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‘Offensive Heavy NBA and Future Tricks’
With a regular season in the books and deep into the playoffs, the NBA can look back at an offensive explosion that averaged over 114 points per team per game.
Rules changes that limit hand-checking, zone defenses, and crowding shooter landing space (among other things) set the foundation for higher scoring many years back. Highly skilled shooters like Steph Curry threw gasoline on the fire, with 3 point shooting accuracy we’ve never seen before.
Importantly, facets of the European game were also effectively absorbed into the NBA by way of hard-to-miss offensive MVPs and stars like Nikola Jokic, Giannis Aantetokounmpo and Luka Doncic.
Defenses have mostly not been able to keep up, so scoring has soared. Week in and out, teams routinely posted scores in the 130s. Twice the combined scores of teams topped 300 points.
Fans love scoring in nearly every sport, but to what degree? This will be the question the NBA asks itself this off-season, so don’t be surprised if we see some interesting changes come October 2024.
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