It hasn't gone far enough. Not until everyone making full court shots at will, and makes perfect passes the instant anyone is open to catch and shoot those buckets.
I agree with everything you said except for a couple issues I believe the 3pt line should be an arc of 23'9 it would eliminate corner 3's making a completely new approach possible on defense also I think hand checking should be brought back it allows for strong physical defenders perhaps without height to have a role right now if your not 6'8 and quick your a liability. I just want to say the most popular sport is in fact the nfl and what does the nfl have that the nba does not physicality the nba was much more relevant in the 90's when we had that aspect. what is the limited appeal to the NHL physicality enough said!!! Finally you hit on the variability aspect all the teams are the same people haven't changed since Roman gladiators we want to see an element of a battle, right now we have a 3pt contest big yawn!!!!
I agree with everything you said except homogeinity, you can’t tell me Jokic’s Denver, Giannis Bucks, Tatum’s Celtics, ANT’s Wolves, Kawhi’s Clippers, Lebron’s Lakers, SGA Thunders, Zion’s Pelicans or Luka’s MAVS or Wembanyama’s Spurs all play the same. All these players have a different playstyle, in fact their is way more diversity in the players of todays NBA, and you act like in the 80’s they weren’t all playing in the post lol, watch a game now and watch a game of any other decades especially before 2000 and you’ll see the diversity of todays players, their are millions of moves now, players are much more skilled, the handles and footwork of SGA, Jokic, Embiid, Doncic or Ja Morant are some of the best ever, and we have all sort of freak of nature, back then it was only 7footer like Wilt and Kareem, then 6’9 coordinated guys like Magic and Bird, then super athletic wings like MJ, but now you have all these archetype and more, you have the Lebron, Giannis, Zion archetype, you have the Jokic, Sengun, Sabonis archetype, the Embiid, AD, Wemby and Chet archetype… I just don’t understand how you can say all the teams play the same, im a Lakers fan and nobody play like the Lakers, with a PF who run the offense but not nearly as ball dominant as guys like Doncic or Trae Young, right now Lebron, AD and D-Lo are really close in term of possession imo, even Reaves get a lot of opportunity, so it’s not just 1 guy creating everything it come from everywhere, and Lebron play a lot in the post now, same for AD, so they have 2 post playmakers and 2 perimeter ball handler D-Lo and Reaves, and they are just dominant in the paint, when both Lebron and AD have a good night you feel it, and Austin Reaves play like no other player, same for D-Lo, they all have a unique style so i don’t agree at all with this homogeinity things
I have a horrible feeling that because the NBA knows that a lot of basketball fans don't really watch games end to end, or even much at all, as long as they have great highlights packages and exciting stat lines showing how someone posted 35 / 11 / 6 then they will give offence free reign to flop, travel, shove and rip through their way to ludicrous scores.
Shai, Luka, Embiid, Booker are always flopping or pushing off. If they called regular season games like they do in the playoffs it’d be way less frustrating to watch
Highlights are great plays to have made, but they aren’t every play of every game. If everything is a potential highlight, then nothing feels like one.
Players today are revolving their entire offense to getting to the line, and smartly so, as it is more efficient. You may dismiss it as not a skill because it is not entertaining to you but it is a another skill that currently players mastered compared to past players, just like the 3pt shot.
@@woah7609 The sad thing is, if you notice, they don't even "tighten" their calls for the playoffs anymore. They used to do that, but now it feels like they don't, they call it like they call the regular season games.
Exactly if the NBA called Carries, Travels and Walks offenses would score less. If the NBA allowed hand checking the defenses also would stand a chance. Since the NBA adopted the 3 point shot and slam dunking from the NBA GIVE 3 POINTS FOR SLAM DUNKS AS WELL.
The fact that the 16/17 GSW would have the 17th best offense today tells you the NBA is currently broken. That's possibly the greatest offensive team ever.
the nba right now is built for casuals not real fans anymore and look man i don't hate the nba like some of these people do but its important for us to see real basketball and you only really get it if top teams are playing and i liked the warriors and lakers game i truly do but other then that theirs no game i could watch and say its game of the year not much the early 2000s is too defensive base, the early 2020s is too offensive base, i someshow liked the mid to late 90s and if people say they don't liked the mid 2010s nba they lying you got the mix of tradional defensive players and offensive players and the meta of the future it was an all around better product because you got every mix of player put in an era to me 2010s was my childhood so its peak basketball to me.
The thing is there were already rules changes to help the offense before the league's current state, back in 2004. The current high scoring TODAY is largely due to Adam Silver reducing defensive contact in 2018. I'm halfway through the video I don't know if he mentions that yet.
I think that blocking fouls are called way too frequently. If an offensive player drives and the defense slides in front of them, it’s often called a defensive foul even if the offensive player initiated the contact. It usually is determined by whether or not the defender has his feet planted, but it’s nearly impossible to slide in front of a player running that fast and not be moving your feet when they reach you.
One thing I really like about 60's and 70's basketball is how strict they were about aggressive offense. If you jumped into your defender, a lot of the time that was going to be an offensive foul. I can only imagine how effective Wilt would be on offense today if he could just jump right through defenders on his way to the rim.
Calling more blocking fouls as a point of emphasis actually started in 2004 after the last great defensive team Detroit stymied the big market Lakers. The first rules changes to favor offense were that season too. The results saw a change in INDIVIDUAL scoring but not so much team scoring as NBA teams adjusted to defending under the new rules. It's why Kobe was able to score 81, just two years removed from being locked up by the Pistons.
The legalization of the gather step (as well as leniency in carrying rules over time) in 2019, opened up far more possibilities for lengthy steps around defenders, and I is crucial in part of the offensive explosion we see today, as it allowed less adept drivers as well as larger drivers like Giannis to be far more successful than before. This, and the increasing aptitude for three point shooting amongst every position is a further development of the three-point revolution; leading to offensive systems like boston and OKC where everyone can drive, pass and shoot, positionless nightmares for defenses where there are no solutions, only bad choices and worse ones. Great video btw.
These clowns are getting away with murder and thinking they are the most skilled generation ever. Call the double dribbles, call the travels, call the stiff arms and we have a different sport. A sport that died no longer than 5 years ago. Go watch a game from 2011, don't have to go to the 90s, it's different sport. Offensive players are allowed to cheat now, that's why we're seing bullshit boxscores, bullshit statlines and a terrible product. Nobody watches games anymore, only highlights.
To add: 1. Be more strict on travelling/carry calls. 2. Use FIBA size courts. Smaller courts will allow the defense to cover the court much effectively.
@@EpicTales-y6v watch euro/fiba games. A lot of great shooters but fewer 3s are attempted compared to the NBA. That's because the defense can easily sprint from the post to the 3pt line hence easier to cover the 3. Plus defense won't use much energy in case they want to press the offense up court.
Tonight goes to show how crazy offense is. 2 players scoring 60+ points on the same day happened twice in 1 week. Only happened 5 times in NBA history now.
To add on to what makes the modern offense kind of unenjoyable is what makes soccer/football so enjoyable. Each goal has to be desperately fought for, with long, drawn out strategies employed to get the ball pass the bevvies of defenders and into the goal. The tension, struggle and disappointment from each failed attempt only compounds, and, when that goal is finally achieved, it's a release of emotion (positive or negative). Because the game is so low soccer, a single mistake in the middle of the game can swing the entire thing radically. When you score so much, it dilutes that. Each bucket is no longer fought for, and it feels like, only consequential in the last 2 minutes of the game. The ability to swing from highs to lows in an instant is part of what makes sports so fun; it's unpredictable, it plays with our emotions and expectations. While basketball will never be football, just because of how the scoring works, it's important to not lose sight of what makes it enjoyable to begin with.
I never knew that. I personally wanted to play soccer as a kid but shied away due to not wanting to fail and look the part. As a result, I never watched it growing up and thus never knew about what you posted. Thanks for the knowledge.
This is why I love gridiron so much. Every possession is fought for, and sometimes defense is the primary thing that you see in the game. It’s honestly a shame how injury-riddled the sport is for how much I enjoy it. If there was a massive reduction in injuries to what we see these days, I would say that it is one of the greatest sports of all time.
spot on. NBA is a kiddy sport compared to football. people in my country now play basketball mostly, cause they've becomed lazy pussies, when all they do is throw the ball into the basket. it's just a shitshow all around
Idk if it’s gone too far or not but I just hate when casuals or old head pretend there is no defense be played today. Offenses are MUCH more complex and players are MUCH more skilled than they were in the past that it’d be harder (in theory) to play defense today.
I'd argue players are less skilled today than the 90s or early 2000s. The bigs shoot 3s but have mediocre post games and don't rebound. The perimeter players can really only slash to the lane or shoot 3s. They don't have a mid range game nor post game.past players could get the the paint and avoid contact. Today plays drive to create needless contact
There is no defense being hardly played today. You have to have an exceptionally high motor to do so because of ball movement. Players rather save energy for scoring. It’s obvious but people don’t want to admit the truth.
This is true but refs make it harder to defend cause they’re giving all these weak calls to superstars and show favoritism towards them makes it frustrating to watch at times
I've always put it this way: the old players were more _effective_ defensively but _less effortful_ bc of the rules and style of play that shrank the floor, let the defensive player have right of way, and when it gets right down to it rough the offensive man. When the play broke down, it was perfectly fine to clobber the scorer from the 70s on thru to the 00s. Conversely, today's player is _more effortful_ but _less effective_ bc of the far increased spacing, overemphasized 3PT shooting *and* right of way for the offensive man. If the play breaks down, now, hoist up a shot 25+ feet away and regardless of your position or defensive ability *you have to defend it.* I've said in my circles that any player, say Dame Lillard, that is able to cross half court and pull a shot and make it would have to be as offensively dominant as any big that rules the post. There's just nothing you can do with that.
Players aren’t much more skilled now compared to guys that played in the 80s and 90s teams just want to follow analytics and shoot 3’s that’s literally it imagine we took todays play style and incorporated it in the 90s and 80s we’d be seeing the same results
The final part is actually the most frustrating one to me in today's game. The NBA needs to consistently call travels, carries and moving screens. This would already decrease the pace a bit because players would have to be more careful.
This is it for me as well. It is mad to see a player play solid defense just to have the offensive player egregiously carry the ball when the defender has no chance of recovering and get an easy bucket. If they allow carry’s they should allow hand checking. But I’d say just get rid of carrying.
I’ve ranted too hard about it. But the offense having too large of a rules advantage, which was in part to showcase the skilled offensive players, undercuts the elite offensive players. Because I don’t get to see how good the guys are that could get these buckets highly contested in crunch time. The scorers today are truly talented, but for me it’s defense that tests the offense. And all the game stopage is difficult to deal with. I do like when teams are running more off ball plays at least.
Just started watching this video, but I hope Rusty gets into how defense is essentially being legislated out of the game with the way they call fouls, and how traveling and carrying almost never get called anymore which makes players harder to defend. Players today by and large are better than before(that's true for every era compared to the ones that preceded it), but when the refs make playing defense harder because anything can get you a whistle it just gives the appearance that players today are infinitely better when that's not exactly true.
Yes he did, and that's why I enjoy his content. I appreciate that he's a young fan but is actually knowledgeable, respectful, and honest about the past.
@@vinnytucks87 Yes, Rusty mentioned that in the video. What he also mentioned was some of that is a product of the quick whistle forcing defenders to back off which contributes to the lower number of fouls.
So the moral of the story is the Detroit Pistons ruined defense by associating it with their 'bad boys' image. Not only in the 90s but in the 00 during their 'goin to work' days too.
@@fadercreek They do play vets. But Bojan and Monte were injured to start the season. Alec Burks and Joe Harris were a** to start the season. And that was all the vets they had until the Marvin Bagley trade.
I think another problem that kinda adds onto the homogenization of offense is the length of schedule. It’s hard to get emotionally invested in a game where every possession looks basically the same and the outcome of the average regular season game is so menial on the overall standings. Even the playoffs can feel unnecessarily dragged out too. Do we really need to make the 1 seed beat the 8 seed 4 times to know who the better team is? A potential solution is adopting a playoff format similar to the MLB. 7 teams in each conference make the postseason, top seed in conference gets a first round bye. 1st round best of 3, second round best of 5, conference and nba finals best of 7. This would lead to a more competitive and fun playoffs but would likely cost the league revenue so it won’t ever happen.
Yep. I do not know why no one is talking that the regular season is too damn long and it logical that teams are using most of the regular season games as practice games. In the Euroleague there 34 regular season games and they are playing defense because every games matter(yeah know that the rules are also different). I am not saying that the NBA should have only 34 games but 82 is too much. Same with NHL. Thats why NFL is so popular. every game matter.s
A lot of us have been saying 82 games is way too many for some years now but it is an economic reality unfortunately. Not only are 82 games too many- but there are too many teams- at least for the sake of an interesting league where every game matters more. But the NBA will add a few more teams and you might see a reduction to 74 but that's as far as it would every go....and that's not enough to make a difference.@@mechkota
@@2kolbe010 Its NOT too much of a decrease just in terms of fan interest and making and giving the regular season meaning but it is beyond the pale economically as far as the owners are concerned. I have always thought that one huge advantage that the NFL has over the NBA is there is only one game a week in the NFL so all the attention is on anticipating it and each one, obviously has great meaning. Both owners and players would have to accept a lower threshold of ridiculous wealth- I mean, you could cut NBA salaries in half and it would still be a dream to be the last man on the bench on minimum salary. As long as television keeps paying the rights fees- the owners have no incentive to reduce number of games.
You nailed it right on the head @RustyBuckets. If there's no one trying to prevent the opposition from scoring, it'll feel like the offense isn't earned. May not be best example but its like when gamers cheat in online games especially shooters. Sure your score will be significantly higher than others, but the victory will feel hollow because you weren't challenged. You didn't face oppoents that gave you a fight. If I ever did that, sure I'll feel great for a while that I'm winning a lot more than losing but after a certain time, it starts to feel boring when no one is forcing me to really strategize and almost lose a battle. That feeling of things possibly going wrong motivates you to win a lot more than blowout after blowout every match.
There is 1 very easy rule change to help out defences, REMOVE THE CORNER 3! It is something silly like 39% from the corner, if the 3 point line just follows its arc up to meeting with the out of bounds, then massive spacing gets lessened somewhat.
Being from Chicago and a life long bulls fan I remember my absolute hatred for the pistons as a young child. When the pistons beat up on the bulls in 89 & 90 I was 7-8yrs old. I specifically remember being in tears and just possessing so much rage for Detroit. I know it's just a game but good luck telling little me that. I wanted them to experience the pain I was feeling
I feel part of the reason is the rules now benefit the offense. Players now can carry take like 2-3 steps in between in each dribble, so now it’s more moves players can use to create space and the defense can no longer hand check. There isn’t a balance no more. If you’re too aggressive as a defender and an offensive player lean into you and rip through it’s a foul on you, or the fact that now players have to guard from 20+ feet out from the basket before teams use to just wall up the paint and stay in the midrange area. Also the fact that the nba is heavily reliant on offense and more fans if they want to admit it or not is the cause because they said ‘low scoring games’ that involves two great defensive was “boring to watch”. Multiple factors contribute to what we have now.
Hand checking is for bums who can’t guard. And the rip through is almost always a no call now so let’s be fair and call out that the league has been working on it and the past 2-3 years a lot of the macho officiating changes have been made to benefit the defense.
u can take unlimited steps in between dribbles. have u not seen MJ do the stutter step back in the day? its impossible to travel while dribbling. learn basketball. Players have to guard from 20+ feet out bc players can shoot better nowadays. sorry u cant just pack the paint all game, people have actual skill now
@@RobinXlone I want you to look at players in each decade and see how different they dribble compared to each decade. I know more basketball than most played it and watched it currently. Also I’m not complaining about the having to guard 20 feet I’m just saying it’s one advantage Offensive players have now a days because the defense is so spread out and it’s more spacing now a days. Also players was always skilled it just before the rules prevented them to do anything ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6IPXSqOhykg.htmlsi=gl1lwniLMmm0-Z9g Watch that video when you get the chance
How do you expect fanatics of a game not to realize when someone is not putting enough effort to the game especially on the defensive side. Thank you. This is much needed.
From my casual perspective, it feels like there’s still a lot of guys who play defense, but there are a lot of guys that don’t seem to get a lot of defensive pressure But, like, if there’s a 7-footer who can shoot fadeaways from beyond the arc, how are you meant to defend that? I think some guys are just too talented on offense. To the point where you kinda just let them shoot and hope they miss. Obviously Kevin Durant gets his shots contested, but defenders aren’t giving 110% on every play because that’s a waste of time and energy We’re talking nearly 100 possessions a game. The pace, the rules, and techniques of offense have made it to where some guys are literally unguardable. Just put your hand in his face and hope he just misses
THANK YOU. I have said that calling illegal screens will change the game entirely. Not allowing free space to be made every possesion will cause offenses to slow down. As a kings fan watching sabonis do dribble hand offs and set moving screens kills me even though it works. This definitely slows offenses down way more becuase the amount of free lanes to the basket or open jump shots made off these screens is huge.
Younger people don't realize the energy of a regular season NBA on NBC game in the 90s could bring as much energy as a current playoff game. Playoff play in the 90s is a level we may not see again...
I'm here after Luka scored 73. There was close to 0 defense the whole game. Players walking/ barely jogging. It's an offensive problem for sure but eliminating real defense was the catalyst
A quote I’ve heard from the fighting game community is that “a game is more fun when it buffs more than it nerfs. It’s more fun for everyone to be broken than be muted versions of what they were” the problem is that the NBA has gone too far one way. They simply should either buff defense or do what mlb did and try to decentivize analytics. Stealing was all but dead until the mlb made the bases bigger and made it harder for pitchers to get runners out. That way is a bit harder for the nba so I think they should do things like let go of the defensive 3 seconds and other defensive nerfs that they’ve done over the years
I will have to disagree with the statement of "a game is more fun when it buffs more than it nerfs", because if it's a game where tanks/defensive units exist, but every dps characters are broken as hell, that renders the tank characters useless. If your dps character can do 194826589321 damage to the boss that has a maxhp of 99999999999999, what differentiate it from let's say, 19482658932? The numbers are so huge that most people don't even notice a difference. Compare to say, if your dps character is doing 79 damage on average per hit on a boss with a maxhp of 9999, you'll notice it when it's being compared to somebody who's doing 59 damage on average, because every upgrades matter for your numbers, it's the same with NBA or any sports. There are so many blow out these days it's hard to care about the games. It used to be fun when games were at 95 to 99 and it came down to the wire. Now everyone's winning 130 to 110 it's just not as exciting. Almost every teams are now living or dying by the 3's, basically a luck game.
@@zxcvb3772 This is wrong since in games if they have a lot of buffs even tanks are pretty much stronger than any DPS since they have more damage and way durable. That's why you see a lot of people complain about tanks in games.
The current discussion around Drive Rush in SF6, Wild Assault in Strive and 66L in GBVSR show that there is such a thing as to much offence. It make's the games too volatile and as a result less representative of player skill (If that doesn't sound to condecending or elitist).
@@zxcvb3772 exactly, i miss it when it was low scoring, scoring actually mattered. It doesn't need to be football type lower scoring, but it was fun when 90 and 100 were the final scores
The issue with this outside of taking away soft fouls, you can't stop the evolution of offence you can nerf fighting game characters or nerf a mechanic like drive rush. But with the NBA you can't stop the game from evolving to where the three point line is more useful than a mid-range shot, or the many moving parts of offences with so many screens, or letting bigger guys start the offence. Offences have simply gotten better with or without rule changes, defences have more court to cover and are more stretched out and you can't stop that.
22:15 in the regular season some players don't put a lot of effort into defense. Their are also a lot of bad switches due to a lack of effort. There are so many examples you can find in every game of playes being lazy defensively. Obviously the biggest reasons for increased scoring are court spacing, more well rounded players and a lack of carrying/traveling calls, but its pretty obvious for anyone who watches a lot of NBA and college basketball that from a purley effort perspective you'll see more defensive effort from most college teams. I think effort wise this has been a thing for awhile, not just the current generation.
@breadandcircuses8127 31 and then you play your conference tournament and then the NCAA Tournament if you are won of the 68/362 that got selected. Maybe you'll play in the NIT if you just missed or another smaller postseason.
One reason why viewership has dropped so much is not only that it's too much offense but more importantly there's little to no diversity in offensive play style amongst current nba teams. Everyone is just running spread offenses with pick and roll and a lot of drive and kick and iso ball mixed with too many threes being taken. Outside of the Nuggets, Sixers and Heat you are hard-pressed to find a team that runs actual sets that utilizes backdoor cutting, off-ball movement, post ups and most importantly the mid-range. If you look at every championship or dynastic team, they all had those elements. Yes, even the Warriors. When the Warriors were running the league, they were in the middle of the pack in 3pt attempts which means that their offense was way more diverse than people think. They were always top 3 in percentage which gave the illusion that they were a 3pt mostly team. The Warriors are more 3pt dependent now than they were during their reign. Also, most of the players today work with the same trainers so they do the same moves, so there is little individuality in the NBA today just among the players styles let alone the teams. It's turned into if you watch one game you done watched them all, which makes it a harder product to market.
TV ratings dropped bc no one watches cable tv. But viewership hasnt dropped🤦♂🤦♂. How can viewership drop when baskteball is the biggest its ever been? u think people in other countries in are watching euroleague?? or chinese basketball?? no bro everyone watches the nba.
@@RobinXloneViewership for individual programs by raw TV ratings will always be lower in later years as more people check out entertainment that appeals to their specific tastes, and audiences become more fragmented. Some TV shows on broadcast TV today might get renewed with ratings that would get them cancelled 10-15 years ago.
@@RobinXloneif thats the case why did the nfl crush the nba this year on Christmas Day? If “no one watches tv” NBA has been on a steep decline since 2020. Streaming also contributes to ratings aswell, just face it I’ve seen you try so hard to defend this era and you just need to admits it’s dying man.
Post ups are horrific offense. They're no different from Allen Iverson 20 dribble isolations except there's not even a chance to get past the defender. You huck up a bad shot and miss most of the time.
20 years ago, you could flagrant foul someone and not get whistled because back then physicality mattered more than actual basketball ability Sure it was wrestling disguised as basketball but at least it wasn’t “soft”
The NFL destroying the NBA on Christmas tells you all you need to know. I understand NFL games are more meaningful in the regular season, but the margin it beat the NBA by was embarrassing. I'm tired of hearing about how "talented" the players are today compared to previous eras, the facts are defese is an absolute joke now.
TV ratings are just not a good way to compare that, TV is dying out for the younger generation and the NFL has a much much older fanbase, that is the reason for the christmas ratings.
The NFL season is coming to an end at Christmas. Along with many Fantasy football league. While its still early days for the NBA. I myself. don't watch as many games until after the NFL playoffs.
@@cadrollhunting3564also, the op is forgetting something the NBA has that the NFL will never have: strong foreign support. The foreign fanbase, especially in China and my country the Philippines, still rake in millions of views and billions of dollars for the NBA. Plus, its a much bigger cultural entity than the NFL, im sure more people outside the USA know more NBA players than NFL playerd.
With the complexity of offenses and efficiency of players (even role players) it essentially creates no-win scenarios for defenses every possession. Good defense is no longer stopping the other team, good defense is now making the decisions that increase the percentages in your direction more often. The offense is winning the arms race right now. Probably until there is a rule change.
Watch youth games and see why there’s no incentive to play defense. It’s not being taught (correctly) at every level and there’s a lack of pride in being an elite defender. Gone are the days of Ben Wallace and Sidney Moncrief.
I am absolutely tired of the fact that if someone with the ball is moving fast enough you just aren't allowed to stop them or it's a foul, so defenders just get out of the way
The offense can do literally anything, including traveling and carrying, and they don't even have to worry about a big man in the paint or a hand check
I grew up when the defense could do anything, including flagrant fouls, and nobody bothered to shoot 3’s rather than just clog up the paint and take inefficient contested shots
I think the foul baiting rule probably has the most potential out of these, however I think there would need to be some clarity on what specific moves actually constitute "foul baiting." Off the top of my head I think the moves to ban should be rip-throughs, abruptly stopping or jumping backwards to make contact, driving and than unnaturally going up for a wild shot after getting bumped, and pump-faking for the sole purpose of getting the defender in the air to jump into on jumpshots (I think this is ok for players who are deep in the paint since they tend to allow more contact there anyway) . Edit: I also think just simply not calling more ticky-tack fouls like bumps and slaps that don't actually impede the offensive player should be another adjustment.
Go right now and watch a half dozen games from the 1990s, regular season games. The perimeter defense is a joke. They're basically daring anyone to shoot from beyond 18 or 19 feet out.
Well technically that was good defense for that era since a lot of guys couldn’t/wouldn’t shoot from there. Similar to how they give guys the midrange shot in today’s game.
Even if that were true, defenders weren't dealing with centers being willing to shoot and they could actually play in the paint without getting fouled or dealing with the 3 second rule (I know it was there but it wasn't nearly as enforced), not to mention players couldn't get away with travelling because of a "gather step" all the time so nowadays they have to stop them before they can even get in the paint, Luka Doncic himself has stated how easy it is to score in the NBA compared to Euro leagues because he literally watches the paint and he knows defenders can't stay in there so he waits until it's open and makes his move, people act like players back then didn't play zone defense when it's literally the opposite, it's not a real zone defense if you can't stay in the paint and are forced to play further out because of it, if you wanna watch real modern zoning defenses watch Euro leagues, I'm not here to downplay today's players skill but the rules that defenses have to deal with now are ridiculous when they're so heavily stacked in the offense's favor, I don't think it's a skill issue, it's a rule issue.
I just want physicality defensively to be more allowed, it's inconsistencies of what's a foul and isn't bothers me. Also bring back hand checking I wonder how good today offense would do with that
They'd run more handoff tosses for the fast quick guys like Philly does with Maxey already. Hand checking would mostly change which actions are popular but wouldn't have *that* much impact on scoring totals unless they legislated that defenders can actively impede an offensive player's progress. But that's never been in the rules. They cracked down on hand checking in 1994-95 when it started getting out of hand because guys like Derek Harper were strong enough that they could basically grab your hip and drive you in a specific direction. But you have to remember when they abolished it in 2004 the game was still very isolation and PnR based. Hand checking is very effective against those types of possessions. But as the game has evolved, it's really only bigger stronger players who iso a lot these days and the shifty guards -- the guys hand checking really impacts -- have moved away form PnR towards more handoff and toss actions. So Trae Young would go from 27 to like 21 but Luka might be even better if they brought it back. (It's just another way for him to fool defenders.)
@@BigGainer98 Luka is 6'7" 230 pounds and is like trying to move a mountain. Trae is 6' 165 and is like moving a paperweight. Is it easier to catch a baseball at 70 mph or a bowling bowl at 70 mph? It's just physics. Luka is big, Trae is small. Luka can play through contact -- i.e. hand checking -- in a way Trae can't.
*I played 2K24 MyPlayer on rookie mode and had to restart it after 5 games. Scoring 60 isnt fun at all if its little to no resistance from your opponent.*
It is why I made my player character in MyPlayer specialize in passing and rebouding rather than scoring. Amusingly, shot blocking as well later on. Sure, it's cool to score a lot in a game but I found more enjoyment passing the ball and blocking shots.
Was there anything “fun” when holding teams under 80 was easy when there was little to no offensive resistance? It’s hypocrisy. Sounds like they want defense without any actual threat of offense, they want 79-75 scores.
The 80s had organic offensive and defensive aspects. They weren't legislated as it is today. Teams had different identities, one team could be more defensive than another. Today, we have a league of load managers, tik tok celebrities, and 3 point shooters. Ratings are in the dumps because of it. These players don't even take pride in playing hard or every game
I know it's all complicated and interwoven, but the bottom line is I basically stopped watching most NBA games because I stopped enjoying the "product on the court"(fking hate that phrase). I can't honestly say I care, even a tiny bit, about a great stat-line or an incredible highlight...if it comes at the expense of watching an overall boring game of fast-paced-but-vaguely-meaningless offense.
@@fortynights1513 The 2000's is definitely the best "decade" basketball wise, there were so many different playstyle from different teams, different team philosophy/identity and there were different type of offensive players, you have people who are mainly jump shooters, some are high fly dunkers, some can shoot 3's, some score from the post, Tim Duncan has his iconic bank shot, some rely on the defense and fast break to put up points, and so on.. They also played defense and took pride in it. Most games were gritty and hard fought.
@@zxcvb3772Me personally, the thing that stands out about that period is that we saw both some players who played like the older, eradicated archetypes, and others who were more versatile and played like we are used to seeing now. But to each their own.
What folks fail to understand is that with the proficiency of the three-point shot, the ball handling skills, advanced motion offensive plays, and the killer crossovers in todays NBA game, it is kind of hard to play that old school in your face defense, because now instead of falling back into the paint defending against in paint dribble penetration now the defender has to damn near pick up his opponent from the half court logo. To put in proper perspective just imagine if players were able to constantly hit from beyond half-court, causing players to have to pick up their defender from the other side arch, just imagine how difficult playing defense would become then.
I think it’s important to understand that the decline in viewership is not necessarily being caused by an offense/defense dynamic. The way people consume content, what people are willing to pay for, and the decline of cable tv subscriptions need to be considered. People are less ok with paying for cable and sitting down to watch scheduled programming and have switched to short form, on demand content.
1000% yes. I’ve felt this way for decades. And I don’t believe it’s because Offense is that much better. I think it’s because good defense has been legislated out of the game. Put rules in to make defense matter again.
@@RobinXlone OK. Name the last rule that you can think of that fundamentally made defense better? 3 in the Key? Now, do the same for offense. See the difference?
I stopped watching when offense was legislated out of the game and damn near almost never returned I guess some people act like defense without offense is good basketball
I think the league as a whole is more talented than it’s ever been. Also, I think people who don’t understand defense confuse physicality with good defense. A lot of the stoppers from previous eras simply couldn’t play today without being able to use their physicality to bridge the talent gap.
NBA emphasized too much the offense and the splash brothers exploited the system. Comebacks now are more to the side that there is no defense at all. I am always seeing wild ending or wild comeback youtube vids posted by NBA. When big comebacks are always happening, it lose the appeal and significance. It is like when you always eat delicious food everyday, you will lose interest and find another food right? NBA should calibrate the rules to make it at least balanced between offense and defense.
And what happened when the NBA emphasized too much defense? Double digit leads basically became turn off the TV The Pistons holding teams under 80 lost significance because it became too damn repetitive and didn’t feel great Teams could barely hit 70 because there was NO OFFENSE AT ALL
The modern NBA not only has no defense but actually has no offense. No one wants to watch a layup drill/3 point contest where it's layup, layup, drive-kick-3, drive-kick-3. Players back in the day would be good shooting the 3 too if analytics forced every player from the 1 to the 5 to make 3 point shooting a significant part of their game.
20 years ago, the NBA had no offense because NOBODY SHOT A 3 EVER It was just drive to the basket or an inefficient paint shot, no kick out to the 3. And yet people wanted to watch TallBall when the perimeter didn’t exist?
This is what RU-vid was made for, at least this era of RU-vid, nerds who love to show love for what they love. I just watched your past 5 long form content videos and I can’t believe you’re not sitting at way over one million followers. Kudos to you and your absolute dedication to this sport. You will go far Mr. Buckets.
Yo Rusty! Love the vid once again; really enjoying the deeper explorations. Your points are all salient, and while I don’t have as much input here, I think your thesis is pretty sound. I do hope to see some changes take place- if not just for variety’s sake.
i dont know if this has been said, but i would say removee the corner 3 pnt line, have the curve keeping going and have this part where its all 2 pts after. reason being would that there wouldnt be just 5 shooters passing around, suddenly those people on the corners would be encouraged to be great at driving and the shooters on the outside. and this can create some diversity of play, do you want more spacing around the court making the defense run more? do you want to min max 3s? etc. idk if this is a good idea i just thought of it, might be hella dumb.
Something I think a couple of fixes that could would be: 1. Making the Foul limit for players only count for certain penalties (more agressive and excessive plays instead of just mild mistakes). 2. Rebuilding the Charging/Blocking penalties to both be more easy to differentiate, and to be far less leniant for the offense, since it currently is far easier to draw a block than a charge. A dramatic change that would never happen that could help fix things would be changing 2 pointers to 3 and 3 pointers to 4, as this would result in the cost benefit of the current three pointers go down, making them slightly less efficient than 2's based on some rough math I did based on shooting percentages, (it also makes them higher stakes).
I think the lower free throw rate is more a result of more three point shots being taken than drives to the hoop and midrange. There's always more physicality near the hoop, and everyone is more cautious about fouling a three point shooter because the shooter gets three free throws.
It hasn't gone far enough. Not until everyone making full court shots at will, and makes perfect passes the instant anyone is open to catch and shoot those buckets.
To make the game more catchy and to give credit to the players that have the most stamina I really think that the TO have to be reduced to 5 at max. Also I feel that the game already stops a lot (with fouls, out of bounds, FT…) and players can rest a lil bit but enough on these situacions. Also as a viewer it gets so fucking annoying when teams call for TO, like bruh they are stopping the game after a few possesions everey single time + the end of the quarters. And definetly teams wont play at that much high pace anymore because of how mutch tired out they would be. I really belive it would create a lil bit more of a balance on defense/offense.
I think the problem is that it’s made the sport more popular. The nba views hyper offensive play as good for the growth of the product. Even though us basketball purists may wish too return to a more 50/50 mix of defense and offense, it seems offense is what’s best for the sport from the nbas viewpoint
The accessibility & foreign stars are probably growing the sport, not the offensive balance. Idk how the NBA can isolate the offense as the cause over the social media explosion,the streaming explosion, the explosion of non American elite talents. I can see the NBA thinking what they did is the cause, instead of things outside of their control.
I like how someone said that making the floor wider to remove the corner 3 would help lmao. It would create even more spacing and totally f*ck the defense up, terrible idea.
I understand players try on defense and its damn near impossible to play defense but when every game is 130 plus points scored by both teams it feels like the all star game which is boring.
20 years ago, I stopped watching because it got to the point where basically the All Star game was the only time one could actually see a lot of points because it was boring watching all defense all the time
@@rustybucketsit’s been a pleasure following your growth as a content creator for the last 5-6 years. You still talked about going to JC when I first subbed with my other account. Somewhere around the time you were releasing the Goatmentary in different parts
The ABA came after the NBA and was more fun, so the NBA merged and took the ABAs more fun rules and style (3 pointers, etc). The AFL came after the NFL and was more fun, so the NFL mergered and took the AFLs more fun rules and style (2-PT conversions, etc). Seems the pattern is if you get in early enough, even if someone improves your product, you'll have the money and brand recognition to swallow them up to prevent competition.
Embiid 70Pts, 18Reb KAT 62Pts, 8 Reb KD had 43Pts Luka had 33Pts, 18Reb and 13Ast Jayson Had 39Pts and 11Reb Giannis Had 31Pts, 17Reb and 10Ast All in the same Night Nba Offense is crazy currently
You know what's better than 6 in the key? 6 on the outside. Force perimeter players to move inside the 3 pt arc every few ticks and you solve the problem of defensive spacing without completely bottling up the game. Or making 4-out an illegal offense would be similar. You could even add an offside line to make transition play more interesting. More FIFA than FIBA but who cares if it works right? Great topic. Go Bulls!
I think the allow more physicality rule has a major flaw in it, namely that if you're relying on the discretion of referees, offensive players are incentivized to make a foul obvious. We see it a lot in European football, where if a player gets fouled, but tries to continue the play they will not get a foul call if they are unable to, because the contact is not seen as severe enough. Meanwhile if they stop playing and go down, they will get their call. I don't mean flopping, but rather grinding the game to a halt to get the call you actually deserved. It also has the added downside of making flopping less distinguishable from players just trying to get what they should. I get that increasing the physicality slightly can be a good thing, I just feel like it should be done through more hard and fast rules.
Yeah the problem with the 'foul hunting' rule comes up in a big way here. It's not very well thought out and would be nigh-impossible to actually officiate. People have been drawing fouls since the beginning of time. What probably could be more carefully officiated is illegal screens, though- it would come at the cost of a much more choppy pace of play, at least for an adjustment period, but it would make it more challenging for smaller players to set effective screens and make it harder to hunt down matchups that would make lumbering bigs impossible to play. I'm also not really sure it would be such a bad thing if the NBA got rid of the 3 second rule. It's hard to enforce, it eliminates true zones, i think i'd give it a shot without it. That being said, i think about 75% of the offensive explosion is schemes more than rules. D'antoni figured something out, and a generation of basketball players were developed under that philosophy and we're seeing the result. If you can extend the offense out to the 3 point line, you can make physicality irrelevant, because it's just a matter of space. The old triangle was about space, too, but not to this extent. If you play 4-5 shooters and every role player you play can shoot the ball, it massively improves the offense. That's why i think hand checking is just one of those boomer takes, it won't affect Curry or any other modern lead guard's ability to shoot pull up 3s on pick and rolls, that's just a weapon they have now.
The easy way is to go back to how it was in the 70s. If you as the offensive player initiate contact it's an offensive foul. Removes the entire issue you are talking about. If want more physicality or that's too much, then just say the defensive player does not need to be a legal guarding position if the offensive player initiates contact. It's a play on. But that *would* require a lot more discretion and makes every contact a block/charge style call. You can also allow hand checking but idk how much that helps considering players move so much off ball. I think you'd just see even more of the handoff toss stuff people are already. Although I think it would create more post ups since if someone puts their hand on your hip it's natural to turn your back. The other big change is a permanent replay official for every game who reviews every call, just like the broadcast is already doing. And they just tell the lead ref what the call is. No conferences at the monitor. Full discretion. If the offensive player makes any non-basketball move -- like the James Harden one where he hooks his arm inside yours then shoots -- it's an offensive foul. The goal should be to incentivize the offensive player to try to score, meaning avoid contact, rather than seek contact to get FT.
@@michaelahurt True, that would effectively ban the power post moves as popularized by Shaq or Moses Malone. It's one of the reasons the hook shot was so much of a thing, because indeed you weren't allowed to go into the defender at all. The challenge with 'initiates contact' is that sure, it's easy in a post move, but not so easy when it's two people trying to run to the same spot on the floor- and a lot of fouls are fouls in space where both players are trying to get somewhere. This is why it's hard to officiate basketball.
@@PanzehVideos That's why I'm more in favor of making it neutral. It makes the refs job easier since they only have to call the outliers vs turning every drive into a block/charge call. I'd leave post ups alone. Those are officiated mostly fine as is. I think the big thing is removing or expanding the 'legal guarding position' requirement where an offensive player can just throw his body into you and because you aren't "square" it's a foul. It's such a cop out by the offense that punishes good defense
Basketball has the exact opposite problem soccer has. But they're both one-sided for the same reason -- The rules, the nature of the game, don't encourage balance. In basketball, you throw a ball _over_ the defense. In soccer, you kick a ball _through_ the defense. Hands are accurate; feet aren't. The offense-defense lopsidedness is _built into_ the basic idea behind each sport.
I think returning to the foul being called on the player who initiates the contact would help a lot. Defensive players should not have to be static and offensive players shouldn't be fullbacks.
What makes me lose interest is when I see players damn near running it to the rim with no dribbling. Used to be that was a travel. I'm just a casual fan, I don't know if there was a rule change or what, but from my perspective, everyone just travels and it never gets called. I see these hilights of guys carrying the ball, step, step, step, step, dunk. Thats not basketball bro.
As a knick fan in the 90's people called it ugly i loved those defensive battles wih Jordan. People fail to credit Jordan for playing through that defensive era of great centers. There was another 70 point -18 rebound game two days ago. 10 players can put that up on any given nigrht now.
Make Foul Baiting and offensive Technical foul. This way if a player is proven to have done it twice in a game, they’re ejected and it keeps players honest or at least better liars
The problem with the more advanced offensive schemes if you want to call it more advanced is when a game is bad it’s unwatchable…just chucking up bricks from 3 isn’t entertaining …I would argue it’s more analytically advanced but conceptually simpler now
