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Do u think guys like MJ or Kobe or anyone for that mattter can average 40 a game for a season in todays NBA

Presently the answer is clearly none. Harden's days as an elite scorer are over and none of Embiid, Jokic or Giannis either play enough minutes or are selfish enough to do so.

The only three I'd suggest as possibilities are Jordan, Kobe and Iverson. All three had seasons where they had at least 27 FGA per game and they are the only players who have done so in the past 40-years. They have a scoring mentality that I don't think any other player - even great scorers like Durant or Harden - possess.

Now the argument against that being achieved is that minutes have gone down considerably since these three played. They are unlikely to play 40 minutes + per night. This would be countered somewhat by a faster pace - more relevant to Kobe / Iverson than for Jordan - and greater scoring efficiency.

An outside choice would be 2009 LeBron - who had all the tools to score at will in the pace-and-space era but didn't have that selfish scoring mentality that guys like Kobe or Iverson possessed.

But the big question is why would you want a player to score 40 PPG - an individual hogging the ball to that extent rarely makes for basketball that is enjoyable to watch.

Narigo wrote:Do u think guys like MJ or Kobe or anyone for that mattter can average 40 a game for a season in todays NBA

I don't think anyone can do it and have it be the best way for their team to play them.

I think there have been many guys capable of doing it if that's their team's priority rather than winning.

Doctor MJ wrote:

Narigo wrote:Do u think guys like MJ or Kobe or anyone for that mattter can average 40 a game for a season in todays NBA

I don't think anyone can do it and have it be the best way for their team to play them.

I think there have been many guys capable of doing it if that's their team's priority rather than winning.

Maybe one day we'll see someone who can do it on a level of efficiency we're just not seeing right now, but presently the only way is on way too many shots for most contexts.

From 05 forward, we've seen only two seasons of even 35+ ppg, one from Kobe and one from Harden. The Lakers were a 45-win team and the Rockets were a 53-win team. Harden was within 4 ppg and was statistically impressive in terms of his offensive impact. That's about as close as we're likely to see any time soon, I'd wager. And at nearly 25 ppg, plus all the touches for his assists beyond that, what was he at, like 40% USG? And they still took the Warriors to 6. So that's about as good a representation of what that tactic can accomplish as any. But for most, it's likely to generally be a poor arrangement of their offense.

picko wrote:The only three I'd suggest as possibilities are Jordan, Kobe and Iverson.

Iverson is an interesting one. All three of them would be willing to go for it, sure. I don't think Iverson was a good enough 3pt shooter to really push himself in that direction, nor a good enough shooter in general. He has a season of just under 28 FGA/g on his resume and it turned into a scoring title at 31.4 ppg. His efficiency wasn't hot, though it might have looked better in this age. He saw the elimination of hand checking in his career, and before he turned 30, no less. He scored 30.7 and nabbed his last scoring title that first year, then popped 33 ppg the year after. He was also one of the last guys aggressively pumping out 40+ mpg seasons. Even in 05 and 06, however, he was pretty much a league-average scorer in terms of efficiency, so it's still a little hard to wrap my head around him having enough efficiency to drive him to a 40 ppg season, though.

There’s probably a good number that could, though i’m not sure anyone could do it while playing optimally.

No-more-rings wrote:There’s probably a good number that could, though i’m not sure anyone could do it while playing optimally.

Just to throw this into context... Remember again there have only been two player-seasons since 04-05 of someone averaging 35+ ppg and still qualifying for the leaderboard. There have only been four since the NBA/ABA merger (the other two were Michael Jordan). There are only 10 in league history (though Kareem misses by only 0.2 ppg one year, and I'm sure there are a number of others).

If you go back to whenever, you get a Rick Barry season in 67 and five seasons from Wilt. And that's it, even with the wild pace from back then.

Averaging 35+ isn't a trivial achievement, even setting aside Doc's remark about it not being optimal strategy.

Prime Pete Maravich with a 3 point line sounds interesting.

I'm sure many players "could" if that was their primary goal. The real question is for what players would it actually be a viable offense strategy for one player to basically take 30% of a teams FGAs in a league where no one attempts more than 25%, FTs withstanding... Or roughly 27-28 FGA per game.

Jordan, Harden, Kobe, Iverson are easy considerations, but all would either need to see a significant efficiency increase over their highest volume shooting seasons just to be in the ballpark. Jordan obviously is the most likely as he actually has the efficiency to justify the increase in FGAs but also seems the least likely to see an efficiency improvement just due to the upper bounds of possibility for a player of his size and offensive style.

There's the efficiency outliers like LeBron, KD, KAJ, and Shaq but none of those guys shot at anywhere near the volume required and even in ideal cases are unlikely to see such a massive efficiency increase to make up the difference.

Then you have sorta the pre 3pt line group of guys who with the introduction of the line might have their games retroactively upgraded to put them in this discussion. These guys being Jerry West, Oscar, Pete, Barry, Baylor and Archibald. Again all unlikely but I suppose it's possible to project they could see a big efficiency improvement if they could take advantage of the new 3pt line. However all would almost certainly see drops to their FTAs which would have stay consistent to have any real feasible chance.

Then there's Wilt, the only guy to actually do it in any league, but in no universe is someone attempting 40 FGA per game in today's league, let alone a C with no tangible scoring ability outside of 7 ft. So he's way down the list for me.

Ultimately these hypotheticals assume that historical players are transported into today's league but also play with their historical situation and approach, which isn't happening.

There's a reason that despite offenses being extremely efficient that we don't see it, because that efficiency is generated via superior strategy and approach to those historical situations which now know that unless players provide some inhuman level of efficiency that allocating such a high percentage of shots to one player is just bad strategy. This is show in the general decreasing MPG that top players play these days too. The 4 extra FGA possible playing 8 extra MPG actually are better spent on other players because the efficiency gap really isn't that big (in many ways due to the 3pt line) and also because it's been shown guys playing fewer minutes allows them to be more efficient making up some of the lost value from those shots anyways. Not to mention the improvements to other aspects of the game which again outweigh the scoring loss.

in a 46 game span from 12/13/18 to 03/22/19, harden averaged 39.7/7.0/7.3 on 61.3% TS%.

so i certainly think 40 PPG is possible (and not just in a weird hypothetical where that's a player's only goal). i could see jordan achieving it

Quite a few players would be capable of doing that, but it's a horrible strategy. I think 35 ppg is the maximum value players should reach and even then it would require specific team situation to make it reasonable.

Jordan for sure. Lanes are so wide open these days that it's never been easier to score in any era. You beat your man and you have a straight line to the basket. Who could stop Jordan like that? It would be almsot comical to watch. Harden averaged like 36, Jordan could give you 40, but efficient.

Also centers like Shaq or Hakeem, even maybe Robinson or Ewing could average 40 points if they needed to because nobody guards the paint anymore. It's all about small ball and 3 point shooting. Imagine small guards switching on these centers. It would be a mockery.

Gooner wrote:Jordan for sure. Lanes are so wide open these days that it's never been easier to score in any era. You beat your man and you have a straight line to the basket. Who could stop Jordan like that? It would be almsot comical to watch. Harden averaged like 36, Jordan could give you 40, but efficient.

Also centers like Shaq or Hakeem, even maybe Robinson or Ewing could average 40 points if they needed to because nobody guards the paint anymore. It's all about small ball and 3 point shooting. Imagine small guards switching on these centers. It would be a mockery.

The game truly doesn't work this way today. Spacing helps a lot, but defensive schemes are also more sophisticated and there is no illegal defense rule anymore. Take a look at what Celtics did against KD - Durant never had open path to the basket.

Would I expect Jordan to fare better than Durant in such situation? Sure, he was much better ball-handler and slasher, but he wouldn't have an easy time working against such system.

Your mention of Ewing possibly averaging 40 ppg is honestly laughable. I always find Ewing to be quite underrated in most all-time discussions, but he wouldn't be even the best scoring bigman in the league right now. Yes, I can imagine guards switching on Ewing and Patrick failing to realize that the help is coming quite a lot. Today's defenses are very good at confusing players whether help is coming or not. Embiid struggles with Toronto pressure at times and he's more skilled offensive player than Ewing, while being physically more dominant as well.

Unlikely, since over time this player would have a lot of double teams by the opposing team, unless he is a unique passer

70sFan wrote:

Gooner wrote:Jordan for sure. Lanes are so wide open these days that it's never been easier to score in any era. You beat your man and you have a straight line to the basket. Who could stop Jordan like that? It would be almsot comical to watch. Harden averaged like 36, Jordan could give you 40, but efficient.

Also centers like Shaq or Hakeem, even maybe Robinson or Ewing could average 40 points if they needed to because nobody guards the paint anymore. It's all about small ball and 3 point shooting. Imagine small guards switching on these centers. It would be a mockery.

The game truly doesn't work this way today. Spacing helps a lot, but defensive schemes are also more sophisticated and there is no illegal defense rule anymore. Take a look at what Celtics did against KD - Durant never had open path to the basket.

Would I expect Jordan to fare better than Durant in such situation? Sure, he was much better ball-handler and slasher, but he wouldn't have an easy time working against such system.

Your mention of Ewing possibly averaging 40 ppg is honestly laughable. I always find Ewing to be quite underrated in most all-time discussions, but he wouldn't be even the best scoring bigman in the league right now. Yes, I can imagine guards switching on Ewing and Patrick failing to realize that the help is coming quite a lot. Today's defenses are very good at confusing players whether help is coming or not. Embiid struggles with Toronto pressure at times and he's more skilled offensive player than Ewing, while being physically more dominant as well.

Durant never had an open lane to the basket because they had two guys cloggin up the space, Bruce Brown and a center. Celtics are the best defensive team in the league coached by Pop's student in Udoka, so they have a different philosophy. In general there is nothing really sophisticated about today's game on offense or defense. Teams are willing to switch and give up size just to run the team form the 3 point line on the initial action.

Surround Ewing with shooters and there wouldn't be much help coming because today's teams focus on is the 3 point line, offensively and defensively. They are rather gonna give up an easy 2 than a 3 and Ewing would feast in that situation. Ewing would kill smaller guys on switches, in the post, on the offensive glass, and he had a nice mid range jumper that he could have extended to 3 point line if he was asked to.

Gooner wrote:

70sFan wrote:

Gooner wrote:Jordan for sure. Lanes are so wide open these days that it's never been easier to score in any era. You beat your man and you have a straight line to the basket. Who could stop Jordan like that? It would be almsot comical to watch. Harden averaged like 36, Jordan could give you 40, but efficient.

Also centers like Shaq or Hakeem, even maybe Robinson or Ewing could average 40 points if they needed to because nobody guards the paint anymore. It's all about small ball and 3 point shooting. Imagine small guards switching on these centers. It would be a mockery.

The game truly doesn't work this way today. Spacing helps a lot, but defensive schemes are also more sophisticated and there is no illegal defense rule anymore. Take a look at what Celtics did against KD - Durant never had open path to the basket.

Would I expect Jordan to fare better than Durant in such situation? Sure, he was much better ball-handler and slasher, but he wouldn't have an easy time working against such system.

Your mention of Ewing possibly averaging 40 ppg is honestly laughable. I always find Ewing to be quite underrated in most all-time discussions, but he wouldn't be even the best scoring bigman in the league right now. Yes, I can imagine guards switching on Ewing and Patrick failing to realize that the help is coming quite a lot. Today's defenses are very good at confusing players whether help is coming or not. Embiid struggles with Toronto pressure at times and he's more skilled offensive player than Ewing, while being physically more dominant as well.

Durant never had an open lane to the basket because they had two guys cloggin up the space, Bruce Brown and a center. Celtics are the best defensive team in the league coached by Pop's student in Udoka, so they have a different philosophy. In general there is nothing really sophisticated about today's game on offense or defense. Teams are willing to switch and give up size just to run the team form the 3 point line on the initial action.

Surround Ewing with shooters and there wouldn't be much help coming because today's teams focus on is the 3 point line, offensively and defensively. They are rather gonna give up an easy 2 than a 3 and Ewing would feast in that situation. Ewing would kill smaller guys on switches, in the post, on the offensive glass, and he had a nice mid range jumper that he could have extended to 3 point line if he was asked to.

The Celtics vs Nets series is extreme example, but the truth is that you don't have open lane all the time unless you face absolute worst defensive teams. Spacing helps a lot nowadays and I agree that players have more freedom to operate, but it doesn't mean that all decent players from your favorite 1990s would suddenly become 30+ppg scorers. As I said, both eras have their strong and weak points. As you mentioned, KD struggled because he played next to two non-shooters (which wasn't always the case), in the 1990s Celtics wouldn't be able to play this kind of defense because there was still illegal defense rule.

It's easy to say "surround Ewing with shooters", if that's so simple then why no team goes this way? Embiid plays with quite good shooters around him and he's not close to 40 ppg, despite being bigger and more skilled than Ewing offensively.

I don't think you pay attention to how teams defend post players in 2022. They don't hard double anymore like they did in the 1990s because they can play zones. It's much harder to read defenses when you are not forced to hard double, teams can use soft help and can sag off shooters just enough to clog the paint for post player. On top of that, teams have much harder time getting the ball to post players for two reasons:

- guards aren't taught to do that anymore (entry passing was a huge part of perimeter players game back in the older eras),
- teams can deny the ball from post player in more ways now due to zones allowed, which takes way more time.

Unlike most, I still think post game is a good way to break down defenses but you need someone with high awareness. Someone like Shaq or Kareem would still dominate in the post, because it's hard to deny them from position and they were excellent at reading defenses (especially Kareem). Ewing wasn't any of that, he struggled with double teams when it was easier to anticipate and he's not some physical freak either. I mean, Ewing is smaller than two of the best post players in the league right now.

Ewing would be fantastic today and I agree he had the tools to develop three point shot, but 40 ppg is absolutely ridiculous.

70sFan wrote:

Gooner wrote:

70sFan wrote:The game truly doesn't work this way today. Spacing helps a lot, but defensive schemes are also more sophisticated and there is no illegal defense rule anymore. Take a look at what Celtics did against KD - Durant never had open path to the basket.

Would I expect Jordan to fare better than Durant in such situation? Sure, he was much better ball-handler and slasher, but he wouldn't have an easy time working against such system.

Your mention of Ewing possibly averaging 40 ppg is honestly laughable. I always find Ewing to be quite underrated in most all-time discussions, but he wouldn't be even the best scoring bigman in the league right now. Yes, I can imagine guards switching on Ewing and Patrick failing to realize that the help is coming quite a lot. Today's defenses are very good at confusing players whether help is coming or not. Embiid struggles with Toronto pressure at times and he's more skilled offensive player than Ewing, while being physically more dominant as well.

Durant never had an open lane to the basket because they had two guys cloggin up the space, Bruce Brown and a center. Celtics are the best defensive team in the league coached by Pop's student in Udoka, so they have a different philosophy. In general there is nothing really sophisticated about today's game on offense or defense. Teams are willing to switch and give up size just to run the team form the 3 point line on the initial action.

Surround Ewing with shooters and there wouldn't be much help coming because today's teams focus on is the 3 point line, offensively and defensively. They are rather gonna give up an easy 2 than a 3 and Ewing would feast in that situation. Ewing would kill smaller guys on switches, in the post, on the offensive glass, and he had a nice mid range jumper that he could have extended to 3 point line if he was asked to.

The Celtics vs Nets series is extreme example, but the truth is that you don't have open lane all the time unless you face absolute worst defensive teams. Spacing helps a lot nowadays and I agree that players have more freedom to operate, but it doesn't mean that all decent players from your favorite 1990s would suddenly become 30+ppg scorers. As I said, both eras have their strong and weak points. As you mentioned, KD struggled because he played next to two non-shooters (which wasn't always the case), in the 1990s Celtics wouldn't be able to play this kind of defense because there was still illegal defense rule.

It's easy to say "surround Ewing with shooters", if that's so simple then why no team goes this way? Embiid plays with quite good shooters around him and he's not close to 40 ppg, despite being bigger and more skilled than Ewing offensively.

I don't think you pay attention to how teams defend post players in 2022. They don't hard double anymore like they did in the 1990s because they can play zones. It's much harder to read defenses when you are not forced to hard double, teams can use soft help and can sag off shooters just enough to clog the paint for post player. On top of that, teams have much harder time getting the ball to post players for two reasons:

- guards aren't taught to do that anymore (entry passing was a huge part of perimeter players game back in the older eras),
- teams can deny the ball from post player in more ways now due to zones allowed, which takes way more time.

Unlike most, I still think post game is a good way to break down defenses but you need someone with high awareness. Someone like Shaq or Kareem would still dominate in the post, because it's hard to deny them from position and they were excellent at reading defenses (especially Kareem). Ewing wasn't any of that, he struggled with double teams when it was easier to anticipate and he's not some physical freak either. I mean, Ewing is smaller than two of the best post players in the league right now.

Ewing would be fantastic today and I agree he had the tools to develop three point shot, but 40 ppg is absolutely ridiculous.

People always mention zone, but the key word is space, and there is so much more space today than in any other era. It's just the way the game has evolved. In 2014-2015 the league average was 22 threes per game. Today it's 35, so that just shows how much focus there is on the 3 point line and offense always dictates the style of play and it forces the defense to adapt. Teams aren't using zone they use switches becuase they want to avoid the exact thing that zones give up, and that's a 3 point shot.

Ewing struggled with double teams more in the past than he would have today because he was doubled hard and he didn't have so much shooting around him to punish that, so naturally it limits your options and makes you second guessing. That's why he had to develop that turnoaround jumper to avoid the double team. And how is he not a physical freak. He is 7 ft tall, or close to that, he was like 270 pounds or 120 kg, and he was very athletic for his size. He would be the most physically dominant player in today's NBA given the fact that nobody can match his physical profile, other than Embiid.

Gooner wrote:People always mention zone, but the key word is space, and there is so much more space today than in any other era. It's just the way the game has evolved. In 2014-2015 the league average was 22 threes per game. Today it's 35, so that just shows how much focus there is on the 3 point line and offense always dictates the style of play and it forces the defense to adapt. Teams aren't using zone they use switches becuase they want to avoid the exact thing that zones give up, and that's a 3 point shot.

They don't use classical zones, but they use a lot of soft doubles, clogging driving lanes and sagging off non-shooters. Have you watched a single game from Raptors vs Sixers series? Embiid is surrounded by good shooters but it doesn't stop Toronto from playing him various ways - straight, hard doubles, soft doubles, fronting, denying baseline, denying middle... There are a lot of options to defend post players now, far more than during illegal defense era.

Again, if you don't like Embiid's example take a look at Jokic. He's much better passer than Ewing and he sees more openings than almost any other player, yet there are times when even he struggles to beat defenses from the post. Not to mention that Jokic is significantly better low post scorer than Ewing as well.

Spacing is tremendous weapon and it gives players more space, but it wouldn't turn Ewing into 40 ppg scorer.

Ewing struggled with double teams more in the past than he would have today because he was doubled hard and he didn't have so much shooting around him to punish that, so naturally it limits your options and makes you second guessing. That's why he had to develop that turnoaround jumper to avoid the double team.

Reading hard doubles is far easier than beating soft help and zones from the post. Ewing often failed at simple reads and it has nothing to do with lack of shooting from his teammates.

And how is he not a physical freak. He is 7 ft tall, or close to that, he was like 270 pounds or 120 kg, and he was very athletic for his size. He would be the most physically dominant player in today's NBA given the fact that nobody can match his physical profile, other than Embiid.

Ewing wasn't close to 7 feet tall, his height is highly exaggarated. He was shorter than Embiid or Jokic - two of the best post scorers now.

Can you find me one evidence of Ewing playing at 270 lbs in his physical prime? Because I can't, Ewing was around 250 lbs for most of his prime. Unless you want to go with old Ewing, who wasn't "athletic for his size" anymore.

Ewing is around the size of Karl-Anthony Towns. His size is nothing to rave about. He's smaller than Jokic, he's smaller than Embiid, he's around the size of Ayton. He wasn't physically imposing in the 1990s relative to the biggest freaks (Shaq, Robinson, Hakeem) and he wouldn't be now either. Embiid and Giannis are significantly more physically imposing than Ewing and Jokic is bigger and stronger as well.

Ewing's main advanatge over most players was always his mind and his toughness. He was physically gifted of course, but he could bang with Hakeems, Shaqs and Robinsons of the world because he was extremely smart defensively and because he always tried as hard as possible. He wasn't athletic marvel and wouldn't be today either. He wasn't elite scorer back then and wouldn't be today either.

jalengreen wrote:in a 46 game span from 12/13/18 to 03/22/19, harden averaged 39.7/7.0/7.3 on 61.3% TS%.

so i certainly think 40 PPG is possible (and not just in a weird hypothetical where that's a player's only goal). i could see jordan achieving it

During that stretch Harden took 14.5 threes per game and made 5.2 of them, while also attempting 12.2 FTAs per game. Over half of his FGA were threes, while attempting over 27 FGA per game and leading the lead by a big margin in FTAs.

In the other 31 games that season Harden only attempted about 12 threes per game and shot a little over 9 FTAs, he only averaged about 31 ppg in that stretch, not even close to 40 ppg. Which is still an insane shooting rate for any player, his efficiency was actually a little better in this stretch too.

So, even in a best case scenario, for shot distribution, at minimum you'd need at least 27 FGA per game just to get close, while also getting over 12 FTAs for a whole season.

Which is why I just don't see it being possible. Harden basically tried it just a couple seasons ago, playing in a pretty optimized/maximized manner and still fell short by a good margin.

Jordan in todays game isn't shooting enough 3s to get close, even if we assume he has the same shot volume and FT rate. There's no way he is taking like 30 FGA per game in todays league where no one else even takes 23.

70sFan wrote:

Gooner wrote:People always mention zone, but the key word is space, and there is so much more space today than in any other era. It's just the way the game has evolved. In 2014-2015 the league average was 22 threes per game. Today it's 35, so that just shows how much focus there is on the 3 point line and offense always dictates the style of play and it forces the defense to adapt. Teams aren't using zone they use switches becuase they want to avoid the exact thing that zones give up, and that's a 3 point shot.

They don't use classical zones, but they use a lot of soft doubles, clogging driving lanes and sagging off non-shooters. Have you watched a single game from Raptors vs Sixers series? Embiid is surrounded by good shooters but it doesn't stop Toronto from playing him various ways - straight, hard doubles, soft doubles, fronting, denying baseline, denying middle... There are a lot of options to defend post players now, far more than during illegal defense era.

Again, if you don't like Embiid's example take a look at Jokic. He's much better passer than Ewing and he sees more openings than almost any other player, yet there are times when even he struggles to beat defenses from the post. Not to mention that Jokic is significantly better low post scorer than Ewing as well.

Spacing is tremendous weapon and it gives players more space, but it wouldn't turn Ewing into 40 ppg scorer.

Ewing struggled with double teams more in the past than he would have today because he was doubled hard and he didn't have so much shooting around him to punish that, so naturally it limits your options and makes you second guessing. That's why he had to develop that turnoaround jumper to avoid the double team.

Reading hard doubles is far easier than beating soft help and zones from the post. Ewing often failed at simple reads and it has nothing to do with lack of shooting from his teammates.

And how is he not a physical freak. He is 7 ft tall, or close to that, he was like 270 pounds or 120 kg, and he was very athletic for his size. He would be the most physically dominant player in today's NBA given the fact that nobody can match his physical profile, other than Embiid.

Ewing wasn't close to 7 feet tall, his height is highly exaggarated. He was shorter than Embiid or Jokic - two of the best post scorers now.

Can you find me one evidence of Ewing playing at 270 lbs in his physical prime? Because I can't, Ewing was around 250 lbs for most of his prime. Unless you want to go with old Ewing, who wasn't "athletic for his size" anymore.

Ewing is around the size of Karl-Anthony Towns. His size is nothing to rave about. He's smaller than Jokic, he's smaller than Embiid, he's around the size of Ayton. He wasn't physically imposing in the 1990s relative to the biggest freaks (Shaq, Robinson, Hakeem) and he wouldn't be now either. Embiid and Giannis are significantly more physically imposing than Ewing and Jokic is bigger and stronger as well.

Ewing's main advanatge over most players was always his mind and his toughness. He was physically gifted of course, but he could bang with Hakeems, Shaqs and Robinsons of the world because he was extremely smart defensively and because he always tried as hard as possible. He wasn't athletic marvel and wouldn't be today either. He wasn't elite scorer back then and wouldn't be today either.

None of the listed weights or even heights are official, but Ewing was a big guy, he had atleast 120 kg in my estimation. Anthony Davis is around 245-250 pounds, Ewing is definitely bigger and stronger than him. I don't think he was shorter than Jokic, and he was definitely stronger. You used Ayton as an example and he is taller and stronger than Jokic. Giannis is physically imposing in different ways, and it's accentuated with his constant traveling whre his long strides become difficult to stop. Also if you let Ewing change his pivot foot in the post like Jokic does al lthe time, hwo would anyone stop him? The rules and style of play of today's game is completely different to the past. It's like skiing and comparing slalom to downhill specialists. Just a different game.