Can you imagine guys like Dell Curry & Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf in today's NBA with the rules of drawing fouls? I know the rules have changed but still, there's a lot more calls being made on contact basically initiated by an offensive player when he fakes and the guy jumps straight up, arms possible stretched or near the offensive player. Kevin Martin is still one of the most efficient scorers because of his quick release and fakes leading to drawing fouls. Just imagine how those 2 and others would torch the league with their quick releases and mainly Abdul-Rauf who had one of the quickest fake I've ever seen, 90% of players guarding him bought it.
The Matrix has a pretty quick release. He's old now though. I feel that so many releases are more or less uniform nowadays. Seems like Durant is quite quick also. I think the thing with Martin that is good is that his pump fakes work soo well.
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I don't think the guys you mentioned would get to the line any more than they did back when they played. Now players like Jordan who were used to driving the lane and finishing with Oakley or Leimbeer roaming the paint, they'd average 18 FT attempts per game.
We are in the most defensive era of basketball right now, you can double team, you can play zone, you have advanced statistics and your weakness are exposed. Jordan would not be as efficient giving his lack of left hand.
Wow you must have not grown up watching the NBA in the 90's.. That to me was the most defensive time, in my lifetime of NBA watching. Today you cannot not even touch a guard. I remeber when you could put a forearm,elbow, or hand while the guards were trying to get to the hole. Look how tough those 80's 90's teams were compared to this generation. It's
Really? You know the defense is lacking when Dwight Howard wins DOPY 3 years in a row.. his defensive stats are weak compared to 90 centers. Not only did Olajuwon easily surpass Dwight's blocking numbers, he also got nearly 2 steals per game. Also, you could hand check and be more physical back then on defense.
And yet 28 teams in 93' averaged more than 100 points per game compared to last year's 3. How is that possible? Teams scored more and were efficient doing that, it's that simple. In 80's only three teams didn't average over 100 points; Detroit in 80-81(99.7 PPG), Houston in 82-83(99.3 PPG) and Miami in 88-89(97.8 PPG).
Thats not due to the defense lacking back then, while people have made the argument that defense was also a lot stronger, so was offense. There wasn't any of that p***y **** waiting around the 3 pt line. Players were used to being hacked and pushed around and would drive through the lane. Look up any old clips of the lakers vs the celtics and you will see they were A LOT more physical. Fights would break out that wouldn't lead players to be ejected like nowadays. Your argument is very narrow-sighted. Watch a couple of games to let that do the talking rather than a couple of stats that paint an inaccurate picture.