Isiah Thomas was making a salient point about the state of the NBA on the league’s satellite radio station Saturday. If it’s true that offence is at an all-time high, Thomas said — and the league-average offensive rating is on pace to set a record in efficiency for the third straight year — it only follows that defence is at an all-time low.
Thomas, the Hall of Fame player and founding general manager of the Raptors, laid a big part of the defensive devolution at the feet of the league’s copycat coaching culture. And if that distillation neglects to factor in the role of officiating that favours offence, the unceasing rise of the three-pointer and the bottom-line truth that contracts worth megamillions are often based on a player’s offensive stats — well, fair enough.