NBA Players Are Scoring More Points Than Ever and The Reason Why is Right in Front of Our Eyes

Defense is no longer a viable option considering how referees call fouls at the smallest things.

People aren't gonna recognize this but Kevin Love, believe it or not, deserves a lot of credit for starting the end of the "big man in the key" trope. He was probably one of the first 3-pt shooting centers.

obviously the most important detail is the 2018/19 season change of the shot clock reset from 24 to 14 on offensive rebounds, creating a huge difference in the amount of possessions (and of course shots) per game --- not sure why this stays under the radar and was not mentioned ---- yes there was a curve before then with the curry analytics era, but the 14 sec shot clock is what caused the real explosion

I feel like we just need to look at Chris Paul's career to see how much the game has changed

Tony Kukoc was the Doncic of his time. If he was given the green light and was able to continue his Euro play instead of being forced to bulk up, he would've gone on a tear in today's game.

One of the reasons I really like Kwahi Leonard aka The Claw. He's a Jordan era throwback that has an all-around game and defense prowess. A true GOAT set of skills. He sadly fell into the team-hopping trap so prevalent today which diminishes his ability to be the building block of a dynasty team.

The NBA has become "positionless" basketball. Boys we were playing positionless basketball at recess in school. The NBA has turned into a recess pickup game.

Reminder the NBA in the early 1980's had scorelines similar to today. You had one game where both teams had over 180 points and this was before the 3 point line.

Would like him to explore the part about the hand check rule more. If you can’t put your hand on the offensive player then you have to back off so they don’t dribble past you. That gives you room to raise up and shoot. The game started to evolve once that rule changed. I agree that players are better shooters nowadays but that’s a byproduct of what I said above not because they’re more skilled. If you watch Hakeem’s post move you can’t say he’s not as skilled, but instead had to match his skill with physicality. All these teams chucking up 3s has led to the demise of the low post game, which in turn makes games boring because there’s hardly a difference in style between teams.

I think there is another thing going on that’s not mentioned here. Back in the early 2000s the starting line up would have its stars and it would have mostly defensive specialists. Shooters would be on the bench. Now the rolls have reversed. Shooters start on the floor and the defensive guys are on the bench to start the game. If you can’t shoot, you just don’t have as much of a roll on a team, even if you’re pretty good on defence.

You are just about my favorite of all of the basketball TRvidrs, and with that said, I love some of these kind of detailed breakdowns and this one in particular interest me because I don't like today's style of basketball but I recognize how unique and different and revolutionary it is. With all that said I was hanging on every word as you were breaking this thing down and especially right after the Steve Nash interview, you made an interesting point that it's sort of true but completely false, let me explain what I mean. You talked about how most of us could name a lot of the high scores in the league but couldn't name the high rebounders in the league. I've always been a deep stats guy myself because I created my own unique fantasy basketball system that is unlike your traditional fantasy basketball where you play week to week. Week to week scoring eliminates head to head which is why fantasy football is so wildly popular and successful. Basketball baseball hockey etc with their week-to-week style takes all of the interest in it away. In week two week scoring it's not about who the best player is or at least the best player sometimes situationally but let's be honest, you don't bench Aaron rodgers. Even if it's a situation thing it's very rare that you bench your studs in football. But in basketball, if LeBron only has two games, you might start one of The Ball Brothers over him if they happen to have one of those five-game weeks. So years ago when me and my friends had started playing fantasy football and we saw how the format was so successful, we sat down and said to ourselves okay how can we translate that to basketball. and we came up with a format where you only play on Friday night because if you happen to go through the NBA schedule you will see that Friday nights are consistently the night of the week that has the most games. A busy week has 13 games a slow week has eight. So then we create a schedule that shows every team's schedule for every Friday night throughout the season and you draft based off of that. And you end up with a 20-week regular season and a 3 week playoff season. Because there's 23 Friday nights throughout the season every year minus All-Star weekend. So if kemba Walker plays 19 out of the 20 Friday nights during the regular season, it has two out of the three playoff games.... and Trey young only plays 10, it only has one during the playoffs.... Well you adjust accordingly and more than likely you're going to take kemba slightly ahead of Trey young even though Trey young might be the better pick as far as stats go. And then we came up with real world scoring because oddly enough fantasy basketball out there has strange formulas to do their scoring where if you get one three-pointer per night you get a bonus and if you hit a certain percentage of three pointers you get a bonus and that's not real world. Yes efficiency is rewarded in the real world but it's rewarded by you having better numbers and your team doing better as a result. So it still comes down to ultimately what a person's numbers are. Scoring rebounds assists blocks and steals. The big five. So we built in some bonuses for things like triple doubles and high percentage games and double doubles, and you would pick a team defense and it was simple because if you held your opponent under a certain point total and if you held them under certain percentages, you get the idea. the reason I'm bringing all of this up is because as a result of this you can't use traditional fantasy scoring outlets torun your league. You can use Yahoo fantasy for your draft and to manage your roster and to do 90% of your scoring but there's no way to build into your scoring setups, the bonuses that we had for team defenses and for individuals getting triple doubles and things like that. So as a result for 20 years, I did manual scoring in a spreadsheet and had to email it out to everybody the next morning on saturdays. And as a result, myself especially because I did the scoring but alsothe other guys in the league because they were always paying attention to what was happening with their own players as well as their opponents. But as a result we became much more focused on real stats and something that I noticed over the years and I used to complain about constantly to my friends, was this: the thing that you talk about, how people are paying attention to scoring but not rebounding, has always always been the case! ALLLLLWAYS. IT WOULD DRIVE ME NUTS THAT THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERED IN YOUR BOX SCORE TI ESPN AND TO YAHOO SPORTS AND PLACES LIKE THAT, WAS YOUR POINT TOTAL! Reggie Miller towards the end of his career still made the box scores every single night and by box scores what I'm talking about is the ticker on ESPN or whatever Sports network, and for example let's use ESPN again. When ESPN would flash scores let's say and not do a full breakdown of a game. Or if they were doing a brief breakdown that was later in sports center let's say and not the leading story that they gave a couple minutes to, they would always show the score up on the screen or to the side while they were showing some highlights let's say and then underneath the score they would have maybe the top player or two from each team. And their little stat line next to them. The newspapers would do the same kind of thing. they might do a little paragraph about a game and then at the bottom they would do the stat lines from the top couple guys in the game. In those circumstances the tickers the little stories in the newspaper whatever, the stat line they focused on the most and the only one they ever cared about! Only only! Was scoring. Reggie Miller at the end of his career was on the ESPN ticker and on the box score little highlight things like that almost every damn night, because he'd get 21 points or 23 points. But if you actually looked at his box score. You would see that he had 21 points one steal what assist no rebounds no blocks and he did nothing but try to get open and shoot the three that was it. He did not do a ton to help his team win other than scoring. And that's great but I'm just trying to point out that there is always been an inordinate amount of focus in scoring in basketball. Maybe it wasn't reflected as much in contracts but I don't believe that to be true either. it seemed to be that because you scored a lot you had a higher profile and the higher your profile the bigger your contracts were. it used to drive me insane as somebody that really paid attention to the actual detailed box scores and everybody's individual stats because I had to use them and know them for my league. You would see Kerry Kittles shown up next to the nets score on ESPN that night having scored 22 points, meanwhile Jason Kidd drove that offense, was not a horrible defender, and had 14 points 12 assists and 10 rebounds to go with two steals. And his 22 points for rebounds and two assists was the guy who got the Love on ESPN and as a result the higher profile which led to bigger contracts in the long run or more marketing money from endorsers. so like I said I was hanging on your every word and I'm not saying I disagree with your premise. I'm on board with everything you said except for that one thing about how scoring is way way more important now that it was back then. Maybe somehow it was rewarded differently, but it certainly was not appreciated any differently. It is always always been the primary focus when it comes to fans and the media. Just look at jordan. The guy was the greatest score of the league and it seemed just about, at least since the '60s, and from 84 until they finally broke through in 91, it was him scoring too much and the focus on his scoring that was holding them back. He needed wingman, he needed a coach to reel him in a little bit, he needed to share the ball and rely on other people to help them win. But the oohs and aahs we're all for Jordan, which translated to marketing dollars. Both for his team and himself.

one thing i think you missed on the Tony Parker comparision is that he may have shot 52% because he wasnt taking those outside shots often. id say his PPG would be closer to 24-24.5 but hey point still stands. Ray Allen took 5.7 3PA so i could just imagine the numbers he wouldve posted.

Curry walked so the GOAT Joe Ingles could sprint

In his best season, Peja was an MVP candidate. Arenas in Washington had 2-3 seasons that were not inferior to what Kobe was doing those years - with the only difference that Arenas was actually scoring the game winning 3 every other day. If people do not think that Arenas and Peja would score 30 today, they are the ones that are insane.

It’s also more difficult for young stars to show off their talents because they aren’t given as many opportunities as they would’ve in previous eras. So there’s definitely players that could’ve been all stars that just were never seen in that light or just weren’t viewed as having the potential because they weren’t given the opportunity

In soccer, for example, more than 50 years ago, there were teams that played with 5 forwards instead of the 1 or 2 now. It's quite exciting to see sports evolve.

The traditional idea of positions has changed drastically instead of working as a team cohesively to win games it’s to see how can put up better stats for a spreadsheet. Traditionally the point guard isn’t supposed to make that many points but open up opportunities for others, lead the floor, and take charge only when necessary to keep the game alive then get the rest of the team going now. But honestly you can’t blame players that’s literally just the kind of environment the nba is.

very interesting to hear talking about "position less basketball". You may not be familiar with football (soccer) and a Dutch player called Ruud Gullit (great player). He transitioned to coaching and he had a vision for something he called "beautiful football". In his mind, except for the goal keeper, every player had to be able to play at any positions to maximise dominance and alleviate the risk of bad "match up". It never really took off because the pitch is quite big, but his idea sounds very much like this notion of position-less basketball.

You just too good making these videos bro

That's why I think MJ is amazing doing what he did back in the day, and that he wouldn't sink into the normality, but that he would've been a monster.

the switch from the past eras to today's modern game was that in the past, the focus of the game were on the factors that contributed to scoring(passing and rebounding), where as today, it is focused on scoring itself, and passing and rebounding are a side effect of it

This a large part of the reason why I find it difficult to enjoy today’s NBA. My team growing up was the going to work era pistons, and I loved the way they played. Everyone had a role and executed it to perfection. They rarely if ever let someone even top 100 against them. And they were so much fun to watch. I miss that style of ball. I get the appeal of the modern game, hell my college team is Michigan, I’ve watched and enjoyed plenty of 3 point bombing over the years, but I do think it would be nice to have at least some degree of stylistic contrast in the game today

This video just reinforces WHAT I've been saying. Without Steve Kerr, you don't get Steph Curry with the freedom to do what he does. Steve Kerr changed the game, because any other coach would have put Steph (and the rest of the team) in a role. Also, don't forget, the area the defense has to guard tight is now twice as big.

I never understand rebounds, or rather rebounds are a given but offensive rebounds can be game winning. But the focus is on both, which makes the stats askew as players can get 8 rebounds while doing nothing, while 4 offensive rebounds is a treasure. If possible I expect offensive rebounds to increase and occasionally become a championship reason ^__^

Arenas averaged 29 pts 15 years ago, he is definitely averaging 30+ right now.

I always wondered what MJ would have been able to do in this league in his prime years. He would have been properly scary indeed. I think you hit the nail on the head though. Offensive tools keep getting better but defensive tools seem to get smaller. Defense is all about disrupting offensive rhythm so when you don't have the tools to do that of course you're not going to be as capable of stopping scorers.

The main reason the scoring took such a huge leap in the past few seasons is because of the shot clock rule change that resets the shot clock to 14 rather than 24 after an offensive rebound.

Coaches don’t limit their players based on their position, it’s based on their skill set and what they think the team needs.

Great content. I’ve followed the NBA since mid 80’s and by this logic MJ would have been even more unstoppable but probably wouldn’t have won as many titles.

Id be interested to see how good these guys would be if they made them play by the rules. I'd also like to see the kind of contact that is called a foul if the defender is out of position called a charge if they are in position....

Fast forward 50 years, people will be saying "well you played in the 20's. Everyone was putting up those numbers."

Arenas was made for todays game. People really sleep on what a dynamic scorer he was. Career cut short by knee injuries but he was one of the first guys shooting deep 3s even back in his day.

So what happened with "money ball" happened with the NBA. The stats showed the main game winner was position-less scoring. Basically - get all shooters. But I still think it's just easier to score when it's a foul to guard you. That's a bigger reason why we're seeing so many made shots from all over.

As a suns fan I always thought it was a mistake for nash to shoot so little. I remember being confused asking my dad about it back in the day

I think the zero step and the officials allowing the star players to do whatever they want, like travelling or throwing themselves at defenders to get fouls, added to what you said in the video, explain why we're seeing more scoring than ever

THIS IS MY REACTION AT 7:26 IN THE VIDEO.It's not just curry fault. I blame 2k. I got out and play basketball all the time. And people really only do the moves they do in to 2k. One time a dude just stopped moving, swore he did a hessie. I just slapped the ball out his hand.

Makes it even more crazy that mj was averaging 30ppg in the 90s......🐐

Jimmy, love your channel. In the last 3 years, scoring in the NBA is at its all time highest in the regular season. Can you say the same about playoffs in the last 3 seasons?

I've gone from being intersted in the NBA regular and postseason, to now only watching the postseason, and even the postseason is starting to feel like every team plays the same, but if your team isn't hitting 3s, they're gonna lose. Live and die by the three is what the NBA has become.

Rama Bell’s point seemed to be more about rules preventing you form playing defense. Not just the skill of players.

This is why Jordan averaging 30s in the 90s was different he would average 40 with ease with this defence.

Bruh just imagine Shaq hitting 3’s at 35%….. dude would be the goat without a doubt. Unstoppable inside, defensive monster, and will make you regret not putting someone on him at all times, even on the 3 point line.

Guys like Steve Nash, Mark Price and Bird would have been the players who benefited the most from today's game. Especially BIRD

It’s also important to note that the faster paced evolution of today’s nba is PROVEN to cause more injuries among young players that need adjusting to the new system and hurts basketball because it’s better to see your favorite player shine sometimes then not be able to see them at all for the rest of the season because both teams were moving fast a reckless

Do a "follow up" video regarding this same subject but from a coaching POV. Coach's have had to adapt to this new playstyle. I wonder which ones embraced it and which ones fought against it.

Imagine Steve Nash, Pistol Pete or Bird in today's decade... They would be absolutely MONSTERS.

The game was played so fast when Wilt was averaging 50 points and 25 rebounds. It slowed down from the 70s-until 2016. Another factor is softer rims making it easier for the ball to go through the hoop

Something to consider is the fact that the league is much more soft now than in the past, the smallest things the referee call faults, so is almost impossible to make a team based on the defense like Detroit, knicks and others in the past

Players aren’t allowed to play defense, literally everything is a foul.

Great video that articulates why today's NBA is so much less interesting than in years past. No positions, no defense, and everyone jacking up 3s really takes away from the strategy of the game.

SC flourished under Steve Kerr. Steve played with the original team that practically played positionless basketball during their dominance. With 4 of their starters that can play and defend any position...just shows how far ahead the bulls were during their time...

With this scoring, you nailed it on the money. This also shows just how dominant Wilt Chamberlain was, seeing how despite the pace and scoring, players still can't catch his records. Insert; Bird, Miller, Mark Price, Joe Dumars, Chris Jackson, Robert Horry, Ray Allen, etc. and you have 30+ and a few 40+ scorers easily. Would love for you to do an average on the above mentioned Jimmy 🙂.

He made the point about everyone gets to eat. Just because scoring has increased doesn’t mean scoring a lot isn’t impressive. Since everybody are scoring more, top scorers are still amazing players in their own right, and their numbers should be respected. It might be better if they start to show stats along the line of OBS+ for PPG, adjusting the player’s performance against league’s average, to show how players today can be as dominant to everyone else as player’s back then.

If you say it, then MJ may get 40ppg every seasons. It's crasy ! But you're right, your point is as always well argumented. Good video

I remember being in elementary school, and I was made the Center because of how tall I was. In our first team practice, and shot a jumper and it rattled in and out. Coach then chewed me out because I was shooting jumpers in practice when I’m playing Center. Lol. Pretty much sums up how times have changed 🤷‍♂️

no matter how positionless the game becomes, championships are still won by great defense. Defense will never lose its touch. This year the top 2 defensive teams reached the finals and was won because of defense.

I think they would have definitely scored a lot more, yes, but you also need to lower their shooting percentage because they would be taking less high percentage shots

I know it's talked about all the time but could you imagine Michael Jordan playing in an era with the 3 second rule? Oh my God that man would have averaged 50 In today's NBA

I think one of Steph’s biggest impacts on the game was the boom in hope/confidence in every young basketball player under 6’5. Just get in the gym and shoot and be obsessive about your technique, maybe you get somewhere.

Steph Curry is really ahead of his time when you think about it, without him in the NBA, it would have taken the league at least 15 years to play the way they're playing now, it was already on that path, he just expedited the process.

Plus most of the spin moves that you showed would have been called travelling 10-15 years ago. There is a lot more ball carries as well that go unpunished, or arent considered a carry, and the concept of the zero step has been stretched to its limits. Factor in that there is no handchecking allowed in the perimeter and there you have it.

Ben specializing in defense makes him unable to catch up with current young players. Defense can be achieved if you really try and work the strength and stamina, but being good offensively needs hard work and many practices which Ben doesn't have or atleast doesn't try. That's why most of the players doesn't put much effort in defense coz they know they'll just get tired and a player can score in them anyway, unless a team only have 1 scoring threat like what happened in GSW vs MEM in play-in games.

MJ would've developed a killer 3-point shot if the league valued 3's as highly as they do now back in the 90's. You can't tell me that someone with as maniacal a work ethic as MJ wouldn't have worked himself to death improving his long-range shot

That extra step also helps. Players may have been doing it since the 80’s but now it’s completely legal and players are practicing with that extra step.

Interestingly Jimmy, you place this transition in 2015, one year after the Spurs won the Title. Spurs were always known to be the tacticians of the league, team oriented, fundamental basketball, and that got them 5 rings! But the game has since changed. Interesting!

Man I audibly laughed at that chart of 130+ point games at the end.

I would like to take my credit for inventing "postionless" basketball 15+ years ago with my franchise on NBA2k. A team full of quicker players between 6'5" and 6"10 who could all shoot the three. Thank you. I'm glad the NBA was taking notes

4:50 This is 100% truth. Defenses in any sport are ALWAYS reactionary and ALWAYS bound by physics. The offense knows where it's going. The defense is stuck guessing.

Jimmy butler I would say is a prime example he use to average only 2.7 points per game but now it’s 21.8 points per game

Damn man the way you broke it down after 6:35 ish really makes me miss the old NBA, you nailed what new NBA is seemingly missing. You get it in the playoffs in deep series, but the regular season has become a 3 point contest with stars resting whenever, lame.

Is it possible they are simply shooting more (as well as more 3s)? If that’s the case, then it’s not about players being better scorers/shooters, they are simply just getting more shot attempts.

I appreciate the way you bring in interviews and clips to stress your point. Awesome video!

Facts. Kobe and T-Mac were dropping 40 when the final score was 80-90 something. Crazy.

I blame Iverson. He came in with flashy crossovers that most of the time were carries. The fans liked it, though, so slowly the rules became less enforced. That started the trend of bringing in flashy signature moves that bend the rules. Eventually to were we are now, where 60% to 70% of offensive possessions could have a carry or travel called.

Prime Gilbert Arenas had two seasons where he averaged 28/ 29 points and 6 assists. And had a 60 piece on kobe when kobe was making all defensive teams. I have no doubt in my mind he would be a top scorer today

The suns offense was revolutionary and they led the league in pace and 3 point shots. That same offense today would be like ranked 28th or lower

I don’t think people are more skilled, I think they are just practicing towards a different skill set. They are catering their game to specific skill sets and completely ignoring others.

great job on this man I can tell you put a lot of time and research into this!

I also believe the recent offensive rebound shot clock change from 24 to 14 seconds could have had an impact into making the game faster and possibly leading to more possessions per game leading to more scoring opportunities

I honestly feel like social media also plays a part everyone’s seeing everybody do so good so everybody getting on there grind and there’s just so much you can learn online

Just came back to the video, and Gary Trent just had 44. It’s so easy to score in today’s game

You have to learn to crawl before you can walk, we didnt know the players could do this without learning from the guys before them... the game teaches us this year after year!

It's not a lack of defensive effort. It's that playing defense is now illegal. If you're within 3 ft of a shooter, it's a foul.

Back in the 1990's, scoring was very low. Players were being criticized for not being able to shoot. The reason? Defense was prioritized. Since more defense meant less scoring and scoring was a big fan pleaser, the defensive rules changed . . .drastically. Hand checking, which limited Michael Jordan a great deal, was outlawed (and all subsequent guards benefited). And when defense wasn't being limited, offence was being unleashed. When Allen Iverson entered the league, he received a letter from the referees telling him that his crossover move was going to be whistled as a violation. Iverson said "I dare you" and became a magical ball handler. When I played Div 2 college ball in the 1960's having your hand on the side of a ball was an automatic whistle (being a "carry"). Players today are allowed to put their hand on the bottom of the ball and turn it over. All of these things allow for better ball handling.

This is why it’s getting harder and harder when making all star selections lol

Great vid, makes you really think about how great guys like Jordan were

The Golden State Warriors averaged 100+ for 38 straight years from 1954-1992 with a high of 133 in 1959. They averaged 98, 99, and 99 in their 3 recent championship seasons.

As à French basketball fan I particularly appreciate the what-if scenario with Tony Parker 👌🏻

The fact that the 130+Point games have sky rocketed instead of slowly growing has my mind in shock.

What happened in 2019 causing such a jump? It's painful to see defenders jumping out of a dunkers for fear of finishing on a poster - who has b-ball posters these days anyway Have you looked at the point proportion per player within the tean? As in 5 starting vs. bench over the years? I assume that main players are more greedy than they were

Imagine what a young Deron williams would do in todays game, he was already putting up around 20 and 10 on near 50% from the field and 40% from 3.

Easy solution. Allow hand checking and get rid of the defensive 3 second violation. Look at Europe, they still have team based play. There's a reason Doncic said it's easier to score in the NBA.

Crazy idea there. Having each player be able to dribble, shoot, pass, and score.

Maybe im old (37) but i liked the "old nba" .... it was a thinking man's sport with ball movement, bruising defense, let the big man go to work, let the SG run wild, let the PF enforce, let the PG set it up etc

Analytics and rule changes affect the game. Most all stars back then will be great today if they do the same trainings as players do now. Maybe they will also be more efficient beacause of the changes. Us average joes don't know what it takes to be in the NBA. Dedication and passion is what makes a great athlete.

You ever think about defense being so much better that the long ball is one of the only option?

Defenses never catch up with ofenses because whenever they do, the NBA nerf it by changing the rules. See changes made right after Pistons championships in 90 and 04.

Imagine Chris Mullin playing today? He is the best all round shooter of all time but more importantly he had range back in the day.

Most legends are obvious to think about but i most enjoy thinking about guys like Pistol Pete and Abdul-Rauf and how they'd fit in today and so many of the skilled Centers and PF's and how they'd fit in. So many of the C/PF's had better handles than they were ever allowed to show off-that skill would get even better today along with their shooting + freedom to play like the smaller guys the way every big grew up wanting to play. Shaq grew up wanting to play like Magic. He thought all the centers were boring. Players were put into a box depending on physical size and todays NBA has seen that box opened. Freedom. I used to say you have to do 2 separate GOAT lists Pre NBA/ABA Merger to Inception list and Post NBA/ABA merger to modern NBA. I think you need to start a new divide at 2010 or 2015. Video game numbers that will match up with the 50s and 60s and early 70s era that 80s and 90s and 2ks players will get buried and lost under.

Jimmy you are the best ...i know the game played at a high level was a dominant player....i can' sit and watch your videos listen to your analysis all night... You Steph Curried this one... Congrats all love