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You can look it up...
Just because I'm a numbers geek I checked scoring from the '90s compared to now. Even with all the handchecking and beatdowns in the lane during, say, the '93-94 season when my Knicks played in one of the most offensively-challenged Finals ever, the average team still scored 101.5 PPG (the lowest average in 36 seasons). Starting in '95-96, the average team has scored fewer than 100 PPG every year except two ('08-09 and '09-10). Despite all these athletic players, NBA teams now are scoring like NBA teams did in the '50s.
The things I noticed that probably affected offense the most over the past 20 years have been:
*More 3-pt attempts (9.9 in '93-94 up to 20 this season), which probably led to...
*Lower overall FG% (46.6% then, 45.3% now), and...
*Fewer FTs attempted and made (about 20/27 then, 17/22 now), and...
*Fewer fouls called (22.2 then, 19.8 now)
Right now teams are shooting and making, on average, fewer FTs than ever in NBA history. You want scores to drop? Remove free points from the equation.
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