The Evolution of Basketball

I watched an NBA game from every decade and made a video about it.

Late last week, I published the first new video of the summer up on our YouTube channel.

The video follows a similar concept to last summer’s “I watched every national championship game since 2000”, but this time with historical NBA finals games.

(Sidenote: Both of my videos were actually inspired by a non-basketball video titled “I watched one SNL episode from every season”.)

In the video, I traveled one game at a time through different time periods in NBA history. In the early decades, I focused on the individual skill level and athleticism of the players. In the later decades, I looked more closely at overall team style of play.

The full list of games (and associated timestamps) can be found below:

• 1950's Knicks vs Pistons (0:57)

• 1960's Celtics vs Lakers (4:44)

• 1970's Sixers vs Trail Blazers (8:36)

• 1980's Celtics vs Lakers (13:00)

• 1990's Bulls vs Jazz (17:21)

• 2000's Pistons vs Lakers (21:47)

• 2010's Heat vs Thunder (25:26)

• 2020's Warriors vs Celtics (28:42)

Spacing and shot selection have (obviously) changed the most over the course of basketball history

In 2000, 17% of field goal attempts were taken from three-point range. In 2022, that number has now reached 40%

In other words, you hardly need to watch a game from every decade to realize that shot selection and spacing have changed — obviously that’s been the biggest story in basketball over the past 10+ years.

But defensive pickup points surprised me

The part that did surprise me, however, was the point of attack defense in the (admittedly small sample) of games I watched from the 80’s and 90’s.

In the 1985 finals, the Celtics and the Lakers barely guarded the ball at all — instead using low pickup points to dare offensive players to shoot while providing help in the post.

Jordan Sperber @hoopvision68

It's jarring to watch no one even attempt to guard the ball in the 80's

In the 1998 finals, the Bulls also had low pickup points against Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton.

In both cases, the sagging defense was used to make it harder to enter the ball into dominant big men.

That strategy directly contrasts the popular coaching adage that “the first line of post defense is ball pressure”.

Ball pressure is one way to make the passer feel uncomfortable and disrupt the pass into the post. But ignoring the passer to sag towards the basket and disrupt the passing angle can also be effective — particularly if the passer in unwilling to shoot a jump shot.

BONUS OBSERVATIONS

To wrap up the newsletter, here are a couple of X’s and O’s observations of note that didn’t make the final draft of the video.

Butt screens in the 60’s

The game I watched from the 1960’s was full of butt screens — where the offensive player faces away from the ball handlers while setting a screen.

At first I thought it might have just been a coincidence, but then there were enough of them — I clipped six different butt screens in total — that it appears to have been a deliberate screen setting technique back then.

The oldest BLOB in the game

In the early days, most out of bounds plays were designed simply to just get the ball in play.

The 1985 matchup between the Celtics and Lakers was the first year I made note of a team deliberately running action to score off of out of bounds scenarios.

For the Lakers, that action was something we still often see in 2022: stagger screens for a shooter to come to the corner.

The Lakers’ version was for their sharpshooter Byron Scott. Scott got a jump shot off of the play twice during the game — making one and missing one.

Don’t get me wrong, fundamental aspects of basketball have undergone drastic changes in the past 50+ years. But there are still many small details and elements that persist in today’s game.