Which is better 90's or modern Basketball?

[usagre]

I mean I know Portland faced Detroit in '90 but were they really a legitimate contender?

Portland was good but in the early 90's from 1990-1992 but not on Pistons or Bulls level. Watching those finals I thought Portland would be competitive but I never really thought they had a serious chance of winning.

[CHBB]

Ah okay. Thanks.

It's kind of crazy how many good young cores Dallas has had. First the aforementioned core of Blackmon, Aguirre, etc, then the Three Js, then Nash, Dirk, and Finley, then Dirk, the experienced Finley, Terry, Dampier, and the incredibly underrated young guns of Josh Howard, Diop, Marquis Daniels, Beaubois, and Devin Harris. Now they have Dennis Smith Jr, Barnes, Wes Matthews, Nerlens, Yogi, Finney-Smith, etc. Granted, Matthews isn't young anymore but the point remains. How a team that went through so many iterations had so many winning seasons is beyond me.

[Straight forward]

I was too lazy to find the spot on thread, but was Bulls of second championship three-peat 1995–1998 the best team in NBA? I mean they won NBA, but I never realised how deep and talented they were. Not only they had MJ and the best SF of 90's Pipen and probably best rebounder in NBA and overall great athlete and defender Rodman, but they also got players who got badly overlooked by some (like me). And it's not Kukoc in the first place who could be a star in other team and actually had a 19pts/7trb,6ast season for the same bulls which only shows how good this Euro legend was, but Ron Harper. He basically was a star before joining Bulls. I mean he was averaging 23/5/5 for some seasons and the thing is that some described him as the toughest perimeter defender they ever met, they talk about his iron hands. Talk about bulls defence - MJ, all NBA defensive team, Harper as an amazing defender, Pipen as probably the most complete defender in NBA (and he would still be such now, IMO, competing with Leonard) and Rodman who got paid only for defence. I'm actually agree with Pipen who thinks Bulls would sweep current Warriors (or beat them for sure). They were such a great defensive team that would be able to slow down Warriors offence and because of hand chuck rule (if they met under today's rules) they wouldn't have any answers to MJ at O. He would have a feast and would get to the basket without any resistance. And if they met under 90's rules, it would be even tougher for Warriors because Curry wouldn't be Curry (as well as Durrant and Klay wouldn't be so good either), he would face rough hand chuck perimeter defence.

And imagine this line-up in a small ball era -

Harper
MJ
Pipen
Kukoc
Rodman

[mojo13]

I was too lazy to find the spot on thread, but was Bulls of second championship three-peat 1995–1998 the best team in NBA? I mean they won NBA, but I never realised how deep and talented they were. Not only they had MJ and the best SF of 90's Pipen and probably best rebounder in NBA and overall great athlete and defender Rodman, but they also got players who got badly overlooked by some (like me). And it's not Kukoc in the first place who could be a star in other team and actually had a 19pts/7trb,6ast season for the same bulls which only shows how good this Euro legend was, but Ron Harper. He basically was a star before joining Bulls. I mean he was averaging 23/5/5 for some seasons and the thing is that some described him as the toughest perimeter defender they ever met, they talk about his iron hands. Talk about bulls defence - MJ, all NBA defensive team, Harper as an amazing defender, Pipen as probably the most complete defender in NBA (and he would still be such now, IMO, competing with Leonard) and Rodman who got paid only for defence. I'm actually agree with Pipen who thinks Bulls would sweep current Warriors (or beat them for sure). They were such a great defensive team that would be able to slow down Warriors offence and because of hand chuck rule (if they met under today's rules) they wouldn't have any answers to MJ at O. He would have a feast and would get to the basket without any resistance. And if they met under 90's rules, it would be even tougher for Warriors because Curry wouldn't be Curry (as well as Durrant and Klay wouldn't be so good either), he would face rough hand chuck perimeter defence.

And imagine this line-up in a small ball era -

Harper
MJ
Pipen
Kukoc
Rodman

This is always a useless exercise that old men never seem too to understand. Circa 2020 athletes are so far superior than circa 1990s athletes it is laughable to compare. Bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, more athletic. Way better training, practicing, nutrition, coaching, tactics, analytics, IQ, biometrics, video technology, scouting. Everything is so much better 30 years later.

Today’s Warriors would destroy any 90s Bulls team. If you just understood the amount of late night drinking and hard drugs these guys did in the 90s compared to none of that today. That alone is enough.

There is a cool article out there exploring why the home team went from winning near 70 percent of games in the 80s/90s to almost 50 percent today. I’ll try to find it, but it sheds some good light on this topic and what poor lifestyles 90s athletes had.

I was an early 90s high performance athlete. I watch the kids today and clearly know I could not compete with them at my best.



Just read this from over four years ago on biometric and nutrition technology.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/11629773/new-nba-biometric-testing-less-michael-lewis-more-george-orwell

That industry is moving at warp speed and vastly improved just four years later.



Found the article referenced above. I think this is a fascinating read about what has changed in the last 30 years.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/presents18969358/tinderization-today-nba

It would be comical to see the Bulls transported through time to today to play the Warriors. Let’s just hope the time travel was a short flight and no alcohol is served. After that we can watch the Bulls lose by 30 but impress us with the number of long 2 pointers they hit.

[usagre]

@Mojo13.

I completely agree with your take. Bill Russell in essence would be a small forward body wise in today’s world.
That’s why the rightful discussion is not who would win in a a hypothetical matchup but who was a greater team in the abstract taking into consideration how they dominated their era. For example some NBA third string backup point guard would destroy Bob Cousy in a one on one but obviously Cousy was a greater player. Or the worst team in the current NBA would destroy the 1950’s Champion Celtics but that doesn’t make them the better team. In football it’s even funnier when you can take an 0-16 team from today that would probably beat the 1960’s Vince Lombardi Packers by 4 touchdowns.

[Straight forward]

This is always a useless exercise that old men never seem too to understand. Circa 2020 athletes are so far superior than circa 1990s athletes it is laughable to compare. Bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, more athletic. Way better training, practicing, nutrition, coaching, tactics, analytics, IQ, biometrics, video technology, scouting. Everything is so much better 30 years later.

Today’s Warriors would destroy any 90s Bulls team. If you just understood the amount of late night drinking and hard drugs these guys did in the 90s compared to none of that today. That alone is enough.

What it comes to individual talent your message is absolute bullshit. If yiu have a scrub, you won't make a shit from him even of that's 2500. If you have a freak of a nature - like young Jordan - you have a guy who is so naturally gifted that you don't need your whole grain foods and smoothes to make him best. Are you saying that young Jordan under today's "environment" would be much better than he was? I mean look at him play young, he moves like an alien in the court, do you really believe advanced technologies would drastically improve him?

How can you describe the fact that since Sarunas Marciulionis, there's no single stronger, physically dominant guard ever prevailed in Europe? I mean that's a fact. How that come? With all your mentioned advantages?

That's a laughable theory 90's game was tougher, there was way more contact. Today's league is soft and you speak about bigger, stronger...

Basketball trends chanced, thus teams playing faster (rules chanced also), but hell no stronger and tougher

[madmax]

What it comes to individual talent your message is absolute bullshit. If yiu have a scrub, you won't make a shit from him even of that's 2500. If you have a freak of a nature - like young Jordan - you have a guy who is so naturally gifted that you don't need your whole grain foods and smoothes to make him best. Are you saying that young Jordan under today's "environment" would be much better than he was? I mean look at him play young, he moves like an alien in the court, do you really believe advanced technologies would drastically improve him?

How can you describe the fact that since Sarunas Marciulionis, there's no single stronger, physically dominant guard ever prevailed in Europe? I mean that's a fact. How that come? With all your mentioned advantages?

That's a laughable theory 90's game was tougher, there was way more contact. Today's league is soft and you speak about bigger, stronger...

Basketball trends chanced, thus teams playing faster (rules chanced also), but hell no stronger and tougher

Jordan looked like an alien compared to the 90's standards of basketball - he was just setting a trend of future super athletic swingmen like Bryant, Vince Carter and Tracy Mcgrady. The only reason he's put on a pedestal is because he was the first such dymanic and athletic guard to grace the basketball courts.

As for Marciulionis, for all his physical gifts, he still was never a star even in the 90's, while playing for a very fast paced team like Warriors at that time. Nowadays we have plenty of euro guards, even white ones lol, who are all playing at an All Star level. Are you gonna tell me that they are not physically gifted enough to be compared to Marciulionis?

[Tevfik1907]

Popovich is kind of right, playing mainly with three point shots is decreasing the quality of this game, even 2005 SA-DET final, and 90-2006 had better games than 2008-2018, I think 3 point line should be drawn back a little more, superstar centers and players like Antetokounmpo will be useless if this game continues to evolve with the 3 point shooting only.

[klimbo]

I started watching the NBA after 97, and I remember expecting to see absolutely deadly shooters (that was the impression I had gotten from local TV NBA programs, magazines etc), but it wasn't like that at all. I was even a bit disappointed (also with Starks, yes ), but instead I was totally impressed by the bigs (esp with Malone and Olajuwon) who appeared to finish every single low-post situation with a basket somehow. Centers were the king in Europe too, but I think we had comparatively more load on shooters. Bluestacks Kodi Lucky Patcher

having said that, I enjoyed watching the NBA between 97-mid 00s. it felt boring for a long while until the recent era, where even the mid-level teams actually play beautiful basketball now, IMHO. I quite liked it this season.

for me i started watching NBA in 94 lol

[happypepss]

I enjoyed watching the NBA between 97-mid 00s. it felt boring for a long while until the recent era, where even the mid-level teams actually play beautiful basketball now, IMHO. I quite liked it this season.