Would NBA stars now be Stars in the 70's, 80's or 90's?

70s/80s/90s stars would be amazed by the range and playmaking ability of today's top stars. So stars from decades past keep going back to the "we were tougher" card. Who cares if you were tougher. Players from the 40s and 50s laugh at your toughness. They had to fly coach, take a bus from city to city, fans could smoke in arenas, and some players had to get part time jobs in the summer. And Elgin Baylor still had to do army reserve duties on certain weekends(seriously, one of the nbas best player of his time could not get out of army duty).

George Mikan, Elgin Baylor and Dolph Shayes were way tougher than magic, Kareem and bird.

 

I am as sick of Curry as any Rockets fan, but the guy is arguably the best shooter in league history. That skill alone is enough to make him an all-star in any era. Even one-dimensional players like Michael Adams and Dana Barros did pretty well with much worse skill sets. He'd just get fewer shots off and wouldn't be able to play as many minutes. Under 90s rules, Harden's strength would translate well and he'd probably develop a post game a la Mark Aguirre.

 

People seem to think Laimbeer punching Barkley or Kurt Rambis being clotheslined by McHale were standard '80s/'90s basketball. I recently watched a TMC Warriors game against the 76ers that someone linked to me and there was precious little contact.

Sure, handchecking, blah blah. Handchecking was most effective in limiting players with an explosive first step from blasting past you. Curry doesn't rely on his first step--when he drives, he often has his defender on his hip, but uses crafty moves and acrobatic finishes to get his lay-ups and floaters. The only way to stop that is to reach out and grab him, which has been illegal in any of those eras. There's also very little that handchecking is going to do for you when he takes step-back threes or fires off a three with the tiniest bit of daylight going around a screen. Again, you'd have to reach out and hold him to prevent that.

Handchecking was a big deal because previous eras focused on isolation and athletic one-on-one scorers. Being able to slow up a hyper-athletic slasher from driving past you had a lot of value. That doesn't apply to Curry, who is many things but not a hyper-athletic slasher. Handcheck his drives all you want...he's not trying to explode past you, he's trying to probe for weaknesses and exploit missteps.

As for Harden, he would probably fare even better in iso-heavy eras than he does today. Nothing about Harden's skillset is particularly unconventional--he's athletic, he can drive, he can shoot, he can pass, so I don't really understand why there's any question about his ability to be a star or superstar in past eras.

 

Reggie was also bigger and stronger than Curry. That's why he could survive the physical play. Curry is basically a skinnier Ray Allen with a better shot.

 

Taller, definitely. Bigger, not quite, if at all. Both players were annually in the range 180-185. Stronger, I'd say Miller, but definitely not by leaps and bounds.


Yet, let's not ignore Curry's greater dribbler, more athletic, much quicker, plays off the ball just as well, and much more agile.

 

Steve Kerr was a very similar player type to Curry. Amazing shooter, had speed, maybe not as good of handles. Kerr had a ton of rings, but come on, we aren't talking about Kerr. We are talking about MJ and Dream, Duncan, Robinson and Shaq. Kerr had his moment, but those guys were and are legends.

Curry's prolific shooting is bolstered by a litany of screens and softer fouls. One good hard hit and Curry would be out like a light. I could argue the same of James as well.

 

Kerr was almost exclusively a spot up shooter. Curry can pull up off the dribble. Better analogy is peak Mark Price.

 

Reggie Miller was another one. I see Reggie as more gritty, that guy grew up in his sister's shadow, probably got beat up by her a lot too. Reggie wasn't afraid to play dirty either. I think Curry would have been a Reggie lite.

 

I hate people who attack my era, so i will attack their era.

It's a never ending cycle. The 2030's era and beyond will use the same exact excuses fans of 2k and 2010's era use to attack the 80s and 90s as the fans of the 80s and 90s used to attack the 50s, 60s, 70s.

"Our league is smarter and more athletic. New strategies exist, new moves exist that we didn't see back then so obviously they are worse and couldn't do these things. Our players are more athletic today! We have EVEN less white boys! We don't have dorky Asians today and Euro trash. They are all now half black half whatever, so being half black means they are more athletic! Dork Nowitzki? hahaha Adolf Tramaine Jermaine would destroy him!! Our stars of today weren't defended by weak, nonathletic players like Curry, Deladova, Stauskas, Redick, Korver,Dragic, Hayward, Belinelli, Calderon, Parsons, Bogdaonvic, Gallenari, Ginobili, Rubio and countless other slow ass white boys! Chris Paul was slow as ****! He would get smoked by *insert name. Our players today are more skilled! I mean Patrick Beverly won the skills challenge!!! Players in 2016 couldn't even make a basic so and so or a *insert new play that hasn't been thought of yet(insert selected turnover or bad play highlights with extreme bias to prove point) and Beverly with high school level handles won the skills challenge hahahahahaha!!! Patrick Beverly and Matthew Deladova were lockdown defenders back then hahahahaha!! In the past 20 years, our players have evolved beyond the human capabilities of the 2010's! What a joke era!"

 

The players from the past alway use the "we were tough, they are soft now" argument.

Guess what. Everything in life is softer now. You can't smoke anywhere, you can't say anything, anything that offends is frowend upon. Hell, I don't think I could survive in the 70s. No smart phones, no HBO, no league pass, cars the size of boats, bell bottoms, etc.

Times change, things change, people change, the NBA changes with it.

Old timers need to get over it. Their time is over. Nobody 25 and under watching Curry pull up from 27 feet thinks about how he would have fared against the 1989 Pistons.

 

Well, Reggie was much more limited, that was his game and it would be his game today.

There were many star ball handlers with deadly jump shots, Oscar Robertson or Walt Frazier for example.

I think it might actually be easier for a player like Curry to get a good shot in their day, I think simple screens were more effective, people just didn't play current help defense. Oscar Robertson was for the most part jogging around with the ball all night long and taking open jumpshots off screens.

I think Curry would be supremely effective, MVP probably, depending on the team and the year. Some of those teams were super loaded due to a smaller league.

 

I didn't mean you specifically. Fans in general and a couple of posters in this thread with the "i hate this kind of talk" and then throw out a "players are smarter now" bull**** comment.

 

The NBA didn't really achieve any measure of quality until the mid to late 80's. From that point on you can say superstars from different eras probably still would have been superstars. Athleticism has increased since 1990, but skills have arguably declined. I don't think you can say anyone from the 1970's or earlier would be able to hold their own against the kinds of athletes we have today. Hence my all time list goes:

1. Jordan
2. Lebron
3. Kareem
4. Hakeem
5. Duncan

 

I think Harden would still get calls... Jordan averaged 8.2 attempts per game for his career and (I want to say as high as 10+ some seasons)... I mean Harden would get hit a lot harder but... I think he's pretty durable and would get some of the cheap calls Jordan and other Stars have gotten through the years. Just because everything wasn't a flagrant doesn't mean regular fouls didn't exist.

 

Here's Jordan's fta per game http://m.bkref.com/m?p=XXplayersXXjXXjordami01.html

^and yes I saw mj play, and Harden isn't mj, haha

 

Curry would be effective. The reason he could never be MVP in those days is that size dominated the game. Not only could Dream score at will b/c of the illegal defense rule, but he reduced opponents' scoring by nearly 10 points a game.

Curry can be a viable MVP without defense now only because zone is legal.