Official SG comparison thread: 2006 vs. 1997 vs. 1990

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[B]The stats prove that previous era bigs would score easier on the post than today's bigs.[/b]

The top 5 big men in post efficiency (points-per-possession, PPP) are Jonas Valcunious, Kevin Love, Donatas Montejunas, Lamarcus Aldridge, and Marc Gasol.

[url]http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/post-up/?dir=1&sort=PPP&CF=Poss*GE*200&Season=2014-15&SeasonType=Regular%20Season[/url]

[I]All these guys achieve the standard for elite efficiency of 1.00 PPP, despite having weak post games.. This proves how much the superior bigs of previous would dominate today's game - all the bigs listed below from 1996 were better post scorers than today's top 5, so they'd ALSO be getting elite post PPP.. And clearly, today's top 5 wouldn't even be in the top 10 if these guys were playing:
[/I]
Hakeem
Shaq
Robinson
Ewing
Alonzo
Sabonis
Karl Malone
Barkley
Webber
Kemp

And probably Rik Smits, Vin Baker, Dino Radja, and certainly Derrick Coleman.

The league changed the rules in 2005 to increase the percentages on ball movement and dribble penetration, which have [I]surpassed[/I] post-ups in some spots.. But the percentages on post-ups [i]themselves[/i] haven't diminished at all, as proven by the elite post percentages of today's bigs, which only demonstrates how much the superior bigs of previous eras would dominate today.






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[COLOR="White"]....................................................[/COLOR][B][COLOR="Green"][SIZE="3"]SPACING[/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]


There was no weakside spacing in previous eras, so all 5 defenders remained on the strongside, and therefore closest to help on strongside action:


[IMG]http://www.gifsforum.com/images_new/gif/other/grand/95daa895eb22b488294eeed3b6d490c3.gif[/img]



Otoh, today's game uses weakside spacing to reduce the number of strongside defenders.. Help defenders are now on the [I]weakside[/I] and furthest from helping on strongside action:


[IMG]http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/5-22-2015/WAhpK1.gif[/img]


The weakside spacing and resulting porous strongsides necessitate the flooding of defenders BACK TO the strongside - this is how strongside floods originated.

Otoh, as the first GIF showed, weakside spacing didn't exist in previous eras, so defenders weren't lured away from the strongside - defenders just remained on the strongside, which meant players faced strongsides that were [I]already flooded with all 5 defenders[/I] [url=http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11128077&postcount=21][u](5-defender strongsides)[/u][/url].

These fully-flooded strongsides were a product of no-spacing and represented the "advanced" version of the game that included hand-checking, higher physicality, narrower lanes, legal paint-camping and packed paints, which therefore required more sophisticated 2-point shooting ability.

This is a stark contrast to today's weakside spacing and resulting [url=http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377570][u]1-defender strongsides[/u][/url], which is basically the "beginner" version of the game that includes less strongside defenders, no hand-checking, no physicality, wider lanes no paint-camping and wide open paints..

The aforementioned [url=http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11021030&postcount=6][u]sophisticated 2-point shooting ability[/u][/url] that was necessary to mitigate the no-spacing of previous eras, is not necessary in the contemporary "beginner" environment.