Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="Lefty2one, post: 3523017, member: 1001"]
Because that art isn't winning championships and if you're a player it's not guaranteed to get you paid. The last All-NBA big man to win a championship was Duncan in 2013. If I'm a 6'11 young player I'm not spending a whole lot of time on my back-to-the-basket game, I'm spending it shooting threes and working on my pick and roll/pop game.

The problem for bigs is the current rules and zone defense and the bevy of defensive options it opens up for coaches. I love 80/90s NBA and romanticize the hell out of it but the rule changes screwed up everything. They set the wheels in motion to marginalize big men and increase the value of guards. A team now can throw weakside help pre-catch at any big man and you've pretty much neutralized him, if you want to. The old illegal defense rules were bizarre and complicated but they did favor big men. Kareem would still put up pretty big numbers in this era but I'm not sure he'd win a championship.
[/QUOTE]

Verification

First name of men's bb coach