Ive heard it said that 2003-2004 was the NBA at its low point. Thinking about it.....

[AngelEyes]

Hornets Baron Davis was playoff beast, though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfVxMYsKwlg (a year earlier but he was still a beast in his final years as a Hornet)

In the 2003-04 season Baron Davis shot 39.5% from the field and attempted 8.7 threes a game while only hitting at 32.1%. In his final 18 games with the hornets in the 2004-05 season Davis 36.6% from the field and attempted 7.6 threes a game while again only hitting at 32.1 %.

That's a beast?! You've got to be kidding me?! That's absolutely pathetic.

[RRR3]

In the 2003-04 season Baron Davis shot 39.5% from the field and attempted 8.7 threes a game while only hitting at 32.1%. In his final 18 games with the hornets in the 2004-05 season Davis 36.6% from the field and attempted 7.6 threes a game while again only hitting at 32.1 %.

That's a beast?! You've got to be kidding me?! That's absolutely pathetic.

Turribleness

[Boston C's]

Some Notable players with high PPG and their FG% from 2003-03:

Tracy McGrady 28 PPG 41.7 FG%
Paul Pierce 23 PPG 40.2 FG%
LeBron James 20.9 PPG 41.7 FG%
Vince Carter 22.5 PPG 41.7 FG%
Jermaine O'Neal (a PF/C remember) 20.1 PPG 43.4 FG%
Baron Davis 22.9 PPG 39.5 FG%
Jamal Crawford 17.3 PPG 38.6 FG%
Latrell Sprewell 16.8 PPG 40.9 FG%
Eddie Jones 17.3 PPG 40.9 FG%
Steve Francis 16.6 PPG 40.3 FG%
Chauncey Billups 16.9 PPG 39.4 FG%
Gilbert Arenas 19.6 PPG 39.2 FG%
Allen Iverson 26.4 PPG 38.7 FG%
Jason Kidd 15.5 PPG 38.4 FG%

Ray Allen shot 44,39,90 with 23 ppg which was pretty good considering those numbers

[Boston C's]

All those guys probably shoot 4-5% higher in the weak 80's/early 90's.

plz stop tryin to up your boy kobe subliminally its embarrasing... everyone knows the 90's was a better era then the mid 2000's for bball

[catch24]

What's not to like about GREAT team defense being played? Or...T-Mac vs. Lebron, T-Mac vs. Kobe, Lebron vs. Melo, Lakers dream-team, KG finally winning MVP over Duncan? What about those grind-it-out defensive battles the Pistons and Pacers played? Those were pretty awesome. I'd say prior to the Finals (for obvious reasons), that years postseason was really exciting.

Wade single-handedly putting Miami on his back upsetting Davis' Hornets, Kings/Wolves going 7 - KG goes bananas in that 7th game, Spurs vs. Lakers - Fisher's epic 0.4 buzzer-beater, Pistons Pacers going a physical 6 games - Tayshaun Prince's GW block in G2 Nets going 7... and KG vs Shaq/Kobe pt 2.

I thought it was an all-around fantastic year, personally.

[AMISTILLILL]

Even though I enjoyed it, particularly the Pistons winning it all, I definitely didn't pay as close attention to that season as I ordinarily would.

[catch24]

It indeed was a low point in 2004.

Good defense tends to bore people.

[magnax1]

I honestly feel that 03 was much worse, and 04 was the beginning of a slow growth period of the league that's really made it great today. Look at the conference finals teams in 03. Nets, Pistons, Spurs and Mavs (Dirk injured) I can't be the only one that thinks that any of the 04 conference finals teams, excluding the Twolves because of the fact that they were playing a guy who was a bench warmer at point guard, would mop the floor with the 03 teams? On top of that, you had TMac who was probably the best perimeter player since early 90s Jordan playing with a bunch of nobodies, AI wasn't 100% for the second year in a row, I don't think anyone won 50 games in the east (might be wrong though) The best team in the regular season, the Kings, were derailed by injuries (that really ruined the playoffs for me) 03 was just a God awful year for the NBA to me, and while there might have been more all time great individual players in 03, lots of them were stuck in bad situations.

[Peteballa]

I remember that year so well, was one of my favorite NBA seasons ever. It was Wade's rookie year, and our lineup was

Dwyane Wade
Eddie Jones
Caron Butler
Lamar Odom
Brian Grant
bench:
Rafer Alston
Rasual Butler
Udonis Haslem

mannn those were the days. i loved going to our games. probably my favorite moment of the entire season;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3H77gIpYi8

we upset the hornets and then almost upset the powerhouse pacers in the second round. probably my favorite Heat season ever.

[RRR3]

I honestly feel that 03 was much worse, and 04 was the beginning of a slow growth period of the league that's really made it great today. Look at the conference finals teams in 03. Nets, Pistons, Spurs and Mavs (Dirk injured) I can't be the only one that thinks that any of the 04 conference finals teams, excluding the Twolves because of the fact that they were playing a guy who was a bench warmer at point guard, would mop the floor with the 03 teams? On top of that, you had TMac who was probably the best perimeter player since early 90s Jordan playing with a bunch of nobodies, AI wasn't 100% for the second year in a row, I don't think anyone won 50 games in the east (might be wrong though) The best team in the regular season, the Kings, were derailed by injuries (that really ruined the playoffs for me) 03 was just a God awful year for the NBA to me, and while there might have been more all time great individual players in 03, lots of them were stuck in bad situations.

I'll go get some interesting stats from 2002-03. Back in a few minutes...

[Legends66NBA7]

That was one of the many problems with the players of that year. Most of the players were one and done from college. They didn't really grasp the team play that is needed to win. 2000's - present era is way down from the 80's and 90's in terms of passing.

Too much isolation play, bad shot selections (jacking), and the league needed to open up the game since there were lot of low I.Q. players in the league on offense. Offense really stunk it up.

So when the NBA was aware what was happening, they did these rules changes:

2004-05
-New rules were introduced to curtail hand-checking, clarify blocking fouls and call defensive three seconds to open up the game.

2006-07
-On a clear-path-to-the-basket foul, the team that is fouled is awarded two free throw attempt and the ball on the sideline.

Not surprisingly, there were players from the beginning of that era after 05 having career numbers all across the board on offense.

[magnax1]

You can pick out specific years, but 99-04 was worse then anything except maybe the mid 70s.

[RRR3]

2002-03 interesting facts:

*Kedrick Brown shot 39 threes. He made three of them.
*Andre Miller thought it was a good idea to take 108 threes, despite the fact that he made them at a 21.3 percent clip.
*Bruce Bowen somehow shot 44.1 percent from three but 40.4 percent from the free throw line.
*Ben Wallace had 1126 rebounds and 506 points.

[BankShot]

*Bruce Bowen somehow shot 44.1 percent from three but 40.4 percent from the free throw line.

I definitely remember that one.... watching games with friends or family, and talking about how its remotely possible for someone to be markedly worse at a much, much, easier shot.

[RRR3]

It always bothers me that Tracy McGrady didn't win MVP in 2002-03. Yeah, he's my favorite player so I'm biased, but I don't think people remember how ****ing incredible he was that year.

League leading stats bolded:

32.1 PPG/6.5 RPG/5.5 APG/1.7 SPG/0.8 BPG/45.7 FG%/38.6 3P%/79.3 FT%/30.3 PER/0.262 WS/48

And check out his team: http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/ORL/2003.html

Derrick Rose won MVP this year because people seemed to think he was so valuable because his team was garbage without him (not true). Why didn't McGrady get that kind of logic applied to him? I know Tim Duncan had a brilliant year in 2002-03 as well, as did Shaq and Kobe, but T-Mac will always be the MVP in my mind that year.