"Not according to the numbers. Last season, the percentage of shots taken by the top two scorers on each team ranged from 24.4 percent (Atlanta, New Orleans) to 41.1 percent (Houston). Most clubs were in the 30-percent area." Wow, we are the most star-obsessed team in NBA!
Most people don't say shooting tailed off from the 50s and 60s, most people say the peak shooting and peak competitive period in the NBA was the 70s through early 80s. His numbers pretty much confirm this, FT% looks like it very much tailed off in the 90s (down 2.8% from its peak) and bounced back some (more European players?) but still is off almost 1% from the 70s and 80s. 1% may not seem like much, but as he showed that is more than double the home advantage (.4%) when averaged over all occasions. I like the article, but he defeats his own argument on this point with his numbers.
When was the last time you saw an NBA player specialize in taking 21 foot jumpers after the invention of the 3 point line? Hopefully never. Anyway, it was one tourney, with a team made up of a bunch of guys who mostly weren't that great spot up shooters anyway. I'd hardly use a few bad games by a few players to invalidate the results of thousands of player-games in the NBA Hell, look at Carlos Arroyo - if you're going to use a few games in the olympics as a barometer, he should have been tearing up the league - instead he became expendable within a few months.
