re: Spinoff: the truth about the NBA's scoring explosion and NBA history

quote:

---

The game is called differently now. Refs won’t allow you to play defense and that was a directive sent down from the top to increase scoring.

---

Except free throw attempts and personal fouls per 100 possessions along with free throw to field goal attempts ratio have been at historical lows over the last 7 years. In the mid 80s at the peak, teams shot about 8 more free throws and had about 5 more personal fouls per 100 possessions, and 6 more free throw attempts per 100 field goal attempts.

Obviously shooting more 3s plays a role, but teams also shoot fewer midrange shots, and the focus is on 3s or layups.

So maybe they call too many fouls now, but this idea that this is a recent phenomenon, is not only not supported by the data, the exact opposite appears to be true.