When posting stats from the 80s and 90...

[JtotheIzzo]

...people need to understand the lay of the land at the time:

The Western Conference was wide open, high scoring and very light on defense. Teams were constructed to beat the high octane Lakers and built to run and gun. There were even experimental teams like the Nuggets who tried some no D all O shit to a level that would make Mike D'Antoni blush.

The Eastern Conference was a half court grind, teams like Philly, Boston and Detroit were firmly rooted in defense and slowing the pace. Outside of Atlanta Eastern Conference teams were constructed to beat these teams, even MJ's Bulls didn't win until they could win games in the 80 point range.

This reality of two very different conferences with very different statistics needs to be considered when discussing historical rankings. Basketball writers at the time took this into consideration for all NBA etc. someone like Fat Lever would not have anyone near the stats if they were in the East. The all time greats are still all time great, but the PG assist numbers for example are inflated from the open style of play.

So are many other numbers. Does that mean Larry Bird would score more in the West? No, his skill set doesn't lend itself to that style of play.

BUT

Please understand this skewing of the stats and don't fall victim to or participate in this tyranny of statistics

[dhsilv]

What stats get messed up by this though? I'm pretty sure all the stats people use are adjusted for pace to account for this. I mean nobody still talks about points per game or silly stuff after all....

[3ball]

Using league or team ORtg and DRtg to compare across eras doesn't work, because the style of play affects ORtg and DRtg.

2-pointers have higher offensive rebounding rate than 3-pointers - the higher proportion of 2-pointers taken in previous eras gave those eras higher offensive rebounding rates and subsequently higher ORtg/DRtg.. This is a well-known statistical fact.. It's just the way the stat is calculated - higher oreb rate increases ORtg and corresponding DRtg.