Dante posted āIām backā or something like that not long agoā¦I think he meant from his ankle surgery. It was accompanied by old Gtown highlights.
Someone told me earlier this summer that his situation is complicated, and there were different scenarios in play without explaining further. My guess is no matter what you wonāt see him in a UVA uniform on gamedays, but itās possible he would rejoin the team as a practice player so he could keep up his training. Probably depends on what semester heās on track to graduate. He hasnāt been around this summer, no idea if he was taking classes.
I wonder if this is true in college? There was anāxā thread within the last week or so showing thereās significantly better rim protection now in the NBA than the 90ās mainly due to the longer players and thus better rim protection at the 2-4
Yeah, no youāre right. The trend is true across basketball. Thereās better rim protection now than there was then despite defenses being more spread now.
This is what I was referring to when talking about how longer players developing more offensive skill and being playable outside of traditional ābigā positions is the biggest reason this has changed.
Hahaha. Alternatively, one thing I thought of is maybe a shift in who gets developed for what position? Like would todayās wings have been developed more as post players in the past? So then you get more tall and long people into the player population because thereās more spots for them?
Since 2010, block % has stayed roughly the same but % of attempts that are 3 pointers have gone up by ~5%, so that seems to be some evidence that a greater % of 2 pointers (likely at the rim?) are being blocked.
But thatās mostly because Tony didnāt play Elijah who wouldāve blocked a ton of three pointers, and probably shifted the % on his own.
How much of this can be attributed to the āfreedom of movementā development in officiating, making it a wee bit easier to attack the rim, and, thus, creating more opportunities to protect the rim?
I think thereās push and pull factors on all this stuff, as I look at various years data. 3 point line keeps moving out (I forget which years) which puts little dips in the overall rise of 3 pointers. And yeah, various freedom of movement rule changes probably cause at least minor inflections in the data. Or at least temporarily.
Before I begin, Iām an English major with an Economist subscription, so you know this is 100% accurate and not just a dumb theory.
I think it is capitalism plus nutrition. We are getting bigger as humans with better access to nutrition, athletes identified young even moreso. Then you can make a boat-load of money if you make it as an nba player and now even in the short term in college. People reallocate their ātimeā resource to align with this opportunity, especially in the face of decreased high earner employment opportunities without significant long term investment in grad school, etc. You show aptitude young, why not go for it (just need some luck like described in Outliers, the Gladwell book)?
Maybe?
That has to play a role. Back in the day anyone appearing to be 6ā5 or above trained exclusively as a post player and now everyone trains as a wing or a point.
Iām sure thereās some of that. Although if you go back and watch that game from '91 we were discussing the other day (UVa vs. State) there were also a lot of fouls called that I donāt think would be called today (at least in college).
Youāre spot on and this is the main answer, IMO. Itās the Dirk Nowitzki effect. Itās looking at how Wenbanyama plays now vs. how Ralph played then. LeBron running point in the Olympics. Kevin Durant.
Magic Johnson was a complete unicorn when he played re: PG with size. We have a 6ā7" PG on our roster this coming season and, Iām looking forward to seeing how he does, but itās not overly unique and heās not really expected to be one of CBBs more impactful players.
Basically - itās the philosophy around the sport. In that era, smaller players developed more guard skills and longer players were taught to develop post skills. Now that itās understood that itās helpful for as many people on your team to be good at handling, shooting, and passing, the collective size/length on the floor is increasing because thereās more guard skill with those types of players, allowing them more venues to get on the floor.
