Were the 2001 to 2005 NBA season the best defensive era in the NBA

[Lebron23]

Zone defense plus hand checking. your average score was 72 to 67, but we still enjoyed watching that game



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0KH0V-41wA

[WhiteKyrie]

No, but it’s a part of the best defensive or most difficult to score climate in NBA history. Part of the dip in scoring those seasons, was the accumulation effect of drafting way too many dumb skill-less high school prospect players, lack of ball movement, lack of shooting ability, concentration on low post play when teams didn’t all have truly good low post scoring, slow plodding pace, ISO heavy basketball, and yes, very good defense with actual physicality involved on the perimeter and around the rim. 1995 - 2003 is the most difficult scoring climate ever in NBA basketball.

[jlip]

1999-2005

[WhiteKyrie]

1999-2005

You could easily tack on 1996 through 1998 with those seasons. Don’t be dishonest. It all started with Pat Riley in New York with his crew of WWF wrestlers I mean Knicks.

[HoopsNY]

1998-2004 was the height of the defensive era. 1999 skews the perception a bit. That was the strike shortened season and teams looked terrible. That was the worst offensive output in league history.

They got rid of hand checking before 2005 IIRC, so I wouldn't include that year. And the zone defense rules came into effect in the 2000-01 season.

I will say that '00-'04 was probably the best era after the mid '80s. It seemed to have the right balance of flashiness, high flying dunks, athleticism, mixed with the And1 street play (cue Nike's ASG commercial), with playing through the post, system basketball, defensive intensity, and enough close games to make the game exciting.

So you could get a healthy dose of Tim Duncan's fundamentals while watching Stevie Franchise break your ankles, Reggie and Ray gunning 3's while Ben Wallace swats your shit to the 13th row, depth of teams like Sacramento and Portland trying to overcome LA's 1-2 punch, etc.

Late 90s basketball sucked - particularly 1998 and 1999.

[WhiteKyrie]

1998-2004 was the height of the defensive era. 1999 skews the perception a bit. That was the strike shortened season and teams looked terrible. That was the worst offensive output in league history.

They got rid of hand checking before 2005 IIRC, so I wouldn't include that year. And the zone defense rules came into effect in the 2000-01 season.

I will say that '00-'04 was probably the best era after the mid '80s. It seemed to have the right balance of flashiness, high flying dunks, athleticism, mixed with the And1 street play (cue Nike's ASG commercial), with playing through the post, system basketball, defensive intensity, and enough close games to make the game exciting.

So you could get a healthy dose of Tim Duncan's fundamentals while watching Stevie Franchise break your ankles, Reggie and Ray gunning 3's while Ben Wallace swats your shit to the 13th row, depth of teams like Sacramento and Portland trying to overcome LA's 1-2 punch, etc.

Late 90s basketball sucked - particularly 1998 and 1999.

Nah amateur take. 1996 and 1997 were great NBA seasons with amazing teams and top end superstar talent.

1998 and especially 1999 - 2002 were trash outside of a couple teams. Namely the Lakers, Kings, Blazers, and Bucks.

The peak basketball eras I sent was 89 - 93,and 06 - 13

[HoopsNY]

Nah amateur take. 1996 and 1997 were great NBA seasons with amazing teams and top end superstar talent.

1998 and especially 1999 - 2002 were trash outside of a couple teams. Namely the Lakers, Kings, Blazers, and Bucks.

The peak basketball eras I sent was 89 - 93,and 06 - 13

I'll give you 1996...not so sure about '97, which is why I didn't single it out. '98 and '99 sucked. '00-'02 wasn't bad, what are you talking about? lol. You mentioned "a couple of teams", and then mentioned 4...and you didn't mention the Spurs, lol.

The East did suck, but the reason I mentioned that era is because of what I mentioned before about a great mix between old school and new school basketball. We saw the low post presence of bigs like Duncan, Shaq, KG, Sheed, etc with raw young, athletic talent like T-Mac, Vince, Baron Davis, Steve Francis, Kobe, etc.

We still saw defensive intensity, and we still had the old school rules.

I disagree about 2006-13, especially when by 2008, we had one superteam (Boston), leading to another in 2011 (Miami).

[WhiteKyrie]

I'll give you 1996...not so sure about '97, which is why I didn't single it out. '98 and '99 sucked. '00-'02 wasn't bad, what are you talking about? lol. You mentioned "a couple of teams", and then mentioned 4...and you didn't mention the Spurs, lol.

The East did suck, but the reason I mentioned that era is because of what I mentioned before about a great mix between old school and new school basketball. We saw the low post presence of bigs like Duncan, Shaq, KG, Sheed, etc with raw young, athletic talent like T-Mac, Vince, Baron Davis, Steve Francis, Kobe, etc.

We still saw defensive intensity, and we still had the old school rules.

I disagree about 2006-13, especially when by 2008, we had one superteam (Boston), leading to another in 2011 (Miami).

1999 through 2002 is terrible. Just look at the Pacer team that gave the 98 Bulls a run for their money, their already old core was two years older, and they gave the Lakers a fight in the Finals.

I get what you’re saying about the individual young talent, but the quality of the teams were terrible. And the brand of basketball for most of those teams and in combination with the league at large was bad.

1997 had great superstar talent as well, but with great team basketball. 1997 was absolutely a great season in pro basketball.

And unlike the 2000s and 2010s, there wasn’t such a loaded talent disparity in one conference. The east was better for the vast majority of the 90s but in the late 90s, it started to even up. The league had a good balance.

Bulls 69-13
Jazz 64-18
Heat 61-21
Sonics 57-25
Rockets 57-25
Knicks 57-25
Lakers 56-26
Hawks 56-26
Pistons 54-28
Hornets 54-28

All NBA 1st Team:
C - Hakeem
F - K. Malone
F - G. Hill
G - MJ
G - T. Hardaway

All NBA 2nd Team:
C - Ewing
F - Pippen
F - G. Rice
G - Mitch Rich
G - GP

All NBA 3rd Team
C - Shaq
F - V. Baker
F - A. Mason
G - Penny
G - Stockton

That’s a really good NBA season with some really quality teams, with some loaded superstar talent.

[90sgoat]

No, I think the mid 90s were. Hakee, D-Rob, Mutombo etc and then you had some extremely good wing defenders Payton, MJ, Pippen etc.

The low scores of the 00s were more to do with a noticeably decrease in fundamentals in young players, which combined with zone defense and defensive minded coaches led to this.

[999Guy]

Nah amateur take. 1996 and 1997 were great NBA seasons with amazing teams and top end superstar talent.

1998 and especially 1999 - 2002 were trash outside of a couple teams. Namely the Lakers, Kings, Blazers, and Bucks.

The peak basketball eras I sent was 89 - 93,and 06 - 13
I would extend the eras a tad. 88-95 and 06-16

And even with that managed to see super deep teams like Daly's Pistons and Popovich's Spurs winning titles.

Late 80's and mid-10's had ungodly stacked top level talent.

The mid-90's play styles were too good. So many aesthetically pleasing, interesting, balanced teams in 94 and 95.

[HoopsNY]

1999 through 2002 is terrible. Just look at the Pacer team that gave the 98 Bulls a run for their money, their already old core was two years older, and they gave the Lakers a fight in the Finals.

I get what you’re saying about the individual young talent, but the quality of the teams were terrible. And the brand of basketball for most of those teams and in combination with the league at large was bad.

1997 had great superstar talent as well, but with great team basketball. 1997 was absolutely a great season in pro basketball.

And unlike the 2000s and 2010s, there wasn’t such a loaded talent disparity in one conference. The east was better for the vast majority of the 90s but in the late 90s, it started to even up. The league had a good balance.

Bulls 69-13
Jazz 64-18
Heat 61-21
Sonics 57-25
Rockets 57-25
Knicks 57-25
Lakers 56-26
Hawks 56-26
Pistons 54-28
Hornets 54-28

All NBA 1st Team:
C - Hakeem
F - K. Malone
F - G. Hill
G - MJ
G - T. Hardaway

All NBA 2nd Team:
C - Ewing
F - Pippen
F - G. Rice
G - Mitch Rich
G - GP

All NBA 3rd Team
C - Shaq
F - V. Baker
F - A. Mason
G - Penny
G - Stockton

That’s a really good NBA season with some really quality teams, with some loaded superstar talent.

That Pacers team was solid. They were #1 in ORTG and I think the combo of Rose and Miller was quality. Rose actually put up 21 PPG in that postseason. Keep in mind what that means for a defensive era that saw playoff teams putting up just 91.8 PPG. Indiana was actually 2nd in PPG that playoffs, and Reggie put up 24 PPG.

Do you remember Austin Croshere? That guy was solid, even though his career didn't pan out as expected. Guy put up 10/6 playing barely 23 MPG. Imagine him as a stretch big in today's game? His Per 36 was 16/10. Dale Davis had emerged as an All-Star, and they still had Smits, Jackson, Best, Perkins, and McKey. It was a pretty deep team, so I think you're sleeping on them a bit.

You've got a point about '97, so I take it back.

[ILLsmak]

1999 through 2002 is terrible. Just look at the Pacer team that gave the 98 Bulls a run for their money, their already old core was two years older, and they gave the Lakers a fight in the Finals.



No, they got bodybagged. Remm famous Jalen Rose quote that he purposefully stepped under Kobe? That team had no chance of winning the ring. It was like Utah v Chi, even if they won a couple games, it doesn't mean anything. Just like RMWG saying the Cs were 'close' to the title v GSW. They weren't.

They were about to get swept or 4-1'd and in the end they still got chunked. Kobe was out one game and despite having a good game on the come back, he didn't get ONE ft that game, so one can imagine the ankle was still an issue. Then he went 4-20 in the game they lost by a lot.

If you are down 3-1 at a point, unless you are one of the choking new skool teams, you are done. And, like I said, that's with Jalen purposefully injuring their best perimeter player.

It's not really on topic, but I just wanted to chime in.

-Smak