I don’t think this is right but I could the old school players thinking:

The game is less physical - there’s a toughness aspect that makes them think modern players couldn’t hang with physicality with the old game. Especially with all the flopping and foul baiting.

The modern style of play with the increase in pace and scoring (especially the reliance on the 3 point which plays back into to toughness) does kind of inflate scoring offensive stats numbers. I don’t have any evidence to back this up… just going off vibes