We will have to agree to disagree cause I just don't see it. I think not having a PF that can shoot 3's play a part in hurting steph, but i think the overarching problem is that he needs space to be effective and if you bring handchecking back that allows defenders to close space on him that they currently can't.
And I'm not really concerned with how "good" the defense is or how it ranks statistically. You can make the case that those Piston bad boys teams are grossly overrated defensively because the whole scheme was about hammering people and you can't even play that way anymore. I'm speaking more to the fact that in today's NBA Lebron knows he can steam roll down the lane 10 to 15 times a game and nobody is going to deliver a hard foul to him. Drop him in against the bad boy Pistons and lambeert and mahorn and Salley and Rodman are going to deck his ass cause they could get away with it then. So the question I have is if Lebron has to play that way does he have it in him to keep going to the rim like he has during his nba career now? I think the answer to that question is no. I think eventually he gets fouled hard one to many times and he says you know what it's not worth it I'm just going to shoot these jumpers. And I think we would agree that shooting jumpers is probably still the weakest part of Lebrons game. If you can somehow keep him out of the lane then at least you don't lose cause he just physically overwhelmed you, which is pretty much a staple of how his career has gone.
He doesn't need space as much as he needs his PF to be an effective shooter, that is why it never worked with David Lee despite him being a 20/10 big, because he couldn't shoot. Dray's down year in shooting and them not running PnR is where the problems have been for him this season, there's less need to close out hard on Dray or devote as much attention to him.
Being physical isn't the way to stop LeBron, and if the Bad Boy Piston's couldn't hurt Jordan how are they going to hurt a guy that's 60lbs heavier than him? I mean, the Pistons didn't kill Charles Barkley either and he was living in the lane against them without any type of three point shooting around him to keep them honest. LeBron can steamroll his way to the rim because he's been playing with shooters at PF for the last 7 years of his career, if you removed the shooting he wouldn't be able to drive as effectively right now. The team he's on now is built to make you have to guard him one on one, same with the Heat using Bosh & Battier at the 4 and 5. The way to stop LeBron is by having a guy that can effectively switch onto him AND you need to cover shooters at the same time, just hard fouling him and hoping he breaks a bone isn't the way to do it. The Pistons played great team defense, but where are all these dudes that they physically put out of commission? Little as Mark Price was a riddle they couldn't solve, Nique used to light their asses up too.
Zeke sounds a little bitter but whatever.

So the game hasn't really advanced it's just been engineered? The zone is a gimmick/junk defense btw. They put the shyt in to help globalize rhe game and lighten the players. The rest of the post isn't directed towards you.
...who is squaring up on the floor with bron while a teammate jumps on his back now?
...and they got a damn coach out there cradling his head...who is setting screens like that on bron now?
cause you can see intent with Lambeer...you can see his shoulders and arm swing all the way through on the push...what to bigs are slamming bron into the floor like this now?
...and an even funnier thing about david lee...is that when they got rid of him and played the cavs again the next year...they lost in 7 instead of winning in 6...which is what they did with david lee
Paul George in the second half took that shyt personally and was guarding Klay hard as fukk, it didn't matter. Players are much much better shooters than we had 20-25 years ago. The game is never going back to the days of 83-85 scores. Sick of these dudes repeating the same outdated tired ass viewpoints
