1. Yes I feel it has. The Pace, 3-point numbers, and opposing teams lineups show the enormous difference in the style of play these past two seasons although it began to really trend this way last year.I get what you're saying, but has the game evolved THAT MUCH since the end of last season? Enough to go from Horford playing with another big 50% of the time to 5%? That's a shit load of Darwinian evolution in 6 months.
2. Many people are forgetting that Horford was hardly even going to be paired with another big last season if not for the Hayward injury. Then you also had Morris with his knee problem all year that forced him in and out of the lineup especially early in the year. SOMEBODY has to play those minutes next to Horford and in close to half of those games the options were Baynes, Ojeleye, Nader, Theis or Yabusele.....which is not the case this year. Baynes was signed to play those 2nd unit big minutes as we saw last pre-season and if not for injuries that is what his role would have been.