NBA Playoffs Physicality Ratings: 2024 vs the 1990's

We tracked the full 2024 NBA Playoffs for "Falls & Kockdowns" (82 games in total). To try and understand how the game may have changed through the years we recently charted 20 playoff games from the 1990's for the same data.

To review:

"Falls"	anytime a player hit the ground (we counted when a player put both hands on the court to brace himself, but noted this as a 'softer fall')
"Knockdowns"	who on the opposing team is responsible for the Fall (and like with the NFL and sacks, players can get a half credit if they shared the knockdown with a teammate)

Utilizing the context of the fall (going for an offensive rebound, rim protecting, etc), whether there was a foul called, game timing, etc we did observe some notable differences between the two eras. This also has important ramifications on why we see increased injuries in today's NBA.

Falls in the NBA Playoffs: Now vs Then

...So there were on average 3.8 more falls per game now versus then, and a 6% difference in how often a fall generated a foul called on an opposing player. Let's start breaking down how the falls were happening next.

Falls in the NBA Playoffs: Context

...here we see that the biggest takeaway is that falls per game are up significantly on offense and slightly on defense, while being less common on rebounds and loose balls. Foul drawing rates on falls were similar on offense (38% in 2024, 36% in the 90s), but quite different on defense (20% vs 10%) and falls in rebounding situations (20% vs 12%). Fouls on loose balls where the players are hitting the floor (largely intentionally by diving for a ball) are rare in both eras.

It's when we get even more granular on the specifics of a fall that the differences between how the game is played now and then emerge pretty clearly...

Falls in the NBA Playoffs: Where the Game has Changed

...the clear standout change has been with the number of Falls per game on "Drives" (halfcourt and fastbreak are combined here -- the split is actually 7.7 halfcourt drive falls, 1.8 fastbreak drive falls in the 2024 playoffs). With almost double the number of falls per game versus our sample of the 90s playoffs.

You only have to watch a few minutes of 1990's NBA hoops generally to be startled to see there are possessions with "zero out offense" (eg no player behind the 3pt line) compared to the frequent 4-out and 5-out spacing of today.

In the 90s drives were often more of a weave through a lot of traffic. Today a player with the ball often has to only get round one defender to have a fairly straight line drive to the rim, with consequent incresed speed and resulting force when players collide.

An interesting finding is that the falls "defending screens" increased by two a game. Yes there are more screens these days, but also perhaps more falling to try and get the offensive foul called (although the foul drawing rates were basically the same in the two eras).

The "movement" categories we actually lumped together various smaller subsets, so it does include offball movement (non screen), as well as on ball perimeter play where a player isn't in the act of driving or defending a clear attack drive.

The Jump Shot falls also make sense given the huge change in 3pt shot attempts, where the player often elevates much higher, and is more prone to falling on landing (mid range shot falls up slightly in today's game).

Finally there are two main areas where falls have declined from the 1990's...Postups and Fastbreak Paint Catches. Postups of course are far less common nowadays, and the emergence of the 3pt shot on fastbreaks has led to fewer FB paint catches as well as less defenders in proximity perhaps.

NBA Playoffs Physicality Leaders: 1990's vs 2024

With only a twenty game sample of 90's playoff basketball it's not worth spending much time on the individual player numbers, but for players with at least two games played in the sample, there were only three who reached the 10+ Physicality Rating level (Falls+Knockdowns per 36 minutes), versus seven (minimum 150+ minutes) from the full 2024 playoffs.

Does it surprise anyone though who watched NBA basketball back then that Dennis Rodman has the highest physicality rating!! Some other players who had high for the times Physicality in our sample include Alonzo Mourning, Sarunas Marciulionis, Tim Hardaway, Buck Williams, Shawn Kemp, Dan Majerle, Detlef Schrempf, and Scottie Pippen.

In contrast Michael Jordan had a very ordinary by today's standards rating for a high volume ball handler.

NBA Playoffs Physicality: 1990's vs 2024 what's it mean for Injuries?

What we could also have quantified in this research was the severity of falls. Some a player suffers no evident harm and bounces right up, others he stays down for a bit (we might classify this as a "severe fall"), other times the player has to come out of the game either immediately for something catastrophic or shortly thereafter (classified as an "injury fall"). There is little doubt not just the number of falls has gone up, but the number of severe falls is also higher in the current times due we speculate in part to the higher speeds and forces involved when collisions occur.

Even the seemingly harmless falls though may take a toll over time, and by the volume of such. Which is why the next component to examine is how have the players in the 2024 playoffs held up this 2024-25 regular season to roughly the midway point based on their physicality levels in the playoffs, and with their simple playoff minutes played as a comparative measure?

... part III: Falls and Consequent Injury Risk (coming soon)

Also see:
- 2024 NBA Playoffs "Physicality" ratings
- Full Player "Physicality" data table