A few things.
1) The correlation between 3's and winning is strong, while the correlation between mid-range shots and winning is small. So, mid-rangers have been devalued like BA has in baseball.
2) As far as knocking people down, the NBA will suspend people for anything. Remember McHale's clothesline of Kurt Rambis? That would have had McHale out of the next three games today and there would be an Outside the Lines special on violence in the NBA. So players today have to be careful.
3) You may have been right about PG's in 1996 when teams were looking for "combo-guards" like Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury, but not now. Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Steve Nash, Andre Miller, and Jose Calderon look to pass first.
4) Over the last two or three years, teams have shied away from "potential". I think the Darko and Tskitishvili scared everyone to their senses.
5) I love college hoops, but more for the passion and drive of the fans and players and less for the quality of the basketball. There are way too many possessions in CBB where the ball doesn't enter the paint for 25-30 seconds, three's are too short (which is changing), and coaches are too powerful.