Full Text Of 'The Death of Defense' Article
It remains one of the enduring images of NBA lore—Joe Dumars guarding a determined young Michael Jordan in the 1990 Eastern Conference playoffs.
Dumars of the “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons, the league’s two-time defending champs, looked like a gaucho corralling the ultimate toro, his feet moving furiously (maybe the best defensive slide in the history of the game), one forearm firmly barred into Jordan to keep contact, the other bent arm thrust into the air, giving Dumars his only hope of keeping his balance while trying to ride the Jordan whirlwind.
Jerry West watched the performance and remarked privately that most people considered Isiah Thomas the Pistons’ superstar, but West pointed out that it was Dumars who was the supreme talent.
Why?
Well, West said, both Thomas and Dumars could push the envelope offensively, “but Joe’s defense sets him apart.”
Just how good was that defense?
A key part of the Pistons' physical team defense, it left a supremely disappointed Jordan sobbing at the back of the team bus when the series was over (it’s also probably the only NBA defense ever to spawn a best-selling book: Sam Smith’s ‘The Jordan Rules’).
Indeed, it was a formative moment in pro basketball history because it brought Jordan the ultimate challenge and propelled him toward a greatness that fascinated a global audience. Whether they liked pro basketball or not, people felt compelled to watch “His Airness” grow up against the Pistons’ physical challenge.
“I think that ‘Jordan Rules’ defense, as much as anything else, played a part in the making of Michael Jordan,” said Tex Winter, who was an assistant coach for that Chicago team. The 1990 loss forced Jordan and the Bulls to find an answer to Detroit’s muscle.
“Those Jordan Rules were murder,” Winter explained. “The fact that we could win the next year even though they were playing that defense says everything about Jordan as a competitor. Any lesser player would have folded his tent.”
Jordan had to dig deeper to respond to the Pistons, and his effort pushed his Bulls to six championships over the next eight seasons.
The unfortunate footnote to this legacy is that under an interpretation of the rules adopted by the NBA last season, if Dumars were playing today he would not be allowed to guard Jordan so physically, or perhaps even guard him at all.
Today Dumars is the chief basketball executive of the team he once led as a player. He’s an honest man, which means he chooses his words carefully.
Asked in July if he could defend Jordan under today’s interpretation of the rules, Dumars first laughed, then offered a long pause before replying, “It would have been virtually impossible to defend Michael Jordan based on the way the game’s being called right now.”
THE NEW WAY
Just how is the game being called these days?
New Jersey Nets executive Rod Thorn, a longtime expert on NBA rules, acknowledges that last season the league adopted a dramatic shift in how it interpreted the rules of the game.
No longer would a defensive player on the perimeter be allowed to use his hand, a barred arm or any sort of physical contact to impede or block the movement of either a cutter or a ball handler.
In a recent interview, Thorn said that the NBA had changed the rule to give an advantage to the offensive player.
“It’s more difficult now to guard the quick wing player who can handle the ball,” Thorn said of the change. “I think it helps skilled players over someone who just has strength or toughness. What the NBA is trying to do is promote unimpeded movement for dribblers or cutters.”
Thorn said the change was made because muscular defensive players had gotten the upper hand.
“My opinion is that the game had gone too much toward favoring strong players over skilled players,” Thorn said.
“The NBA felt there was too much body, too much hand-checking, being used by defenders to the detriment of the game. There was a feeling that there was too much advantage for a defensive player who could merely use his strength to control the offensive player.”
The new rules interpretations have attempted to address that issue, Thorn said. “If the refs perceive that a defender is bumping the cutter, or bumping a ball-handler, then they’ll blow their whistles.”
Blow their whistles is exactly what officials began doing in both the NBA and its Development League (where many nights officials were whistling a whopping 60 to 70 fouls a game).
This new way of calling became increasingly apparent with each regular-season game last year, and it really made an impression during the playoffs. Free from the physical challenge of defenders, offensive players found many more opportunities to attack the basket — and draw fouls.
As a result, the new rules interpretation helped promote the emergence last season of a new generation of super stars, from Kobe Bryant scoring his 81 points during a regular season game, to LeBron James, Vince Carter, Gilbert Arenas and Dwyane Wade making big splashes in the playoffs.
“The good wing players — LeBron, Kobe, Arenas, Wade, Carter—shot a lot of free throws with the way the game is now called,” Thorn admitted.
The change became quite apparent during the NBA Finals in June as fans saw time and again Miami’s Wade attacking the basket against seemingly helpless Dallas defenders.
When they did try to stop Wade, those Dallas defenders often drew foul calls, which sent Wade to the line to shoot free throws.
The new approach even played a role in determining the NBA champion, as Wade played majestically in leading Miami from a two-game deficit to a four-games-to-two victory for the title.
NOT EVERYONE’S HAPPY
The results were immediate and pleasing to the league’s front office.
Offensive players were freed as never before and fans were thrilled by high-scoring games. Television ratings jumped with the excitement, and reporters began filing stories signaling an NBA revival not seen since the days when Jordan played for the Bulls.
The league had made an obvious move to try to pick up scoring averages that had been in decline since the late 1980s. And it seems to have worked.
But not everyone is enthused about the changes.
Tex Winter, now 84 and the veteran of more than a half century of coaching, has serious misgivings about what the league has done.
Winter acknowledges the outgrowth of the new rules interpretation is the rise of the super dominant offensive player, led by Wade’s performance in the NBA Finals and Bryant’s string of 40-, 50, even 60-point games during the regular season.
“It’s brought all these 40-point scorers,” Winter said. “They can’t score 40 points unless they get 15-20 free throws.”
And that’s exactly what they were getting on their big nights.
“They should be protected, but not that much,” Winter said of the current generation of talented offensive players. “I don’t think that just touching a player should be a foul.”
Yet there were key foul calls in the playoffs last year that came down to touch calls, which in turn sent the offensive player to the line for bonus points that ultimately decided games.
Ironically, this attempt to pick up scoring also slowed the pace of NBA games last year because numerous foul calls mean a parade of free throws on many game nights, Winter said. “The fans are not going to like that whistle blowing all the time. It’s slowed down the pace of the game.”
Winter’s other complaint with the new officiating is that the game now allows the same old physical play in the post while turning the perimeter and wing into a no-touch zone.
“That doesn’t make sense to me,” Winter said. “If you can do all that tough stuff inside, why can’t you do it outside?”
“Defense has basically stayed the same in the low post. Out on the court there’s no doubt that the interpretation has changed,” Thorn conceded.
FAVORING ONE STYLE OVER ANOTHER
Dumars put together a Pistons team that won an NBA championship in 2004 and made a return to the Finals in 2005. That team would have a harder time playing its defensive style in today’s game, Dumars said. “We could still compete, but it would be a lot tougher.”
As one of the top executives in the league, Dumars is hesitant to criticize the changes. He articulates his misgivings cautiously, but he makes it clear that the new rules may not allow for much diversity of play.
“I think the game is best played when everyone is allowed to play to their strengths,” he said. “I don’t think any one style should be elevated over another style.”
He said the league was at its best back in the late 80s and early 90s. “There were different styles. The Lakers had their Showtime style, getting out and running. We had our physical style as the Pistons. The Celtics had their style, as did the Bulls.
“There wasn’t anyone pushing for one style of play. That made it entertaining. When we played the Lakers, it was a battle of styles, their running against our physical game.”
Dumars said that clash of styles made for great basketball, great entertainment for the fans.
His comments beg the question: Has the league eliminated a defensive style with its new format?
OVERREACTION
Hall of Famer Rick Barry, a keen observer of the game, said he would love to see players of the past getting to attack the basket under the new officiating.
“They’d score a LOT more,” he said.
Barry called the new rules interpretation “on overreaction by the league to the low scoring teams that have arisen over the last 15 years.”
Actually the league was perhaps trying to remedy the wrong problem, Barry said.
The problem of low scoring is that coaches with less talented teams, beginning with Mike Fratello back in the 80s, put “an emphasis on ball control, on keeping down the number of possessions. That was the way Fratello kept his teams in ball games. It was the smart thing to do to win.”
Soon other coaches, who needed to win to avoid getting fired, began copying Fratello’s approach.
With that slower style also came the rise of muscular — some say illegal — defenses, such as Dumars’ “Bad Boy” Pistons and Pat Riley’s New York Knicks.
The combination of a slower tempo and the muscular defense turned the NBA’s running game into a half-court battle.
Rather than calling touch fouls, the NBA really should have considered shortening the shot clock to 20 or even 18 seconds, Barry said. “That would speed the game up.”
Still, Barry, a prodigious scorer, admits to being angered by hand-checking defenses back in the 70s. And the modern game had become dominated by hand-checking and other physical ploys.
“With the way the game was being played, how much skill does it take to hold and push and shove and grab excessively?” Barry asked. “Now, with the new rules, the athletic players are much more exciting for the fans to watch.”
THE ADJUSTMENT?
Rod Thorn concedes that the increased foul calls were a negative last season because a parade of free throws ultimately slows the tempo of a game and subtracts from the quality of basketball.
“Once the players get used to it, they’ll adjust,” he said.
The changes will not bring the end of defense as we know it, Thorn said. “The good defensive teams are still good. It’s just more difficult to cover those wing players, there’s no doubt about it.”
It does, however, raise questions about the style of defense. Teams that like ball pressure are already rethinking their approach.
Both Tex Winter and Joe Dumars agree that there will be adjustments, just as they agree that now that the NBA has found some new offensive life, there will be no turning back to the old ways.
So the upcoming season becomes a matter of how teams, coaches and players adjust to a new game.
Dumars, always a stoic as a player, takes the same approach as an executive.
“Everybody is going to have to adjust to how the game is being called,” he said. “There’s no sense in complaining about it because it’s not going to change. That’s been the history of the league. The game changes and you have to make adjustments.”
Teams will have to adjust their personnel, coaches will have to adjust their strategies and tactics, and players will have to adjust their play, Dumars said.
There will be adjustments before the season, before games, even during games, he added.
Winter, though, thinks adjustments should not be made just by players and coaches.
He thinks officials still need to adjust how they call the game. They can’t make it a sport of touch fouls.
“It’s pretty hard to play defense against these quicker guards without touching them a little bit,” Winter said. “I think the officials are going to have to make an adjustment too. They can’t call all those touch fouls.”
A big issue for Winter’s Lakers is how the guards will play defensively. Traditionally, Phil Jackson’s teams have featured lots of ball pressure. That means the Lakers’ pressure style has to shift.
“I think you have to play more of a containing defense,” explained Winter. “You can still put some pressure on the offense. You can contain them and slow the ball up.”
But the new guidelines “change how you force turnovers,” Winter explained. “You can’t be as aggressive as you’d like to be with your hands. You can’t be ‘into’ the guy as much.”
As a result, defense now becomes a matter of waiting for the offensive player to make a mistake, rather than forcing a turnover, Winter said.
The Lakers would like to exert the kind of ball pressure they used to deploy when Derek Fisher wore the Forum Blue and Gold.
But the new guidelines are still murky, Winter said.
Before games, officials have visited with teams to explain the new approach, Winter said. “They come in and tell us all this stuff. Then the first four or five plays of the game, you see them doing just the opposite from what they said. You don’t know what they’re going to call. So you have to adjust accordingly, depending what’s going on from game to game, even half to half.”
Barry agreed immediately, citing several incidents in the playoffs where veteran officials made questionable touch calls that had substantial impact on the outcome of a series.
Still, all in all, Barry says he likes the direction the league is taking toward eliminating hooliganism. Hockey finally did that, which now allows fans to see the brilliance of the world’s fastest, most athletic, skaters, Barry said.
As for Dumars, he’s already begun his adjustments. He signed Flip Murray in the offseason, primarily because he’s a young guard who knows how to move his feet and stay in front of an opponent with a killer crossover and lightning moves.
Dumars knows he’s got to find defenders who know that they can move their feet and look the opponent in the eye. They just can’t touch.
Roland Lazenby is the author of The Show, an oral history of the Los Angeles Lakers, published this year by McGraw-Hill.
Dumars of the “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons, the league’s two-time defending champs, looked like a gaucho corralling the ultimate toro, his feet moving furiously (maybe the best defensive slide in the history of the game), one forearm firmly barred into Jordan to keep contact, the other bent arm thrust into the air, giving Dumars his only hope of keeping his balance while trying to ride the Jordan whirlwind.
Jerry West watched the performance and remarked privately that most people considered Isiah Thomas the Pistons’ superstar, but West pointed out that it was Dumars who was the supreme talent.
Why?
Well, West said, both Thomas and Dumars could push the envelope offensively, “but Joe’s defense sets him apart.”
Just how good was that defense?
A key part of the Pistons' physical team defense, it left a supremely disappointed Jordan sobbing at the back of the team bus when the series was over (it’s also probably the only NBA defense ever to spawn a best-selling book: Sam Smith’s ‘The Jordan Rules’).
Indeed, it was a formative moment in pro basketball history because it brought Jordan the ultimate challenge and propelled him toward a greatness that fascinated a global audience. Whether they liked pro basketball or not, people felt compelled to watch “His Airness” grow up against the Pistons’ physical challenge.
“I think that ‘Jordan Rules’ defense, as much as anything else, played a part in the making of Michael Jordan,” said Tex Winter, who was an assistant coach for that Chicago team. The 1990 loss forced Jordan and the Bulls to find an answer to Detroit’s muscle.
“Those Jordan Rules were murder,” Winter explained. “The fact that we could win the next year even though they were playing that defense says everything about Jordan as a competitor. Any lesser player would have folded his tent.”
Jordan had to dig deeper to respond to the Pistons, and his effort pushed his Bulls to six championships over the next eight seasons.
The unfortunate footnote to this legacy is that under an interpretation of the rules adopted by the NBA last season, if Dumars were playing today he would not be allowed to guard Jordan so physically, or perhaps even guard him at all.
Today Dumars is the chief basketball executive of the team he once led as a player. He’s an honest man, which means he chooses his words carefully.
Asked in July if he could defend Jordan under today’s interpretation of the rules, Dumars first laughed, then offered a long pause before replying, “It would have been virtually impossible to defend Michael Jordan based on the way the game’s being called right now.”
THE NEW WAY
Just how is the game being called these days?
New Jersey Nets executive Rod Thorn, a longtime expert on NBA rules, acknowledges that last season the league adopted a dramatic shift in how it interpreted the rules of the game.
No longer would a defensive player on the perimeter be allowed to use his hand, a barred arm or any sort of physical contact to impede or block the movement of either a cutter or a ball handler.
In a recent interview, Thorn said that the NBA had changed the rule to give an advantage to the offensive player.
“It’s more difficult now to guard the quick wing player who can handle the ball,” Thorn said of the change. “I think it helps skilled players over someone who just has strength or toughness. What the NBA is trying to do is promote unimpeded movement for dribblers or cutters.”
Thorn said the change was made because muscular defensive players had gotten the upper hand.
“My opinion is that the game had gone too much toward favoring strong players over skilled players,” Thorn said.
“The NBA felt there was too much body, too much hand-checking, being used by defenders to the detriment of the game. There was a feeling that there was too much advantage for a defensive player who could merely use his strength to control the offensive player.”
The new rules interpretations have attempted to address that issue, Thorn said. “If the refs perceive that a defender is bumping the cutter, or bumping a ball-handler, then they’ll blow their whistles.”
Blow their whistles is exactly what officials began doing in both the NBA and its Development League (where many nights officials were whistling a whopping 60 to 70 fouls a game).
This new way of calling became increasingly apparent with each regular-season game last year, and it really made an impression during the playoffs. Free from the physical challenge of defenders, offensive players found many more opportunities to attack the basket — and draw fouls.
As a result, the new rules interpretation helped promote the emergence last season of a new generation of super stars, from Kobe Bryant scoring his 81 points during a regular season game, to LeBron James, Vince Carter, Gilbert Arenas and Dwyane Wade making big splashes in the playoffs.
“The good wing players — LeBron, Kobe, Arenas, Wade, Carter—shot a lot of free throws with the way the game is now called,” Thorn admitted.
The change became quite apparent during the NBA Finals in June as fans saw time and again Miami’s Wade attacking the basket against seemingly helpless Dallas defenders.
When they did try to stop Wade, those Dallas defenders often drew foul calls, which sent Wade to the line to shoot free throws.
The new approach even played a role in determining the NBA champion, as Wade played majestically in leading Miami from a two-game deficit to a four-games-to-two victory for the title.
NOT EVERYONE’S HAPPY
The results were immediate and pleasing to the league’s front office.
Offensive players were freed as never before and fans were thrilled by high-scoring games. Television ratings jumped with the excitement, and reporters began filing stories signaling an NBA revival not seen since the days when Jordan played for the Bulls.
The league had made an obvious move to try to pick up scoring averages that had been in decline since the late 1980s. And it seems to have worked.
But not everyone is enthused about the changes.
Tex Winter, now 84 and the veteran of more than a half century of coaching, has serious misgivings about what the league has done.
Winter acknowledges the outgrowth of the new rules interpretation is the rise of the super dominant offensive player, led by Wade’s performance in the NBA Finals and Bryant’s string of 40-, 50, even 60-point games during the regular season.
“It’s brought all these 40-point scorers,” Winter said. “They can’t score 40 points unless they get 15-20 free throws.”
And that’s exactly what they were getting on their big nights.
“They should be protected, but not that much,” Winter said of the current generation of talented offensive players. “I don’t think that just touching a player should be a foul.”
Yet there were key foul calls in the playoffs last year that came down to touch calls, which in turn sent the offensive player to the line for bonus points that ultimately decided games.
Ironically, this attempt to pick up scoring also slowed the pace of NBA games last year because numerous foul calls mean a parade of free throws on many game nights, Winter said. “The fans are not going to like that whistle blowing all the time. It’s slowed down the pace of the game.”
Winter’s other complaint with the new officiating is that the game now allows the same old physical play in the post while turning the perimeter and wing into a no-touch zone.
“That doesn’t make sense to me,” Winter said. “If you can do all that tough stuff inside, why can’t you do it outside?”
“Defense has basically stayed the same in the low post. Out on the court there’s no doubt that the interpretation has changed,” Thorn conceded.
FAVORING ONE STYLE OVER ANOTHER
Dumars put together a Pistons team that won an NBA championship in 2004 and made a return to the Finals in 2005. That team would have a harder time playing its defensive style in today’s game, Dumars said. “We could still compete, but it would be a lot tougher.”
As one of the top executives in the league, Dumars is hesitant to criticize the changes. He articulates his misgivings cautiously, but he makes it clear that the new rules may not allow for much diversity of play.
“I think the game is best played when everyone is allowed to play to their strengths,” he said. “I don’t think any one style should be elevated over another style.”
He said the league was at its best back in the late 80s and early 90s. “There were different styles. The Lakers had their Showtime style, getting out and running. We had our physical style as the Pistons. The Celtics had their style, as did the Bulls.
“There wasn’t anyone pushing for one style of play. That made it entertaining. When we played the Lakers, it was a battle of styles, their running against our physical game.”
Dumars said that clash of styles made for great basketball, great entertainment for the fans.
His comments beg the question: Has the league eliminated a defensive style with its new format?
OVERREACTION
Hall of Famer Rick Barry, a keen observer of the game, said he would love to see players of the past getting to attack the basket under the new officiating.
“They’d score a LOT more,” he said.
Barry called the new rules interpretation “on overreaction by the league to the low scoring teams that have arisen over the last 15 years.”
Actually the league was perhaps trying to remedy the wrong problem, Barry said.
The problem of low scoring is that coaches with less talented teams, beginning with Mike Fratello back in the 80s, put “an emphasis on ball control, on keeping down the number of possessions. That was the way Fratello kept his teams in ball games. It was the smart thing to do to win.”
Soon other coaches, who needed to win to avoid getting fired, began copying Fratello’s approach.
With that slower style also came the rise of muscular — some say illegal — defenses, such as Dumars’ “Bad Boy” Pistons and Pat Riley’s New York Knicks.
The combination of a slower tempo and the muscular defense turned the NBA’s running game into a half-court battle.
Rather than calling touch fouls, the NBA really should have considered shortening the shot clock to 20 or even 18 seconds, Barry said. “That would speed the game up.”
Still, Barry, a prodigious scorer, admits to being angered by hand-checking defenses back in the 70s. And the modern game had become dominated by hand-checking and other physical ploys.
“With the way the game was being played, how much skill does it take to hold and push and shove and grab excessively?” Barry asked. “Now, with the new rules, the athletic players are much more exciting for the fans to watch.”
THE ADJUSTMENT?
Rod Thorn concedes that the increased foul calls were a negative last season because a parade of free throws ultimately slows the tempo of a game and subtracts from the quality of basketball.
“Once the players get used to it, they’ll adjust,” he said.
The changes will not bring the end of defense as we know it, Thorn said. “The good defensive teams are still good. It’s just more difficult to cover those wing players, there’s no doubt about it.”
It does, however, raise questions about the style of defense. Teams that like ball pressure are already rethinking their approach.
Both Tex Winter and Joe Dumars agree that there will be adjustments, just as they agree that now that the NBA has found some new offensive life, there will be no turning back to the old ways.
So the upcoming season becomes a matter of how teams, coaches and players adjust to a new game.
Dumars, always a stoic as a player, takes the same approach as an executive.
“Everybody is going to have to adjust to how the game is being called,” he said. “There’s no sense in complaining about it because it’s not going to change. That’s been the history of the league. The game changes and you have to make adjustments.”
Teams will have to adjust their personnel, coaches will have to adjust their strategies and tactics, and players will have to adjust their play, Dumars said.
There will be adjustments before the season, before games, even during games, he added.
Winter, though, thinks adjustments should not be made just by players and coaches.
He thinks officials still need to adjust how they call the game. They can’t make it a sport of touch fouls.
“It’s pretty hard to play defense against these quicker guards without touching them a little bit,” Winter said. “I think the officials are going to have to make an adjustment too. They can’t call all those touch fouls.”
A big issue for Winter’s Lakers is how the guards will play defensively. Traditionally, Phil Jackson’s teams have featured lots of ball pressure. That means the Lakers’ pressure style has to shift.
“I think you have to play more of a containing defense,” explained Winter. “You can still put some pressure on the offense. You can contain them and slow the ball up.”
But the new guidelines “change how you force turnovers,” Winter explained. “You can’t be as aggressive as you’d like to be with your hands. You can’t be ‘into’ the guy as much.”
As a result, defense now becomes a matter of waiting for the offensive player to make a mistake, rather than forcing a turnover, Winter said.
The Lakers would like to exert the kind of ball pressure they used to deploy when Derek Fisher wore the Forum Blue and Gold.
But the new guidelines are still murky, Winter said.
Before games, officials have visited with teams to explain the new approach, Winter said. “They come in and tell us all this stuff. Then the first four or five plays of the game, you see them doing just the opposite from what they said. You don’t know what they’re going to call. So you have to adjust accordingly, depending what’s going on from game to game, even half to half.”
Barry agreed immediately, citing several incidents in the playoffs where veteran officials made questionable touch calls that had substantial impact on the outcome of a series.
Still, all in all, Barry says he likes the direction the league is taking toward eliminating hooliganism. Hockey finally did that, which now allows fans to see the brilliance of the world’s fastest, most athletic, skaters, Barry said.
As for Dumars, he’s already begun his adjustments. He signed Flip Murray in the offseason, primarily because he’s a young guard who knows how to move his feet and stay in front of an opponent with a killer crossover and lightning moves.
Dumars knows he’s got to find defenders who know that they can move their feet and look the opponent in the eye. They just can’t touch.
Roland Lazenby is the author of The Show, an oral history of the Los Angeles Lakers, published this year by McGraw-Hill.
posted by roland lazenby at 8:51 AM
9 Comments:
“I think the game is best played when everyone is allowed to play to their strengths,” he said. “I don’t think any one style should be elevated over another style.”
He said the league was at its best back in the late 80s and early 90s. “There were different styles. The Lakers had their Showtime style, getting out and running. We had our physical style as the Pistons. The Celtics had their style, as did the Bulls.
“There wasn’t anyone pushing for one style of play. That made it entertaining. When we played the Lakers, it was a battle of styles, their running against our physical game.”
Dumars said that clash of styles made for great basketball, great entertainment for the fans.
His comments beg the question: Has the league eliminated a defensive style with its new format?
I'm sorry, but without the rule changes, the running style would not have succeeded today, unless you have the talented magic-led showtime lakers running it. the suns and a few other teams tried the running game without much success back in the late 90s.
remember when the experts use to scoff at teams that like to run?
well, they have a good reason to.
because running teams can be neutralized by handchecking and physical defense. teams were focusing more on defense instead of offense in the last 6 years, and as a result, scoring was way down the last few years. (at least that was the trend before The Colangelo Intervention.) coaches like van gundy, greg popovich, and rick carlisle were the coaches that others tried to emulate because they were successful defensive coaches under the "old system".
And playing a defensive style seems like the only sure way of winning championship (unless you have shaq or kobe on your team). i can't imagine the mavs making winning a championship, much less making it to the finals under the "old system".
i'm sure dumars is upset, because he built his team on physical defensive style.
i'm in favor of the rule changes because because we cannot allow the Van gundy's, the rick carlisle's and the mike fratello's to ruin the game of basketball for us fans. we cannot go back to the old system because these coaches and their disciples are so good at taking advantage of the old system that allowed them to handcheck and bump their opponents to death, making for a low scoring and boring basketball game.
and uhmm... maybe you can't grab or touch moving players, but some of the previous rule changes also allow for some sort of zone defense. why not learn the zone, mr dumars?
unless the current crop on nba coaches will promise not to emulate the piston-daly or knicks-pat riley style of defense in the future, i say keep the new rules in place.
btw, When the Lakers, Celtics and Sixers were fighting for the championship back in the late 70's and early 80's, we didn't see a lot of piston style defense/thuggery was still not in vogue back then, and those were the BEST basketball years of the NBA (sorry 90's chicago).
Indiana Pacers' new up-tempo style ends era in the East
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/nba/061021/v102112.html
John,
Thanks for your keen interest and pointing out the Toronto article. I suggest all readers take a gander at it.
I agree with much of what you say. However, I wonder if that writer hasn't bought a PR pitch from the league front offices. Sort of smells that way to me.
I believe the scoring averages in the East were up because of free throws, not running. The free throws slow down the game, in my opinion. I was a color analyst for Development League games last season. It was torture some nights with all those foul calls.
This debate won't be settled until we've been into it a few seasons.
This, to me, smells like the suits in the league front office are trying to cook the game up with a little sterno. Tex Winter doesn't perceive this as something that has been done with a whole lot of thought.
Perhaps we're wrong. I'm not convinced of that yet.
All the best to you.
Thanks for your keen interest and pointing out the Toronto article. I suggest all readers take a gander at it.
I agree with much of what you say. However, I wonder if that writer hasn't bought a PR pitch from the league front offices. Sort of smells that way to me.
if it's a PR pitch, i don't mind. i agree with it anyway.
I believe the scoring averages in the East were up because of free throws, not running.
the perimeter players will learn not to use their hands when playing defense. then the fouls will go down.
But I have to agree, "perimeter defense is dead". To make up for it, some teams may have to incorporate some type of zone defense in their playbooks.
when i play basketball in my spare time and have to defend guards or SFs out in the perimeter, i never use my hands to touch the players, unless he's trying to post me up (maybe that's why i was never a good defender to begin with, LOL.)
The free throws slow down the game, in my opinion. I was a color analyst for Development League games last season. It was torture some nights with all those foul calls.
I can't comment on the DL games, because i've never seen any of it. but last years nba season and playoffs were so much fun to watch. at least, that's how i feel about it.
will the NBA new rules help or hurt the USA in future basketball competitions? I say it helps.
the best way to take advantage of the new rules is play (i'm not joking) suns style defense. play solid interior defense, don't foul, and outscore your opponents.
before Kurt Thomas went down last year with a foot injury, the suns were one of the better defensive teams in the NBA.
The Suns defensive numbers bear witness to the impact of Thomas. With him they allowed only 100.2 points a game on 44% shooting.After Thomas was lost for the season in February, they allowed 107.6 ppg on 47.8%.
Or thought of in an advanced statistical terms, Phoenix ranked in the top five in Defensive Efficiency, points allowed per 100 possessions, with Thomas in the lineup. Phoenix has been the top offensive teams for the last two years, averaging more than 108 points a game in each of the last two seasons. Accompany a solid — not necessarily elite, just a very good — defense with that kind of scoring and you have a team that should rank among the top four teams in the league in any preseason survey. An elite defense should enable the Suns to all but guarantee a title by the All Star break.
if there's one new change that can ruin the game this season, it's the new ball.
i don't think that the slow it down halfcourt, grind it out game trend began with fratello. i think the bad boy pistons winning two rings with physical defense and a half court game inspired a lot of coaches, including fratello, and even riley when he inherited a knicks team filled with scrappy players. also, and this should not be dicounted, tv announcers calling playoff games on national televison would repeat ad neuseam, like a mantra, "the only way to win playoff basketball is by executing in the half court" and after detroit won and then chicago won with the triangle, teams in the league would be so focused on executing in the half court to prepare for the playoffs that they would run less often during the season. despite the often ignored fact that the bulls actually were a running team for the first threepeat, they too became a slow, methodical team from 96-98, due to jordan, rodman and pippen all being in their early to late 30s. it's pretty simpe, teams copy what works. if the triangle was something that could be leanred in a couple mothns and wasn't that complex, about 25 teams in the league would have adopted it in 1992.
my theory why nba scoring went down in the second half of the 1990s is only partly due to physical defense and slowdown tactics. i think that it's partly shaquille o'neal's fault (unintentionally of course). many of you remember that as a rookie during the 1992-93 season he brought down two basket supports on slam dunks (one in phoenix, one in nj), dangerously almost injuring himself and other players. the next summer the league changed every basket support to avoid the chance of another one coming down (reebok used this nuggest of information in a shaq commercial). in so doing these new basket supports all required the rims to be unifrom and tighter. close observers noticed that arenas that once had forgiving rims -- boston garden, msg, chicago stadium, etc. -- now had tight rims. missed foul shots that hit the back rim were landing at the threepoint line. as anyone who's ever played knows, the tighter the rims the lower the shooting percentage. not only tha, but if you know the rims are tight it gets into your head and lowers shooting percentages even more. in bob greene's book "rebound" he recounts michael jordan days into his comeback in 1995 trying to loosen the rims at the united center, where jordan was struggling. he writes of jordan purposefully throwing the ball twenty feet into the air so it would land on the front rim trying loosen it up. but jordan was retired during the 93-94 season so he didn't realize that the post-shaq basket supports/rims were now different unlikr the ones he was used to. the rims stayed tight.
now this is small thing and in no way accounts for the overwhelming slippage in scoring in the league, but it's just a theory of one aspect that certainly didnt help scoring. who else remembers the bulls-spurs game during the 97-98 season when the bulls won with a final score of 87-83... in double OT. it should be noted that the rims arond the league seemed to get a little more forgiving about 5 or so years ago, but still are much tighter than they used to be, pre-shaq,
as for the defense rules, the rules committee changes the rules every year, so they'll realize that defense needs to be played or the league will be a joke. one big playoff game where the flaws of the new rules are exposed should do the trick.
i haven't read this anywhere, but the league is entering a new golden era right now. we all remember the recent golden era as the nine year stretch from the 83-84 season through the 91-92 season when magic larry and michael each won 3 mvps and at least one (or two) of them played in the finals in 8 of those 9 years.
since jordan retired in 98 there hasn't been a clearcut best player in the league. but jordan's legacy is becoming apparent. he left us with more than just highlights and memories, his style of play and competetive zeal are still in the league... in the form of current players who learned how to play while watching him compete.
entering this season the nba currently has five jordan-type spectacular players, now all in their prime:
kobe, wade, lebron, vince and mcgrady
kobe and wade have played in 5 of the last 7 nba finals. lebron will get there soon. mcgrady and vince are on good teams. carter is the oldest of the 5 at age... 29. who's the heir to jordan's throne as the undisputed best player in the league? or will it be a magic/larry balance of power? watching these five play each other over the next 5 or so years should be breathtaking.
"my theory why nba scoring went down in the second half of the 1990s is only partly due to physical defense and slowdown tactics. i think that it's partly shaquille o'neal's fault (unintentionally of course). many of you remember that as a rookie during the 1992-93 season he brought down two basket supports on slam dunks (one in phoenix, one in nj), dangerously almost injuring himself and other players. the next summer the league changed every basket support to avoid the chance of another one coming down (reebok used this nuggest of information in a shaq commercial). in so doing these new basket supports all required the rims to be unifrom and tighter. close observers noticed that arenas that once had forgiving rims -- boston garden, msg, chicago stadium, etc. -- now had tight rims."
is it really re the tight rims or the lack of fundamentals and proficiency in outside shooting by most young players in the U.S.?
in the last World Championships 06, where would you rank the U.S. men's bball team in terms of outside shooting compared to the other countries (Spain, Argentina, China, Greece, Slovenia etc.)?
if the americans used the FIBA rims, will they magically get better in their outside shooting?
The US team was good or very good (albeit inconsistent) in three-point shooting. Their numbers were similar to Spain, if I recall correctly. The main difference to me was free throws, which helped fuel Greece's run in the semis when the US team had several opportunities to at least remain within striking distance but repeatedly misfired from the charity stripe.
Midrange shooting is gone because there's no payoff: you're much better off taking a closer shot with a higher percentage, or going three-pointer. In a league where virtually every two-point shot is contested, midrange shooting makes little sense.
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