Most strategic improvements in sports have been in the direction of increasing variance and living with the (better EV) results:

Baseball: more extra base hits, no more bunting.

Football: more passing game, going for it on 4th.

Golf: driver ball speed increases.

Bball: 3 pointer…

Tennis: bigger serves/groundstrokes.

Snooker: cannoning the pack to extend breaks.

Chess: sub-optimal but niche exploitive lines.

That is from Agustin Lebron.  Maybe a lot of the NBA improvements are simply insisting on better defense and fundamentals?  And matching player defensive assignments, or five-man rotations, to more closely align with data on historical success?

Keep reading this article on Marginal Revolution.

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