If you think Westbrook's 21.9 percent three-point shot is hot enough, take a look at the three-point shooting percentages of the following scoring maniacs this season.
Donovan-Mitchell, 21.6%;
Damian Lillard, 23.4%;
Bradley-Beal, 24.5%;
Jason Tatum, 26.2%;
Devon-Booker, 27.8 percent.
Their stats epitomize the offensive specter two weeks after the start of the NBA's new season: The scoring surge brought about by the three-point boom in recent years seems to have a downward trend.
It's normal for some players to feel bad or explode at the start of the season, but when league-wide stats show that most people are deeply affected, one has to wonder if there's something wrong with that.
As of Nov. 3, the league's overall shooting percentage was 44.6 percent, the lowest since 2004; the three-point shooting percentage was 34 percent, the lowest since 1999, and even 18 teams didn't even hit that number on the perimeter. A rare phenomenon in recent years has returned — the efficiency of the two-point shot finally exceeds that of the three-point shot.
Under such shooting percentages, the median number of points scored per 100 possessions across the league is 105.3 points, down nearly three points from 108.0 in the same period last year. Meanwhile, the team averaged 15.1 turnovers per game, the highest since the 2006-07 season.
Experts discuss a number of possible causes of a sharp drop in offensive efficiency, including fatigue caused by the past two shrinking seasons, changes in the scale of blowing penalties, and targeted (such as the improvement of defensive efficiency against Trae Young, Doncic, Harden or Lillard).
Compared with the era when defense was supreme, the current NBA has long been unrecognizable. But compared to the 2006-07 season, this season also has an interesting common point, that is, the NBA has changed the ball for the game, the last time it was to change the material, this time it is to change the brand - from Spalding to Willson.
More and more coaches and players are starting to suspect that it may really be a problem with the ball, and George, who currently maintains an average of 28 points per game, said:
"It's not that I want to make excuses, but the ball is really different. The feel is different, and the softness is different from Spalding's ball. This year's situation has also been seen, there will certainly be a lot of ugly iron, and now the three non-sticks have been very common. I'm not going to throw the pot to the ball, but it does feel very different, and it's no secret. ”
Coach Drew Hanlon, who trains NBA players in skills, also said: "Many people are talking about blowing rules changing and leading to fewer free throws, but few people mention the huge impact of the change. ”
Does changing the ball for the game really lead to a reduction in the offensive efficiency of the entire league?
The 2006-07 season was later called "one of the most failed experiments in NBA history" by some experts, when the NBA's official ball brand Spalding unveiled a new ball made of microfiber composites to replace the traditional leather ball.
This new ball is cheaper to produce and has been popularized by some college and high school leagues, and in Spalding's view, this is the new trend of the future, and the NBA is best to keep up.
In the offseason, the players experienced the new ball in advance, and everyone didn't feel very good at that time. When the training camp began in October, the players' dissatisfaction with the new ball exploded. Nash, Nowitzki, Ray Allen, and others who belonged to that era all cried bitterly, directly bringing a public relations crisis to the NBA and Spalding.
Ray Allen said: "The ball directly changed our style of play and style, the season has just started, I have reservations. But in general, everyone's shots are different from before. Every player I've talked to doesn't like the ball. ”
Too slippery, lack of elasticity, rough surfaces and possibly even cut palms... Stephen Jackson, who plays for the Pacers, revealed that many players have Band-Aids wrapped around their fingers.
Shaker O'Neal, who was playing for the Heat at the time, directly sprayed: "It's too bad, this broken ball gives people the feeling of being the cheapest in the toy store... It gets a little slippery with a little sweat on the ball, so our shooting percentage is decreasing and our turnovers are increasing. Whoever makes the bad decision to change the ball should be fired. ”
Cuban, the rich and never afraid of the lone ranger, directly commissioned physics researchers at the University of Texas at Austin to make a comparison report between the new ball and the old ball. The results show that most of the players' complaints are justified.
In December 2006, the players' union went straight to the U.S. Labor Relations Board to protest, saying that the NBA had not properly consulted the players before changing the ball, and that the experimental phase before the decision had been to ask retired players to test the feel of the new ball. During the arbitration, then-NBA President Stern was forced to admit it. The result, of course, was to switch back to the old ball and the players won.
At that time, there were actually many comments that the psychological cues of players exacerbated their antipathy to new goals, resulting in really affected actual combat efficiency. But after another year of changing the ball after 15 years, the NBA has once again experienced a decline in offensive efficiency, making people have to wonder whether the change of the ball may really be a metaphysics.
Last May, the NBA officially ended its 37-year partnership with Spalding in favor of the same classic brand Wilshire (which also worked with NBA for 37 years, before Spalding). Some people speculate that the reason why the NBA replaced the ball brand, in addition to normal commercial competition, the power of Chinese capital may also be one of the factors.
As we all know, the NBA attaches great importance to the Chinese market, even in the case of changes in the general environment and the NBA China has been hit, the NBA still finds ways to achieve long-term growth in China. The Chicago-based Wilson brand is part of Finnish sports brand Amalfin Sports, which was acquired by a consortium including ANTA Sports in 2019.
Industry analysts said that with an ANTA's huge share of the Chinese sports market, the retail sales of Wilson basketball will definitely be rolled out on a large scale. Of course, the NBA is willing to get close to Chinese capital and get more opportunities to expand the market.
In June, the NBA and Wilson officially unveiled the new 2021-22 season, when The Wilson executives also assured that the league would never have a farce like the 2006 Spalding switch.
The new ball is still made of leather, and the suppliers are the same as Spalding basketballs, that is, the brand on the surface has changed. Moreover, Wilson is also willing to actively help players adapt to the feel (generally the team will let the rookies take the new ball to run in, and then give it to the veterans to use it when it is almost done). Until the preseason, there was no voice of dissatisfaction.
But as the regular season progressed, some players' stats began to look bad, and various metaphysical theories once again surfaced.
Jokic said he felt that the number of hand slips had increased (averaging a career high of 3.9 turnovers per game); Booker said that he felt that the ball used in each game was different; and insiders broke the news that many players were "disgusted" with new balls, and the run-in that did not know when it would end had made them lose patience. Players have played all their lives, and everyone has the confidence to feel that even if they touch it with their eyes closed, they can feel the difference between the ball, even if the opinion is subjective, it is difficult to refute.
But there are also players who believe that the season has just begun and there is no need to deny the new goal so quickly. Otto Porter was more pertinent, saying: "I feel like I've changed the ball two or three times since I came into the league. This kind of thing can only take time to adapt, and eventually you can always adapt. It's just that everyone is different, and everyone is different. ”
Lillard's backcourt partner, McCollum, is in stark contrast to him — Cj is averaging 23.7 points per game and 42.6 percent from three-point range this season, all career-highs. He publicly said on social networks, "Laugh at me, can you play iron and don't blame the ball for not being good, this is the problem of the shooter." ”
However, as the president of the players' union, CJ still has to do his duty to gather feedback from players and understand everyone's ideas.
In any case, players' complaints about the new ball are still under the control of the NBA and Willson, and the league's competition committee discussed the problems caused by the new ball and concluded that the NBA and the player will work with Willson to adjust as soon as possible.
Even if the "ball grudge" boils over again, the players' union may not be able to do anything about it. After all, Willson did not change the material of basketball, and it is impossible for the NBA to change back to Spalding's old ball, and the union cannot change no matter how much it asks for arbitration - the NBA has not announced how much money it signed with Willison's contract, but considering that the game ball must be stable, the age will certainly not be short.
The impact of the new ball on the NBA will take time to give us an answer, but in any case, all the players need to do now is adjust their mentality, maintain patience, and try to adapt to the feel of the new ball.