But I can point out someone who claims that Basketball is the only sport where athletes have not improved. :grin: I see you are playing hopscotch about that one Nick. Care to elaborate why Basketball is the only sport in the world where people actually got worse?
Where did I ever say that? I said humans haven't evolved in stamina since the mid 90s and early 2000's, something you claimed. Certainly, training programs evolve... But if anything, I'm seeing guys in their 20's getting gassed/winded with ease, and guys in their early 30's breaking down (see the Rockets). Do you realize that Hakeem and Jordan were still in their primes being 4 years older than what Dwight is now? This idea that the players now are all more fit/faster across all sports compared to just 10-20 years ago is just another fallacy without one iota of evidence. The only sport where guys have noticeably changed is baseball... As there is much more evidence of steroid use and guys who swelled up to the size of blimps in the late 90's. But I won't continue discussing this jaded viewpoint as you're the only one supporting this, and it really has nothing to do with what we are discussing now.
Fact. Defenses across the board are way better than 20 years ago....The Rockets included. THe Rockets defense in 2016 (27th...107.1 ) The Rockets defense in 1996 (14th...107.4)
Keep hiding behind the hollow statistics... the Rockets currently do not have a good defense. And the more stats that purport that the Rockets currently are a good defensive team, the more idiotic those stats become.... and furthers the perception gap between quality of defensive play between eras. This entire thread can basically be summarized as a severe case of recency bias.
Was Jim Thorpe running in the mid 90's? Are today's runners significantly more athletic than Carl Lewis was? Please stick to the discussion at hand.
LOL - 2 questions, 1. how is being ranked 27th in the league "good" by any standard? 2. how is "points scored per play" a "hollow statistic" for defense? That's like, you know, the whole point of playing defense, or basketball in general. If you're too much of a clown to accept that scoring more points than your opponent is what we're generally aiming towards here - here is a picture of an onion. I hope you enjoyed this picture of an onion. What other things would you like to see? Rainbows or maybe something shiny and jingly?
I'm not the one that came close to comparing the Rockets now to being a "good" defensive team in previous eras... a reflection of the extreme recency bias in here and there you are with the name-calling and hyperbole again to deflect away from the fact that physical defenses, with body contact/hand-checking would have an impact on today's fun-gun/3 pointers every possession style that is slowly taking over the league (for the better of the league in terms of ratings/entertainment value/style... sure... just don't pretend its "tougher" now). Be better.
here is a picture of an old fashioned bicycle, aka a "penny farthing". I hope you enjoyed this picture of an old fashioned bicycle, aka a "penny farthing" and were not crushed by recency bias when viewing it.
Thanks for derailing the thread... good job. It makes more sense that you're delusional about the state of defenses today, and thus you've resorted to *this* vs. actually recognizing/identifying all the reasons why teams like the Rockets (who don't play any defense at all) would be considered a bad defensive team in any era/under any rules because they simply don't give the effort/commitment/expend the energy to excel there.
Dang Sam, are you just as delusional as I am by using facts to tackle Nicks feelings? Before you know it you will also claim people jump farther or are faster on the marathon :grin:
Points allowed per 100 possessions. If that's too complicated, just divide it by 100. Then it becomes points allowed per possession. You probably need a graphing calculator to understand such a complex metric - I don't blame you. This is some next level stuff.
You need professional help to explain your "handchecking equals reaching" theory. Btw- post a link showing those stats you invented. Your numbers don't match basketball-reference's.
Not running anywhere... you have yet to submit one shred of evidence that human beings/athletes are bigger/stronger/faster today than they were just 10-15 years ago. If it was even close to being true, we're on track to be super-human by the year 2025. Again, its just not physically possible (unless you're suggesting they're all doping/juicing) for the body to evolve that fast. Waiting for the evidence that it is... till then, you're basically having this discussion by yourself. (also, again... I never said basketball was the only sport that hasn't seen athlete improvement. None of the sports, other than baseball, has seen their average body-type of a player drastically change since the internet came into being (mid 90's)... and in baseball, players have actually gotten smaller.)
What I'm saying is that if you think the average coach in 1994 would instruct their player, when in a tie game, with two seconds left, would instruct their palyer to try to grab a greazed lightining waterbug and hold on for dear life rather than surrender the halfcourt jumper, you're kidding yourself (or you're referring to Jerry Tarkanian or one of the notable failure coaches from the 90's) Curry is orders of magnitude better at shooting the ball than anyone who has ever lived, and 1990's defenses weren't very good overall and not very well equipped to deal with Curry in general - it's not exactly an ideal situation for your hypothetical where handchecking serves as a mystical barrier that prevents all time greats from crossing half court, let alone getting to the basket. here is a picture of a teapot. I hope you enjoyed this picture.
