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[QUOTE="Madbiker, post: 1356649, member: 312"]
Where has the offense gone? My take:

1. The NBA sucks out all the best players after 1-2 years. These guys used to play 4 years or at least 3.

2. All coaches emphasize athleticism now over skill. The rosters are packed with guys who are faster and jump higher but are not good shooters or passers. The decline in pure skill level from 20 years ago is astounding.

3. The proliferation of AAU games and the dominance of their importance as recruiting showcases over the high school team games has led to the reduction in skills. What gets kids noticed are speed, jumping ability, dunking ability, hot dog plays. Not the teamwork of passing, driving, shooting.

4. Officiating. The amount of holding, pushing, riding offensive ball handlers is ridiculous. Defenders are in contact with the ball handler the entire time shoving at the hip. If the ball handler extends his hand to push the defender off his body it's an offensive foul. They supposedly changed the rule to crack down on this...but the refs haven't. Nobody seems to be able to get the refs to call the fouls to stop it. They changed the rules in the NBA several years ago and they enforce it. Scoring went up from games in the 80's to around 100. Not the NCAA.  Teams commit 200 fouls a game and only 20 care called. Coaches know it so they take advantage of it. Foul the ball handler on every play. Most of the fouls are not called. (SU actually does much less of this because we play zone and don't pick up until the 3 pt arc most of the time).
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