Do you consider the current era in the NBA a weak era?

[Zodiac]

Could the Heat beat a healthy Rockets team with Yao, T-Mac, Scola, and Lowry?



Yes this era is very weak, guys like Josh Smith are considered borderline stars in this era, 10 years ago he would've been a rotational scrub

[RIP CITY]

This is the weakest era of my lifetime. There is only one truly great team, not very many All-Time greats in their prime, the game is less physical/softer than ever and it's one of the weaker defensive era's both individually and team wise.

It's a good era for PG's, but every other position is pretty shallow. There are basically only about 10 good big men in the League and most of those 10 are flawed in one way or another.

Team wise there are very few real contenders to the Heat, only 2-3 teams can even compete with them let alone beat them. It's just a weak era overall.

[sportjames23]

Easiest road to victory for LeBron* imaginable;

Rose, Deng, Heinrich, Rondo, Bynum, Granger, Amare, Westbrook, Kobe, Gasol, Love, Melo and Davis.

All seriously injured or having limited play and not even mentioning Dwight's bad back.

This is a far bigger asterisk for a championship than the shortened season.

The pathetic part? LeBron* still struggled and had TWO seven game series and was down 3-2 going into Game 6 in the Finals. And TonyMontana calls this guy greater than MJ?

This. All this.

[Indian guy]

The last 2 seasons have been somewhat weak in terms of top-end talent(top 5 players). You have LeBron and Durant and there's a noticeable drop-off after that, what with the decline of Kobe, Wade and injuries to Rose and Dwight. In terms of teams though, the NBA has pretty much gone through a golden age over the last few years. The best teams are REALLY, REALLY loaded, unlike what we saw for the majority of the 00's. Let's just look at some of the teams Miami have defeated over the last 3 years. With the exception of the Shaq-Wade Heat of '05 and '06, I would say the '11 Celtics and '11 Bulls are better than ANY team in the East from 99-07. And the only team from 08-10 that I would say is better are the Celtics themselves. The '12 Thunder and '13 Spurs are also better than any non-champion West team in the 00's.

[Jacks3]

It's probably the weakest era in history.

-Weakest era for superstar players in history and it's not even close. Compare the top 5 the past couple of years to the top 5 players of the early-mid 00's or the 90's. It's laughable.
-By far the weakest era for bigs in history. I don't think is debatable. The best big might be a 38 yr old Duncan.
-Zero all-time teams. None.
-No hand-checking giving guys inflated stats.

It's pretty pathetic.

[livinglegend]

I'm not including Wade cuz he still showed up bigtime in certain games during the finals. The fact that he's playing at all is reason enough to NOT include him on the list. The struggles LeBron* is showing discredits him from being GOAT though, the dude should be steamrolling through the competition with his supposed 'greatness' and the stacked team. Even against a badly crippled Bulls team the Heat didn't do all that well, where the Bulls were hanging around in almost every game... against mostly their BENCH players right before two seven game series and barely... BARELY getting by in game 6 in the finals.

You can't call this guy the GOAT, its just downright stupid.

His team is not stacked cuz wade was injuried. His 2nd option scored 16 ppg and third 12 ppg. He didnt have any good rebounding big man. If that team was stacked, then, every championship team was stacked also.

[mugiwara]

Strong era for athleticism. This makes it the weakest era for skills, fundamentals and basketball IQ. The game is now driven on stats, statistical efficiency has become a huge part of the way things are run i.e. SVG not wanting mid range shots as they are deemed a low % shot, a very sad thing for Dwight towards development. Players being obsessed with stats i.e. Durant wanting to get 10 assists making terrible passes when he should be scoring, trying to fill up on rebounds (all defensive) instead of running the floor trying to get easy fast break points. This is especially frustrating when the thunder don't even have a half court offensive system at all. D wade only being a good mid range shooter with hand his face, falling back and over on seemingly open jump shots. Anyone 6ft 7 and up perfecting the crossover before they even have a mildly consistent baby hook.... i could go on forever. Its good to see teams like chicago, spurs, indiana and memphis doing well this post season, hopefully it opens up some eyes. Hoping paul george works on his mid range, post up game instead of his handle.

[NumberSix]

short white guys

[iamgine]

With the lack of dominant big men nowadays, do you consider the current era weak? Would the Heat be able to win in the early-mid 2000s, the 90s, or the 80s?

I mean look at the best big men nowadays, Hibbert, Lopez, Bynum, D12, etc. Personally I think even Ewing and Robinson would crush any of them.

Perhaps not current Heat but if they had played in an era with plenty of good bigs, wouldn't they also have better bigs?

[Mr. Jabbar]

yes, and that was before injuries. perhaps its not about skills but from a competitive mental point of view and rivalries, it is.

danny green partying with miami = exhibit A

[Rose'sACL]

I'm not including Wade cuz he still showed up bigtime in certain games during the finals. The fact that he's playing at all is reason enough to NOT include him on the list. The struggles LeBron* is showing discredits him from being GOAT though, the dude should be steamrolling through the competition with his supposed 'greatness' and the stacked team. Even against a badly crippled Bulls team the Heat didn't do all that well, where the Bulls were hanging around in almost every game... against mostly their BENCH players right before two seven game series and barely... BARELY getting by in game 6 in the finals.

You can't call this guy the GOAT, its just downright stupid.

there is a reason to include him. He was really injured and if he was healthy heat would have probably only lost 1 games at most till the finals. Spurs defense was based around the idea that only lebron can get to the rim and they were not worried about wade that much.
Also, if Heat would have been constructed differently in there were enough offensively good big men around. They would have picked a really good big man who can defend and rebound. They wouldn't have needed much offense from him. all that big man would have had to do was rebound and make other team's big men work hard for their points.

[andgar923]

The NBA has turned to 'fining' FLOPPING.

Read that again and let it simmer.

Flopping has become so common that the NBA has been forced to start handing out fines to eliminate it. Flopping of some sorts has been part of the game to some degree for ages, anybody stating that it never existed is misled. But it was rare and not as obvious. it has become second nature for players to flop today. It's literally a f*ckin reflex for many players… again… re-read that and let it sink in.

Exactly how does that fit in to the argument?

Players are softer now plain and simple. Players are too pampered and the offensive player more than ever is getting the benefit of the doubt.

Ya'll wanna know how weak this era is?

The best player of this generation, one of the new heirs to the Air crown is purposely getting WIDE OPEN looks at the rim in the Finals.

F*ckin unheard of and embarrassing.

I heard of players sagging off before but what happened in the Finals was embarrassing as a fan of the game.

You have point guards that shoot on almost every possession.
You have big men that shoot 3s and can't post up (for various reasons).
Combo guards that have low IQs and jack up shots like they're playing a video game.
Players can't run pick and rolls.
Players are soft and athletic superstars are getting exposed by inferior athletes and making them their bitches.
Coaches that get fired after one or two seasons, highly important because it doesn't allow a team to get an identity, it doesn't allow players to grow, it doesn't give an organization any legitimacy.
Iso iso iso iso iso iso iso iso iso…. basically almost every play by almost every team on almost every night.

There's more reasons of course, just getting warmed up.

[poido123]

there is a reason to include him. He was really injured and if he was healthy heat would have probably only lost 1 games at most till the finals. Spurs defense was based around the idea that only lebron can get to the rim and they were not worried about wade that much.
Also, if Heat would have been constructed differently in there were enough offensively good big men around. They would have picked a really good big man who can defend and rebound. They wouldn't have needed much offense from him. all that big man would have had to do was rebound and make other team's big men work hard for their points.

Wade looked alright to me in Game 7? The very last game he has played...I don't buy into the injured Wade BS, he has declined but he can step up his play when it matters and he showed that in this finals.

[poido123]

Hmm, weak era? It's hard to say, I mean there's an obvious lack of great centres, and lack of toughness in today's league.

IMO this era is alot weaker, but not weak. You have a lack of good centres, but some great, good, and average SF's, some good and average PG's, and some great PF's out of their primes...

To every Lebron, you had a prime Jordan, Pippen, Drexler, Miller, Stockton, Richmond, Rice, Mullin, Sprewell, McGrady, Penny, Grant Hill and the list goes on...A lot of those were hall of famers.

To every out of prime Duncan, Dirk, KG, you had a prime Ewing, Mutumbo, D.Robinson, Mourning, Webber, Shaq, Olajuwon, Barkley and the list goes on.

I mean, how can people call the late 80's, 90's basketball a watered down era when you look at the level of players from that era?

[Soundwave]

I think the NBA is kinda weak because the draft has sucked for the last little while IMO.

Aside from Durant and Rose coming in (and Oden was a huge bust, he should be the dominant NBA big today), it seems like there are an awful lot of "weak draft years" from 1999 onwards with the exception of 2003 which was loaded.

Compared to the 90s, where you had Shaq, Webber, Penny, GHill, Garnett, Kobe, Nash, Iverson, T-Mac, Vince Carter, Duncan all being drafted between 92 and 98.

Is there something wrong with player development or something? We haven't had a great big in a long, long time. It was supposed to be Oden.