The past week for the NBA has been filled with historic high-octane scoring performances, with four players, namely Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker, and Karl-Anthony Towns, all crossing the 60-point barrier. In fact, Doncic and Embiid both scored 70+, with the former dropping 73 points on unprecedented efficiency. However, while most fans enjoyed those scoring outbursts, some talking heads and veterans of the sport, including former Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut, thinks that the apparent lack of defense is a major concern for the NBA.
Posting on his official Twitter (X) account, the ex-champ with the Warriors agreed with ESPN’s Brian Windhorst in that the league must give defenders more leeway to play a more physical brand of defense. Furthermore, Bogut expressed his frustrations with how the current state of the NBA and even the NBL in Australia makes it hard for him to watch the games.
“The @nba regular season games are hard to watch at current. The @NBL is also falling into this trap of “high scoring is what the fans want” FIBA games consistently going over the 100’s is overkill. Make Defense Great Again!” Bogut wrote.
Indeed, the NBA is seeing a league-wide increase in offensive output, brought forth by the increased spacing. Teams are also running much more advanced offensive systems, making it easier for elite scorers such as Luka Doncic and Joel Embiid to carve up defenses.
Nevertheless, Andrew Bogut should know that he was part of the Warriors teams that popularized the three-point revolution. Stephen Curry changed the way that the game is played, and amid Curry’s rise to superstardom, it became apparent that fans are drawn to those who play like the greatest shooter of all time does.
Curry flourished due to freedom of motion; defenders couldn’t get too handsy on the Warriors star, lest they rack up the fouls, and Golden State became a dynasty for nearly a decade as a result.
At the end of the day, the NBA can only do so much to limit these offensive explosions. (Will they even be incentivized to do so anyway?) The level of shot-making in the league seems to be at an all-time high, and perhaps it’s time for the likes of Andrew Bogut to enjoy the game the way it is instead of always trying to return the sport to its more primitive state.
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