NBA: Dunks and Three pointers...

[sook]

The rockets go full re when it comes to this , its also why their offense sucked. They pretty much threw the midrange game out completely because ing Dork Elvis said analytics told him so. You clog the paint and run people off the 3pt line and you can destroy a team's offense. The midrange game is the most versatile and difficult to contain. Its also more consistent than the 3pt shot which will be on and off like the weather.

[King Nupe]

The rockets go full re when it comes to this , its also why their offense sucked. They pretty much threw the midrange game out completely because ing Dork Elvis said analytics told him so. You clog the paint and run people off the 3pt line and you can destroy a team's offense. The midrange game is the most versatile and difficult to contain. Its also more consistent than the 3pt shot which will be on and off like the weather.

Exactly, That is what Seperates Kobe from Lebron. Lebron needs 4 Shooters around him to spread the floor so he can drive and kick. That his entire game. He can't play with post players because he doesn't have a mid-range game. Why do you think he turned Bosh who was a 24-10 post player in toronto, into a spot up 3 point shooter. He's bad for the game, regardless of what ESPN tells you.

Kobe's game doesn't rely on anything. Put him with a decent post player, and he can torch any team from anywhere on the court.

[Malik Hairston]

The NBA since 2011(the 2 finalists in particular) has been the most team-oriented the league has been since the 80s, tbh, yet certain fans are actually complaining about it..

There are very few teams that run isolation-based basketball anymore, and 3 of the top 7 ISO-oriented teams from the regular season have already fired their coach in the past month(Woodson, Jackson, Brown)..

[Venti Quattro]

How convenient that all Lakerfan suddenly thinks the NBA has declined at the same time as their team

It's true though. The Tom Uncles Clippers as the face of the NBA? Ewww

[Phillip]

i think its pretty much a fact that the 2 best shots to take in basketball are: layups at the rim and wide open 3s

id say driving and dishing if the layup isn't there is pretty smart and basic basketball strategy

[Phillip]

Post-up play and mid-range shots still exist in the league, it's just that teams have realized that a mid-range shot is not the most efficient option, and bigs have taken a hint from the Europeans that entered the league in the '90s and 2000s and have stopped being 100% reliant on a post game (and it doesn't help matters that the AAU circuit doesn't teach fundamentals)....

The best offenses move the ball unselfishly, run intricate sets, utilize a diverse attack, and try to get the most efficient shots possible, as opposed to trying to force the same two types of plays that nostalgia gots like you think are the only valid ones

[Phillip]

Sure the new age PG can dunk on your center but the underlying reason why is because almost all the shot blockers are gone. Drop a hard foul and you are ejected. This is what the NBA office wanted. Less defense means more open play and more success by the star players.

There is a difference between a hard foul and a dirty foul. Plenty of players are still out there giving hard fouls very effectively.

Additionally, dirty fouls don't = defense. You can give all the dirty fouls you want, but if you allow the opponent to shoot 55%, then dirty fouls mean nothing. The 04 Pistons arguably is the most dominant defense the league has ever seen, and they didn't have to do a bunch of dirty tactics the way the Bad Boys Pistons did. The Spurs got 4 championships with suffocating defense, and out of all the dynasties in history, may have been the strongest defensive team of them all, but didn't have a bunch of dirty tactics either.

The NBA didn't get rid of their leniency of dirty fouls to help offenses. It was to maintain (and eventually, to repair) the image of the league. It got to a point that people were losing interest in the NBA, and it was getting harder to gain new fans, because too many people had and were spreading a perception that the NBA is just "full of thugs". Then when a massive brawl is happening every season, capped off by the Malice in the Palace, it's fully understandable why the NBA really cracked down on those kinds of fouls.

Truth of the matter is, it is already hard enough to keep the perception of the league high considering it is a league that is mostly played by black men (yes racism absolutely plays into this), and so when you add tons of tattoos, bad at udes getting headlines in the media, crazy hair, it makes it tougher. Then you add fights to it? Half of America will be calling the NBA "full of thugs". So it's fully understandable why dirty fouls were cracked down on.