Gregg Popovich straight Ethers modern day basketball

[Professor Emeritus]

For those who think that no one tries to play defense, then I'd love to ask you, why doesn't just ONE team play defense and automatically win a title? Since no one else is playing defense, it should be easy, right?

Also, if no one is playing defense, and everyone just shoots threes on offense, then why so many injuries? Shouldn't we be having the least-injured era in NBA history, rather than the most, if that was actually the play style?

Which era of defense stopped elite three-point shooters better than this era can? Exactly what is the ideal defensive set when 4-5 players can shoot threes and half of them are athletic as fukk too?

 

[ISO]

I'm glad at least two people actually watched the video.

Pop didn't say no one plays defense, he said it is VERY DIFFICULT to defend today's NBA offenses because THERE'S TOO MANY GOOD SHOOTERS. When you can spread the court with 4-5 shooters with guys shooting from 28 feet, exactly what does a good defense look like? That's EXACTLY what he said.

It's fukking incredible that a couple dozen posters translated that into "no one plays defense", but looking at the SNs, I'm not surprised.

Comprehension is not these guys expertise. Most of them didn’t watch and just went off an agenda.

Pop is pretty liberal actually growing up I’d never think he’d start a 6’8 guy with colorful hair who shoots free throws with one arm at PG and he’s so committed to his development to the detriment of the team.

 

[UpAndComing]

For those who think that no one tries to play defense, then I'd love to ask you, why doesn't just ONE team play defense and automatically win a title? Since no one else is playing defense, it should be easy, right?

Also, if no one is playing defense, and everyone just shoots threes on offense, then why so many injuries? Shouldn't we be having the least-injured era in NBA history, rather than the most, if that was actually the play style?

Which era of defense stopped elite three-point shooters better than this era can? Exactly what is the ideal defensive set when 4-5 players can shoot threes and half of them are athletic as fukk too?

Since we are speaking in hypotheticals...
The funny thing is that defense is a sliding scale

If no team in the league cared about playing defense... As long as one team plays slightly better defense than the next team they have an advantage against the other team even if collectively all 30 teams are trash on defense

 

[Harry B]

Tim Duncan carried this bum.

Stop it. Dude is 200 years old and a skinny teen can’t carry a trash team off the bat. And you need some luck in the drafts nowadays when you don’t know who is really the star. Like Greg picked Vassel 1 spot over Halliburton. So all in all, it’s his last run and he definitely deserves some benefit of doubt with this new squad filled with youth and trash

 

[ISO]

Stop it. Dude is 200 years old and a skinny teen can’t carry a trash team off the bat. And you need some luck in the drafts nowadays when you don’t know who is really the star. Like Greg picked Vassel 1 spot over Halliburton. So all in all, it’s his last run and he definitely deserves some benefit of doubt with this new squad filled with youth and trash

Vassell can hoop though.

Halliburton wasn’t considered a sure-thing.

 

[Harry B]

Vassell can hoop though.

Halliburton wasn’t considered a sure-thing.

Of course, but I'm saying that there's a lot of luck in these things now that people only do at most a year or two in school.

 

[Still Benefited]

I liked watching post games whether it was Duncan,Jordan ,kobe ,Hakeem etc I miss seeing cats use them skills

Different styles are what made the NBA

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Since we are speaking in hypotheticals...
The funny thing is that defense is a sliding scale

If no team in the league cared about playing defense... As long as one team plays slightly better defense than the next team they have an advantage against the other team even if collectively all 30 teams are trash on defense

But why would they settle for a slight advantage? If one team played far better defense, they'd have a huge advantage, since everyone else is supposedly playing no defense. Clear shot at titles, just like the '89 and '90 Pistons. So why don't they?

You're completely ignoring Pop's actual statement in the OP, which is that it's harder to play defense than ever before cause teams are playing 4-out with guys who can shoot the three up to 28 feet from the hoop.

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

But why would they settle for a slight advantage? If one team played far better defense, they'd have a huge advantage, since everyone else is supposedly playing no defense. Clear shot at titles, just like the '89 and '90 Pistons. So why don't they?

You're completely ignoring Pop's actual statement in the OP, which is that it's harder to play defense than ever before cause teams are playing 4-out with guys who can shoot the three up to 28 feet from the hoop.

It's also harder because the NBA specifically changed the rules to allow for more scoring but I guess Pop didn't want to talk about that

 

[Professor Emeritus]

As recently as 2006, the defensively elite Pistons nearly got taken out by a LeBron team that had literally NO shooters around Bron in the starting lineup, and only two mediocre ones off the bench. The team only averaged 3 made threes a game at a 29% clip, and a third of those were Bron himself from the point of attack:

2006 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals - Cavaliers vs. Pistons | Basketball-Reference.com

Summary and statistics for the 2006 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals - Cavaliers vs. Pistons

www.basketball-reference.com

Eric Snow was 0 for 0 all series
Flip Murray averaged 0.2 threes in 1.7 tries
Bron averaged 1 for 4
Gooden 0 for 0
Z was 0 for 0

Marshall off the bench averaged 1 for 3
Jones averaged 0.5 for 2

That's it. That's all the shooting on the court. That's ALL the space the Pistons needed to defend, and the Billups-Hamilton-Prince-Wallace-Wallace Pistons could defend like monsters. And yet in the last minute of Game 6 the Cavs were one rebound away from getting one shot to win the series.




Now compare that to last year. After AD/Bron got back and Vandy was added, the Lakers had one of the best defenses in the NBA and especially one of the best 3pt defenses in the NBA. Yet the Nuggets made FIFTEEN threes a game at a 40% clip. Whole fukking team shot 40% from 3pt for the series with even their 7' center nailing looping stepback threes.

2023 NBA Western Conference Finals - Lakers vs. Nuggets | Basketball-Reference.com

Summary and statistics for the 2023 NBA Western Conference Finals - Lakers vs. Nuggets

www.basketball-reference.com

Murray averaged 4 for 9 from three
MPJ averaged 3.5 for 8
KCP averaged 3 for 6.5
Jokic averaged 2 for 4
Gordon averaged 1 for 3
Brown averaged 1 for 3



The difference between defending 3-12 from three-point and defending 15-36 from three-point is fukking wild. What we are seeing in this era, with team after team that has 4-5 guys who can reliably hit threes on the court at once, has never been seen before.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

It's also harder because the NBA specifically changed the rules to allow for more scoring but I guess Pop didn't want to talk about that

Because it's marginal. How do those rules make it easier to make 28-foot threes? The floor would be spaced and teams would be hitting those threes regardless of how much "freedom of movement" there was. Foul calls have barely changed in the last five years.

 

[Tha_Mac]

The right org to nuture this generational talent they said. nikka could be losing in Detroit .

Should have put Wemby on the Rockets. They'd be top 3 in the West and starting the foundation of a dynasty. Plus Wemby could play the 4 while Sengun holds down the 5.

 

[Heretic]

I was at a middle school game yesterday and I swear all they did was jack up 3s all game long. That shyt was disgusting as hell to watch, both teams couldn't have shot more than 30% combined, final score was like 54-49 and only the PG was taking the ball to the hoop damn near unguarded every time he drove.

 

[UpAndComing]

Should have put Wemby on the Rockets. They'd be top 3 in the West and starting the foundation of a dynasty. Plus Wemby could play the 4 while Sengun holds down the 5.

Ime Udoka would have whipped Wemby into shape. He would have told him

"Get in the post and stop shooting 3 pointers fakkit"

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

Because it's marginal. How do those rules make it easier to make 28-foot threes? The floor would be spaced and teams would be hitting those threes regardless of how much "freedom of movement" there was. Foul calls have barely changed in the last five years.

That’s you saying that not playing the game. NBA players, like nfl players like Brady, who played in both eras, always speak on how much the physical toll was. It’s harder to launch up 28 foot jumpers all night when somebody been throwing your ass to the floor, elbowing you in the ribs, getting no flagrant 1, and pulling Rodman like antics on you all night.

When you ask a KG or AI or even Lebron about when it was a lot tougher to play D, they’ll say it was earlier when refs wasn’t calling ticky tack fouls and teams was hiring dudes with no skill but was called enforcers.

I’m not saying it’s a cake walk to play d now. But let’s not act like the nba hasn’t spent decades changing the rules to open up scoring. They admit it. The nfl admits it. They know where the money is. It’s not marginal when the owners are telling you they do shyt for this one reason