hiphopanonymous
07-14-2021, 06:27 PM
The more accurate players can shoot, the less bothered they are about who's in front of their shot. This was actually roped into a few rule changes on paper the past decade or so I remember reading it as one of the NBA's actual objectives on paper was to decrease the amount of duress offensive players were under to increase FG%.
Things like FT% have stayed roughly the same since the 1950's. So shooters touch in a controlled environment as it were - isn't getting better. Under the widely variable environment of the game however, conditions have changed.
When you have to defend only with your hips and feet, and any semblance of contact is a foul on you - you're at a huge defensive disadvantage (and basketball already had an inherent disadvantage on defense due to initiative). Now the offensive player can take that half moment longer to relax - free of being thrown off balance - and put his shot up with confidence. Things change with more contact both leading up to the shot and perhaps even on the shot itself. The way players can handle the ball leading up to the shot also affects this ability to find the perfect rhythm for a good shot.
This is why we have so many 3 point shooters shooting above 40, and interior players shooting above 60. From what I can tell save for Curry they aren't any more gifted at shooting than a Reggie Miller or a Larry Bird or a Jerry West outside nor are many of the centers hitting at 60+ even remotely close to as dominant as Shaq or Wilt inside (the ones that are dominant are actually hitting lower FG% than that due to their shot variety and stepping outside but that's another topic altogether).
Not saying today's players are inferior either I'm not bashing them. We have some uniquely great players today that can do their own thing as good as anyone. But the stats today don't tell the whole story nor do they do that in any era. Just like how pace, or rebounds available, or whatever else can rise and fall with rule changes so can league wide accuracy opportunities. This is probably the most wide open league for accuracy to date.
You put a lot of past players in the game today particularly the exceptionally gifted ones and they'd be blowing away their prior career numbers from 50's-2000's in terms of accuracy - particularly at the rim and from behind the 3 point line due to the spacing I'm constantly seeing from the patterns teams can run now due to everyone being so freed up from defensive contact both on and off the ball plus the lax ball handling allowing any dribbler freedom to cover a lot of ground after the gather. You mix up a lot of these guys playing today into prior eras that's one of the things that I believe would drop. Not that they might not have more rebounds to grab or something to make up for it or perhaps even their numbers overall drop but their league ranking would stay high (some eras just flat out had lower stats all around there simply wasn't as many opportunities).
Anyways just an observation.
Things like FT% have stayed roughly the same since the 1950's. So shooters touch in a controlled environment as it were - isn't getting better. Under the widely variable environment of the game however, conditions have changed.
When you have to defend only with your hips and feet, and any semblance of contact is a foul on you - you're at a huge defensive disadvantage (and basketball already had an inherent disadvantage on defense due to initiative). Now the offensive player can take that half moment longer to relax - free of being thrown off balance - and put his shot up with confidence. Things change with more contact both leading up to the shot and perhaps even on the shot itself. The way players can handle the ball leading up to the shot also affects this ability to find the perfect rhythm for a good shot.
This is why we have so many 3 point shooters shooting above 40, and interior players shooting above 60. From what I can tell save for Curry they aren't any more gifted at shooting than a Reggie Miller or a Larry Bird or a Jerry West outside nor are many of the centers hitting at 60+ even remotely close to as dominant as Shaq or Wilt inside (the ones that are dominant are actually hitting lower FG% than that due to their shot variety and stepping outside but that's another topic altogether).
Not saying today's players are inferior either I'm not bashing them. We have some uniquely great players today that can do their own thing as good as anyone. But the stats today don't tell the whole story nor do they do that in any era. Just like how pace, or rebounds available, or whatever else can rise and fall with rule changes so can league wide accuracy opportunities. This is probably the most wide open league for accuracy to date.
You put a lot of past players in the game today particularly the exceptionally gifted ones and they'd be blowing away their prior career numbers from 50's-2000's in terms of accuracy - particularly at the rim and from behind the 3 point line due to the spacing I'm constantly seeing from the patterns teams can run now due to everyone being so freed up from defensive contact both on and off the ball plus the lax ball handling allowing any dribbler freedom to cover a lot of ground after the gather. You mix up a lot of these guys playing today into prior eras that's one of the things that I believe would drop. Not that they might not have more rebounds to grab or something to make up for it or perhaps even their numbers overall drop but their league ranking would stay high (some eras just flat out had lower stats all around there simply wasn't as many opportunities).
Anyways just an observation.