OK guys, I finally get why flooding/shading is all-world defense

[3ball]

Indeed, it's a ballhandler's worst nightmare when a big man comes out of the paint to defend on the perimeter - the big man has a huge advantage defending guards on the perimeter instead of in the paint.

It's like playing soccer without a goalie - with the goalie away from the goal and out in the field, there are more guys playing defense, making it harder for the offense to score..

Jokes aside, the paint-camping ban along with spacing creates a greater need for flooding and shading in today's game.. Although these partial zones outside the paint are easy to beat for perimeter players, they provide a bandaid to offset today's spacing, paint-camping ban, and hand-check ban, so defensive effectiveness doesn't fall off a cliff in comparison to previous eras.

With no spacing in previous eras, defenders were in MUCH closer proximity, so shading and flooding happened quite naturally - here's definitive proof - obviously, with the invariably slower bigs coming away from the rim to shade in MJ's wheelhouse (the perimeter), he blew by and destroyed them quite easily.
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[iamgine]

We're also glad you finally get it.