JJ Redick: “Players from the 50s, 60s, 70s could not play in today’s NBA”

[dhsilv2]

Most role players including the some of the good ones from even 80s and 90s wouldn't make the NBA roster today.
Do people on this forum not get that there are way more people across the globe trying to play in the NBA than at any time in the past? That alone makes the league better.
The Birds and Jordans would adjust to any era but others would really struggle.

Bull

Andrew Toney, Junior Bridgman, Dale Ellis, Gerald Wilkins, Charles Oakley, Vinnie Johnson, John Salley, Spud Webb, Mugsy Bogues, Dell Curry, Dee Brown, Sidney Moncrief, Brian Shaw, Travis Best, Ricky Pierce, Craig Hodges, John Paxson, John Lucas, World B. Free, Glen Rice, Kiki VanderWeghe, Darrel Griffith, Terry Porter, Roy Tarpley, Detlef Schrempf, Sam Perkins, Fat Lever, Xavier McDaniel, Sleepy Floyd may all have an argument that they couldn't play today.

Not sure guys like Glen Rice would fall into role players...but Bogues couldn't play today I hate to say. His defense would be beyond terrible. Can you imagine him in a pick and role against today's shooters? He'd have to be taken off the floor. Most of the rest of those guys would be fine today, they may or may not get the same minutes but they'd all play.

[dhsilv2]

If you stick a modern player in the 1950's where he's going to have a different diet, worse medical care, inferior equipment, fewer organized leagues at a young age, far worse travel and accommodations, a summer job, different rules and officiating and less coaching (a team's coaching staff was almost always only 1 man) - and you tell me how many of todays players are going to be the same players in that environment.

You have to judge the players in the context of how they performed against their peers - everything is conjecture with fare too many variables for us to take into account.

The problem or reason to make JJ's comment is that their "peers" were a tiny subset of the world population while today it's much larger. This is also a response to old time players implying today's guys are soft, weak, and couldn't cut it in the past. We all know they had a tougher time in terms to development and that modern science and everything else makes things better today. But that's part of the progress we've had. And players from the past are just being asses constantly trying to diminish today's guys who ARE better than them, and that's a good thing. It means they learned and developed from the guys before them. That's what we're supposed to do.

But we have guys in their 70's and 80's talking about today's guy as if they couldn't play back then or trying to diminish the improvements of today's league. It's a horrible take. This isn't about that guys from the past were somehow genetically inferior. It's that they weren't as good because things are just better today. You're making JJ's point.

[RB34]

Imagine Wilt with today’s training and sports nutrition..

[sunsbg]

The new generation is so much more skilled that young players like Trae, Doncic, Booker, etc. can't hit even 30% on 3s in their first games of the season with the 3 being the emphasis of modern basketball. You also have the "modern" big in Jaren Jackson going 0-8 from 3.

[DCasey91]

Most role players including the some of the good ones from even 80s and 90s wouldn't make the NBA roster today.
Do people on this forum not get that there are way more people across the globe trying to play in the NBA than at any time in the past? That alone makes the league better.
The Birds and Jordans would adjust to any era but others would really struggle.

Bull

Andrew Toney, Junior Bridgman, Dale Ellis, Gerald Wilkins, Charles Oakley, Vinnie Johnson, John Salley, Spud Webb, Mugsy Bogues, Dell Curry, Dee Brown, Sidney Moncrief, Brian Shaw, Travis Best, Ricky Pierce, Craig Hodges, John Paxson, John Lucas, World B. Free, Glen Rice, Kiki VanderWeghe, Darrel Griffith, Terry Porter, Roy Tarpley, Detlef Schrempf, Sam Perkins, Fat Lever, Xavier McDaniel, Sleepy Floyd may all have an argument that they couldn't play today.


X-man

Watch on YouTube

Dale Ellis

Watch on YouTube

Darrell Griffith

Watch on YouTube

Vinnie Johnson

Watch on YouTube

Mugsy

Watch on YouTube

Glen Rice

Watch on YouTube

Sidney Moncrief
Detlef Schrempf
Terry Porter
Glen Rice

All of em multiple All Stars. Mon and Schrempf are pretty underrated imo. Bloody Mon has 5 MVP shares ffs.

Stop looking at stats.

You are tripping on something fierce in your juice.
If your undersized or not very good cool no sweat but these 4 in particular are fine players and were for a very very long time. Bloody Glen Rice was smoking balls in the 2000 finals win.

Glen Rice can shoot the cover off the thing and he’s 6”7” he’d be fine in this league

Sid had lockdown, could score, could facilitate

Det has wonderful height

All of them have had better careers than bloody jj reddick

Porter was part that deep Blazers team with Drexler

Want evidence? Watch a young kid by the name of Sexton it’ll all start to make sense. Today it’s a young man’s league. There is more than a few playing right now that have 2 cent heads and aren’t good basketball players.

[Edrees]

The answer to this is always so.simple. If you had a time and space teleporter no player can play in a other era. Different rules different game . They'd get wrecked.

However, if you took the baby right when they were born and transported them to a different era and they grew up playing THAT NBA game their skills and emphasis would develop differently and they'd be just as good.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

I don't know about that..

Bob Cousy will be a star in today's NBA if Lamelo Ball is, and today they have better shoes, better facilities, support etc

Watch on YouTube

His game dropped off a cliff when the league started getting better in the 60's dude. From 58 on he was a below league average efficiency scorer. He was never a good defender, before Bill Russell the celtics with him and Sharman had the best offense in the league but their defense was so bad it didn't really matter. Cousy is one of those guys who the league is far far far better for having had innovate the game, but he'd struggle to make a roster today. Allstar is impossible.

yep....hed struggle at elite high school level. not going to debate what he'd do if he "adjusted" to the modern game. thats a pointless debate

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

The answer to this is always so.simple. If you had a time and space teleporter no player can play in a other era. Different rules different game . They'd get wrecked.

However, if you took the baby right when they were born and transported them to a different era and they grew up playing THAT NBA game their skills and emphasis would develop differently and they'd be just as good.

and1'd your post but im assuming youd agree modern players could go back in time and wreck the old way right?

[Muggamills]

He’s 100% correct but he should’ve added the 80s and 90s to the list.

Lol

[Moonbeam]

JJ Redick reminding everyone that he's a bit of a prick.

[Kingsway_fan]

This clown could not make an NBA team from the 60s...

[Kingsway_fan]

Imagine Wilt with today’s training and sports nutrition..

Wilt was and still is the greatest athlete to play in any sport in history....

Many of his nba records will never be broken...

Like his 50 point a game 24 rebounds a game SEASON.

[GrindCityHustle]

Imagine Wilt with today’s training and sports nutrition..

Wilt was and still is the greatest athlete to play in any sport in history....

Many of his nba records will never be broken...

Like his 50 point a game 24 rebounds a game SEASON.

but that was JJ's point

could he do that today?

[xdrta+]

Imagine Wilt with today’s training and sports nutrition..

Wilt was and still is the greatest athlete to play in any sport in history....

Many of his nba records will never be broken...

Like his 50 point a game 24 rebounds a game SEASON.

but that was JJ's point

could he do that today?

Well, according to some on here, if Javale McGee can't do it then Wilt couldn't do it.

[Snakebites]

I mean, I've always had thoughts about this.

I rolled my eyes a little, for instance, when Walt Frazier made the assertion that he "could shut Steph Curry down".

It always kind of felt to me like these older guys are using the reverence people have for them as cover to make very conveniently unprovable claims.

Is it fair to hold athletes from earlier eras to modern standards when they didn't have modern resources, training methods, and coaching? Generally speaking I'd say that no it isn't, but speculating on how well guys from those eras would translate is a largely fruitless exercise. It depends on the assumptions you are making, and even then it's dubious.

But yes, taken at face value, looking exclusively at the exact physical build and skills cultivated, he's PROBABLY right at least for a significant portion of NBA players.

[alebaba]

Hes absolutely right.

[azcatz11]

Hes absolutely right.

He's always right. By far the best analysis in the business. He's a bit of a douche but I really like him

[76ersForLife]

As a long time 76ers fan i can definitely see Dr.J and Barkley struggling against current Sixers Furkan Korkmaz and George Niang, lol.

[dc]

As a long time 76ers fan i can definitely see Dr.J and Barkley struggling against current Sixers Furkan Korkmaz and George Niang, lol.

The superstars would still do just fine (and Barkley isn't from the 70s) in today's game.

I could definitely see the role players from that era struggling, though. Being able to guard multiple positions inside and out, needing to be able to space the floor offensively, initiating offense even if you aren't the PG, etc....a lot those players back then simply weren't asked to do those things.

Of course certain guys like Bobby Jones (super role player) would be great in today's game.

[KembaWalker]

a lot of players from even the 2000s-2010s couldn't play in todays NBA. the league used to have at least a couple dozen completely useless 7' stiffs that were just there for Shaq fodder

then a hotter take, a lot of the pure specialist guys like Theo Ratliff for blocks or Reggie Evans for rebounds just aren't versatile enough to put up with the uselessness on offense for those specialties. Even an All-NBA player like 2014 Al Jefferson who I'd call a post scoring specialist...does he really have a place in the league today? its unfathomable to think about someone like him keeping up with the switching, motion offense, stretched floor, faster pace etc

people underestimate how much the league has changed from even 2015 to now