Brendan Haywood believes the NBA has lost some of the offensive identity that once separated one team from another, pointing to the league-wide adoption of analytics-driven principles as a major reason.
Speaking on Gil’s Arena, Haywood compared the current NBA with college basketball, where he believes teams are more likely to maintain distinct offensive systems and play to their individual strengths.
“I call a lot of college basketball last year, and I do pro. And the one difference I see is offense identity,” Haywood said.
“If you watch a college game, Duke don’t play like Carolina, Carolina don’t play like Michigan, Michigan don’t play like Nebraska or whoever, or Kansas, right? But when you watch an NBA game everybody plays the same but it didn’t used to be like that.”
Haywood pointed to several examples from the NBA era in which he entered the league, arguing that teams were more clearly associated with specific offensive systems.
“When we came in the league the Nets was running the Princeton, the Lakers were running the triangle then you had Sacramento running the high post offense with Vlade and them boys,” Haywood said. “Golden State run and gun, low post offense, cross screens.”
The former NBA center said those teams built their systems around the personnel available to them rather than attempting to follow a common league-wide template.
“Everybody played to their strengths because they said this is what we do,” Haywood said.
In Haywood’s view, the evolution of analytics changed that approach. He argued that the increased use of technology and data encouraged teams to prioritize similar principles, particularly three-point shooting, pace and pick-and-roll spacing.
“Then you know what happened everybody came in with the iPads and everything else and analytics, and they said, ‘Hey, we want to be pace and space and shoot threes mid pick and roll spread game the whole NBA plays like that.’”
The NBA has indeed undergone a significant offensive transformation over the past decade-plus, with teams increasingly emphasizing three-point attempts, spacing and pick-and-roll actions. However, those common principles can still be incorporated into very different systems depending on personnel, coaching philosophy and matchup strategy.
