What are some unpopular basketball beliefs that you have?

[Mean_Streets]

I'll start

- Shawn Kemp was the best defender on the '96 Sonics, even over Gary Payton who won DPOY that season.

- Magic should have won FMVP in '88, probably not unpopular, but nobody ever talks about it.

- Kobe wouldn't even be top 20 all-time if he never played for the Lakers, maybe not even top 25.

- Dennis Rodman gets praised even for his cancerous ways as a player by fans and media. Shouldn't have made top 75.

- Jason Kidd is the GOAT defensive PG

- At their peaks, McHale was a better player than Karl Malone

- 2012 USA basketball team would beat the '92 Dream Team

- Hal Greer was better than Sam Jones (Had to throw in a 60's take)

[JustBuzzin]

Allen Iverson was the face of the NBA from 2000-2006.

Everyone says it was Shaq, but Iverson was MJ when I was growing up. I remember seeing everyone at middle and highschool wearing Iverson jerseys. He started the 2k movement.

[holdenwait]

well.. someone is old

joking aside I don't have anything specific but I'll say this

recency bias when evaluating careers and comparing players makes me throw up

[holdenwait]

Allen Iverson was the face of the NBA from 2000-2006.

Everyone says it was Shaq, but Iverson was MJ when I was growing up. I remember seeing everyone at middle and highschool wearing Iverson jerseys. He started the 2k movement.

not just jerseys either bro.. as a 15 yo I was always hitting up that random Reebok store (reebok store in Istanbul back in the day??) to buy SLEEVES

everybody was suddenly buying/wearing sleeves. dude was iconic. those sleeves and KB8 shoes define the post MJ era for me. then it became NbronjamesA

[ballzboyee]

I'll start
- Kobe wouldn't even be top 20 all-time if he never played for the Lakers, maybe not even top 25.

Kobe almost threepeated with no other top 75 players while playing in the toughest Western Conference of all-time.

Beaten most 50-win teams in playoff history:

[Mean_Streets]

Allen Iverson was the face of the NBA from 2000-2006.

Everyone says it was Shaq, but Iverson was MJ when I was growing up. I remember seeing everyone at middle and highschool wearing Iverson jerseys. He started the 2k movement.

In terms of popularity he was for sure up there, but even then I don't think Iverson ever had a season where he sold the most jerseys. Kobe was pretty much at the top in Jersey sales every year in the early 00's (From 2001-2003) up until LeBron entered the league. Shaq sold the most jerseys in 2000.

[Lalouie]

if carrying was enforced like in the 70's, no team today could run a play and 40% of the time they wouldn't get the ball past the front court. and a smidge of pressure would cause players to not get the ball past halfcourt 100% of the time

we will never see a game between the wnba champs vs any of the top10 boys hs teams because of the embarrassment it would cause the wnba

move the line back 3' and widen the floor 6'

fire all the personalities on nbaTV, starting with smith, hill,,,and bring back cellini/kamla

you can watch games without sound and not miss a thing. turn up the air purifier if you need white noise

[JustBuzzin]

Allen Iverson was the face of the NBA from 2000-2006.

Everyone says it was Shaq, but Iverson was MJ when I was growing up. I remember seeing everyone at middle and highschool wearing Iverson jerseys. He started the 2k movement.

not just jerseys either bro.. as a 15 yo I was always hitting up that random Reebok store (reebok store in Istanbul back in the day??) to buy SLEEVES

everybody was suddenly buying/wearing sleeves. dude was iconic. those sleeves and KB8 shoes define the post MJ era for me. then it became NbronjamesA

Lol you brought back memories with the arm sleeve.

I use cut up a long sock and use it as a arm sleeve like Iverson lol

[JustBuzzin]

Allen Iverson was the face of the NBA from 2000-2006.

Everyone says it was Shaq, but Iverson was MJ when I was growing up. I remember seeing everyone at middle and highschool wearing Iverson jerseys. He started the 2k movement.

In terms of popularity he was for sure up there, but even then I don't think Iverson ever had a season where he sold the most jerseys. Kobe was pretty much at the top in Jersey sales every year in the early 00's (From 2001-2003) up until LeBron entered the league. Shaq sold the most jerseys in 2000.

I mean playing for the Lakers helped. Wasn't Iverson always leading the all-star fan voting tho?

Shaq/Kobe had a major advantage playing for the Lakers.

[dirkdiggler4177]

-There are no bad basketball players, just bad situations

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Not sure if this is a broadly unpopular opinion but some people really seem to cling to certain stats as gospel despite their potential flaws...

raw box stats overrate stars on bad teams
advanced stats overrate role players on good teams

Basketball in general is a team game and it is harder to separate out individual ability statistically than folks want to admit. If a player is told by a bad coach to stand in the corner then their stats will make them look bad. If you spend 90% of your minutes next to a superstar then it will look like you have a huge positive impact on the game.

Stats are useful but they tell you WHAT happened, not WHY it happened and are only partially helpful in predicting what happen in the future. They only become useful with a good understanding and application of context. But some fans will cherry pick certain stats and advanced plus-minus calculations and act like they are the holy grail of player comparison.

[Lalouie]

-There are no bad basketball players, just bad situations

mmm. i think it's a pretty popular take with the in-game color

[KGtabake]

I'll go with some recent ones.

- Blake Griffin on his first year with the Pistons was better than any of his years with the Clippers.
- LeBron James in 2018 was the best version of him. Better than 2009 or 2012.
- Victor Oladipo in 2018 was better than any version of Anthony Edwards, Donovan Mitchell or Devin Booker.

[Hair Jordan]

KG is obnoxiously overrated on RealGm. He belongs in the 30-50 range all time yet lots of people on this board have him in their top 10

Giannis feasts in this era because of spacing and lack of traditional bigs. He’d be half the player he is if he played in the 90’s.

Kobe was an inefficient chucker who benefited from playing with Shaq and Phil Jackson. If he played his entire career in Charlotte, his career trajectory would be Vince Carter.

Lebron is a steroid freak who dominates because of his size. If he were 3 inches shorter or 30 lbs lighter, he’d be out of the league.

[Deathray]

Bailout timeouts are an abomination.

Teams should not get mulligans by being able to call a timeout when they can't get the ball inbounds, are trapped by the defense, about to fall out of bounds or are scrambling on the floor.

I hate that it essentially penalizes good defense. It would be ludicrous in the NFL if a QB went back to pass and was able to call a timeout just before getting sacked for a loss but in the NBA calling a timeout during play when trapped by the defense is somehow acceptable.

End bailout timeouts.

[Mikistan]

Lebron has been on steroids his entire career. And that 2 week mid season break on his return to the Cavs to go to South Beach was to get back on the juice.

Refs manage the game and rig it way more than people admit.

There is so much carrying, it's almost impossible to play defense.

[ReggiesKnicks]

Pacers win the championship without Malice at the Palace

[NO-KG-AI]

Paul George isn’t that great of a scorer or passer, and he doesn’t look smooth to me at all like people describe him.

[bkkrh]

Not sure if this is a broadly unpopular opinion but some people really seem to cling to certain stats as gospel despite their potential flaws...

raw box stats overrate stars on bad teams
advanced stats overrate role players on good teams

Basketball in general is a team game and it is harder to separate out individual ability statistically than folks want to admit. If a player is told by a bad coach to stand in the corner then their stats will make them look bad. If you spend 90% of your minutes next to a superstar then it will look like you have a huge positive impact on the game.

Stats are useful but they tell you WHAT happened, not WHY it happened and are only partially helpful in predicting what happen in the future. They only become useful with a good understanding and application of context. But some fans will cherry pick certain stats and advanced plus-minus calculations and act like they are the holy grail of player comparison.

Totally agree with that. There are so many things that can't be factored into stats. Like defense wise, player A is a great defender, but can only defend small guards, player B is a versatile defender that will always defend the best player on the opposing team, no matter what position. So player A will have easy matchups sometimes, player B will always defend against the best current opposing player on the court. Help defense, opposing teams possibly even shying away from attacking the basket because of the presence of a great rim defender and so on.

There were so many examples here the last few years where people wanted to make a point through stats, like I remember some metric that showed that Jokic is a bad rim defender, but looking at the actual stat it was revealed that some players that had a reputation as great rim defenders had even worse stats than him. Same goes for factoring in tanking teams, injured players etc, general difficulty of opponents and so on. Every team plays 82 games, but if my team plays in the Southeast division I will most likely have an easier job through the season than if I play in the Pacific Division. But both stats are meassured the same. It's pretty much the equivalent if I just track how many boxes 2 employees can carry, but I don't factor in that one of them has to carry way more heavy boxes than the other person.

[tsherkin]

Giannis feasts in this era because of spacing and lack of traditional bigs. He’d be half the player he is if he played in the 90’s.

This is wrong. We saw well enough what athletic slashing bigs with no range could do in the 90s, especially with cross matches and weaker help coverage under the illegal D rules.

Kobe was an inefficient chucker

This is statistically untrue.