INTRODUCTION
Ever since the introduction of the 3 point line in 1980, the act of being able to review in-game footage in critical moments, and the clear path foul, the NBA has evolved drastically. If you’ve ever gone back to study old basketball film, you would notice that their lineups, their playstyles, and moves differ greatly from how more recent players like Ja Morant or Stephen Curry play.
DIFFERENCE IN LINEUPS
Different trajectories in modern basketball can firstly be seen in our lineups. Coaches have been showing a pattern of putting more athletic, younger, and smaller players into the bigger positions such as power forward or center. This is because playing at a high pace in modern basketball has been emphasized more and more. This is due to the fact it creates more efficient scoring opportunities, especially with the 3 point line.
Lineups are also starting to be changed based on the offensive capability of the other teams lineup. Let’s say one team is bringing in the “big guns”; going all out offense with their best offensive players, then the other team would counter this by putting in their best defensive lineup. This helps balance out the flow of the game to make sure neither team is becoming too outscored.
DIFFERENCE IN PLAYSTYLES
Different and unique playstyles are what revolutionized and continue to change the NBA, but how? To answer this question we need to talk about the pick & roll. This play has been used in major basketball leagues for a long time. Bigger players have forced smaller ones to create small adjustments to their pick & roll game such as double teaming and creating guard to a big connection.
A different play that players have been taking advantage of is the Iso-ball play. Players who are efficient at scoring on 1v1 situations use this play mostly to play to their strengths. They do this by telling their team to get out of the way, which a strategy called “iso”, short for “isolate the ball”. With only the player and the defender, the player can go all out without any double teams of that sort.
Source: https://theanalyst.com/na/2021/03/the-modernization-of-nba-offenses-and-why-small-ball-is-here-to-stay/