Better era of basketball: 90s vs Present day

[catch24]

I see a lot of new era posters claiming that today = more of a "passing game", but I don't think that's true. The Jazz, Sonics, Suns, Bulls, Spurs and the early 90s Lakers were all great passing teams then, too.

So putting it altogether via superstars, defenses, offenses, coaching etc. which brand of basketball was superior?

[Showtime80']

You have to divide the 90's in two parts, to me the GREATEST PERIOD in basketball history was 1980 to 1991 (the last year when all the dream teamers made the playoffs). After that it was basically Michael Jordan and the Bulls rapping an inferior league which started suffering a decline in fundamentals and an increasingly selfish attitude thanks to the influx of the 90's "hip hop" generation.

From 1994 to 1999 aside from the Bulls and Jazz the entire league had pretty much taken a turn for the worse in overall quality and the second with the second tier of 80's stars in Drexler, Olajuwon, Ewing, Stockton and Malone taking turns kicking the crap out of the new generation.

If you want to see quality passing and true equal opportunity offenses go to ANY OF THE CHAMPIONS of the 80's where only Larry Bird scored above than 25ppg in 1986!!! The ONLY true equal opportunity passing team now a days are the Spurs let's be realistic, the other championship contenders in the last 6 years have been Kobe-ball, LeBron-Ball, Durant/Westbrook ball and most recently Curry Ball.

The individual passing and great assists numbers of PG's have suffered since the early 2000's with PG's wanting to be shooting guards like Steve Francis, Stephon Marbury and Baron Davis to name a few and not wanting or having the ability to lead a potent and effective offensive scheme to save their lives.

Today you have the bastard children from that generation. None of the present PG's have the passing ability or the inclination to play like Magic, Isaiah, Cheeks, Stockton or Price. It has NOTHING to do with "equal opportunity" offenses.

[Dro]

This has been debated to death but without even thinking, 90's all day.

[nba_55]

Present day by far.

[riseagainst]

You have to divide the 90's in two parts, to me the GREATEST PERIOD in basketball history was 1980 to 1991 (the last year when all the dream teamers made the playoffs). After that it was basically Michael Jordan and the Bulls rapping an inferior league which started suffering a decline in fundamentals and an increasingly selfish attitude thanks to the influx of the 90's "hip hop" generation.

From 1994 to 1999 aside from the Bulls and Jazz the entire league had pretty much taken a turn for the worse in overall quality and the second with the second tier of 80's stars in Drexler, Olajuwon, Ewing, Stockton and Malone taking turns kicking the crap out of the new generation.

If you want to see quality passing and true equal opportunity offenses go to ANY OF THE CHAMPIONS of the 80's where only Larry Bird scored above than 25ppg in 1986!!! The ONLY true equal opportunity passing team now a days are the Spurs let's be realistic, the other championship contenders in the last 6 years have been Kobe-ball, LeBron-Ball, Durant/Westbrook ball and most recently Curry Ball.

The individual passing and great assists numbers of PG's have suffered since the early 2000's with PG's wanting to be shooting guards like Steve Francis, Stephon Marbury and Baron Davis to name a few and not wanting or having the ability to lead a potent and effective offensive scheme to save their lives.

Today you have the bastard children from that generation. None of the present PG's have the passing ability or the inclination to play like Magic, Isaiah, Cheeks, Stockton or Price. It has NOTHING to do with "equal opportunity" offenses.

well said.

Order of basketball in eras: today, 80's, 90's.

But 90's was spectacular to watch just for the Bulls, because:
1. Bulls was the most stacked team in the league in the 90's
2. MJ was exciting to watch

The rest of the league was watered down so there wasn't much competition.

[Showtime80']

Even for all the flaws the 90's had your still left with an all decade team of:

C:Olajuwon/Robinson/Shaq
PF: Malone/Barkley/Kemp
SF: Pippen/Hill
SG: Jordan/Drexler
PG: Stockton/Payton

Every one of those guys except for Hill and Kemp had 10+ years of excellence in the NBA.

Make the same list from the first 6 years of this decade and is not EVEN CLOSE. The 90's blows it out of the water!!!

[feyki]

94 to 01 is really bad . Early 90's is good . 2002 to 2007 is best era with early 80's , early 70's and early 60's to me . 2008-2012 era is really bad . 2014 to present is as good as early 90's .


Team passing is more about space of the game . All 1984-1994 Teams have goat assists numbers in nba history . That situation was about rules . Present game have tough rules for easy assists and playmaking .

[Straight_Ballin]

I see a lot of new era posters claiming that today = more of a "passing game", but I don't think that's true. The Jazz, Sonics, Suns, Bulls, Spurs and the early 90s Lakers were all great passing teams then, too.

So putting it altogether via superstars, defenses, offenses, coaching etc. which brand of basketball was superior?

I'm living rent free in new era posters minds:

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=394919

[Euroleague]

90s NBA

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

than today's NBA.

[Kblaze8855]

Way too many factors to go into but the first is....which end of the 90s? Nobody in 1991 played like the 1999 Heat. The lowest scoring team in 1991 would have been #3 in 99 and #8 in 98 if you want to throw out the lockout numbers. The 1998 Nugget scored almost 30 points a game less than the 1990 or 91 Warriors. It changed...fast.

The combo of expansion really factoring in heavily(the late 80s added teams didnt take significant talent right away) and teams that couldnt lean on having 2-3 great scorers and 2-3 good ones instead going with the physical defensive style Riley, Daly, and others were having success with?

It changed the game almost overnight. Imagine a mid 90s without the expansion teams....


Its 1995...

There are no Magic, Heat, Hornets, or Twolves, and the Grizzlies and Raptors arent thrown into the draft to take picks from the existing teams that summer.

You take Shaq, Penny, Nick Anderson, KG, Damon Stoudemire, Larry Johnson, Zo, Vince Carter, Camby, Reeves, Marbury/Ray(minnesota took Ray and traded him), Glen Rice, Steve Smith, Googs, Shareef, Isiah Rider, Dennis Scott, Tmac, Mike Bibby, hell even Kobe considering he was taken by the Hornets and plenty of solid role players...

Take those guys and divide them up among the remaining 23 teams over the next few years.


You would likely have Shaq on the Mavs(#1 pick in 92 minus expansion teams taking the first 3) preventing them from becoming the joke of the 90s, Penny I suppose stays on the warriors preventing them from becoming a joke, Zo is a nugget, Bullet, or King joining either Mutombo(totally shutting down the lane for a decade), Webber, or Mitch Richmond making all their careers go better...who knows where KG ends up.

It wouldnt all unfold predictably.....but one thing is clear....the average talent per team spikes.

Teams dont feel a need to hold you to 89 because they can only score 92. You have over 20 real impact guys added to just 23 teams and dozens of good role players.

Your Jeff Vangundys and Larry Browns become less the model than the offensive genius types of the 80s who everyone wanted to emulate. Your Doug Moes, Cotton Fitzsimmons, and so on.

Expansion is the elephant in the room people so often ignore in these discussions.

The style of play has less to do with which era was "better" than the fact that the league went from spreading its talent over 22 teams in 84(before the Mavs who I chose not to count) to 29 by 95.

Its a shock to the system that takes 10-15 years to correct. If it ever does. We have a larger talent pool now with more international being NBA level. So its leveling out.

But the mid 90s to the early 2000s took a BIG hit to the talent of each team and the physical, defense first, stalling, and isolation play was powered by that.

So...when you ask me 90s vs now....I need to know when.

Id take 1990 over now far as my general enjoyment of the style.

1998? 99? Into the very early 2000s?

Today is a lot more entertaining.

The talent is coming back to let good coaches run amazing offenses. Add 7 teams by 2026....we would be in another hole.

All the good intentions and offensive brilliance in the world doesnt make up for spreading your talent over an additional 105 roster spots.

[Showtime80']

Beautiful post Kblaze like always! That's why I isolated the Golden Age from 1980 to 1991

You also forgot another guy that did a lot of damage to the quality of play of the NBA, Mike Fratello and his 90's middle of the road Cavs teams, he coined the phrase "It looks better on paper to loose 94-86 than 120-100" and that was basically the mindset of most of the teams in the 90's and coaches scared of getting fired. That and the factors you mentioned such as expansion, salary increase, decrease in fundamentals among others spelled doom for NBA offenses! The 90's Knicks and Heat also used variation of this warped style.

I still remember people talking about how the early 2000's were better than the 80's and looking at it in hindsight you can see how laughable that was! In five years we will look at this decade the same way, NOT ON PAR WITH THE 80'S OR EARLY 90'S!

[sd3035]

present day is amazing

good time to be a fan folks

[eeeeeebro]

90s had most 20+ point scorers and most 27+ scorers so there is that

[eeeeeebro]

they clyde david robinson shaq jordan kobe and so on

[Patrick Chewing]

Even for all the flaws the 90's had your still left with an all decade team of:

C:Ewing/Olajuwon/Robinson/Shaq
PF: Malone/Barkley/Kemp
SF: Pippen/Hill
SG: Jordan/Drexler
PG: Stockton/Payton

Every one of those guys except for Hill and Kemp had 10+ years of excellence in the NBA.

Make the same list from the first 6 years of this decade and is not EVEN CLOSE. The 90's blows it out of the water!!!

Fixed.