What happens if Adam Silver bans the Zone Defense again?

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

A lot of nonsense being spewed in this thread.

 

[Originalman]

Lebron wade and wall are gonna suck. None of these so called superstars can shoot except steph and melo
All they wanna do is drive and drsw contact like some battymen

You are crazy you know how many guys in the 90s and 80s who could consistantly shoot but wee able to score. shyt nique wasn't a consistent shooter but knew his limitations so he could always score 30 plus even in his 30s.

So kats like wade and lebron will be fine. Especially Lebron because he can shoot and has maybe the highest basketball IQ in the game.

A bigger question would be can bigs with little post up game like dirk and bosh be able to score consistantly with physical hand checking.

 

[Originalman]

Lebron typically overpowers his opposition after the first step and hand checking makes it easier for him to establish post position forcefully.

Exactly defenders would be able to flop all day as soon as lebron put a body on them. These fools know nothing about sports.

 

[Originalman]

Not really. Zones were implemented moreso to help elevate all perimeter players - the ones that had trouble creating their own shot. Basically, they allowed zones for more 3s and lob dunks - the more exciting plays of basketball.

But if these players weren't overhyped as young'uns they would've learned how to beat a zone in middle school/HS. Soring with someone guarding you is always going to be harder than scoring on a zone. The irony is that players in general are worst than in the 90s, even with lax defenses, switches on everything, and someone always being open.

Also it was made to help the influx of white euro players who couldn't beat their man off the dribble and who usually sucked at man to man defense.

 

[Originalman]

Dude, this isn't an era of no big men, this is an era where big men don't typically have offenses ran through them because of the changes in defense and the rule changes that happened after Shaq broke the game.

It's why great one on one post play big men are having trouble leading teams ( Cousins, Jefferson, Horford, Lopez).

It's very easy to deny entry passes, hard doubles come much quicker, average centers tend to be able to jump or have incredible length that make it hard to shoot over, etc.

McGee would make life hell off athletic gifts alone. Even Hakeem was like "Javale is off the charts talented with his gifts".

The league is more focused on perimeter dominance now and the most valuable big men aren't scoring bigs but ones that are typically defensive game changers who are fairly consistent at finishing the attempts they get (Dwight, Noah, Hibbert, Duncan, Davis, etc)

Exactly the league made rule changes with the zone and no hand check. This was used to speed up the game and increase scoring. Plus with the influx of foreign players it helped them make a smother transition into the league because in their league they rarlely played man to man and almost always played zone. Also in foreign players big usually shot jumpers and rarely posted up.

Now with the rule changes it forced teams to go away with running offenses brought bigs since a team could now double an offensive player without the ball. This attic was considered illegal defense before zone was implemented. Last the rule changes encouraged bigs to have face up offenses because they were more likely to draw fouls when facing up and driving on their opponent. But if they posted up heir opponent they were not going to get the same call.

All of this is the reason why big men don't play down low as they once did....just as you said.

 

[threattonature]

Yeah, most if not all teams are using the benefits of a zone without really running a set, most teams are basically running a box & 1 if you really look at, the PG is defending the ball while everyone else is sinking down and basically 1 step outside the paint. You got all sorts of shading and doubling without the ball that you couldn't do in the illegal defense era mostly because everyone is smart enough to take advantage of the zone rules.

I still think the zone was allowed for a number of reasons. One was to slow down Shaq. But also to get away from the heavy isolation ball that was prevalent at the time By allowing the zone the box and 1 became the prominent way to play superstars which creates openings on the court. The typical 2-3 and 3-2 zones aren't run as often but teams zone behind man defenses or behind superstars quite often. It also made it hard to run offenses through big men since you can have an extra defender shading towards them to help in ball denial.

 

[Malta]

I still think the zone was allowed for a number of reasons. One was to slow down Shaq. But also to get away from the heavy isolation ball that was prevalent at the time By allowing the zone the box and 1 became the prominent way to play superstars which creates openings on the court. The typical 2-3 and 3-2 zones aren't run as often but teams zone behind man defenses or behind superstars quite often. It also made it hard to run offenses through big men since you can have an extra defender shading towards them to help in ball denial.

I agree, however big men can still be effective, Yao's best year as a pro was in 06, he averaged 25ppg on 52%. And Duncan has 3 titles after the zone was implemented. A big with a post game and a decent 12-15 footer would be just as deadly, even with the zone.

 

[bnm8907]

tell me why im wrong

He is athletic enough and long enough. With hand checking he will be able to use his other great asset his size and strength to force players where he wanted to go.




As mattter of fact thats what mj used to do. he was an ahletic 225 pound sg who litterally controlled players with his strength and athleticism. Thats why he was such a lock down defender. Literally strong armin mfs like jeff hornercek plus athletic mismatch will have people hemmed up.

 

[superunknown23]

Bring back hand-checking.
Derek Harper ruined it for everyone