FanPost

Defense in the 90's is not that inspiring

Whenever an old NBA player gets a chance to talk in front of a camera, if there is any chance a single soul is listening, they will find a way to bring up how much scoring has increased. Funnily enough, most non-player reporters talk about the skill increase that has come from the internationalization of the game, youth development, and improved health, wellness, and training techniques. The players, however, talk about how bad players are getting at defense. Charles Barkley even suggested that NBA defenders are bad because teams prioritize shooting and shooters typically can't defend as well. Hand checking, physicality, you name it. The league has gone soft because the people want big numbers. I was interested in seeing if that was true. Obviously, you are rarely going to see good defense on highlights, but I think that even on highlight plays, you can get an idea of how the game was played overall. So, here we go, game 6 of the 1996 NBA Finals. I will point out the plays I find odd with timestamps. Note: These are Bulls highlights and the Seattle Supersonics were the 8th best defense in the league.

1:15 I thought the NBA was supposed to have been physical on the perimeter, but the scorer doesn't get touched until he gets past the free throw line and his path is never interrupted.

1:45 Totally wide open three created from a non-action

2:40 Once again, untouched until below the free throw line and was not disturbed at all

2:50 Jordan did not get taken out on the fastbreak. People always said that they give hard fouls here, but once again, not much in terms of physicality he had to fight through.

4:25 A perfect example of why hand checking can't really save you. The defender is just a slightly larger traffic cone. He moved Pippen a little bit, but it was a minor inconvenience

5:10 Three examples of wide open threes from two non-actions and a cheap pindown screen, in the halfcourt. This is the Finals!

6:45 Another cheap screen action to a wide open 3.

7:10 Pindown to wide open 3, gets his own miss and has tons of time to put it back in

8:00 Wide open 3 off a non-action.

8:20 "Hand Checked" Jordan, but totally released the pressure when he got to the 3 point line and it didn't pick up until he hit the paint. I was a literal straight line drive from the best player in the world, leading to a paint touch and points.

Every single last one of these would have been total defensive lapses if we saw them today. That defensive effort would have been nothing short of embarrassing to give up that many open 3s with minimal playcalling. This was a top 10 defense we are seeing and they just weren't there. Maybe, for some reason, this is a particularly bad example, but if it isn't, reports of elite defense in the 90's are greatly exaggerated. You think Curry wouldn't be able to score if he could get that wide open that easily from beyond the arc? All I see is a lot of hand checking from the logo and very limited ball pressure from the 3 point line to the paint. Only the elite defenders (Payton, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman) were consistently defending tightly from the arc to the paint. That is a pre-requisite now. You think that the big men from then wouldn't get run off the court by shooters? The Sonics, and the rest of the league, got run off the court by the Bulls. The Bulls are literally just a modern team that played modern defense and offense before its time. Long, switchable perimeter players, shooting guards and forwards, with a big man who can hold his own (putting it lightly in the case of Rodman) down low and away from the ball. The Bulls didn't have elite shot blocking (21st in the NBA), yet they were still the best defense in the league by a considerable margin in an era that was supposedly dominated by big men.

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