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Definitely made some good points in the video. Only thing I’d add is the shift in officiating to help with scoring. The uncalled travels and carry’s make it nearly impossible to guard these guys. You have some of the fastest, biggest and most athletic players we’ve ever seen and then to allow them extra steps or to stop and restart their dribble just makes it impossible to guard them.
That’s part of the evolution of the game. It’s not necessarily the refs fault, a lot of guys before Kobe and Mike didn’t try to find loopholes, now not only are there more loopholes being found but they’re being exploited more or better than ever before.
@@stefankilleyajones3018I ain’t calling that evolution though. At a certain point it gets ridiculous like look at Hezi’s videos. Some of the stuff he is doing is just goofy as hell
@@stefankilleyajones3018 they aren't loopholes when they are uncalled carry's and travels. A lot of very obvious ones at that. The "gather step" wasn't really brought into the NBA until 2009 and since they did that it has only gotten worse. It is the entertainment industry so I see the point of wanting the guys score more but I think there in a line where it becomes too much and in my opinion they have crossed that line. I feel if they enforced the carry and travel calls a little more it would benefit the game but it is to far gone at this point.
not one mention of all the freedom of movement rules including hand checking the two clarification on the zero step and in my opinion the multiple travels that they get away with now.
Even if you go by the point he's trying to make, these players today are still not scoring as many points as the players of the 90's! The last couple of points leaders haven't even scored 2,300 points in a season
The zero step rule is clarified, even though I think its stupid. The zero step rule comes into effect when a player picks up the ball in the middle of their running stride (one foot on the ground one foot in the air) the foot on the ground is not considered their pivot foot and is instead considered their "zero step." This allows players to pick of the ball mid step, and then take 2 steps in addition to their zero step. A large majority of the gather steps to the basket you see today would be called travel before this rule was implemented.
@@ethankuchma5295 That has nothing to do with the so-called "zero step". Of course a foot that is already on the ground doesn't count against any steps you are allowed after the gather. That has been true since the dawn of time, and no "clarification" was necessary or, so far as I know, took place. The difference now is that you are now officially allowed TWO steps after the gather, and since refs tend to give the offensive player the benefit of the doubt (again, they've been doing this for a long time) they can now often get away with THREE (and a "half"). That (two steps after the gather) wasn't codified in the rules until 2007. The NBA claimed that how the game was going to be officiated wouldn't change, but they were completely wrong about that.
Not to mention traveling basically doesn't exist. It was never called as much as it should. But guys like Lebron and Harden are making a mockery of the rule on a daily basis. You can basically bunny hop down half the court without the ball leaving your hands.
It’s not even traveling anymore. They just manipulate the rules. Gather and zero steps have been mastered. Also nba rules are different than what the average person knows/plays with
@lanceyoung728 not true... in some cases sure but there are plenty cases where you can start counting steps after 3 gather steps and they still take 2-5 more steps The gather step allows for let's say a euro-step and there are plenty of times where it's way way worse not saying it never happened "before" but it's far to prevalent and out of control these days
i cant blame defenses a lot, sure some teams suck on D, but the rules are changed in the NBA to favor offenses, because more points = more entertainment = more viewership = more $$$ i hate it
@@coldsnap5742 Not true. The change to the illegal defense rule makes it possible to trap players like Steph and Kyrie who are otherwise unguardable. 4 things favor the offense. Step back, Euro-step, crossover and WAY better shooting. Players are flat out better today then ever. The best defenders today - think Draymond or Kawhi - are longer, bigger and better conditioned than ever before.
Well if someone is super fast and good offensively it's natural that it's difficult to defend. I mean, simply put offence is easier than defense. Defensive player has to react to everyone offensive guy does. Is just difficult to not do any mistakes against those top offensive players. Also he really have a point on pace. I remember rewatching some bulls vs jazz game where half of attacks were ppl just standing around, so little running around. Perhaps because teams didn't have so many good guys or were worse prepared physically, im not sure, but people running around way more nowadays. Everythng moving forward in sports, pretty much any sport, it's funny how people still think some team 30 years ago was better than todays top1 team. I mean they maybe had tons of talent and would be as great nowadays if they had opportunity to play and get all the good stuff players get nowadays, but fact is that overall players are just way better and faster nowadays. @@coldsnap5742
I can hardly immagine anyone changing rules so that scoring would drop. Casuals would pick forks and torches and set the civilization back to stone age. But if there are no changes to boost the defense NBA would slowly fade into obscurity as the casuals would yawn at multiple players scoring 80 each night.
So what changes do you think would legitimately improve defense with all this space and pace and 3 balls? - handchecking? In a heavy pick and roll offense that everyone runs? I doubt it. They don't play back to the basket basketball much or straight iso with no picks. - 3 sec defense in the key? This could definitely lower scoring opportunities, but its possible it would just result in more 3s. - Being able to land in the zone of the shooter? They won't change this as it exists to prevent injury. - Removing the freedom of movement rule? Perhaps... I doubt it really stops these potent offenses though. Consider this, GSW played without that rule and still had the highest rated offense. Now teams play like GSW. So what defensive rules would really make a difference today?
David Thompson dropped 73 on a bottom 10 defensive team when the league only had 22 teams and the Nuggets still lost that game. Kobe dropped that 81 on a bottom of the barrel defense Raptors squad in 2006. They already blew them out but it didn't stop Kobe from chucking as many shots as possible in the last few minutes of the game. David Robinson dropped his 71 against an 18th defensive rating Clippers squad and was being actively fed the ball because that was the year he wanted to get the scoring title over Shaq over petty BS. The only person of those four listed that didn't drop 70 on a crap defensive team for their era was Booker. And even then, that Celtics team was 13th in defensive rating. Let's stop pretending like a lot of high scoring individual games weren't done on teams that were garbage on defense.
A 13th ranked defense today would be dead last in past eras, bruh. It's not an opinion it's straight facts that even if teams wanted they can't play defense the same.
@@user-xt5mn4fg5g still not a great defense at the time, either. Point is, usually mid to bad defensive teams get ran through for high scoring games. It's really not all that shocking that it's happening now consider offense is on such a level it's nearly impossible to guard people. I blame officiating and a handful of players. The floppy BS needs to end for sure.
You wrote all that for what lol defense is trash just face it kid,you new era fanboys do so much damage control for your favorite players lol get a job this ain’t it
@ninjersey9476 it's not being a fan boy. It's calling out the old head knob gobblers for talking out their ass. I like defense. I'd prefer better officiating so players can actually play defense without getting called for BS fouls. But to say there's none is just stupid. Plenty of guys try their hardest. Offense nowadays is just so advanced it's difficult to keep up.
I really wish there was a balance of hard nosed defense/physicality as well as great offense; in the playoffs it’s solid but I want it to be the case in the regular season too
You’ll never get that. These guys can’t and shouldn’t go 100% on both ends of the court. Fans / media have already decided the regular season doesn’t matter
@@papitomichael3317 -- i'd add that REFS aren't as quick to call physical plays. The going "100%" is a small factor. Playoffs allow more physicality. It's why Embiid and Harden are less efficient in the playoffs
@@lubo1358 Today it goes to the other direction. You can have players initiating contact and then flopping and selling it to referees for cheap free throws. It needs reining in.
So, it’s time to change the rules back to make defense count more. Flops should be technical fouls, allow hand checking, and change the rule to 5-6 in the key instead of 3 in the key.
-- Agree. With all this more skill and knowledge, let the plumbers back out the pipework. P.s. Even Luka and Jokic said it was easier to score in the NBA. P.s.s. And when the USA plays international ball, they struggle for 3 reasons: europeans play together and longer as a team, USA doesn't always send its best players, and the rules? It is way more physical. Less flopping. And definitely a bit more entertaining.
its not pace and space causing the scoring eruption is that the nba has legislated defense out of the game while also removed restrictions on the offensive player. For example the rules to protect the shooter, the rules that allow a gather step, i mean how often do you see travels and carry violations these days. Yes these rules allow more creativity, but they have unbalanced the game in favor of the offensive player. Its also players not playing hard every night which to be honest is killing the ratings, the highest skilled era of basketball also has the worst viewership in the last decade and a half. These players dont play hard they are dare i say payed to well and too pampered. Im only 30 so I wouldnt consider myself an old head just yet but the reality is these guys don't care about defense and the NBA essentially said hey thats good that you don't care.
The worst part is that every big youtube platform that covers the NBA spins the same narrative. They say that the game has evolved and make no mention of any rules changes that make drafting scorers super important even when they cant play defense.
The narrative that these guys are more skilled is extremely flawed. Most of these guys succ on defense borderline liabilities, they have no post game whatsoever, we have 7 footers that can’t even cracc 10 boards a game. These guys have better handles and shooting but at the expense of everything else.
Not sure it's flawed, but certainly traditional point guards, power forwards and centers had different skills so saying "more skilled" is a *misnomer* in that sense when what people really mean is that players have a higher skill level in the skills that matter. Namely shooting, passing and ball handling. Like if Aaron Gordan can score on a 6'3" guard in the post does it matter how much skill he displayed? If a Lively - Luka pick and roll results in an alley-oop does it matter whether Lively set a "good" screen? But having Harrison Barnes instead of Charles Oakley creates a whole host of problems for the defense because the increase in shooting, passing and ball handing SCALES UP to make his teammates better in a way that rebounding, screening and mid-range shooting simply doesn't. It's also worth noting that the entire reason we got to this point is because traditional power forwards actually weren't very skilled even at the skills they were supposedly good at. They couldn't take advantage of Harrison Barnes or Shane Battier guarding them in the post or on the offensive glass enough to outweigh the benefit of Banes and Battier draining open threes and driving past bigger, slower opponents on closeouts. To say nothing of how many extra points were generated by having better, smarter passing. Plus the reality of needing to be guarded 25 feet from the basket made the rebounding "skill" of the traditional fours obsolete.
This would be a great argument, if I didn’t have eyes. The defense is not allowed to touch players on their way to the basket, we are living in the golden age of offensive rules, not offensive skill. We are also living in the golden age of uneducated basketball fans. The first age where fans consume far more biased propaganda like clip videos than actually watch basketball games. I bet most fans today truly believe they know more from looking at highlights and stats than from watching a game. It’s funny how all you modern day experts still don’t understand illegal defense but claim that rule change makes things so different today. The defensive 3 second rule still would allow a non shooter to space out the floor and still prevents teams from playing a traditional zone defense. I saw a call the other day that was basically the exact same call for an illegal defense in the 90s and I was shocked because I always heard this narrative about illegal defense being gone now. Yes they should get rid of the defensive 3 second rule. But they won’t because it would make scoring harder for “more skilled” players of today.
Defensive 3 seconds wouldn’t allow for a non shooting as that would be detrimental as the strongest defender or rim protector could stand in the paint the entirety of the game and also teams would just put out a three point shooting line up and force the person on a shooter and make the decision of protecting the rim or leaving a shooter
I think another big issue with the balance between offense and defense is how much the offense is allowed to get away with, while the defense is punished for slight physicality. For example, offensive players are frequently allowed to get away with carrying, and often carry as part of their hesitation to get a step on the defender. Anyone who has played basketball, especially as a ballhandler, knows how much you can do with getting a step on a defender. While I understand that their is an entertaining aspect of this to some viewers, as there are more anklebreakers and highlights, it is not fair to the balancing of the game to allow offensive players to get away with breaking the rules punishing defenders for playing physical. I think, for the sake of balancing offense and defense, the enforcement of the rules should either allow offense to continue carrying, but allow defense to play more physically or more strictly enforce carrying and keep the current punishments for defenders playing physically.
This would be a good argument' if players were trying to score inside but they aren't. Teams want to shoot threes. Not being able to touch someone driving to the rim (even though they do) means next to nothing in a league that wants to score from 3.
Beautiful LOW. I always love how intricate you get on these breakdowns dating all the way back to your evolution of the point guard video but this is some more magnificent work. A little nasty but brilliant nonetheless. You forgot to mention the fact that now players can do what was considered traveling, carrying, and offensive fouls from the 2000s and back. In that way the officiating favors the offensive player now. This makes the offensive player look even more skilled because he’s getting away with Harlem Globe Trotter shit. But honestly this is one of your videos I’ll watch multiple times. Teach Marz how to do this shit man. Yall two are goats. On and P.S. if Ticket is banned/suspended from PC can you just start pulling up there? We need that. I would probably agree that he needed to go but you can’t replace him with just Domo and Jalen lmao no offense. You Marz Chill and Pirate are a Dream Team.
My eyes tell me their is a foul call and free throw shot damn near every possession. NBA doesn’t have defense anymore. This era allows offenses to do whatever they want, and defenses are very limited in what they can do.
That isn't true since teams and players aren't averaging more free throws than those from previous eras. Guys like Embiid or Harden who average 11 fts isn't anything new. MJ, Iverson and Karl Malone all averaged that for a season before in an era where free throws are more common
Fun fact: Teams today are taking 5x more threes than teams in the 90's, yet everybody that you're pretending is averaging 30-35ppg haven't even scored 2,300 points in season ever in their careers! You all are manipulating averages to pretend that this much scoring has never been seen before! Tom Chambers was scoring more points in a season than the last 3 points leaders in he NBA, The "greatest shooter of all time" has never even scored 2,400 points in a season, the all time points leader has never even scored 2,500 points in a season. Y'all live off of narratives
Isn’t that because they play less games rather than having a lower rate of scoring, also lebron scored 2478 total points in the 05-06 season missing 3 games. And steph was 25 points off that mark in the15-16 season and didn’t play 3 games while sitting out many 4th quarters. you are technically right but only by insignificant margins and while these 2 only missed 3 games many players in recent years are missing 10-20 games
@@dylanbarrett508 Exactly! You just proved my point. LeBron avg 31ppg with 2,478 points but then last year he scored 1,590 points and he avg 29ppg! PPG is supposed to summarize what you scored for the whole season, not what you scored before you stopped playing games
For those who don’t know, most of the music tracks in his videos from before are by DJ Grumble. It looks like he’s experimenting with different music here though.
I think a lot of it is the lack of true big men and the rule changes for the ball handler to carry, travel, and double dribble, which makes it easier to score.
how can you even say "lack of true bigs", when ppl like Gobert, Wemby, AD, etc.. are dominating the league. Plus double dribbling, traveling, and carrying were not called out as much as you think during the dead-ball era just say you don't know ball and move tf on
Lol but like the video pointed out, strategies used with the bigs that lacked offensive skill would no longer work. Boban would've been a starter his whole career if he played in 90s, but he is practically unplayable in today's game.
@@vamoneygroup no not at all. Hakeem is not the type of big I'm talking about... Hakeem, Robinson, Shaq, Alonzo, Ewing to an extent... Would all still be great in this era just used differently. It's the guys like Longley, Ostertag, Dudley, Reeves, Tabak, Perdue, Muresan, Polynice, Bradley, MclVaine, Vaught, Lang, Ervin Johnson, Jayson Williams, Cartwright, etc Most of the other bigs in the 90s simply would be bottom of the bench bigs like Boban is... Obviously not guys like Hakeem lmao just about 90% of NBA bigs back then, but not the greats
@@Michael-vn2jj So getting rebounds is also irrelevant. 😂😂Why do I feel like I'm talking to an ai bot that never played basketball and is only spinning narratives?
What's really interesting to me is this: every old basketball player tries to blame this on the laziness/lack of character/selfishness of the current NBA players, but I'm old enough to know that the old ones ALWAYS do this, no matter what the change is. In the nineties Kareem was complaining that no one was developing a skyhook because they were all lazy and just wanted to dunk like Jordan. When the three started to dominate, the new old people said it was because they were too lazy to go inside and get physical! Here's the truth: these are the greatest basketball players in the world, and they will figure out the best way to dominate with whatever system they get handed to them. If the NBA made it illegal to dribble they would develop insane passing. If they made a four point line they would get even better at the long ball. They work with what they've got. If you don't like it, you need to change the rules. In other words, don't blame the player, blame the game.
Great vid bro. You can definitely see that great 90s-00s defenders got replaced with great 3pt shooters of the 2010s and beyond and the 1 or 2 3pt specialists of the 90s-00s got replaced by 1 or 2 defensive specialists due to rule changes and team needs. But the lack of travel and carry calling has gone wild
@@lorddj9910there you go. So with that logic in mind, we would arrive to the conclusion that a huge amount of players from the 90s and 00s would probably not even make the league with their lackluster offensive skill sets. Players are significantly better offensively than they were back then. That’s just the truth.
LOW you doing incredible shit my guy teaching the youth what REALLY was going on when the old heads just wanna lie for their egos. Really beautiful to see can’t stress it enough 🥹
I just really want to say thank you. It seems everyone either don't know or forget about Illegal Defence rules back in 90th, when they compare the game today and before.
Great vid and perfectly said! Defense hasn't gotten worse (enabling zone defense has created significant increases in creativity, which like LOW points out, initially led to a drop in scoring), offense has simply gotten too good. We need rule changes to even the field - hand checking should help, eliminating defensive three seconds would be great, and moving the 3pt line back (making the shot less efficient and therefore encouraging greater scoring diversity) could be possible too.
They just nostalgic and want see fights til their favorite players get hurt then mad. LIKe People saying Green shouldnt habr contestef Klay in the finals and said hurt Klay. Yet Green didnt touch him hard and he landed wrong
The NBA players are just so skilled that they can't medal in the world cup. Its like skill overload, like geniuss who get bored in school and fail classes. It's so next level that i cant comprehend the skill genius of these players.
Spot on. More space, more pace, more possessions, more 3s = more points and makes it harder to defend. The solution might be to remove the 3 point shot. Not the 3 point line, but make all shots worth the same value. Then teams will rather play for the highest % shot rather than the highest value shot.
The increase in threes has been good for the game since the space it creates allows for more complex offensive tactics however because of this they also need to release some of the restrictions they previously placed on defense. I think the league has plenty of skilled defenders and some of the smartest ever but they can't defend due to the severe punishment of almost any contact
@@vamoneygroup What I mean to say is the good, talented defenders of this era- the kawhi’s, Lu Dorts, Matisse Thybulles, Paul Georges, etc. would be amazing in previous eras with the rules from back then, that what I meant. But yes, i agree, defense is dying and defenders as a whole are a dying breed. That’s why I consider Tony Allen the defensive GOAT- he played in both eras and stayed an elite defender in both.
The extra step that would be called in the past is generating tons of points, also you can't even use your fore arm to defend , some times guys just let of the offensive player cause its gonna be a foul, so the only option is send help, then it's just kick the ball out to the shooter, so everyone is basically playing the same way
Whenever I hear someone say the 80s and 90s were the golden age of tough hard nose basketball I roll my eyes so fkn hard. People get gassed up by flagrant foul comps and ignore everything else. You watch a high scoring performance from mike or bird and they're just baking one man while the rest of the team is just forced to watch. There was no help defense unless it was a double that came from a good distance away. No pre rotations, no roaming defenders, none of that.
Hand-checking was also made illegal. You used to be able to essentially push the offensive player constantly, anywhere on the court, impeding his movement.
What about defensive 3 seconds!!! That is HUGE in limiting defenders and would shed points like crazy if implemented. Perimeter defenders were never the real threat. It's that 2nd and 3rd defender once you get past the first one!
The long 2 was frustrating. I remember KG being one foot in front of the 3 line and Always making them. I'd be mad and wish he could take 1 step back and get an extra point
As one those as you put it "back in my days" i will admit that this is absolutely the best defense (ha) of modern ball ive heard yet. Well done young man...
I love nba but this be one of my gripes bc they handicap defense and make it just about scoring and I hate that bc nobody can ever get a stop bc they scared of fouling and if u blow on them they gonna get a call like it makes the game nasty to me I love offense too but I am a defense guy too I love seeing players get stops but defense can’t be played how it’s supposed to be
It really is the defense though, but not the level defense the players play it’s the enforcement of the rules it’s not allowing defensive players to really get up on players and play good defense it allows too much space between the ball handler and the defender which results it easier points but also a good point is the shooting has gotten so good that there is more space but that goes hand-in-hand with the rules
I’d add a rule where ANY time the ball goes out of bounds, possession is awarded to the team that was on defense. If it was scramble and no team was really “possessing”, it goes back to the “who touched it last” rule. Jose Alvarado type players get a big buff. The defense is rewarded more for being proactive and aggressive. That’s a rule I think could work in an impactful and positive way and that doesn’t really piss anyone off too much in the long run.
That's an interesting idea that I have never thought of in the context of a 5v5 game. Whenever I play 1v1s, this is usually how I play, as the defender in a 1v1 is at such a disadvantage that they should be rewarded for making a stop.
Terrible defense, a lack of defensive effort, extreme spacing, bad shot selection in transition, more shot chucking overall, less half-court offense, less contact, moving screens, traveling being legalized, carrying being legalized, and so much more. That's the reason why the game has seen a scoring explosion, and it's has nothing to do with players being more skilled. Just look at the types of players who are having these crazy scoring games. Is Luka at the level of an MJ, Kobe, Bird, or Wilt? Is Luka even Steph Curry? Of course not, and Luka is probably the best of the bunch when it comes to the Guards who have scored 60+ over the last months. The rest of these Guards on that list wouldn't even start in the 2,000's, or the 1990's. I don't even think Luka would would be a superstar in those era's. If there wasn't something wrong, why hasn't these scoring explosions been happening over the last 10 years? A lot of the best players from the last 15 years are still playing at a high level, and none of them are scoring 60 or 70 points over the years. Instead it's these guys who are second, or third tier superstars. I can see Embiid, Giannis, or Jokic having a crazy stat game against a terrible mismatch, but these guards doing this stuff exposes the issue with the modern NBA. They certainly aren't bigger, stronger, or faster, so it must be something else.
Its crazy to think about how they would take those long ass 2 pointers because in my mind even before the 3 ball got prioritized I would’ve been like shittt… 3 is better than 2 and it’s not even that much farther than a long ass mid range for 2 points 😭 you might as well try and go to the free throw line
"There was questionable defence in the 80s" Is THIS your great RU-vid basketball debater?!?! "Derp, there were bad movies in the 90s, so quit complaining about modern movies"?? IS THIS REAL LIFEmamma
Players travel and carry all the time now which affects one's ability to score. An extra step gives a ball handler a huge advantage. Also, defense isn't allowed to be played now.
Nope. None of that has anything to do with how players play Matador defense when somebody's driving down the lane. Every single time there is somebody there but they will just let them drive right by for a layup. It's not because the offensive player is more skilled. It's because the defensive player is less motivated. They'll just put their hands up step to the side and let the other person lay it up. It's like an All-Star game.
Maybe they should implement the rule " whenever defense is deflecting the pass or forcing the ball out of bounds, attacking team loses 5 seconds on the shot clock, but the number that remains on the shot clock cant be less than 1 second" . That way defense will try to play agressive to disrupt the flow of attack and contest passing lanes.
No shot is inherently inefficient. Shot selection doesn't exist in a vacuum like casual fans, and stat analysts think it does. What makes a shot efficient, or inefficient depends on the defense, and the shooter. It's that simple. That's term "inefficient" is a term that analytics has taken and ran with over the years perverting the term, and it's application to the game. A long 2-pointer can be more efficient than a contested 3-pointer. It can even be more efficient than an open 3-pointer if a guy is more comfortable with that shot a little closer to the basket. It depends on the shooter and the look. Mid-range shots are extremely important because they make a defender have to defend the entire court, not just the 3-point line, or the paint. If you're hitting the 3 ball, and a defender adjusts, you can fake the 3, and pull up from the mid-range. Unless you have the time to conciously adjust to get your feet behind the 3-point line, you shouldn't even be focusing on where you are shooting from, you should be focused on the quality of the look you are getting to shoot the ball. A long 2-pointer might be the shot you need if the help defense is deeper in the paint cutting you off from the basket. That's the game of basketball, not analytics. The reason the mid-range was so important before 2014 is because the paint was usually pretty clogged, and having a good pull up jumpshot was a necessity for that reason. 6 ft PG's weren't just getting into the paint at will without taking the chance of getting blocked, stripped, or bodied up by a defender that was much bigger and stronger than they were. Now smaller guys are dribbling the ball at will in and out of the paint face up without contact, and without ever having to have their back to the basket, and unless they get stripped or blocked, they are free to move however they wish entering the paint face up. There is more defense in 2k11 and 2k12 than there is in today's game.
my dad was talking about how the kings needed to work on their defense and how they were focusing too much on scoring. But now knowing the games are just an arms race of points scoring between teams his/our criticism are now moot as its now a question of evolving defensive tactics. Cause eventually some team is gonna figure out how to put a stop to this fast paced offense. Then a new era of defense will begin.
Not sure about that, as I think offense is just easier than defense. If you are super good at offense you will just get your points. Also at older times there were way less europeans too and in many of european countries there was not as much resources to grow. Current pool of players to choose is bigger world wide, training and learning is easier than ever, add all the supplements and stuff, is natural that players get faster and better offense. And even if you are really good at defense, you just cant stop top players no matter what, sure you will make to drop their shooting %, but top teams nowadays have few really good players, not one, you cant just grab few good defenders, they have to be also really good shooters, else you will still lose. Old times big like Ostertag wold do nothing vs even small players like curry or irving, they are just too fast and too good. Taking some big guy and let him defend doesnt work anymore even if we forget most of those guys were terrbile at offense
More talents, better talents in highschools, better training, better coaching staff, spent more time training in off season instead of working side-jobs or partying like in the 90s, better spacing, better tactics, billions of data from the past games NBA is the only place where the old heads keep on hating the new generations. In other sports and place old players appreciate and motivate the next generations.
No mention of the lack of officiating on travels, carries, etc. It’s not as back and white as you say. Most teams play the exact same way now. That’s not a “golden era” buddy.
Tbh I do think that handcheking should be brought back. Not because it will magically solve everything. But it alongside a few other rule change (I do not know what) will allow more counterplay from the defense. There are way too many options for the offense right now when compared to the defense. And though I think that it should be like that to prevent another 90ppg league, I do think that it should be a bit more balanced as things are way too skewed into the offense. Tbh I do miss the days where defense specialist can exist, tbh I think it’s something that adds a lot of depth and area for other players to shine. I want an era where offense have to actually work harder to get their buckets, as it is a fact now that defenses are hunting for less efficient shots and not fully shutting down the play, as it is now impossible to contest every single shot.
