Some loose parallels here with football / others sports generally in evolution of style and player types. Over time the game does basically become more advanced, but it’s more paper/scissors/rock in adjusting to whatever challenge is at hand than a straight progression upwards.
Steven Adams describing the connection between the stretch-5 era and the resurgence of offensive rebounding…
“The people they were drafting, they’re not used to what I call trenchwork… all the stuff that’s not sexy - they’re really not good at it at all.
A lot of the techniques I use wouldn’t work on dudes back in the day. But now I’m versing people that don’t know any of that stuff”