NBA scoring has skyrocketed to another stratosphere in recent years. The new reality the league has entered has not gone unnoticed.
The NBA's competition committee has “formally begun a review” of whether the offense was given too much of an advantage in today's game. Depending on the committee's findings, the NBA could consider rule changes “to achieve better balance.”
NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars recently spoke to ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Kevin Pelton about the upcoming changes.
“This is a topic we are monitoring,” Dumars said. “We are now working diligently to make sure this issue is moving in the right direction.”
The NBA famously abolished hand checks in 2004, in part to address a league-wide scoring shortage at the time. During the 2003-2004 season, only two of his teams, the Dallas Mavericks and the Sacramento Kings, averaged more than 99 points per game. In the following year, that number increased to 10 teams, or just one-third of the league.
Within seven seconds of the 2005-06 season, the Phoenix Suns led the way for the NBA's new offense-first direction. They averaged 110.4 points per game, nearly seven points more than the next closest team.
The same Suns will rank 28th in points this season. The Memphis Grizzlies, the lowest scoring team in the league today, would have been the second-leading scoring team during the Steve Nash era when the Suns were the NBA's leading scorers.
Dumars added that the NBA isn't looking to crack down on offense just to reduce scoring. He argued that what the NBA ultimately wants is “incredible competition” in any form.
But judging by the way NBA commissioner Adam Silver appeared to point out the deficiencies on defense during the 2024 NBA All-Star Game, maybe even the league is tired of all the scoring.