NBA Criticism Misses the Mark

Everybody’s talking about how low-scoring the NBA is this season, with games routinely in the 70s and 80s. Everybody’s talking about how lousy the shooting is in the NBA this season; for all this money the least you’d expect these millionaires to do is make an open jump shot. And everybody’s talking about how the new grinding style of basketball is taking the balletic beauty and grace out of the game and turning it into a slow dance of death.

Well, everybody’s wrong.

Oh, scoring is way down all right. And shooting is way off.

But just because scoring is down doesn’t mean the NBA is going to hell. Think about it. As scoring decreases, every point scored assumes greater importance. When the winner is going to score in the 80s it’s difficult to fall so far behind that you’re out of it. The way defense is energetically played now, we’re commonly seeing regular-season games played with playoff intensity.

OK, let’s go to the numbers, which are dramatic. Scoring has fallen down the well in the last decade. In 1985-86, the average NBA game produced 220 points. This season it is 189, the lowest in more than 40 years. It’s down 31 points per game from 1985-86 (and down a remarkable 49 points per game from the high-water mark in 1961-62). What makes the drop-off even more stunning is that it has occurred despite prolific scoring from such people as Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and Karl Malone, who’ve played their entire careers during this period.

OK, why?

Bad shooting, obviously.

The highest field goal percentage ever in the NBA was .492 in 1983-84, when Magic, Julius and Bird ruled the world--and the 15-foot jumper was automatic. Since then, the percentage has declined steadily, bottoming out at .446 this season.

You can partially explain this decline by citing the movement of the three-point arc two feet closer to the basket; the closer the shot gets, the more enticing it is. More players than ever are going bombs away, lowering the overall field goal percentage.

But proof that shooting is worse comes at the foul line. It’s still 15 feet away from the basket, same as it’s always been. This season’s overall free throw percentage is .729. In the 1980s the league averaged .758; in the 1970s, .755. The only explanation for the dive is that players don’t shoot as well anymore.

The most obvious reason for the decline in shooting percentage is that players are playing better defense than ever. They are rotating and double-teaming on every play.

For years, the standard knock on the NBA was: Aww, nobody plays any defense in that league. Well, they do now. They exhaust themselves in the half-court game. And it’s not the thuggery that Pat Riley encouraged in New York. Teams such as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland have made defense artistic. And we should all applaud this.

Another reason for the decline in shooting--it more accurately explains the decline in scoring, actually--is offensive strategy. In this post-expansion era many coaches who feel they have inferior offensive talent try to stay in the game by shortening it. Toward that end they regularly melt 18 to 20 seconds off the 24-second clock before shooting. This keeps the score down by limiting field-goal attempts.

The most important factor in the decline in shooting, though, has to do with the culture of basketball. Young players are much more excited by dunking than by shooting. Their idea of basketball is to go to the rack and rock the rim. Shooting is passe; they don’t even practice it.

Young players such as Antonio McDyess, Michael Finley, Kevin Garnett and Bobby Sura live to dunk. Even some of the young point guards seem obsessed with going to the hoop, and their miserable shooting percentages reflect it.

A co-rookie of the year two years ago, Jason Kidd, is shooting .369; last year’s rookie of the year, Damon Stoudamire, is at .393; this year’s rookie of the year candidate, Iverson, checks in at .386.

There are great deep shooters in the game, such as Reggie Miller, Dennis Scott, Tim Legler, Glen Rice, Steve Kerr, Dale Ellis and, of course, Jordan; the percentage of made “threes” has increased in the last few seasons. But many players have disdained shooting for jamming. And in their quest to get to the rim they often end up taking wild, running, off-balance heaves.

The notable decline in accuracy is not from long range, but within 10 to 15 feet--shots that were automatic in the 1970s. Players don’t practice those shots, because they feel if they can get within 10 feet of the rim, they should get all the way there, either by jumping over, or through, everyone in their way. Instead of sewing their names on the backs of the jerseys, players should paste on a sign that says, ‘Watch Me Dunk! I’m Gonna Be On ‘SportsCenter’!”

Interestingly, for all of the changes, the NBA game is more or less the same. There’s more defense, and less offense, but the average margin of victory is the same as it’s been for the last 10 years: 11 points per game. The biggest change is that with DirectTV you can see every game. You can see basketball until your eyes pop out. And one of these days somebody’s bound to make a 15-footer.