When Bradley Beal is scoring like Allen Iverson, you know the NBA has changed
Forty. Four-oh. And that doesn’t include superstar Kevin Durant, perennial all-star Karl-Anthony Towns or oh-I-know-him big man Christian Wood, who have robust averages but haven’t played enough games to qualify among the scoring leaders.
Sometimes, NBA stands for Numbers Ballooning Absurdly.
There are not 40 great players in the league, obviously, or even 40 great scorers. But in this era of shooting and skill, of pace and space and positionless flair, the relentless skewing of statistical norms continues. It’s beyond a fad. We’re five seasons into the phenomenon, and for as much as we discuss how the game has changed, it’s still mind-boggling to pore over the stats. Players and teams don’t put up numbers as much as they unleash a torrent of anomalous, history-bending data.
Three surging traditional stats remain at the center of the conversation: scoring, triple-doubles and three-pointers. There already have been 70 triple-doubles this season, on pace to break the record of 127 from two years ago. It would be a fifth straight season of more than 100 triple-doubles. And when pondering how much shooting means to the sport, look at the transformation of the Utah Jazz.
With Rudy Gobert and his 7-foot-9 wingspan as the anchor, defense has defined the Jazz for most of the past five years. But their offensive evolution has reached an apex this season. They’re a juggernaut on both ends of the court, and they hold the league’s best record at 27-9. Three-point shooting plays a major factor in their success. Recently, Utah became the fastest team in NBA history to make 500 three-pointers, needing only 31 games to do so.
This year, the Jazz have made 17.1 three-pointers per game, and they are astonishingly accurate at 39.8 percent. Five players make at least 2.5 threes a night. Although they have three all-stars in Gobert, Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley Jr., the individual talent on the roster doesn’t scream greatness. But they have combined good talent with an analytical understanding of efficiency, and the result is a squad maximizing its ability.
Utah emphasizes the virtue of this modern, skill-based version of the game. Without question, the Jazz must prove their play translates to the postseason to receive the utmost respect, but they’re an intriguing, balanced mix that functions well without a top-shelf superstar. They’re the newest example of why this era, despite the debates among warring factions over how the game should be played, has been good for the game.
“In general, some of these familiar stats are up because the league has gotten more efficient,” said Ben Alamar, a longtime statistical maven and the former director of sports analytics at ESPN. “Players are taking better shots — shots that are proven to be better by data. We should just marvel at the game as it is today. It’s wonderful to see and exciting to watch. We should start there.”
Oh, but the conversation takes many twists after that. The greater efficiency is cool. But the rules discouraging physical play and promoting freedom of movement become more polarizing as these evolved players keep making the game look easy. The diminishing center and preference for positionless basketball alters the look and feel even more. And then when these robust numbers become so common, they lose some of their significance.
“In terms of the box score, we almost have to have a little more of a mind shift,” Alamar said. “More thought has to go into the context of some of these numbers. He scored a lot, but did he do it efficiently? Was that triple-double effective for the team? Is that good? Should I be impressed? The context helps guide your mind. It’s not just the numbers. It’s the lens through which you’re looking at them.”
It’s still an accomplishment to average 20 points. Not everyone can do it. But the way the game is played, the Malik Beasleys of the sport can. Only nine players reached 20 during the 2012-13 season, but right now the league’s No. 9 scorer, Nikola Jokic, is averaging 27.1 points.
Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal leads the NBA at 32.9 points a game. That is more than Durant or LeBron James have ever averaged; more than Tracy McGrady, a multiple scoring champion in his day, ever did; and just a smidgen below Allen Iverson’s best season. It’s a testament to the continued development of Beal, a student of the game who has always been hyper aware of whether a shot is good or bad. At 27, he’s a polished offensive machine who has averaged 30 points per game for two straight seasons.
But the Wizards haven’t been a playoff team during Beal’s personal ascension, and though they’ve improved recently, they enter the second half of the season in 12th place in the Eastern Conference. Once again, it will be difficult for Beal to make the all-NBA team. He is the NBA’s best scorer, but it doesn’t guarantee him a spot among its best 15 players.
Some NBA reporters often refer to this as the league’s juiced ball era, but that’s unfair. The way the game is officiated makes it harder on defenses, but it’s not like the ball has been altered for Steph Curry and Damian Lillard to make their 40-footers. The better comparison is to the NFL, which has made some of its rules more advantageous to offensive players. But you can encourage skill. You can’t really manufacture it. The NBA, like the NFL, has chosen to accentuate an attractive part of the game. And while scoring is up, elite defense still has a place. Look at the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. Then go back to Toronto, Golden State and Cleveland, and you see that, even during this time, the champions know how to get stops.
Still, the current time is becoming such an aberration it hinders the ability to have some of those cross-generational arguments. But if a sport can’t handle such growth, if it can’t reinvent itself, it’s doomed to become stale.
“I’m much more about, ‘Let’s look at the era for what it is,’” Alamar said. “Nothing that happens today diminishes those days past. Appreciate the game for what it is today and don’t necessarily get into whether it’s better or worse. We learn. As a group of people who love the game, we learn. It’s not just the athleticism of the players that changes. It’s their minds and how they think the game. It’s all healthy and vital to have that happen.”
Eventually, we’ll have to recalibrate the significance of a few stats. Our addiction to sports tradition makes that transition rough. For now, though, we’re in this fascinating place, an intersection of resistance, skepticism and enchantment.
It’s far from stale. The game wins.
