When did the modern era begin?

[ISHGoat]

With NBA-ABA merger? With Bird/Magic? With 3pt line?

When did it stop being "stats inflated, weak era, etc."

[Marchesk]

When Wilt was drafted.

[ISHGoat]

When Wilt was drafted.

What kind of competition did wilt face in his league?

[WayOfWade]

In 1979, Bird and Magic's rookie season

[Smoke117]

I always think of the modern era of the NBA starting with the 80s.

[WayOfWade]

To add on, I consider "the Modern Era" to be when the NBA really took that next step in popularity to become a major player in North American Sports, and that all began with Bird and Magic

[Marchesk]

I always think of the modern era of the NBA starting with the 80s.

But some might argue that the game today with it's focus on 3pt shooting, spacing, analytics, and rule changes to favor perimeter players makes it a different game than when Magic & Bird entered 35 years ago.

[La Frescobaldi]

the modern era started last season. we are seeing a team we've never seen before.

[jstern]

It depends how old you are. To a 15 year old the modern era started a few years ago when they started watching. And I'm not making a joke. The same is true with people who started watching in let say 2007, and who later on would say Jordan played against small white guys. Which used to be a common argument around 4 years ago. To them the modern era started in 2007. They can't imagine life before they were conscious.

[Marchesk]

the modern era started last season. we are seeing a team we've never seen before.

You've watched a long time. What is your honest assessment of this Warriors team? Is it a new thing under the sun? How often does that kind of team come around?

[Marchesk]

It depends how old you are. To a 15 year old the modern era started a few years ago when they started watching. And I'm not making a joke. The same is true with people who started watching in let say 2007, and who later on would say Jordan played against small white guys. Which used to be a common argument around 4 years ago. To them the modern era started in 2007. They can't imagine life before they were conscious.

Still remember that 21 year old kid telling me that Jordan was great for his time, but wouldn't be in this era, because the athletes have gotten a lot better and more skilled. His favorite player was Lebron.

[La Frescobaldi]

You've watched a long time. What is your honest assessment of this Warriors team? Is it a new thing under the sun? How often does that kind of team come around?

never seen it before. nor even close. teams will get hot and have a game or even 3 or 4 where they flat move and can't miss but never seen anything like this.

[jstern]

Still remember that 21 year old kid telling me that Jordan was great for his time, but wouldn't be in this era, because the athletes have gotten a lot better and more skilled. His favorite player was Lebron.

And I still remember a teen saying in a serious manner that Magic Johnson would get the ball taken away every single possession. And another that even Bird would agree that if he played in this era (2008 or so) that he would come off the bench. Again serious about it, and absolutely convinced that he's right and it's so obvious that even Bird would agree.

[Im Still Ballin]

After the mini Ice age

[bdreason]

2005 to present is the current era IMO. That 2004 Pistons championship team was the last team to remind me of the gritty, defensive oriented 90's ball. Now it's all about high tempo, shooting 3's, and getting to the FT line. I'd say the modern era is more like 80's ball, minus the offensive diversity.

[JimmyMcAdocious]

Agreed. Modern is in the 80s and we are in a new era now. You can change the names and whatnot, but basketball is clearly played and schemed differently than 30 years ago.

[Marchesk]

After the mini Ice age

Liberal myth by godless atheists to promote a one world, socialist government.

[Fallen Angel]

Modern Era probably started in 2007 or 2008 when Shaq and Yao started to faultier in and out the league. When an era loses the two most physically imposing players in the league you're bound for change in some way.

Kobe's Solo/FMVP championship years added a new legend to rankings.

And mainly the Phoenix Suns' offense of the mid 2000s with Nash and Stoudimire molded a new generation of playstyles for offenses still used today.

[3ball]

.
.................................................. .Spacing


In the picture below, weakside floor-spreaders (spacing) have drawn defenders away from the strongside.. If Noah doesn't leave #20 Mosgov and flood to the strongside, the strongside will only have 2 defenders on it.


http://i61.tinypic.com/2z7mnvm.png



Otoh, previous eras didn't have weakside floor-spreaders (spacing) drawing defenders away from the strongside, so the strongside was already flooded with all 5 defenders - there are already multiple defenders standing where Noah flooded to:


https://media.giphy.com/media/xT0BKishrkuHZV0IDK/giphy.gif


Spacing causes today's defenders to make extra rotations.. But without that spacing (previous eras), defenders were already in closer proximity and the extra rotations weren't necessary.

Spacing and defensive movement offset each other, which is why league-wide offensive rating (the stat measuring how hard it is to score) has been stable for 30 years.. ORtg has ranged between 105 and 108 since 1980, excluding a brief downswing from 1998-2004.. The minor shifts within that 105-108 range are due to style of play differences between the eras that affect inputs to the ORtg calculation, such as offensive rebounding rate and FT rate.. ORtg reached all-time highs between 2008-2011.

30 years of stable ORtg proves the difficulty of scoring hasn't changed, and the changes in offensive strategy (spacing) and defensive strategy (extra rotations) are offsetting - you either have extra rotations required by spacing and defensive 3 seconds (today's game), or the rotations aren't necessary because there is no spacing or defensive 3 seconds (previous eras).
.

[24-Inch_Chrome]

Why the **** are you still spelling "Mozgov" as "Mosgov," you retarded?

[3ball]

Why the **** are you still spelling "Mozgov" as "Mosgov," you retarded?
So you agree with everything else......... Cool *****... :pimp:

[feyki]

It's changes to your criteria .

For me , that's 1926 . With ABL . And then NBL , BAA and NBA ( And ABA :D ) .

[swagga]

never seen it before. nor even close. teams will get hot and have a game or even 3 or 4 where they flat move and can't miss but never seen anything like this.

if ray allen or reggie miller benefited from the illegal screens curry benefits on a daily basis, people on this site would sing a much different tune. What I mean is that the warriors are a great team but not GOAT team and the only real thing that we haven't seen till them is a team getting away with such blatant illegal screens.

[r0drig0lac]

if ray allen or reggie miller benefited from the illegal screens curry benefits on a daily basis, people on this site would sing a much different tune. What I mean is that the warriors are a great team but not GOAT team and the only real thing that we haven't seen till them is a team getting away with such blatant illegal screens.
agree

[JohnnySic]

1991, when the Bulls won their first title. Unofficially closed out the 80's.

[Kobe_6/8]

It's hard to pick an exact year. Things definitely changed around 2005 with the dress code, rule changes to reduce physicality, and the '7 seconds or less' offense of the Suns. Plus when they used the new ball for a short period.

[julizaver]

With NBA-ABA merger? With Bird/Magic? With 3pt line?

When did it stop being "stats inflated, weak era, etc."

In most cases it's the early 80s - and had something to do with Bird/Magic. By the mid-80s we have the high-flyers, Slam Dunks, Showtime, the TV coverage, the increase of popularity and so on.

[ImKobe]

right now it would be 2005 and onwards

after handchecking got completely banned it became a guard's league.

[STATUTORY]

whenever you started watching games and following the league

[Gotterdammerung]

The modern era began in 1979-80, but there's a better way to divide eras than this old, tired, and expired "classic/modern" dichotomy:

Golden age: 1980s
The Golden Age moniker fits due to the number of powerful dynasites in the Showtime Lakers, the Bird Celtics, Dr. J's Sixers, and the Bad Boys of Mowtown. The league was much more top-heavy, tho the style dramatically altered from the coke-fueled 70s with the perfect marriage of athletes and team play.

Silver age: 1990s
Instead of dynasties, we have one dominant team steamrolling the league, 6 titles in 8 years, with an interregneum of the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995. The lack of legitimate dynasties as well as dilution due to expansion and sluggish pace knock this era down a few pegs.

Bronze age: 2000s
Since Jordan was so dominant in the previous era, the league sought would-be replacements in Shaq, Duncan, Kobe, Iverson, but none of them were capable of filling those Nikes. Although the competition improved, teams did not shake off the doldrums of the slow-ball style of the 90s until Steve Nash's Phoenix Suns of 2005 introduced small ball.

Contemporary age: 2010s till now
LBJ won 4 MVPs in 5 years, and the league successfully transitioned to Small Ball with the Miami Heat (4 finals in a row) and the Golden State Warriors, now threatening to win 70 plus games. In fact, I suspect the Warriors are not just a dominant team, they're actually a team from the future, say 5 years down the road, suddenly thrust upon the present, forcing the league to accelerate the small ball evolution ahead of schedule. :hammerhead:

[stephanieg]

2005 to present is the current era IMO. That 2004 Pistons championship team was the last team to remind me of the gritty, defensive oriented 90's ball. Now it's all about high tempo, shooting 3's, and getting to the FT line. I'd say the modern era is more like 80's ball, minus the offensive diversity.


right now it would be 2005 and onwards

after handchecking got completely banned it became a guard's league.

2005 is a good cutoff point. There was a fuzzy period there where basically only the Suns were spamming three pointers and playing small ball and doing a million pick and rolls per possession. It wasn't until the '08 Celtics when teams started taking advantage of the new zone rules to their max. Combine those and you get what I consider the modern era.

I think it was the '09 Magic where I was amazed how focused they were on shooting threes, literally four three pointer shooters + Dwight for long stretches, and they were setting all sorts of three point records. It let them clobber Cleveland in the playoffs because they were still playing traditional lineups and Big Z couldn't cover anyone and they had zero spacing.

The ball played in the 80s/90s/early 00s was basically a different sport. Try rewatching the '86 finals sometime. It's all about post up play, cutting, and mid-range game. Practically no three pointers, not a lot of screen roll or drive and kick.

To me the early 00s is the iso era. Guys would dribble on the wing forever and chuck up a brick. The low point of team ball.