"We were told that"

The amount ticky-tack shit being called so far in just about every game *has* been odd. Aggressiveness on D is essentially punished. Obviously a game ending at 85-80 isn't the best for the league's bottom line, and a new era of consistent 128-120 lines won't have anyone in the league office upset. Will be interesting to see how this plays out though.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25050373/draymond-green-golden-state-warriors-defense-not-emphasis-nba-anymore

DENVER -- Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has carved out an All-Star career for himself based largely on his defensive prowess. As he watches scores skyrocket all over the NBA during the first week of the season, Green articulated what many around the league believe.

"It's been called pretty tight," Green said after his team's first loss of the season, a 100-98 defeat to the Denver Nuggets. "We were told that. Defense isn't really an emphasis anymore in this league. So I think you're seeing it all around the league with these high scores. We know what the emphasis is. Just got to be better, and we haven't done that in three games. Maybe we win two of them, but it caught us tonight."

Green and the Warriors weren't using the extra foul calls as an excuse; they were just speaking more about a new reality. After being whistled for 29 fouls and sending the Nuggets to the line 46 times, the Warriors have been called for 81 fouls through the first three games of the season.

Across the league, 10 of 30 teams are giving up at least 120 points per game. Through the end of play on the first Sunday last season, just two teams were giving up 120 on average. The Nuggets are the only team giving up fewer than 100, while every team is scoring at least 100.

Feels like about 45minutes of exhibition

3minutes of actual competition...IMO

They're making the regular season into an all-star format

+1, not every team should be as reliant on 3pointers

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and by the playoffs it'll be business as usual.

<--- Big Baller World Order

>and by the playoffs it'll be business as usual.

but from a regular season competition standpoint it's a questionable practice. a team without elite firepower trying to grind their way to a lower seed is pretty much shit outta luck.

i mean, i know it's a moot point as long as the warriors have their current core, but there are up and coming teams trying to develop a culture and play respectable defense. those teams will be set back by this.

I love Draymond, but he's fouled a lot without getting called in the past. The best way to avoid sending the other team to the line is to not make illegal contact.

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One Hundred.

And it’s been entertaining. Honestly I see the data now, but live I didn’t notice egregious calls in any games I watched. The golden state/jazz game for example was a entertaining game -“and no egregious just letting guys have layups.

Someone mentioned it seemed like exhibition, I didn’t notice that. Teams are still trying on defense, but honestly it’s hard (nobody’s figured out the formula yet) to defend space and pace consistently.

Right now it feels hard because for a defense teams are just running downhill at you essentially. I say yet though because like all things— it will get figured out at some point in the not so distant future, and the gme will adapt again.

I grew up in high scoring showtime which became Jordan rules and east coast grind, which transformed to a superstar dominated league with dominant teams with 2+ stars and you have the pistons anomaly butt then you have renegades making their own superteams and the space and pace and analytics ball has been able to neutralize that to some extent— but then you have the best analytics team with the superstars to make an all star game. Is this the final evolution of the game? I think and hope not. Someone smarter than me will figure out some small counters and we’ll shift again

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any other year, I would concur

(not to make this specifically about Trae Young, but that is the example I'm going to use)

BUT

in a game vs potentially worst team in the league CLE sans Bron

in which they gave up 133pts

...puts that performance in a different context IMO...

I mean Kobe's 81 is something our generation can unanimously agree was a tremendous feat

...but if guys like Mirotic, who never averaged more than 20ppg, can put up 30ppg...

feels like we're in an area where individual performances are going to be distorted

and not comparable historically, IMO.

as far as figuring it out

I'm not sure what that looks like, when pull up 3s 3 seconds into the shot clock are acceptable and common place

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You always get weird stat things early in a season.

As far as all the 3-pointers go... yeah, I mean, the stats have been clear for years. Firing more 3s yields more points per game unless you have an obvious and unstoppable post advantage. Even the old-school guys find it impossible to deny anymore. So the trend of teams tossing up a ton of 3s will continue until they move the line back and we need fresh data on the value of the new 3-point shot.

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The mean is always there, so we'll see how long it takes him to regress

But...

The early breakout last year was Giannis averaging over 35ppg for most of the first half of the season

He eventually regressed...after a full season...to 5th in ppg

Do you have any early breakout references...who ended up not being among the leaders by season's end...?

Anyway...you didn't even address the point of my reply

Historical context

I have a feeling 50pt games are going to be common place if this pace is sustainable

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Basketball_Association_single-game_scoring_leaders

That starts to get close to a very select group of players

I'm just using Mirotic as an example...but you should be able to see his name doesn't fit on that list

(yes, I know he hasn't scored 60pts in a game yet)

Some B level player gets in the zone during one of these 200ppg break neck paced game...and ends up putting up some crazy stat line

IMO, it would be devalued based on the current state of play.

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