The NBA's Executive Vice President and Head of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars was on “The Lowe Podcast” where he talked about the rise of offense in the league and how it can change in the NBA. The spoiler alert from Dumas is that he said there has not been conversation of changing the way referees call fouls as himself and the association loves competition.
“I don’t think people, fans, media really care what the score is. It doesn’t matter what the score is, people want to see great competition. I’ve said this in meetings internally several times. I saw one of the best games, I rode out to Boston a month or two ago, Denver at Boston. I think it was 100 to 99 or 101 to 100, one of the best games of the year and it had nothing to do with the score, it was just what was played there,” Dumars said. “Or you can have 130 to 131, and from a league office standpoint we just want to see incredible competition on both sides of the ball. Offensive plays, incredible defensive plays. But there’s never been one second of, hey we need to do something, and we need to tell the referees to change, like that has absolutely never happened.”
There's no doubt that when you watch a current NBA game and compare it to before the 21st century, or even just 10 years ago, that offense is more of a priority than ever. In terms of league scoring, it has been rising for the most part season by season where around 10 years ago, it was hovering at 100 points per game compared to now where it's at 114.8.
Dumars says NBA has “no agenda” in changing the scoring landscape
Dumars has touched on this subject before in an interview with Yahoo Sports where he said in early February that there is not an active conversation in changing the way scoring is in the association. Consequently, he would express that the NBA has “no agenda,” except for wanting great games to occur.
“There is no agenda in this office. About what scoring we want to see, there is no number, the true tale of a good game is people the next day say, ‘Did you see that great game last night?’” Dumars said. “You can have some bad 140-point games, that's why I say it would be foolish to say we want ‘that number,’ that doesn't guarantee that you're going to have a great game. It might be a game that people turn off at some point.”
However, Dumars said in the same interview that there are questions posed if the “balance” of offense and defense is “out of whack.”
“The question is posed to each one of those groups,” Dumas said. “Is the balance out of whack? Do we need to balance this more to allow defenses to defend more, to do more on the defensive end of the court? And by and large, people are saying it wouldn't be bad to have a little bit more defense.”
“You don't want it where the defense can just, you know, grab and hold, and you don't want it when the offense has just this huge advantage, either,” Dumars continued. “That’s why the conversation is going on. I can say that much.”
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