czman
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- May 7, 2013
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Don Nelson was born 30 years too early. The man who invented small ball never was able to coach in the era where it dominates. I think for Bulls, it is important to look where the NBA is and where it is heading. The NBA has been changing rules to make the league a jump shooting league for years.
In the late 80s and every team had a 7’ oaf who would put people on their butts when they came into the lane. The league started to push that out after the Pistons took it to an extreme. We say the flagrant 1 and then the flagrant 2 come in. This made “enforces” far less valuable. The league then put the restricted area line in. This change just killed the slow big guys. The slower tall oafs did not have the speed to cross the lane and get outside the restricted area. These two changes made speed and length more desirable.
The zone defense change now allows teams to overload one side of the court. This has made driving lanes harder to find. They exasperated the ineffectiveness of guards scoring around the basket by allowing players to stand straight up and not get called for a foul, even when there is a lot of contact.
All of this has brought about the rise of the stretch 4/5 and emergence of small ball. If you spread teams out, the overload defense is not as effective. If you spread teams out there is no one under the basket standing straight, taking contact, and not getting called for a foul.
One might think that post play would be increased as teams go smaller. Well the NBA has made strides to eliminate that too. The overload defense makes it harder to enter the ball to the post. The biggest change though is that they allow defensive players to lie across the body of the offensive post player. The smaller defender just drapes himself on the post player. When the offensive player puts their off arm up to clear space they get called for offensive fouls. When they get the ball and start to back down, flopping as occurred and more offensive fouls. When they get in the post the defender can extend out their arms straight up with increased contact and no foul call.
This is why you see so little post play. It is just not very effective because of rules changes. The game has become all about athletic long shooters who can handle the ball and paly multiple positions, Nelly ball. 10 years ago we did not see this. Most of this has really taken hold in the last 4 years.
Even rebounding has lost a great deal of value. Offensive rebounds are too infrequent. Defenders are still allowed to make contact by just standing straight up. The NBA is a shooters league now and more than ever before. This is the exact reason why I thought this Bulls team had major flaws and would struggle mightily in the playoffs offensively. The Bulls have not adapted to the modern day NBA. Even with Thibs gone, they still don’t have the players to play the modern game. They don’t have the shooters. I know I had it out with a few people earlier in the year on this. The last few seasons have crystalized to me one thing. Shooting>everything else.
In the late 80s and every team had a 7’ oaf who would put people on their butts when they came into the lane. The league started to push that out after the Pistons took it to an extreme. We say the flagrant 1 and then the flagrant 2 come in. This made “enforces” far less valuable. The league then put the restricted area line in. This change just killed the slow big guys. The slower tall oafs did not have the speed to cross the lane and get outside the restricted area. These two changes made speed and length more desirable.
The zone defense change now allows teams to overload one side of the court. This has made driving lanes harder to find. They exasperated the ineffectiveness of guards scoring around the basket by allowing players to stand straight up and not get called for a foul, even when there is a lot of contact.
All of this has brought about the rise of the stretch 4/5 and emergence of small ball. If you spread teams out, the overload defense is not as effective. If you spread teams out there is no one under the basket standing straight, taking contact, and not getting called for a foul.
One might think that post play would be increased as teams go smaller. Well the NBA has made strides to eliminate that too. The overload defense makes it harder to enter the ball to the post. The biggest change though is that they allow defensive players to lie across the body of the offensive post player. The smaller defender just drapes himself on the post player. When the offensive player puts their off arm up to clear space they get called for offensive fouls. When they get the ball and start to back down, flopping as occurred and more offensive fouls. When they get in the post the defender can extend out their arms straight up with increased contact and no foul call.
This is why you see so little post play. It is just not very effective because of rules changes. The game has become all about athletic long shooters who can handle the ball and paly multiple positions, Nelly ball. 10 years ago we did not see this. Most of this has really taken hold in the last 4 years.
Even rebounding has lost a great deal of value. Offensive rebounds are too infrequent. Defenders are still allowed to make contact by just standing straight up. The NBA is a shooters league now and more than ever before. This is the exact reason why I thought this Bulls team had major flaws and would struggle mightily in the playoffs offensively. The Bulls have not adapted to the modern day NBA. Even with Thibs gone, they still don’t have the players to play the modern game. They don’t have the shooters. I know I had it out with a few people earlier in the year on this. The last few seasons have crystalized to me one thing. Shooting>everything else.
