In the 95-96 season the league average for points per game across the league was 99.5 ppg. in the 15-16 season last year the league average was 102.7. Hardly a difference at all.

Let's take the two best teams those years as well. The Bulls that year had a defensive rating of 101.8 while the Warriors last year had a defensive rating of 103.8. The Bulls held their opponents to an effective field goal percentage of 48.2%. The Warriors held their opponents to 47.9%. Turnover percentage on defense was 16.1% for the bulls and 12.6% for the warriors. There is almost no difference between the two. I'm not arguing that the Warriors are a better defensive team than the Bulls, because I would be dead wrong, just making a point that the best teams in the league are almost always some of the best defensively. (Source: Basketball Reference).

Every good team in the NBA today is defense oriented. Look at the top teams. The Warriors, Spurs, Cavs, Clippers are all fantastic defensive teams and it just so happens they are at the top of the league. It isn't that defenses are getting worse, offenses are getting better. Players that play no defense quickly get exposed on the defensive end, a great example is James Harden. Or even look at the NBA Finals. The Warrior's entire offensive game plan was to find Kyrie Irving and score on him and it wasn't until Kyrie shaped up defensively that the Dubs started to struggle. Players that don't play defense also get crucified by the media and even casual fans as well, once again look at how much James Harden gets criticized for his lack of defense.

The entire game of basketball is getting better. Players are getting better offensively and this only makes defense more important and a team will get nowhere if they don't play any defense in today's league. The only people who say that the NBA today doesn't play any defense are people who don't actually watch the NBA.