vital_signs wrote:soxfan2003 wrote:vital_signs wrote:Not necesarrily true. I got called for carries probably every other game in gradeschool while simply bringing the ball up court and calling a play. Players today are a taking advantage of the NBA not caring but to act as if they couldnt adapt is ridiculous. We were brought up with the same rules as Cousy played with and players today still excelled at those levels.
Cousy was a great dribber/passer and not just a very good one. I mean historically great but held back by rules. I agree that most players would adapt but most guards of today would not be dribbling as well as Cousy. Not even close to be honest.
That's a bad take imo, one look at Jimmy B's dribbling routine from a few months ago would rebut that. The relaxed rules just allow for more explosivness but, with their athetlic ability, they would still be able to blow by Cousy and his opponents if rules were followed as they were meant to be. They would be forced to focus on that more and still excel.
Jimmy Butler isn't even a guard, right on this Heat team? You are trying to put words in my mouth. Butler has very good dribbling skills for a SF but not if he has a full head of steam....those skills don't compare to Cousy compared to what I have seen over the years. Difference between a PG and a SG/SF.
But I still largely disagree with you. If you can't carry, and with no 3 point shot, much harder to blow by anyone and gain a real advantage. You just be driving into crowded paint at best. Check how some of the best athletes in NBA history have occassionally struggled against foregn competiion despite still playing with more liberal international rules compared to 50's.
I'm not even saying Cousy would necessarily even be a good NBA player according to today's rules but his dribbling skills would be in the top 5% with ease among all NBA guards. I mean with ease if rules on dribbling enforced.
Guy was a magician with court vision and dribbling skills you can't teach and he was not even being able to take advantage of these modern rules.
But with modern day NBA concepts there are probably hundreds of fairly quick players that can dribble better than most NBA players not even in the league.
Once it is at an acceptable level, it just isn't as important of a skill for most PGs especially if you can carry than size/height/defense/shooting etc in the modern NBA were switching is important. Most teams don't even want their PG's dribbling that much nowadays since a small PG pounding the ball doesn't usually result in winning championships.