Doing away with handchecking enabled …

Doing away with handchecking enabled the league to legislate more scoring for perimeter players — and it worked. In 2003-04, only Tracy McGrady (28.0) scored 25 or more points per game. The next season, the first without handchecking, seven players crossed the 25-point threshold, with 5-foot-10 point guard Allen Iverson (30.7 PPG) leading the charge. This season, there are 14 players averaging 25 or more points a game, and only one of them — Towns — is a center. This trend has cemented the belief of NBA analytics teams that, when it comes to defensive contact, post bigs will not be rewarded in the same way perimeter players will be. “When we played in the ’94 Finals against Houston, we were two defensive powerhouses battling,” Ewing says. “But the NBA wants [the game] to be a more high-scoring affair, because they think that’s more appealing to fans. So, they’ve changed the way the game is played.”