CuttingEdge wrote:Vator wrote:Yao is nowhere near as dominant as Hakeem was. I do wonder how he would have fared though had they not changed the way you're allowed to play defense. I think he would have thrived more with the old rules. It would have been much easier to just throw the ball into the post and let the shooters spot up than it is now with the way teams are allowed to zone things up.
That's the key thing right there. The illegal defense on zones no longer applies. How tremendous is it? Jordan? Hakeem? It almost strips some respect because the game was way easier for them in that sense..
They both would have adjusted though. Hakeem was just too athletic for that to slow him down much. He had the best blend of inside/outside game I have ever seen. I don't really see the rules hurting guys like Howard, Amare, Duncan and Garnett so I think Hakeem would have been just fine. I think it causes more of a problem for the way you run the offense around those guys. The dump it down and kick it out offense is what the Rockets ran for both titles and the new defensive rules were designed to curtail that slow style along with the selfish isolation offenses. The sad part is, Yao is a player that would have been perfectly suited for that kind of play. Yao would have really thrived with the old rules because he could score one on one against damn near anybody. It takes so much more energy for him just to get open now whereas he would have just had to come down, pick a spot, and read the double team. Teams wouldn't be able to disguise the defenses nearly as much and help on him until he actually got the ball which would also give him more time to react. That is big for slow twitch muscle guy.
I doubt it would have been a problem for Jordan at all. Also, people were allowed to handcheck back then so the game definitely wasn't easier for guards. He would have really thrived with the no hand check rules on offense although it probably would have robbed him a little of his defensive prowess.