Hand-checking on the perimeter was largely to slow players from blowing past you. It wasn't to keep them from moving laterally and it definitely wasn't to keep them from jumping backwards, as Curry often does to create space to launch. Handchecking isn't going to prevent Curry from getting off his three-pointers. Even on Curry's drives, the handcheck would be of limited use because he's never relied on an explosive first step to burst past the defender. He uses penetration to probe for weaknesses and exploits missteps and mistakes by defenders. Short of grabbing him, he's still going to find the space for his floaters and fancy lay-ups.
They should allow hand-checking Curry's head. btw: Eradicating hand checking was offset by eradicating illegal defenses. For some reason, people always forget about the effect of eradicating illegal defenses. Without that change, it would be much easier to get Curry the ball with space to shoot. You can't have a rover help-defender, tracking him without the ball. You can't double him without the ball. He can be ISO'd much easier when needed...forcing a double team on GSW's terms. You can argue that they stopped allowing hand-checking in Jordan's era (questionable really) prior to eradicating illegal defense vs 2004 when both were clearly stopped. But you also have to accept that Curry is doing this in the era of no illegal defenses, which makes it harder on him. In today's NBA, it's much easier to implement sophisticated defenses to bring help-defense to bear on offensive players.
I'm now doing this little game after each Curry performance: The critics please tell us how the old hand-check rules would've prevented each basket. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/quI--kovXgI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
God, I miss those games with teams using up the shot clock and struggling to get to 90 points, that was beautiful basketball. Basketball from the mid 90's-mid 2000's was the outlier, and not the best brand of basketball. Ratings declined for a reason.
Any one that want hand check era back is probably 20 years old and didn't see how boring that era was. Basketball was boring as hell. Guys that can't shoot. Isoball. Dribble dribble dribble...miss. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah yea...good time. Amber Lynn and Ron Jeremy were big back then
This. I doubted him before and questioned how he would fair if he were to play in the early to mid 90s era against players like Stockton and Payton. Forget it. Just crown the ****ing guy already. He's absolutely ridiculous. He's a once ever shooter.
There may not have been as organized defensive "schemes"... but scoring was down, FG % was down, efficiency was down and there's a reason why small-ball (and smaller players like Curry) weren't as prevalent or successful. Rules were changed for a reason... the NBA needed to help the offensive player out because the physical aspect of the game had eclipsed the offensive ability aspect. Again, not saying that Curry would be a scrub in that era... he absolutely would have been a tremendous shooter, and would have had perimeter success ala Reggie Miller. However, you can't simply discount the past because its the past... and everything is better/faster/stronger now. That's just as much of a fallacy as your "2 miles up the snow both ways" argument.
From a post I did a few years ago: Team A - 104.7 points/100 possessions (3rd in the league), held opponents to a .447 FG%, and forced 1225 turnovers Team B - 105.4 points/100 possessions (16th in the league), held opponents to a .435, on pace for about 1220 turnovers forced. Spoiler Team A = the World Champion Bad Boy Pistons circa 1989 Spoiler Team B = the 2013/2014 Houston Rockets And there you have it. Defense has evolved - upward, not downward.
Goddammmmm this guy curry is good!!!! And yes I hate him !! By only cuz I'm jealous harden ain't as good
rules do matter. I don't think we win 2 championships in todays nba. teams would just seattle us to negate dream's awesomeness. But the handcheck however, wouldn't impede curry's game, since he relies on picks and he can shoot. That transcends any era. He might be more bruised and would have swallowed a couple of mouthpieces but he'd still hit those shots.
No hate. The guy is incredible. I still think the current league rules benefit shooters and Curry is the best shooter in the NBA. You simply can't touch guys now. Back then it was harder to score and more competitive. Can you imagine a young Gary Payton guarding Steph, hand checking him up the court? No way Curry gets the same looks
More like he's in a video game and he found the cheat code. Looks more like roids to me. Steroids make you stronger and faster. Don't make you shoot more accurate.
And yet it still pales to how many fans Jordan had. The ratings pale to Jordans run. All the highest rated games are MJ games. During the low scoring, tough defense of the 90s era. I highly doubt non NBA fans are switching on their tv sets to watch Steph Curry throw up a bunch deep 3s. Curry is more of a player regular NBA fans can appreciate. Jordan was that guy who was magical, that guy who could fly. The shoes. Gatorade. The tongue. The black and red leg band. The greatest raising it to another level on the biggest stage over and over. Curry has had this historic, greatest shooting season ever. But, there is nothing about him that will get non fans to become interested in basketball. The brand just isn't there. The phony Jesus is my best friend, im a good boy thing..people are tired of that. The mouth piece chewing so many players do. The long black legs sleeves 95% of the league wears. Under Armour? He doesn't stand out to someone who's never watched basketball. The play style is fun. He's basically Jason Williams with surgical precision shooting. He's 27 years old. Sure, he broke out last year at 26,but that was more of a best player on best team MVP season that doesn't really stand out in history especially considering he didn't even win FMVP. This is his peak, never to be reached season and its at 27 years old. He has career averages of 22.2pts, 4.4reb, 6.9ast that are somewhere along 75-100 range of all time ranking. Before last year, he only had 19 playoff games under his belt and no memorable performances. By this age. MJ hit a game winner to win a National title. Won Rookie of the year. Won 2 dunk contests. Came off a broken foot to drop a playoff record 63 points on one of the GOAT teams. Won MVP twice and a DPOTY. His career average was 32, 6 and 6 with nearly 3 steals and a block. His playoff numbers, 34.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 7.1apg, 2.5 stl, 1bpg in 70 playoff games. He took his game to another level on the biggest stage. All this before he'd win two different 3peats, but the level of play and the aura surrounding him was already massive to build a brand around him that would take the NBA to it's peak in ratings especially after the Dream Team. The NBA had so many other memorable personalities and individual brands during MJ's peak that helped build the overall NBA image and brand. This is why many call the 90s the golden age of basketball. Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, LeBron, Wade couldn't bring it back to those levels. Can Curry take the NBA to MJ levels starting now? I highly doubt it. It's back up to Shaq and Kobe ratings, which is fantastic, but that's not close enough to the 90s ratings. This brand of basketball where everyone just jacks up a bunch of 3's won't get it done. Everyone looks the same. No one really stands out. No one has real personalities and everyone thinks they are above talking to the media or making a fool of themselves. Dwight is the only one with a stand out personality and everyone hates him for it, because it's mostly phony and wannabe Shaq brand. I'd argue Linsanity was crazier for the league and created more new basketball fans than Curry is currently doing. How many Asians were on tv at the games who had never watched basketball but wanted to witness someone of their own race playing at that level? The NBA is still missing something that will bring it back to peak ratings, and i don't think Curry playing HORSE on the court is the brand of basketball that will get it back to those levels. I do think it's great that he is nothing like MJ. The NBA tried and failed trying to re-create other MJ's after his retirement and i do think it's going to have to be a completely different style player to get the fans and ratings back to its peak level. I ask also if this is good for young fans? Instead of young kids going out and trying to recreate MJ's mid air acrobatics, we now have a bunch of kids launching super deep 3s which will probably hurt the level of player development in the coming decade of Curry kids turning pros. We saw the drop in efficiency after the Jordan years when everyone thought they could be him turned pro, now i fear the same will happen in the next decade of players jacking up circus 3s at a bad percentage because the few that go in electrifies the arena.
I'm not comparing him to Jordan... not sure why you are. The NBA had a significant image/quality of play/ratings problem after Jordan... the rule changes, and now Curry's surge has helped mitigate that. Just saying that they'll never change the rules back because of the success the league is having now... and Steph Curry/the Warriors are certainly not hurting the NBA ratings or the acquisition of new fans. Again, never was comparing it to other eras or saying its better than that era... just saying the NBA is perfectly happy where it is now.
LOL, just call that illegal screen and Curry will be half the player he is. Give a pure shooter open looks and he makes shots? Shocker?!?! Not saying Curry isn't good, but give anyone open looks and he'll make those shots.
Nothing except the NFL gets ratings like the 90s. Nothing. We have a million more channels, dvr, streaming on Internet, etc. In 1993, if you missed the 1993 finals on the exact time it came on, you missed it unless you recorded it on your vcr which rarely anyone did. That goes with tv shows as well. Look at the rating from the most popular tv shows then and now. Hell look at the ratings when popular movie came on tv as opposed to now. Ratings are down everywhere except the NFL. There's a reason why the series finale of Mash got the ratings it did. Fewer options means higher ratings. I don't suppose you think tv in the 80s and 90s are better than today even though they had higher ratings. And yet the NBA is in great shape despite what some people think. Look at the tv contract the NBA just got. Seriously look at it. Important people think the NBA is worth giving that kind of money to. Curry almost broke Twitter last night. The current NBA is made for the social media age. Going forward the NBA is in great shape. It's not slow like baseball. No concussion issues like football. No diversity issues like hockey. Even in Canada, basketball is the most popular sport among Canada's biggest immigrant groups (China, India). I get it. Everybody thinks their era was the best. In 20 years curry and harden will dog the 2036 all stars as well.
You don't even watch the games, huh? Reducing him or half of his game to illegal screens is pure comedy.
