re: How is today's NBA style of play different than 20, 25 years ago?

The three changed everything, but people forget why it was introduced in the first place: to create space in the lane. In the 70s, the game got bogged down with everyone packing the lane and just beating the snot out of each other, so the ABA introduced the three to create space, forcing defenders out of the lane.

It worked, but also it took time for players to get good at the three. Remember, the first group never grew up with the three, so they never practiced it growing up. Today, kids grow up with the three ingrained as part of their game. So we didn't get good three-point shooting until that first generation of kids who grew up with the line reached the game. Leaguewide 3 point shooting went from 280 in 1979-80 (Year 1), 316 in 1987-88, to 359 in 1994-95, where its been relatively constant ever since(358 this year).


FTA/FGA is a rough estimate of attacking the rim. It was constant at about 250 from the 80s to the late 90s, and it slowly trickled down to now, where it is now at 209 (its been below 210 almost this entire decade). Players simply do not drive the lane as much, the stats tell us. The slasher is being driven from the game in favor of the three-point shooter. 3PA drifted from 2.5 to 10 from 1980 to 19994, but once they got to modern percentages, they started taking 15/game. It climbed to 18 in 07-08 and from 11-12 to now it's climbed about two attempts per year to this year's 27.0.

Also, offensive rebounding is off dramatically. We've declined from between 14-15 a game though the 90s to now, where it's around 10.

Again, this all goes back to the three. You jack up more threes, you won't drive to the lane as much, and you won't get as many offensive boards because you don't have any players where the rebounds are, in the lane.