Overrated defense of the 80s/90s

[KG215]

The enforcement of rules change ever year. It didn't require an influx of offensive talent for the league average offensive rating to go from 102.9 to 106.1 from 2004 to 2005.

Whatever you say boss. You're never wrong.

[Money 23]

Jordan wasn't gifted calls? EVERYONE used to call out the league on that.

MJ attacked the rim with reckless abandon, though.

Damn near every star players gets soft touch calls aking to MJ now, with even LESS physical of defense on average. That's the point.

How can you not deny this? MJ wasn't shouting "HEYYYYYY" after someone breathed on him while shooting.

He didn't flop and act like a pathetic euro player.

[Yao Ming's Foot]

"The legacy of the NBA illegal defense rules. Ten years ago, the NBA radically changed its rules governing illegal defense. There is a brief history of some of the rule changes here. (Note the link is a bit out of date, and doesn't include the more recent changes to the hand check rules, which have also affected the way the game is played.) For those of you that don't remember much about the NBA of the 1980s and 1990s, the NBA illegal defense rules made help-side defense extremely difficult to accomplish. Any player guarding a defender on the weak side could not be in the "college lane" for more than three seconds, meaning they couldn't really protect the basket until the offensive player had committed to driving to the hoop. This rule had a profound influence on the NBA game of the 1990s. It essentially encouraged a lot of one on one or two on two isolation plays, with as many as three guys basically just standing around on the weak side. "


http://www.burntorangenation.com/201...e-the-offenses

[Deuce Bigalow]

Percentage of points that came from the freethrows line
'80s: 20.3
'90s: 19.8
'00s: 19.5

[Money 23]

Percentage of points that came from the freethrows line
'80s: 20.3
'90s: 19.8
'00s: 19.5

That takes into account ALL players.

We're talking about superstar calls.

You didn't watch the 2006 NBA Finals? You're going to sit there with a straight face and play like the calls made in the NBA from the 2006 season forward represent the physicality of the game from the late 80s - 2004?

[Yao Ming's Foot]

1979 league average offensive rating: 103.8

1981-82

[Deuce Bigalow]

That takes into account ALL players.

We're talking about superstar calls.

You didn't watch the 2006 NBA Finals? You're going to sit there with a straight face and play like the calls made in the NBA from the 2006 season forward represent the physicality of the game from the late 80s - 2004?

Then Wade in the 2011 Finals: 8.2 FTA per game

[Money 23]

2011 Finals: 8.2 FTA per game

You didn't really answer my question, Deuce.

[Deuce Bigalow]

You didn't really answer my question, Deuce.

2006 was one year though. 07-present isn't the same as the 06 Finals. The NBA isn't giving calls to superstars like 06 Wade now are they? If they did I'm sure we would be seeing threads about it like it was June 06 all over again, even though I wasnt on ISH in 06 but I can imagine.

[Micku]

I wanted to make a thread about this. Not exactly about the overrated defense, but about how the Pistons and Bulls basically changed the way NBA play the game and probably destroyed the 80s offense. There were a couple of articles that said more teams started to play like the Pistons and slow down the pace. The Bulls also had slow pace with the Pistons. The Pistons was actually the slowest pace team when they won the title. I'll probably still make a thread about it, but since you made a thread about the defense, I'll wait for a bit.


To your main topic:

High pacing, lack of 3pt shots, and fast breaks went a long way on the offense back then when the whole league was basically doing that.

Not say that the defense didn't evolved, because it did. But the way they played the offense is completely different of what they do now. There were more team passing and they take more interior shots than now. But the 80s was not the most physical era, that was the 70s. The ruling of limiting hand checking made it easier for the perimeter players of the 80s.

But the defense of the 80s was different. They didn't really guard the long ball mid range shot. They only guard the players who could actually make it.

But were the Pistons and Bulls were the first one to slow pace down? No. And they weren't the only good defensive teams of the 80s. The 76ers had good ones, Bucks, Jazz, and the Celtics. The Pistons tho were the only team that played at slow pace, played some good help defense, and foul the crap out of you and they won despite the lack of talent they had in comparison to the Lakers and Celtics. They were more of a offensive team in the early-mid 80s. That started to change after 86. Chuck Daily and Isiah Thomas thought they needed to be more aggressive, so they adopted a slower pace, more physical, and defensive team approach. Then they became the Bad Boys Pistons, which revolutionize the whole league.

So, I do think the defense evolved. The defense became more complex. But, the offense got worst in comparison to back then. So, you can argue either or. It was a different era, so it's hard to compare because of the different philosophy. The game is very different in 1998 as well, and that was only 15 years ago. Defense was different back then as well. Rules changing.