Frosty wrote:Johnny Firpo wrote:Frosty wrote:There has always been a lack of understanding of what the illegal defense rules actually were. I often see, 'they had to stay close to their man'. Well illegal D was not a measure of how close you were to your assignment. In fact it gave you a lot of room to play off your man. Many teams played zones type defenses in the 80's and 90's. I also think it's funny that people think zones are completely allowed today. You can't play a 2-3 zone today with the 3 second rule. It was put in to allow freedom of penetration.
The other issue is that people like to imply that the isolation game that developed in the late 90's was prevalent throughout the 90's. You can find examples of it but it didn't become a crutch until later in the decade. The stats seemed to be based on sampled up to early to mid 90's. Jordan rarely stayed still long enough to wait for isolation situations to be established, he usually reacted quickly to avoid letting the defense establish itself.
The late 90's and early 2000's struggled offensively for a variety of reasons, one of which was the number of career impacting injuries to upcoming stars and then another was the leagues reaction to refill those roles with younger players where you saw the entry of high school players who never experienced the proper coaching players received in college and learned to deal with better defenses. The league had to supplement their coaching staffs to help players in this regard and the league went out of their way to implement rules changes to make scoring easier. Johnny covered the rule changes that have come in. The league stated at the time that these rule changes were made to make penetration easier. They realized it was a lot easier to find smaller players who could shoot and dribble than it was to find a new Shaq. By making penetration easier it allowed a lot more players to become stars.
Even older players whose game relied on penetration experienced a resurgence under the new hands off rule changes in 2005
Allen Iverson
Highest TS% pre rule change = .535 (most years he was closer to .500)
PPG/TS% 2 years before
27.6/.500
26.4/.478
29 years old, injuries have taken their toll, stats have been declining then suddenly after rule changes he has a revival
30.7/.532
33.0/.543
I'm not sure if Iverson is as good of an example as you think. If you check the stats, he had - by far - his best rim finishing years early, at his athletic peak, and by far, his worst shooting seasons as well, which can not only be measured by his terrible early three point percentage, but also his free throw percentage and mid range stats. By the mid-2000's he couldn't finish at a high rate at the rim anymore, but he became a much better shooter, evidenced by his three point, floater, mid range and free throw percentages. Iverson clearly developed his shot on multiple levels and distances.
I'm not going off on a tangent about Iverson. There are a lot of examples of perimeter players scoring increasing because the rule changes were specifically designed to open up penetration, cause defenses to collapse and therefore open up opportunities for shooters to get better looks. Rather than Iverson, do you dispute that the rules changes made it easier for slashers and hence outside shooters?
2006
Jackson, the league vice president, sees more than an increase in free throws. He says a leaguewide a improvement in shooting percentage can be traced to tighter officiating. With players getting to the rim more easily, defenders have to leave their men to help more, which in turn leaves other players open for shots. All that, he says, is good for the game.
I think the most important rule change was the 3-second rule, but not in the way people think. When the 3-second rule came out, the NBA (Pat Riley and others) actually thought it will slow the game down even further, and it will make it even harder for teams to score, because it will allow zone defense.
Riley wasn't wrong either. From 2001 and 2010, the pace was at an all-time low, and offensive ratings plummeted to numbers previously only seen in the 70s. The rule destroyed the spacing that the illegal defensive rule forced, because now you didn't have to respect non-shooters. But it was a glass ceiling, and Nash and D'Antoni have talked about it since.
From probably as early as 2004, the importance of shooting started to grow year by year. The SSOL Suns ignited what later turned out to be the biggest/most important skill development curve the NBA has ever seen. Young players started to work on their shot like never before. What the Suns started (and Dirk played a part too, along with others) went supernova once Curry joined the league, and the "skill over size" notion took roots.
My point with all that, in my opinion it wasn't directly the rules that changed the NBA, or at least not in the way many think. The 3-second rule didn't make it easier to score, it revealed what was a league-wide skill issue, that simply not nearly enough players could shoot. This is what has changed, the collective mindset, and as a result, today's players are just, on average, much, much, much more skilled than the players of the past, most certainly when it comes to their shooting. And honestly, I feel anyone who doesn't see that, basically chooses not to see it, for nostalgic reasons.