Defenses haven't gotten worse; Offenses have gotten better

[GIF REACTION]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgwZYsXCcVY

Defensive tactics got better in the mid 90's, as teams found ways to take advantage of the Illegal defense rules... noticeable teams doing this; Seattle, New York... Teams towards the latter of the 90's were able to get away with zone principles, which in turn exposed the simplistic offensive strategies, hence why we got the isolation era of low scoring from the late 90's to early 2's. Slowly but surely teams got smarter and started to utilize the whole court, push the pace (pace has a strong correlation to defense and offense), find value in the 3 point shot, etc...

As the offenses have gotten better, this has made the defenses look worse, which is not entirely true. For all intents and purposes, the same quality of defense has been played for at least the last 15 years. If anything, the defenses have gotten slightly better, especially on a league wide perspective.

Stop hating the modern game. Appreciate it. Appreciate guys like Lebron, guys like Harden, guys like Curry. Don't think for one minute that they couldn't hang with the 80's and 90's cats... Because they can.

[Mr. Jabbar]

leKUNG doesnt care, he will steamroll to the basket in any era with any rules

[riseagainst]

leKUNG doesnt care, he will steamroll to the basket in any era with any rules

forever my Kong!

[3ball]

In today's game, for a defender to remain in the 16 x 19 foot painted area, they must stay "within armslength" of their man (about 3 feet)..

"Armslength" is the strictest defense possible outside of having the defender stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his man or something ridiculous like that..

Yet this stringent policy is what governs defenders in the most important area of the floor: the paint.

[Dbrog]

The game has been completely changed by the presence of the 3-ball in offensive schemes now. Nowadays, most teams make 10 threes/game. Go back even 10 years ago and that number goes to around 4 or 5 which is where it also was in the 90s. That's 5 more ppg just off threes so the fact that ppg is higher doesn't necessarily mean defense is worse now. Most coaches will tell you defensive schemes are much more advanced now but people are just harder to defend. Again, it's the classic motto of good offense beats good defense.

Also, 90s defense was not that great IMO. If you think about it, it was a much watered down league thanks to the expansion which means less great scoring players on each team, which means less ppg. There's a reason having 2 stars on your team back then could bring you great success. Hell some only needed one (here's looking at you Hakeem!).

[Marchesk]

The game has been completely changed by the presence of the 3-ball in offensive schemes now.

You're talking about ISH, right?

[GIF REACTION]

The game has been completely changed by the presence of the 3-ball in offensive schemes now. Nowadays, most teams make 10 threes/game. Go back even 10 years ago and that number goes to around 4 or 5 which is where it also was in the 90s. That's 5 more ppg just off threes so the fact that ppg is higher doesn't necessarily mean defense is worse now. Most coaches will tell you defensive schemes are much more advanced now but people are just harder to defend. Again, it's the classic motto of good offense beats good defense.

Also, 90s defense was not that great IMO. If you think about it, it was a much watered down league thanks to the expansion which means less great scoring players on each team, which means less ppg. There's a reason having 2 stars on your team back then could bring you great success. Hell some only needed one (here's looking at you Hakeem!).

IMO when they started making changes like no hand checking in the back court, and shortening the 3 point line by 2 feet, it allowed more teams to abuse the illegal defense rules, pretty much to the point where they were getting away with zones all the time

[Dbrog]

You're talking about ISH, right?

well played

[3ball]

Paint defense is easier to exploit than before.. In today's game, for a defender to remain in the 16 x 19 foot painted area, they must stay "within armslength" of their man (about 3 feet)..

"Armslength" is the strictest defense possible outside of having the defender stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his man or something ridiculous like that..

Yet this stringent policy is what governs defenders in the most important area of the floor: the paint.

[HurricaneKid]

The game has been completely changed by the presence of the 3-ball in offensive schemes now. Nowadays, most teams make 10 threes/game. Go back even 10 years ago and that number goes to around 4 or 5 which is where it also was in the 90s. That's 5 more ppg just off threes so the fact that ppg is higher doesn't necessarily mean defense is worse now. Most coaches will tell you defensive schemes are much more advanced now but people are just harder to defend. Again, it's the classic motto of good offense beats good defense.

Go back even farther. Larry Bird Never made 100 3s in a season. The most he ever made was 98. LeBron has eclipsed that in 9 of the last 11 seasons. The strike shortened year and the season he and DWade eschewed 3s almost altogether were the only two years he didn't. Larry Bird's 86 season (which included a pace ~20% higher than today's pace) would have placed #90 in the league last year, just behind Charlie Villanueva.

He led the NBA in 1986, as he led the Celtics to an All-Time echelon season. The entire Celts team made 138 3s that year. League avg last year was 643 3s made. And the 5 teams that made the most 3s last season were the 5 last teams standing. All of which had 818+ 3s made. The 3 ball has stretched the floor and completely altered the game.

[GIF REACTION]

Paint defense is easier to exploit because players can shoot 3 pointers now

Put your average 90's offense against your average modern defense and the defense does very well

Put your modern offense against a 90's defense and it is pretty even

The outlier is the poor offensive strategy of the 90's

[Dbrog]

Paint defense is easier to exploit than before.. In today's game, for a defender to remain in the 16 x 19 foot painted area, they must stay "within armslength" of their man (about 3 feet)..

"Armslength" is the strictest defense possible outside of having the defender stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his man or something ridiculous like that..

Yet this stringent policy is what governs defenders in the most important area of the floor: the paint.

What exactly are you talking about? Defenders can go anywhere on the court now (as opposed to before). You are referring to the defensive 3 second rule which really doesn't affect as much as you think...just makes bigs have to be slightly more mobile instead of camping. It's not a big deal to just take one step out of the paint and then go back.

Edit: Nice post hurricanekid

[GIF REACTION]

What exactly are you talking about? Defenders can go anywhere on the court now (as opposed to before). You are referring to the defensive 3 second rule which really doesn't affect as much as you think...just makes bigs have to be slightly more mobile instead of camping. It's not a big deal to just take one step out of the paint and then go back.

He doesn't want to acknowledge that offensive game plan was so shit that it made the defense look so good in the 90's

Offenses are just plain better today. This obviously hurts defenses but in no way is a detriment to their quality when stacked against every era

[3ball]

ridic bias itt

[3ball]