Scout's Take

On the NBA's offensive doldrums (at week's end teams were
averaging 91.4 points, a drop of 3.7 per game from last season,
and shooting 42.8%, a 1.4% decrease):

This has become a league of young athletes who don't know how to
shoot or move without the ball. The zone defenses are effective
because they force athletes to settle for jump shots, which
they're not capable of making. It takes only a few extra
defensive stops to make a noticeable difference in scoring. At
least one of three things has to happen to get it back up: The
league has to scrap this three-year experiment with zones--which
isn't going to happen, because the NBA will never admit it was
wrong--or we have to keep drafting Europeans who know how to
shoot and move without the ball, or our high school and AAU
coaches have to get back to teaching the fundamentals.