The NBA's competition committee has officially begun reviewing whether the game has become too advantageous for offense and whether some changes need to be implemented to achieve better balance.

"It is a topic that we're monitoring," Joe Dumars told ESPN earlier this month. "We're diving in right now to make sure that we're on the right side of this."

When Adam Silver took over as commissioner, the league-wide offensive rating was below 105 points per 100 possessions and has since risen steadily to 115 points per 100 possessions this season.

Players are more talented and teams prioritize higher percentage shots than they did in the past.

"More high-percentage shots, which are shots at the rim and 3-point shots, are going to lead to more points," 76ers coach Nick Nurse said before a game in Philadelphia last month. "Most everybody's kind of got that as their theme of how they're playing."

The NBA isn't close to taking any action yet.

"It's not to that point yet," said Dumars, who regularly fields calls from teams. "We're diving [into the data] right now and just a ton of film and putting together a ton of reels to be able to look at this and go, 'OK, yeah, we do have a problem.' But you don't make changes like that just on an anecdotal call."

The Golden State Warriors launched an improbable pursuit of LeBron James ahead of the trade deadline, which teams sources tell ESPN's Baxter Holmes represents the desire from Joe Lacob to keep the franchise as a contender.

"I'm not going to comment on something I can't comment on, but, in general, I just want to win," Lacob said. "We just want to win. We want to be the best, and we're going to try whatever tactic it takes to get there. I am not here to screw around. We are not here to screw around. We are not here to be just 'some team.' We're not going to do that. We may fail. Everyone fails. We may fail occasionally, but it will not be for lack of trying."

As the Warriors had a gap year in 19-20, they accumulated three lottery picks and a source says they had a "swing for the fences" approach in selecting high-ceiling players. The Warriors picked James Wiseman in 2020, and then Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody in 2021. This became Lacob's "two-timeline" approach. 

"We could have drafted more ready players that maybe had a lower ceiling," Lacob tells ESPN. "We thought we had more time with our Big Three. How much more? We didn't know. And at what level? We weren't quite sure.

"Now, melding them in with the Big Three, that's where I think it got complicated."

Lacob had wanted the Warriors to follow the blueprint set by the San Antonio Spurs when they connected the Tim Duncan era with Kawhi Leonard.

"I think there was always a delusion in that building that they were the next Spurs," said one source close to the Warriors organization.

"I think [ownership] made a decision about four years ago that they were going to try and have it all, and it backfired," a former Warriors staffer said. "They probably should have focused on players that just fit with Steph versus trying for the home run swings."

Lacob believes the Warriors have an "ace in the hole" that will keep them immune from ever enduring an extended rebuild. 

"It's the reason that I don't think we will ever, ever try to bottom out."

"We are the Golden State Warriors," Lacob said, referencing their status as a free agent destination. "I believe in the culture. I believe that word gets out. I could go on and on. I'm not trying to brag. I'm just saying, that's who we are.

"We're never going to bottom out. I won't settle for that. We're not doing that."