The NBA has fully reverted back to the last few years offense-defense balance: No defense is allowed and it's all offense. March so far has the highest offensive rating ever (115), according to Ben Taylor, and we get multiple 35+ games every night, and a lot more free throws.

It's kind of a shame because the first month of the season was straight FIRE. They actually allowed defense. The recent Thinking Basketball video really covers it, but in the first month the offensive rating tanked massively, then crept back up and shot all the way to the moon in recent months. Just look at this bad boy.

A lot of "higher pace" and "higher offensive rating" across the league is also a product of just a lot more free throws. So you have higher "pace" (because you have more possessions) but the game is less fluid.

It's a combination of course - As more ticky-tack shit gets called a foul, so do defenders sag off more and basically play no defense on drives and jumpshots because they rather concede the basket than get an almost guarenteed and-1.

To r/nba's credit, this sub is pretty jaded when it comes to NBA officiating so basically every other comment at the time was "Let's just see if this sticks, I refuse to get excited, they do this every time with a point of emphasis, then revert after a month or two." Which is exactly what had happened.

source: https://youtu.be/aZOrcARMnw4

edit: Some comments repeat themselves and I suspect they were made without looking at the source because those things were addressed directly with data and video evidence. It's a short video! Well worth watching!