Why did 90s stars started playing better after handchecking left in 2000?

[juju151111]

99-00 season (first major steps toward handchecking removal)

Handchecking had been slowed down to a small degree in the late 90s, but not anywhere close to the massive change that was introduced starting in 99/00."In the backcourt, there is no contact with hands and forearms by defenders. In the frontcourt, there is no contact with hands and forearms by defenders except below the free throw line extended in which case the defender may only use his forearm."So by this point, handchecking is for all intents and purposed removed - "There is no contact with hands" and "the defender may only use his forearm." below the FT line extended.


00-01 season - new rules that further decreased amount of contact allowed by a defender

"No contact with either hands or forearms by defenders except in the frontcourt below the free throw line extended in which case the defender may use his forearm only.""Neither the offensive player nor the defender will be allowed to dislodge or displace a player who has legally obtained a position"Notice how this rule restricts offensive players' options as well. Even then, we will still see that offensively, the players of the 90s still did better under the new rules even with this restriction.Others are going to attempt to use this offensive restriction as "proof" that if physical beasts like Lebron were allowed to play physical on offense in the 80s/90s, that they would dominate. That will be disproved later on."Defender may not use his forearm, shoulder, hip or hand to reroute or hold-up an offensive player going from point A to Point B or one who is attempting to come around a legal screen set by another offensive player.""Slowing or impeding the progress of the screener by grabbing, clutching, holding “chucking” or “wrapping up” is prohibited.""On the weakside, defenders must remain on the weakside outside the paint unless (i) they are double-teaming the ball, (ii) picking up a free cutter or (iii) closely guarding an offensive player."01-02 season - Addition of illegal defensive 3 seconds rules to weaken defenses even more.
A new defensive three-second rule will prohibit a defensive player from remaining in the lane for more than three consecutive seconds without closely guarding an offensive player.Some people mistakenly assume that this is the first season that zone was introduced, but that is another myth that we will eventually disprove.This rule makes it much easier to drive in the lane, because bigs can no longer camp out in the lane and deter drives to the basket like they did in the 80s and 90s
1) Gary Payton
In his prime, 1995-1999

6th season - 19.3 ppg + 7.5 apg (Age 27) - won DPOY, led 1996 Sonics to the Finals where they won 2 games against the 72-10 Bulls.
7th season - 21.8 ppg + 7.1 apg (Age 28)
8th season - 19.2 ppg + 8.3 apg (Age 29)
9th season - 21.7 ppg + 8.7 apg (Age 30)

a past prime Payton for 4 years post 98-99 rule changes had

10th season - 24.2 ppg + 8.9 apg (age 31) - 99-00 season - first season without handchecking)
11th season - 23.1 ppg + 8.1 apg (Age 32)
12th season - 22.1 ppg + 9.0 apg (Age 33)
13th season - 20.4 ppg + 8.3 apg (Age 34)

Keep reading below

[juju151111]

Payton's FG% increased every year from his 9th season to his 12th season, with only a 1.3% decrease in his 13th season.

NBA players' primes end at about age 30, yet Payton even at age 31-34 overall put up better scoring AND assist numbers than he did from age 27 to age 30. How is that possible if the post-Jordan era is supposed to be more advanced? If the Jordan era is weak, then Payton should have been scoring and assisting even more when he playing in that soft and weak league, but he actually had more success against the "advanced" era of "bigger, stronger, faster, and more athletic players" of the 2000s.ayton had FOUR straight seasons of averaging 20+ pts a game after the post-Jordan rule change in 99-00, but he NEVER had back to back seasons of 20+ during the so-called "weak" 90s. Payton's scoring from age 31-33 (after the post-Jordan rule changes) was higher than his three best scoring totals that he put up at age 26, 28, and 30 (during Jordan's era of defense).

No one can even try and attempt to say that a 34 year old Payton losing in the first round with the Bucks can be better than 1996 Payton, who won Def Player Of the Year and led Seattle to the Finals and 2 wins over the 72-10 Chicago Bulls, while simultaneously doing the best defensive performance on Jordan in an NBA Finals series.

Gary Payton isn't even an athletic specimen. He was only 6-3, 180 lbs, but his production actually increased against the "athletic, advanced, more skilled" players of the post-Jordan era compared to his numbers in Jordan's "weak/soft' era. Now, Lebron/Kobe/2000s fanboys are going to say "oh this is only one example." So let's look at some more.

[Roundball_Rock]

The caveat is scoring was at an all-time low before the changes but the hand-checking rule change before 05' had a big impact. Pick any perimeter scoring and look at their scoring in the seasons immediately before and after and you see a big spike. Eventually defenses adjusted but when Kobe was scoring 35, AI was putting up 33 and LeBron 31 (LeBron's career high was when was 21). People forget that it wasn't just Kobe scoring a ton.

[juju151111]

The caveat is scoring was at an all-time low before the changes but the hand-checking rule change before 05' had a big impact. Pick any perimeter scoring and look at their scoring in the seasons immediately before and after and you see a big spike. Eventually defenses adjusted but when Kobe was scoring 35, AI was putting up 33 and LeBron 31 (LeBron's career high was when was 21). People forget that it wasn't just Kobe scoring a ton.

I agree they been trying to take away handchecking and 06 is where they went overboard with the calls. I still haven't seen anyone do what haper did to kenny smith in 94 playoffs when he literally handchecked him the whole series basically guiding him with his hand. Which means no easy crossover impediment etc... I think kenny talked about it once

[Roundball_Rock]

I understand why they made the change in the 2000s but things are starting to swing too far in the other direction where scoring is getting too easy.

[Kblaze8855]

I was pretty surprised how post injury Grant Hill did that one year he was able to play a lot for the Magic. He was nothing close to what he was...but he took some team apart.