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

Wow... your obsession with me is staggering....

Damn Peej. When did you take such an interest in Lebron's hawg?

These current teams seem allergic to offensive play in the paint. A stunning contrast compared to the 80s. Seems like more one vs one and less passing also.

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erent than 20, 25 years ago?
Whatever...... get brons pecker out your mouth....

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We may have brons pecker in our mouth, but you have every single old players pecker in your mouth......

That includes magics aids dick

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

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Go watch the Lakers vs Celtics 30 for 30 and you'll see.

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.

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25 years ago you were allowed to play defense

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also a big difference that no one ever mentions is the bench playt


the vast majority of nba benches now are comprised of young players who are developing

nba benches in the 90s and 80s had grown arse men on them. that could come in and understood the game and provided productive mintues\


look at the 94 spurs bench

moses malone
doc rivers
j.r reid
chuck person
howard eisley

Two other major changes are pace and violence.

In the 80s, teams averaged over 100 possession per game. That stopped in 1990, and fell off a cliff to about 90/game in the Jordan era and beyond. We're only now climbing out of that hole, and we're up to 96/game. Still not the 80s, but better than the past two decades.

And there's a lot less fouling. Some of this is because people don't drive the lane as much. But teams committed about 25 fouls/game in the 80s, 22/game in the 90s, down to 20/game now. Also, there used to be fights, and those were awesome.