Don't Credit the Defense; Blame the Offense

The "Basketball for Thought" is a commentary by Kris Gardner.

April 1999

Enough with the excuses about little or no practice time as a result of the travel induced by the shortened season. The bottom line is: players cannot shoot the ball! To complicate matters, coaches are over coaching. Offenses just don't have a flow anymore. Bring back the 80s -- the 1980s; not scoring that barely exceeds the 80s.

It is absolutely ridiculous for an NBA team to scrap and claw to score 90 points a game. In 48 minutes, 90 points is less than 2 points a minute! If today's athletes are in such great shape, why are they having such a difficult time making jump shots due to travel and 3 games in 3 nights?

Players, as a result of tv highlights, can only dunk or shoot 3 pointers. The mid range game has gone the way of the dinosaur and the C-band satellite dish (right, FOX Sports Net). Combine the pathetic shooting with the over reliance on the 3 point shot with over coaching and you have the resulting of today's basketball. Keep in mind, the college game is suffering as well; not just the NBA game.

Television announcers continue to praise the respective clubs for such "great defensive efforts" for holding the opponent to 70 points. The announcers fail to mention that while the opponent scored 70; their own club scored less than 80. You never hear the announcers say, "solid defensive effort by the opponent as they hold our club to 75" or "another low scoring game in the NBA -- this is a shame".

The Chicago Bulls scored (if that's the right term) an NBA record low 49 points against the Miami Heat and Heat announcer, Hall of Fame coach Jack Ramsey touted the Heat for their defensive prowess. Come on, Jack; the Heat only scored 82 points, themselves. Not too long ago, if a team only scored 82 points, they were virtually guaranteed of being blown out by the opposition by at least 20 points. Don't credit the defense; blame the offense.

I know technology has allowed teams to scout opponents much more in depth where teams know each teams' plays and all the variations. Big deal.

Knowing what play a team is going to run is no guarantee the play will be stopped. Larry Bird could tell any player he's going to get the ball at mark "x" on set "y"; and, it didn't make any difference. The Celtics would run the play; execute it properly, Larry would receive the ball; talk trash and; then, drain the shot. Case closed.

In addition to the poor shooting (realize that a 47% percent field goal shooter is now considered good), teams shoot way too many 3 pointers a game. I don't care about the reasoning that 33 percent on a 3 equates to 50 percent for a two. Give me ball movement. Give me player movement. Don't give me more 25 3s a game!

Because of the 3, teams with dominant low post games or teams with star players who command double teams wait, for the double team to arrive; pass the ball around the perimeter; and shoot the open 3. This brand of offense is boring to watch and not very effective if your perimeter game is struggling.

Years ago, people called the offense of the Detroit Pistons slow, boring and, on occasion, ugly. Those teams averaged no lower than 104 points a game. I miss those days. Today, averaging 104 points per game is merely a pipe dream. Sad.