Alex Speers

I'm going to briefly flip this from a bad to a good.

We got what I think is the best summation of the current issues with officiating in the form of a YouTube video from Ben Taylor at Thinking Basketball.

Ben spent 20 minutes detailing some of the biggest areas of the game that are currently being abused by offenses, things like moving screens, the gather step, use of the off-arm, and then just running over defenders, everyone becoming Giannis.

I thought his use of highlights from NBA games in the 2010s

showing how different the game is called from not that long ago was really good because he's got so many clips from the early Thunder years of Katie and Russ getting called for things that would barely register for a ref today.

And I thought that comparison was a really helpful visual to explain how much things have changed in such a short time span, despite the rules not changing at all.

It's not like he's showing clips of the Jordan rules in the early 90s or something.

I'm watching Russell Westbrook getting called for barely using his off-arm on a play.

Again, I hate talking about this stuff because it's become such a huge part of the conversation.

It seems like you don't, but just keep going.

I do.

I just don't think it can be ignored anymore.

And I'm talking about this week because I think it's significant that Ben Taylor's doing a video on it.

We're talking about the same guy who did a video last season explaining why a lot of SGA's foul calls are actually fouls.

It felt like we had gotten to a decent place in the second half of last season and into the playoffs where things got really physical, the refs were letting teams play, and fans were generally happy with the changes.

I know there were still complaints during the playoffs, but those finals, the way Indy matched OKC's physicality, I thought that was awesome.

But now we've seemingly gone backwards where offenses are once again setting all-time efficiency records, but that added efficiency is being almost entirely influenced by how the game is being called.

My stance has always been, I just don't want to talk about this stuff.

I don't want to know the names of the refs.

I don't want to see highlights of questionable foul calls.