these "more skilled" players can barely score 80 points with old rules

[Bronbron23]

Curry is responsible for taking the basketball out of basketball and making it a 3-point contest where any talent-less country (basketball-wise) can win by winning the 3-point contest that the game has become.. Talent and skill don't matter anymore because it's a 3-point contest

Well technically daryl morey is responsible for that. You can't really blame steph for doing it better

[Bronbron23]

No the ones responsible for that is the league which loosened things up for other players so that they could look like Curry without being Curry. Case in point: Lillard. Always inferior numbers to Curry until recently where he finally matched Curry's worst year in terms of efficiency. Or consider Harden and his miraculous ability to draw fouls. Curry on the other hand is the high-volume scorer least reliant on free throws in NBA history. If it wasn't for these modifications by the league to help his peers Curry would stick out even further as the greatest player in the game.

Daryl morey is actually responsible for it. He came out with the analytics on why 3>2 and the rockets started shooting more threes and the league followed

[Manny98]

Players today are not "more skilled"

However you have to admit that there is a higher pool of skilled players today than their was in previous eras due to more international talent?

[97 bulls]

I have a question, if the NBA is so far ahead of the and so much better than the NBA of the past, shouldn't they still be better than teams over seas?

[Bronbron23]

Players today are not "more skilled"

However you have to admit that there is a higher pool of skilled players today than their was in previous eras due to more international talent?

Teams are definitely deeper

[Bronbron23]

I have a question, if the NBA is so far ahead of the and so much better than the NBA of the past, shouldn't they still be better than teams over seas?

Well i think one if the points of the nba being better is that international ball is better.

[Phoenix]

Players today are not "more skilled"

However you have to admit that there is a higher pool of skilled players today than their was in previous eras due to more international talent?

The skills are just different. Post play has taken a major dip as has the midrange. The Warriors( because they had 3 transcendent shooters on one team) obscured the reality that the ability to dominate in the mid-range, when the 3ball isnt falling and the rim is sealed off, is still probably the premium offensive gift you'd want to have. You're not likely to see a team again with the 3 man shooting talent of KD/Steph/Klay. It was an aberration.

The world talent pool is most certainly deeper, and arrogance has led to the US sending their B squad with a few a-listers and thinking they're going to strut to gold. Those days are long over.

[MadDog]

Its a myth perpetuated by dumbass LeBron fans. Top to bottom, the league's got more talent because the game is more global. But "more" skills? Of course not. Carrying the basketball, unloading threes and eliminating everything in-between isnt "more" skill. Its just a different play style.

[ShawkFactory]

Curry is responsible for taking the basketball out of basketball and making it a 3-point contest where any talent-less country (basketball-wise) can win by winning the 3-point contest that the game has become.. Talent and skill don't matter anymore because it's a 3-point contest

You’re a fool.

You’re trying to apply what’s happening to the NBA game to the rest of the world. If anything, the 3pt contest that the NBA is becoming disallows guys from developing a true teamwork style game, which the other countries employ.

[FKAri]

Another veiled Curry hate thread.

[j3lademaster]

Must be a tough pill to swallow for all these guys saying this era is way better. Let defenses hand check, body, fight through screens and contest without fear of a cheap call and the game is way different. You can see guys having to work way harder to get looks.

And i'm not saying previous era's were better but they clearly weren't worse. The nba rules have everything to do with how easy players score now.

Today's players are probably more skilled in general, though I will concede that the average fan solely looks at a player's ability to dribble, shoot and pass to determine their skill level.

What's happening in FIBA has already been outlined in the op, I'll just be taking a deeper dive into the details. Today's manufactured superstars are too conditioned to being babied. Add the fact that outside the top 3-6 players on a 12-15 man roster, players are being chosen based on analytics moreso than how good they actually are at basketball. For example, a player with a rapm of +5 when on the court with Lillard will get taken over a superior player who is only +2 with Lillard. So the stars are not only conditioned to expect certain officiating entitlement, they're also expecting several roleplayers to essentially play FOR them. The roleplayers are there accentuate their star player's best attributes while covering for their most glaring weaknesses, which is why we see this new phenomenon of gaudy statlines. So when you make a random group of these diva brats and none of them are willing to do the dirty work to make someone else look good, you get failure(relatively speaking) despite the overwhelming advantage in pure talent.

[sdot_thadon]

Must be a tough pill to swallow for all these guys saying this era is way better. Let defenses hand check, body, fight through screens and contest without fear of a cheap call and the game is way different. You can see guys having to work way harder to get looks.

And i'm not saying previous era's were better but they clearly weren't worse. The nba rules have everything to do with how easy players score now.

It's true and it's also true that players from that particular era didn't fare as well against zone concepts, to the point it was outlawed for the good of the product. Sounds pretty familiar doesn't it? Different eras, different styles, different weakness. Yawn.

[Phoenix]

Today's players are probably more skilled in general, though I will concede that the average fan solely looks at a player's ability to dribble, shoot and pass to determine their skill level.

Imagine if Isiah Thomas, Tim Hardaway, Rod Strickland, Kenny Anderson, guys from the 80's/90s who had the ball on a string were allowed to play under modern ball-handling rules. Some of the things being called 'more skilled' are mostly in the areas of ball-handling like you said but even then, Kyrie and Steph level guys are few and far between. Range shooting has obviously also improved but it's because it's a more practiced shot. Clearly if guys like Reggie, Bird, Petrovic, Rice, Price, Dale Eliis, Ray Allen...guys of that shooting ilk....came along in 2010 they'd be putting up similar shooting numbers to what you see today from the 'elites'. It's a different game. I mean shit, Ray 15 years ago was taking 8 threes and hitting 41% of them. Today he's be taking probably 10-11, without any major dip in efficiency.

[ShawkFactory]

Imagine if Isiah Thomas, Tim Hardaway, Rod Strickland, Kenny Anderson, guys from the 80's/90s who had the ball on a string were allowed to play under modern ball-handling rules. Some of the things being called 'more skilled' are mostly in the areas of ball-handling like you said but even then, Kyrie and Steph level guys are few and far between. Range shooting has obviously also improved but it's because it's a more practiced shot. Clearly if guys like Reggie, Bird, Petrovic, Rice, Price, Dale Eliis, Ray Allen...guys of that shooting ilk....came along in 2010 they'd be putting up similar shooting numbers to what you see today from the 'elites'. It's a different game. I mean shit, Ray 15 years ago was taking 8 threes and hitting 41% of them. Today he's be taking probably 10-11, without any major dip in efficiency.

By that same logic you can also say that if guys today came up in the 80s they’d be practicing less 3s and ISOs and would fit in to what the game was.

Unless you just think basketball players are inherently less talented now

[Phoenix]

By that same logic you can also say that if guys today came up in the 80s they’d be practicing less 3s and ISOs and would fit in to what the game was.

Unless you just think basketball players are inherently less talented now

Nope, I don't. If you took todays guys and dumped them in the 90s they'd work better in the mid-range and out of the post, because that's how the game was played. I'm more than aware that the hypotheticals go both ways.