If you want to enlighten people who haven’t paid attention to the NBA until Christmas, tell them what the league has achieved. something similar to paritythe referee is Travel Violation Callthe dreaded “take” foul is gone, and the number of punctures is greatly reduced.
If you want to impress with numbers, tell them that the top 10 teams in the Western Conference are 4 games away on the standings, and the top 5 teams in the Eastern Conference are 3.5 games away. The league is close to number one. Already he’s gone 36 overtime games (almost 8% of all games), making him the fastest paced season in NBA history. As of December 18, the game will be decided by the average score difference (10.9 points) for the first time in eight years.
In a Zoom call four days before Joe Dumars, the NBA’s annual Christmas extravaganza, detroit pistons The Legends, Hall of Famer, and now executive vice president of the league and head of basketball operations, was positively hilarious about all of this.
“These are what you want,” Dumars said. “These are the things you want to see in your league. You want to see very competitive games. You don’t want to see a lot of explosions. If you can diagram it, diagram it like this It would, but you can’t, so it has to happen naturally.”
“It’s getting harder and harder for any team in the league to go out on the court and think they can win easily,” said Dumars, who joined the league’s secretariat in May. He credits the new transition-take foul rule with a 14% increase in first-break points compared to last season, umpires cracking down on his carry violations and unnatural basketball moves, and league-wide offensive efficiency ( 112.1 points per 100 games). As of December 18), it was a record high.
“If you get all these gimmicks and crap out of the way, you’ll see something incredible,” Dumars said. I think.”
The following Q&A has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.
CBS Sports: I received an email saying “Player X has been suspended/fined. Announced today by Joe Dumars.” As a member of the Bad Boys, is it funny to punish players for things their teammates may have done many times?
Joe Dumars: interesting. interesting. strange. that’s all.because [back then] I have read many of them. Luckily I wasn’t on the other side of them, but I read a million of them during my time with the Bad Boys. I’m here.
CBS: I know you’re not Bill Laimbeer…
JD: No, it’s not.
CBS: …but you were a physical defender. This is another league.some people please do not I love modern games and adore bad boys. Your job is to keep that physical thing in check. how do you square it?
JD: I respect when we play. I respect the teams I played for. I loved being part of the Bad Boys with all my heart. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. But my point is that sports change all the time. There were many stolen bases in baseball. Ricky Henderson is no more. In football, a running back means that in one game he carries the ball 30 times. No more. In the NBA, it was the post-up in basketball. It doesn’t happen anymore. Sports evolve.
The NBA has evolved, that’s all. And you can still love it now and love what it was then. Two things happen at once. And they are: At the time, I loved it. Physical and tough basketball. rival. All of that. But I also love athleticism, young players and 3-point shooting. I love it all now. Look around and tell me which sport hasn’t changed.
CBS: People are forever complaining about uninvited travel. Why travel matters nowWhat are your thoughts on this crackdown?
JD: So what I’ve noticed in the NBA offices is that there’s always an ongoing conversation about rules and emphasis. And this was the emphasis: It’s time to start calling out that 3rd and 4th, sometimes 5th step a man might take – it’s not acceptableAnd, as an important point since the beginning of this season, the message at the meeting with the referee is, “If you see it, call me. Don’t make it up. If you can’t find it, don’t look for it. But Look, call me.”
Some people ask, “How was your trip?” And I say, “You like her third and fourth step, why do we call it? Because it’s the third and fourth step.” [laughs]that’s why we call it! So it’s just an emphasis, players adjust. they always do.
CBS: How is that coordination going?
JD: So I was at a conference last week giving a presentation on this. What I said at the meeting last week, James, was this: All emphasis — Freedom of movement, unnatural basketball movements, all these different things — It’s the movement that takes the longest. There are men doing these movements since they were teenagers, even as young children. They’ve seen guys do these moves, and they grow up doing these moves. And now you are saying
Players will adapt and get it right, but I firmly believe this is the one that takes players the longest to adapt. As you can see in transition take fouls, it’s down 85, 86% from last year. Unnatural moves in basketball, jumping into guys after pump fakes – we don’t see as many guys doing that anymore as we used to. That’s what I mean. If you emphasize or change the rules, men usually get it. This will probably take a little longer.
CBS: Carry/palming wasn’t mentioned as an official highlight, but those calls are also up.
JD: is. For us, it’s part of the journey. Look, James, put his hand under that ball, take a few steps, then put it down, that’s traveling. And that’s part of the journey, too. we don’t see them differently. They are found in the same category.
CBS: NBA had erroneous data on transition from G League prior to rule change. Have you been intrigued or surprised by the results so far?
JD: Not surprising, but definitely interesting. And that’s how many times you’ve seen a guy on a break and a defender initiates a foul-taking transition and then pulls his hand back. I thought it was really interesting that men think instinctively. Well I take the foul take transitionand something immediately tells him, This is a free throw and the ball is out of bounds.and just watch the guys withdraw their hands on a quick break.
CBS: The offensive explosion is raging, even with some emphasis designed to help the defense. what is your view on that?
JD: I think we need to make sure that the athleticism and skill levels of today’s NBA players are better than ever. That’s the best. The second was James, one of the things I talked about about him, coming in and being like, ‘Look, let’s not screw up the game. And “ruining the game” to me is lack of freedom of movement, unnatural basketball moves, transition fouls. No gimmick needed. I don’t need anything like that. We are the world’s elite basketball league. We have the best athletes in the world doing this. They don’t need gimmicks. Sweep the floors and see how good they are. We cleaned it all up and found out where the attack went.
CBS: Sounds like you want the offense up for good reason.
JD: yes. I don’t think this league needs a thumbs up on the offensive scale. I think they are very good at it. You don’t need a thumb on the scale.all right [laughs], diversion here a little. I used to tell referees when Jordan and Michael called me fouls, but I didn’t think so. I always said, “He doesn’t need your help. He’ll be fine without you.” you know what i mean? “He’s doing great. You don’t need to call him.” So I’m saying the same thing about his current NBA offense. There is no need to lean the rules towards attack. Just keep it clean and see how good these guys are.
CBS: Is it similar to what you hear now from coaches and players? Like, ‘Giannis is hard enough to stop the ball without letting it run’.
JD: That’s right. James, let me ask you a question: Which of the great players in the league right now can you point to? . is not. See, Giannis Antetokounmpo is still great, James Harden is still great, and Trae Young is still great. All of these guys are still great players. That’s what I mean. For those guys, you don’t need a thumb on the scale.
CBS: Is the league office an environment where radical ideas like ‘what a 40-game schedule looks like?’ ――And the actual discussion?
JD: We have an analytics and strategy department headed by a guy named Evan Wasch, and we talk about all these different things, different scenarios all the time. That’s exactly what they do. I think it’s the league’s responsibility to be progressive, to keep changing, and to not be stuck in old ways. Any League for doing it. Yes, the short answer to your question is yes.
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CBS: Picture of you holding two phones: what’s the story there?
JD: It wasn’t a photo prop or anything. I made two different calls. I was on the phone with a team and another team called my cell phone. I didn’t want to miss that call. You know, you were in the middle of a trade negotiation or something and I was like, ‘I can’t miss this call. So I picked up the phone and put it up and I don’t know why the photographer – I don’t know what they were doing – maybe they were doing some kind of shoot that day And they grabbed their cameras and filmed. And it will forever be this meme and this thing. But yeah it was true.I Talk to Howard Beck about that. It was from the conscription operations room. Moreover, it was a garage.
