The game is simply better today than in the 90's and this article explains why.

[TheMan]

just last season: carmelo,kobe,durant,lebron are better than most swingmen in the 90s. that is an indisputable fact.

Cool story.

MJ > carmelo, kobe, durant, lebron

[DonDadda59]

Who cares what Vogel says?

Yes, who cares what the coach of the team says about his team's defensive philosophies? Serious question- were you dropped on your head as a baby?

Doc Rivers said the same thing about the Celtics, yet they used it excessively in the 08 finals to stop Kobe Bryant.

As if it wasn't obvious enough you were using Alborz's bullshit that was debunked in 2009.

It's clear you have no clue what you're talking about and don't have the ability to differentiate between a 'zone' and man defense with help. If you want to see what real zone looks like, watch the NCAA tournament not the damn NBA you dunce.

But just to drive home the point (and since you brought up the Cs)...

[COLOR="Red"]Boston played zone on about 3.7 percent of its defensive possessions during the season, slightly more than average[/COLOR], according to Synergy.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bas.../celtics-zone/

[COLOR="Red"]No team played zone on more than 10 percent of defensive possessions last season[/COLOR], per Synergy Sports. Dallas became known as the zone team in 2010-11, but they played a hybrid man zone more than a straight zone, [COLOR="Red"]and they did that on a small minority of possessions[/COLOR].

[COLOR="Red"]The league overall actually scored more efficiently against zone than man last season[/COLOR], according to Synergy.

http://grantland.com/features/what-n...end-sweep-nba/

But facts be damned, right? You've got video showing traditional help man defense w/ no hand checking and 3 second violations.

Here, this will save you a ton of future embarrassment. All of the bullshit you were so clearly tricked into believing by one lone misguided Bean apologist was addressed and debunked back in 2009:

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=136831

That one's on the house

Honestly I think modern basketball hasn't changed that much since the mid-90s.

The Bad Boy Pistons and Knicks and Bulls basically created the modern notion of NBA defence, and offence has largely stayed the same too. To counter this the NBA opened up the rules to allow wing players to score more easily once their TV ratings dipped in the post-Jordan era.

D'Antoni tried to bring back a different style of basketball, which is basically 70s/80s run n' gun bball, but most coaches still adhere to the same basic style of play.

The main difference in today's game is the Jordan effect ... no kid wants to play as a big. They all want to play the 2/3 positions so they can play the flashier style of game.

And development of big men has completely fallen apart. There are no great bigs left, because no one wants to play in the post. It's not cool/sexy/flashy, heck even Shaq would routinely get the spotlight taken away by Penny/Kobe/Wade.

Exactly

Although I don't think it's the 'Jordan effect' so much as the influx of Euro style players. Toni Kukoc was 6'11, the size of a traditional PF but played more like a guard- had handles, could shoot the 3, etc. Then you had Dirk and so on. Now you have guys like Kevin Love who takes 6 3s per game. The death of the traditional big man (save for a few like Al Jefferson and old man Duncan), the influx of the Euro style of play/proliferation of the 3, and the perimeter player favoring rules are the key differences between the game now and then.

Not the nonsense Kobe stan bullshit that was debunked last decade that a LeBron stan is trying to pass off as real