Defense in the 1980s and early 90s were overrated; Therefore so are the players

If not, I'd say that's a pretty SIGNIFICANT oversight on your part.

 

That made me laugh. 80s defense was primarily man on. Yep. Because everything else resulted in an illegal defense technical. Hence the hand checking, harder fouling and stylistic differences in general.

I guess people that didn't watch back in the 80s and 90s will never appreciate the differences.

 

Right to Censor?

Right to SUCK is more like it.

 

lets get

Lets get Rhondo here

 

Ohhhhh I would love to see Gary Payton tear Westbrook up all day.

 

Oh, look, it's the douche who started his own thread about how he was banned from InsideHoops or whatever starting troll threads. So shocking

 

Fake Rockets fan Alert

 

So many crap flying around on this troll thread which I just want to clear up especially for the Lebron/Kobe fan boys.

Fact #1
It did NOT become harder to score because the illegal defense was eliminated in 2000/01. Why? Because they also included the defensive 3 second rule (which permitted players from standing in the lane for more than 3 seconds without guarding an offensive player) therefore eliminating a true zone defense.

What does the stats show?
League average scoring stats did not go down dramatically on or after 2000/2001. You can look at the pts per game or eFG%.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_stats.html

Fact #2
It DID become easier to score after they curtailed the handchecking rule in 2004/05.

What does the stats show?
Points per game went up by 4 pts that year and the eFG% went up from .471 (a year before) to .482 that year and it has been going up and up. The past regular season was at .501 (highest in history of the league).
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_stats.html

Fact #3
After the MJ/Bulls effect, teams wanted to be the next Bulls and players wanted to be the next Jordan. From the late 90's you can see a shift of teams going towards relying their offense on their perimeter players rather than post players.

What does the stats show?

Highest Field goal attempts
Pre Y2K era
90/91 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1991_leaders.html
91/92 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1992_leaders.html
92/93 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1993_leaders.html
93/94 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1994_leaders.html
94/95 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1995_leaders.html
95/96 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1996_leaders.html
96/97 - (At this stage more and more perimeter players taking the burden of offense)
-
-

Post Y2K era (Look at how much FGA these perimeter players take even tho games were played at lower pace compared to early 90's. And when you have Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryan and Tracy Mcgrady etc.. shooting at close to 2000 attempts per year at a FG% avg of about .450....that really pushed the scoring stats down in the league)

00/01 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2001_leaders.html
01/02 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2002_leaders.html
02/03 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2003_leaders.html
03/04 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2004_leaders.html
04/05 - (Handchecking curtailed since the perimeter oriented players at this stage was just stinking up the joint with their bad wanna be ISO mike offense)
-
-
13/14 - http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2014_leaders.html

In Summary
-NBA offense started to stink around 97/98 as more and more teams went perimeter oriented and players trying to be like Mike
-NBA offense really stunk it up during 98/99 due to lock out and more and more teams went for more perimeter oriented offense
-2001/02 they got rid of illegal defense and put in 3 second defensive rule. Didn't do much in regards to making the offense worse or better. It was still stinking.
-2004/2005 League worried about the stinking stench which is called scoring in the game and the persistence of teams going for perimeter oriented offense and the lack of skilled big men coming up the ranks (because previous 13yr olds that wanted to be like Mike unfortunately grew up to be 7ft)....they came up with a brilliant idea....since teams are adamant to go perimeter oriented offense and lack of big men with fundamental post game...lets make it easy for perimeter players! Lets get rid of Handchecking!
-Since 2004/05 to now...scoring is higher, and eFG% is higher. NBA chiefs are happy...spectators are happy. 12 year olds claiming 80's 90's have nothing compared to todays players making old timers unhappy.

The End.

 

Agree with Adobo. Combine that with the three point shot, and you have almost an entire league of offenses with a bunch of guys standing at the three point line doing nothing while their wing man drives and maybe dishes. No motion, no mid-range game. We get some good dunks, lots of flops, three point set shots, and a pretty uninteresting product.

 

Ppl that knock Larry Bird's Celtics and Magic's Lakers teams just have no idea how complete those teams were. Just because they see them on some highlights wearing tight shorts and non HD video footage does not speak how much they would dominate most of the teams today.

 

Great breakdown, adobo. You could also add the NBA moving in the three point line for the 95-96 season that produced the 72-10 Bulls and probably accelerated the "wanna be like Mike" phenomenon.

 

Very Good point. If a team breaks the record for a regular season record, every other team will replicate the same template

 

I guess just to emphasis how much easier it is for guards in this era:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JttE4UT74k

 

I completely agree. I have been saying this for ages. The rule changes have made it much easier for guards to penetrate, and yet everyone seems to discount their impact on the league nowadays.