, the scorer with an average score of 20 points was already an elite level, and only 19 players in the whole league did it. So far this season, the number has more than doubled. To give a good example: 38-year-old James scored an impressive average of 29 points in a single season, which is the fifth highest average score in his 20-year career. However, when you find that there are still 7 players in the league who have higher average scores, this number is not so shocking.
The current 30 points are equivalent to the previous 25 points.
A Western scout said: “The record of the offensive end is depreciating. NBA has broken the balance between attack and defense. We have become a shooter and offensive league.”
Original text: Ric Bucher
Compile: Li Taibai
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