During the 1990s and 2000s, NBA offenses often relied on isolation plays, where star players such as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and James Harden would take over games by creating their own shots. In recent years, however, there has been a shift in offensive strategies across the league. Teams are now emphasizing ball movement and pick-and-roll actions to generate scoring opportunities.
LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers discussed this change during an episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast. He said: “We didn’t have this many defenses and nuances of how to play defense vs. iso, isolated players back, I would say 5-to-7 years ago. Now there’s so many different ways to get the ball out of a guy’s hands. If he’s just sitting there isoing on the wing, you can flood the whole side and bring another guy to the elbow. You could literally run a guy and just go trap him and now you got three defenders. You got the guy that’s guarding the ball, the guy that came over to trap him and you have the sideline. There’s so many different ways, and in our game of pace-and-space and rhythm, you’re out of rhythm. You kinda want the ball popping or you want the trigger to happen, either by the pass or by pick-and-roll. You have a dynamic pick-and-roll player that can attract two on the ball, now you playing the 4-on-3 game, you’re playing the numbers game. That’s the game right now, it’s the numbers game. How can you start the blender. Is the Blender being started with the pass and cut. Is it what the Miami Heat are doing? Or is it what the Lakers are doing where we start a lot of our plays with pick-and-roll because we have such a dynamic pick-and-roll player in Luka. The trigger, how do you create the blender? How do you create the trigger? Creating the trigger used to be where guys catch the ball at the elbow in the Karl Malone-area and catch it, face-up and jab and jab. You need it a little bit, but it’s definitely on the lower side of that pie chart now. It is not a big piece of the demographic of winning basketball, in my case. I don’t see it.”
James noted that defensive schemes have become more complex over time as teams try new methods for disrupting isolation scorers by sending additional defenders or trapping along sidelines.
This evolution has influenced how teams like his own approach offense today; players such as James himself along with teammates Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves contribute both as scorers and playmakers from multiple spots on court.
At age 41 in his 23rd NBA season, LeBron continues to perform at an elite level for Los Angeles—a fact he attributes to becoming more versatile throughout his career.