[nydailynews]Cassell: "The league is very soft now"

You could've bolded the next part, where he says he prefers it now as to before...

 

Since league put that hand checking away, defense got softer, but Cassel must understand that with tougher and harder defense, ppg are droping, NBA will care more about attractive moves rather than playing defense.
It makes you wonder what Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson etc. could do in today's NBA since if you touch one player that's a foul.

 

Misleading a bit how they put it, it's like Cassell doesn't like it's soft now and then they say he doesn't mind. Hopefully the Rockets will make a move and get this guy because he's still better than Rafer, MJ & Francis all together. They can't drop 30 a night anymore, Cassell can.

Please Morey, get Sam I Am home where he belongs.... in Houston because if the Celtics get him they're even more dangerous. I think with Cassell they have all the oldtimers they need to win the championship this year and maybe even back to back. That's how big i think Cassell can be for them and for the Rockets. If the Rockets get him, there's no way they won't make it to the playoffs. Cassell will get us some experience and steps up even more when we make the playoffs. Why don't these assholes, money greedy sons of b****es from the Houston Rockets get that ?? We need some1 to carry us deep into the playoffs, if we even get there and Rafer, MJ nor Francis can do that !!!

For the last time: GET Cassell home !!

 

Yeah I wish there were no stupid hand-checking fouls so guys like Paul and Nash wouldn't have such free rein to go into the lane untouched. But it is what it is, the league's now meant for smaller players the way the rules are constructed with zone D and three-seconds and the hand-checking aka MJ rule in place. So we have to join the party, get our Euro-flopper (Scola) and our fast and flimsy guard (Brooks) and just play it the way they force us to.

 

But then they awarded it to David Robinson the following year. The downfall began...

 

I don't know. I just think it's funny for a player who whines about being fouled as much as Sam to say that the league has gotten soft.

 

The league is soft?

Tell that to Yao.....


It is not soft, it is actually closer to getting called by the rules.

DD

 

That's a faulty argument with the Hakeem statement. I love Dream and he'd be MVP in today's game too because he had skills.

Yes, the league is "softer", but that's not all bad. In the past "enforcers" who couldn't play ball were abundant, but nowadays, if you don't have real basketball skills, then it's much harder to make the L.

Look, I wouldn't mind having more physical defenses out there, but when it was so bad that people could hand check, grab, hold...when that was so commonplace that it allowed scrubs to be in the L, well that was too far towards the physical end.

 

Flopping is one factor that has added to the "softness". I cant think of many obvious floppers back in the early to mid 90s. Now we have a whole bunch of em I can name right on top of my head.

I think one of the rules that has helped growth of flopping is the new ability to take charges outside of the circle. Back then, you had to be on the spot much earlier than the offensive player AND your feet and body had to be set and squared. Nowadays, i see people barely make it to the spot, and they are still turned sideways maybe, hardly set but they still get that charge call going for them just because both feet are outside the circle. No wonder guys are flying left and right.

Another factor is the no hand check rule. When Sam came into the league, guys at perimeter were hand checked and mugged. Derek Harper just hand checked Kenny Smith to death in the Finals. Nowadays, referees are looking for it.

A possible third factor might be that there were just more players back then who were perceived as tough. You had Charles Oakley, Anthony mason, Dale Davis, Antonio Davis, Rodman, Kevin Willis, Antoine Carr, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Mutumbo, Shaq, Alonzo, Buck Williams, Bill Cartwright...... These players guarded the paint back then and they were not hesitant to smack you when you went in the lane against them.

I just don't see as many enforcer type big men in today's games. There are less than a handful back to the basket big men left. Most of them are now face the basket type of player.

In light of all this, I do agree that the league has gone soft when you compare it to the one in early to mid 90s

 

Well I for one believe it is more soft today than it was before.. I liked it when you could actually guard a player driving to the basket. (Put your hand on them)

 

Same here. You lay a finger nail on a player thinking about going towards the goal and its a foul. Yet, guys like Shaq and Yao get hacked on every play. It doesn't make any sense.

 

dream wouldnt avg 40pts a game where you double the C before he even sees an inbounds pass

its very hard for C's now adays, zone defense and non stop double teams

but dream would still drop 30 in yo grille cuz he's effing DREAM.

same for shaq, drob, and alot of old skewl centers how would they adjust?

 

Those softy rules they implemented is whats extended his career

 

Just to add it this...I have about 30 old nba games from the 80s era on tape, and in those games, nobody ever flopped, ever. In fact, charges were rarely called in those games.

 

I wish Yao studied tapes of Oakley and Anthony Mason from the early to mid 90s. Next time Josh Howard decides to run into Yao he would get his grill pushed sideways like Bobby Brown.

 

Why fret over lack of Bobby Brown
when we have this Brown instead...



(I think from Bobby Brown transitioning over to this guy is the R & B correlation to what Sam-I-Am is saying about the league...)