Warriors coach and former NBA sharpshooter Steve Kerr reflected on something he sees as a growing problem in the league following his team's loss on Thursday night.
Kerr, speaking with reporters after Golden State was defeated by the Minnesota Timberwolves, was asked to explain the Warriors' dreadful performance on the glass, where they were outrebounded by a margin of 57-34.
The veteran coach seemed to blame the Dubs' poor rebounding on the lack of emphasis on "the little things" in the "modern NBA."
"This is the modern NBA," Kerr told reporters, according to ESPN. "Guys don't box out. It's just the way it is."
The mentality is especially harmful for smaller teams like the Warriors, he added.
"Every night on League Pass, I see the same thing. Players let guys come in from the weak side, and they think, 'I'll just get the rebound.' It's a disease that's rampant in the NBA. The problem is, if you're a real small team like us, then it's going to hurt you more than it will hurt other teams."
The style of play in the league certainly seems to have evolved over the past decade or so, both organically and due to some rule changes.
Many teams have embraced analytics, adopting the 3-point revolution and increasing their pace of play, while changes like the hand-check rule appeared to favor offense and tempo.
With these factors taken in total along with changes in societal attitudes about appropriate interactions between coaches and their players, Kerr sees a "different world."
"Most of these guys didn't have a high school and college coach yelling at them for a combined eight straight years," he said. "It's a different world today. And players grow up in a different way in terms of their basketball background. The detail is often the thing that is lacking.
"Players have never had more skill than they have today, in my mind," Kerr said. "I'm amazed by the skill level. But the little things, getting back in transition -- every night on TV, I see teams let a guy run past them in transition for a layup. We do it. Every team does it. If you did that 25 years ago, your coach would take you out and he wouldn't play you again. Now everybody does it, and as a coach, you can't take everybody out. So there are certain parts of the game that are just different. Players aren't as locked in on those things. I think just because it's a different time."
Stephen Curry, for his part, wasn't so sure.
"Everybody has a different upbringing in the game," he said. "When I was at Davidson, we literally drilled that before, during and after every practice. It's part of just learning the fundamentals of the game -- at this level, maybe it's taken for granted I guess that everybody has a certain understanding, angles and physicality and what not, but you have to be able to do it.
"It is glaring. 57-34. That's nuts. So we've got to figure that out."
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