re: Myth: It was harder for star NBA players to score in the 80's and 90's than now.

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“It’s more of a finesse game. It’s more small ball. Which, personally, I don’t really care much for,” Bryant said. Like so many from the old-school – even at 35, Bryant qualifies – he is befuddled at the soft stuff now that passes for physical play. “Makes me nauseous,” he said. “You can’t touch a guy….

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Yeah I remember Chris Childs touching up his chin a couple of times. He didn't like that too much.

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Your argument might be more persuasive if you accurately described the defensive strategies currently being used by NBA teams. They don't play true zone defenses. They play sagging man-to-man defenses with some zone principles.

If defenses are so much tougher now, then why are the top 5 of the career leaders in blocked shots per game players from the 80's and 90's instead of players from today who you claim do nothing except protect the basket? I interpret this to mean it wasn't so easy to get to the basket uncontested in the 80's and 90's as you claim.

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I never said teams today always play true zone. If you took it that way, sorry I wasn't clear. I clarified that I wasn't talking about zone in the sense of "2-3" or "3-2" in a later post I think on page 2. However, it's kind of beside the point anyway. The point is that players are not forced to stick on a man now, and they don't.

And as for the blocks, there was a lot more inside play back then. More inside play = more block opportunities, which = more blocks. Plus there were a lot of great big men back then. I don't want to give the impression that I'm selling them short.

Today, there is much more outside shooting, which reduces blocks. Secondly, a "rim protector" near the basket in today's game deters players from challenging them at the basket in the first place, thus reducing block opportunities.

In the 80's and 90's, because big men had to stick on their man, it made it made the rotation to the middle slower. Guards would see that the lane was open and would attempt a shot before the big man can rotate all the way. This created challenges at the rim because the guard would think he had a clear lane... but the best shot blockers were able to swat their shot in time.

The old rules which kept the lane more clear gave guards confidence to drive when they saw an opening. Now, the rim protector deters guards from driving as much.

Only bigger, stronger, or very athletic guards challenge big men at the rim today, like James Harden or Westbrook.

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The defensive 3 second rule doesnt attempt to do the same? Help side now can only do so much.

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Off-ball double teams are allowed now. So the center, for instance, doesn't have to guard his man. He can guard anybody. He can double team the PF's man if he wants when the PF doesn't have the ball. Why is this significant?

Because the 3-second clock resets whenever a player is guarding an opponent. And now, he can guard ANY opponent. In the rule book, "actively guarding" means "being within arm’s length of an offensive player and in a guarding position."

So basically, a center just has to be within arms length of ANY offensive player, whether he's already being guarded or not, and the 3-second count resets.

So you can see how easy it is for a center to hang out right near the rim whenever he wants to.

Next time you watch a game, watch a rim-protecting center and watch how he sticks his arm out to touch any random offensive player so that he can camp out as long as he wants.

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BUMP FOR LEBRON RUNNING ISOLATION LAST NIGHT FOR 44 POINTS

This entire thread says teams can't do it effectively and there were tons of pictures showing how guys "cheat" now. Yet LBJ did it the entire night last night where a whole side of the court was his alone with his defender

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I'm not saying your overall premise is wrong, but Lebron was really running post ups on plays that started in iso.

If it were true Iso and he was attacking, there would have been help, for sure.

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I'm not saying your overall premise is wrong, but Lebron was really running post ups on plays that started in iso.

If it were true Iso and he was attacking, there would have been help, for sure

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My premise is that a lot of the ways LBJ was scoring last night was similar to how stars in the 90s scored, with post ups off of isolation.

You are entirely incorrect and obviously a casual fan who knows nothing. Michael Jordan had whole teams trying to stop HIM individually amd he still succeeded. He was often triple teamed. The rules were stacked AGAINST Jordan and other guards back then which makes his dominance even more impressiveThe lane ks wide open these days, zero defense is played. It is DISGUSTING.......

There is NOTHING SP#CIAL about zone defense

NOR is it complicated.

Basketball is a simple game, a game of triangkes , as John Wooden stressed.

P.ayers back in the 90s were MUCH MOR3 FU DAME TALLY SOUMD.

The 50 year old Hakeem was over twice as smooth and skilled in footwork, dribbling, and poast mobes than 27 year old or so LeFlop..... LeBron has the weakest fundame tals of any superstar. That video exposed it.


Analytics does NOT work as Shaq and Barkley (and many mkre experts note)

Stats are an ILLUSION as Wilt himself noted and stressed. They do not even remotely tell the full story. They lie. GAME FILM DOES NOT. Real experts judge by intuition and game film. I saw Hersey Hawkins play such aggressive skilled i dividual defense agains M.J. in his prime1990-1991 playoff era that Jordan was driven into the GROUND AND FELL. No stat for that......



The total idiots on the Internet (who in real life never even attained scrub status on the court) are full of ignkrance-dorky dweebs who are "gamers" (play video games all day) and they comment....... Daryl Morey does not know jack. Barkley does. Barkley made even M.J., Pippen and Shaq lok silly quite a bit and dominated on the Dream Team -out lerforming everybody. Daly had the highest praise for Charles. He woukd feast on this mod3rn snoke flake generation's soul if was out there. Barkley woukd destroy all.

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Basketball is a simple game, a game of triangkes

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This is how I know you don't understand basketball. You just heard somebody say it so you repeat it.

I saw plenty of games where Barkley posted up Jordan, Pippen, Shaq and WON IN SPADES. BARKLEY WAS THE SECOND BEST PLAYER CHUCK DALY EVER SAW.

YOU DUJB MILLENIALS AND SNKWFLAKES HAVE NO CLUE WHAT A PISS POOR FUNDAMENTALLY U SOUND PRODUCT THE NBA IS-IT IS GARBAGE. EXCEPTIONS EMBIID WHO PLAYS DZEMBIID IS BEST DEFENDER IN THE GAME TODSY BUT SRILL PALES IN COMPARISON TO HAKEEM

I DO LIKE EMBIID, SIMMONS. MOST OF THE NBA ARE SNKWFLAKE PUNKS, AAU REJECTS WITH NO FUNDAMENTALS.