The Grip
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The NBA is gaslighting us

The NBA is gaslighting us

Mon, March 18th, 2024

The Grip
March 18, 2024

The Opening Tip

More developments in the scoring dip saga
Kyrie hit an all-time game winner yesterday
The most NSFW jersey swap of all-time

Must-watch games

You gotta give.

1. The NBA’s stance on why scoring is down is all over the place

As we’ve covered of late, scoring in the NBA is down.

Entering tonight, PPG are down 4.2 (115.7 to 111.5) since the All-Star Break. Free throws per game are down as well, from 22.7 pre- to 19.8 post-ASB.

TLDR: It certainly appears refs have cracked down on foul grifters.

These (perceived) changes have received rave reviews from NBA watchers; less free throws means more flow, which has led to snappier, quicker games.

The problem: The league appears undecided on whether to admit it tweaked any rules

Last Monday, a spokesman told Marc Stein there was ‘no directive,’ and that any dip was a ‘statistical anomaly.’
On Friday, Joe Dumars, now the NBA’s head of basketball operations, went on the Lowe Post and said there was ‘not one day of a meeting of the minds’ to consider changes that would quell scoring.

That’s either gaslighting or justifying a stance based on some other technicality, which is their wont.

But it got even vaguer on Friday afternoon, when Woj reported on a leaked memo from last Tuesday.

From Woj’s tweets:

“The NBA is telling teams the league office did not deliver a directive to reduce scoring … but ‘this trend will continue to be monitored.’”

OK, but also:

“The NBA shared with teams one of league’s focuses in competition committee meeting had been on offensive players hunting for fouls and veering off paths into defenders – and how those recent points of officiating emphasis have impacted a decrease in league scoring.”

So … the league is saying ‘we did NOT! tell anyone to reduce the scoring … but uh, yes, we did tell refs to crack down on foul hunting, which, uh, MIGHT have impacted a decrease in scoring.’

They Mac meme, come to life.