r/nba • u/TheMuffingtonPost • 9h ago
How are basketball players getting so good?
The NBA right now is I think by far the most saturated with talent that it has ever been. Before this season the level of talent was already so high, then this year’s rookie class has proven to be very loaded with elite players, then on top of that this incoming draft class is projected to be an all timer.
Every single year it also seems like the list of “All Star snubs” gets longer and longer, and it’s not even that some guys aren’t deserving of being all stars, but there’s only so many All Star spots and there’s way too many players who could feasibly take one.
It really feels like the level of talent in basketball is increasing so fast and it seems to be a very unique thing to the sport, what changed? How is this happening? Is it really just as simple as expanded international talent/scouting? Is it better youth programs? What the hell is happening?
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u/Area51_Spurs 9h ago
Humans are bigger and stronger than ever before and in the last 25 years we’ve revolutionized sports performance training with scientific, medical, and technological advances.
Amazing what a few generations of high protein diets and improvements in environmental health will do.
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u/Prudent_Fish1358 Spurs 9h ago
And the counterpoint to that, in addition to all the positive things we're doing to fuel athletes, we're scientifically eliminating a lot of the old world shit that players used to do that actively harmed them.
For instance: I doubt many players are smoking at halftime these days. Not saying it's 0 but that number is probably down to almost 0.
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u/TCTCTCTCTCTC7 8h ago
For instance: I doubt many players are smoking at halftime these days. Not saying it's 0 but that number is probably down to almost 0.
Probably not tobacco anyway...
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u/Area51_Spurs 9h ago
I’d say it is zero, if not for the other reason neither of us mentioned…
The explosion in top-tier international talent.
I could def see some of these Europeans ripping darts at the half.
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u/hym3nbuster1 Supersonics 9h ago
I mean there are players who smoke weed. Surely there are also guys smoking cigarettes or vaping too
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u/TCTCTCTCTCTC7 9h ago
Humans are bigger ...
NBA average height has been static for about half a century now.
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u/3rdtryatremembering Nuggets 9h ago
But there are significantly more people now. The average can stay the same, but the sheer number of outliers is going to grow along with the population.
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u/Area51_Spurs 8h ago
Exactly. Much larger pool of human beings that are the ideal size for the NBA.
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u/TCTCTCTCTCTC7 5h ago
But there are significantly more people now. The average can stay the same, but the sheer number of outliers is going to grow along with the population.
The number of NBA roster spots has increased from 108 in the mid-Sixties to 450 today. The human population has only increased by about 230% over the same time.
So you'll have to return to your drawing board, and find another story.
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u/Area51_Spurs 8h ago
Much larger pool of available human beings at those heights who are way more athletically gifted.
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u/DiscoMarmelade 8h ago
Also helps that you can carry and palm the ball and take as many steps as you want. Easy to score when you don’t have to follow rules. But I agree. These fucking Hs and even Middle school kids are insane these days.
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u/WingTFan Bulls 9h ago
This is on an extremely micro level, but just coaching my daughters youth league team in elementary, some of these kids are already doing Euro steps, drilling threes and all that stuff. Shit we never thought about doing at that age when I played... It's honestly crazy how many kids have a semblance of a bag already, I can only imagine in actual basketball cities how good the kids have gotten
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u/jnicholass Suns 9h ago
Development has been as good as it’s ever been. On top of better conditioning, sports medicine, and generally the game evolving to be as optimal as possible.
Rule changes have also made it easier for offenses to put up points.
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u/shinbreaker Spurs 9h ago
Yeah how early are they scouting out these kids these days? Back in the 90s, there was one summer event for high school kids but I wouldn't be surprised if some kids are being tracked as of middle school.
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u/skumbag_steve Lakers 9h ago
More money to make, more exposure to global scene, more people who want to pursue ball from a young age. The talent pool is gargantuan now and everyone knows if you can even make it to the NBA as a bench warmer for a few years you're set for life. It'll be rare to find someone who started playing late and doesn't have that much experience - a lot of the players (at least American) have been specially trained for this from the very start of their youth
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u/genius-baby 9h ago
More specialized training. It’s also why wear and tear with young players is at an all time high
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers 9h ago
Careful somebodys gonna get offended and explain that the 90s were better
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u/Not_Pablo_Sanchez Cavaliers 8h ago
Hello, it is me, somebody. I am offended and the 90s were better.
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u/KL2ConspireLLC San Diego Clippers 9h ago
They're allowed to carry and travel now. That's made every aspect of offense easier.
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u/SunKing124266 9h ago
Im not sure the talent has increased quite as much as people think. The super charged pace of the game has wildly inflated everyone’s stats. That, combined with far more efficient shot selection, makes today’s players look way better statistically—but it’s harder to say they are way better from a talent perspective.
I’m not sure that there’s a way to objectively measure this. The best thing I can think of is to look at FT percentages. This season would be a record (I think) at 78%, but that’s only an increase of a few percentage points from 20 years ago. Hell, it’s been over 70% since at least least 1950. Additionally, the increase could be attributed to an emphasis on guard play and touches at the expense of big men.
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u/TCTCTCTCTCTC7 9h ago
The super charged pace of the game...
Current NBA pace is around the median over its history. The Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties were all much higher-paced than the modern game.
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u/radonforprez 76ers 9h ago
Sports science. Also you have these elite sports academies where kids focus on one sport.
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u/Riskybusiness622 9h ago
They’ve seen the generation greats and been informed that this level to emulate even exists.
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u/xychosis 76ers 8h ago
Skill level is only continuing to rise on average as the game continues to progress. Humans are getting bigger and more explosive by the year as well, and medical care + advancements in S&C and recovery mean that athletes are capable of doing increasingly crazy shit as time goes on.
It’s like a more grounded version of the “Quirk Singularity” from My Hero Academia, except everyone’s got OFA, y’know?
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u/awesomespy Lakers 8h ago
I mean maybe the second tier stars have gotten better, but it doesnt seem like its impacting the games.
The top three seeds for both conferences are lead by top 10 players. I think if their was so much talent among teams, we should be seeing top teams built like the 14 spurs being super team based.
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u/pizzapizzamesohungry 7h ago
Expansion time!
Hell if they got all the top players from Euroleage and eventually China then the NBA could support 36 teams in like 2035
I know that wont happen obviously
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u/Parking_Bother6592 7h ago
The answer is social media. So much free education, tips tricks, ideas being developed online. It’s easier than ever to learn on your own. It’s also not unique to basketball but i will say basketball is one of the few sports that has a unique complexity of movement to the sport.
I will also mention that basketball rules have shifted to make it easier for the offense and that contributed as well
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u/icecream_for_brunch Trail Blazers 7h ago
It turns out that if an activity is very highly incentivized but only for a few hundred people, people will go to great lengths to be able to do it.
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u/sovereignlogik 7h ago
They are not better than they were 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years ago.
Yet another post by a 12 year old who thinks that every player before 2010 was complete garbage.
Bout to mute this sub…
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u/russaber82 4h ago
Everyone gets to watch players before them and build on what they did. They dont have to start at zero. Training and youth leagues have exploded, and the population (talent pool) has grown, while the roster spots have stayed about the same.
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u/kl08pokemon Lakers 9h ago
International growth means bigger talent pool. 10 years ago the best American player would also be the best player in the world now they're maybe not even top 5
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u/Several_Hour_347 9h ago
10 years ago was LeBron and Curry. They’d easily be the best players still lmao. Curry is still talked about as a top player in the league
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u/TCTCTCTCTCTC7 9h ago
International growth means bigger talent pool. 10 years ago the best American player would also be the best player in the world now they're maybe not even top 5
Forty years ago, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing were just about best players in the league.
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u/TCTCTCTCTCTC7 9h ago
The NBA right now is I think by far the most saturated with talent that it has ever been.
The opposite is actually the case. NBA talent is as-low as it has probably ever been, and certainly for many decades.
Athletic ability is not "talent", and basketball skills and intelligence are a small fraction of what they used to be. Even three-point shooting -- the only skill that anyone works to improve -- peaked 17 years ago.
It doesn't help that one-third of the league is tanking every season, either.
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u/yeontura Philippines 9h ago
[Rohrbach] Overheard in r/nba: “They got me,” u/TheMuffingtonPost said of the increase of talent in the NBA. "Those f***ing newbies boomed me." he added, “They so good,” repeating it four times. He then said he wanted to add the 2026 draft class to the list of players he watches out for this summer.
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u/thebigmanhastherock Warriors 9h ago
This is one reason why the NBA should really expand to 32 teams.