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JJ redick vs Charles Barkley

Yeah that’s true . College games do seem to be more competitive because the game is played slower than the NBA though .
There’s 8 less mins, which obviously has an effect on closeness. Talent level, across the board, is far inferior to the NBA. Again, having an effect on keeping scores closer. Less talent typically equals less points per possession, keeping scores closer. You get the point. College teams typically don’t score as much per possession because they’re not as good at making shots.
 
I’ve always felt the defense wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be .

Fast pace and the floor spread is going to make it much harder to defend especially now that more big men can shoot .


No Big Wallace type centers in the league . Loved Ben back then but imagine having a guy like that on the court . He wouldn’t have made it in this era due to style of play .
I agree, the no defense thing is kind of the cry of the casual NBA fan or the fan who buys into the pageantry of college basketball. The level of play in the NBA is just far and away superior to college. I’d way rather watch two rando good NBA teams play than two good rando college teams. But obviously I’d rather watch UK, fanatic and all.

It’s really hard to defend the world’s best players. The regular season is what it is. When the NBA playoffs roll around, I don’t miss many games. I’ve coaches HS bball for over 20 yrs, so I don’t see many regular season games anyway. But for me, a basketball lifer and junkie, the NBA playoffs are as good as it gets. Why? Elite level of play meets elite atmosphere.
 
The best players are foreign and it’s hard to sell that as face of the leagues in America . Jokic or Luka doesn’t really have the personality for it . Giannis does .

American wise they tried to say Anthony Edwards but his game isn’t exactly must see TV right now . He’s struggling to get 20 lately .

Shai has a quiet personality so does Tatum .

And honestly you need a player that is the face of the league that has as many haters as he does fans that love him . Who is that guy ?

Agreed. I also think a lot of the "mid" stars are nearing the end of their time as well.. Embiid is one more injury away from having to retire. Kawhi and PG13? Just too injured. Giannis? Starting to show his age. Harden is putting up points but he's past his prime. Curry only has a few years left. Cp3 is done.

In the last 5 years, what stars have come into the league? It's Ant man... Wemby... that's about it. Love my Houston guys but none of them are stars yet. Guys like Cade, Hali, lamelo just don't seem to have that elite tier. A lot of the bigs have been flops or just decent.. Mobley, Wiseman, name any Duke Pf/center in this time..

Makes you wonder if the NBA just isn't getting the elite talent like it used to. Are highly athletic high-school kids opting to play something else? Are they coming out too soon (g league and 1AD)?
 
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The ridiculous rate of shooting the 3 ball is a problem. Crazy to say it's not an issue.

It's not the only issue though. The main issue is these MFrs are so soft now. 3s are a symptom of that. Is it easier to shoot bad 3s, or get to the basket through contact? Hell, ain't even that much contact anymore.

Weak defense, jacking up bad shots after jogging from 3pt line to 3pt line. Then they need load management after all that soft play. So many players are buddies and hanging out, worried more about contracts than championships. Just no edge and killer instinct.

It's all just symptoms of being a Charmin soft generation of entitled players.
Beautifully put.

It's such a far cry from, the real teams of the 80's and 90's NBA. I can't stomach the product these days. This three point madness has ruined the NBA game.
 
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The ridiculous rate of shooting the 3 ball is a problem. Crazy to say it's not an issue.

It's not the only issue though. The main issue is these MFrs are so soft now. 3s are a symptom of that. Is it easier to shoot bad 3s, or get to the basket through contact? Hell, ain't even that much contact anymore.

Weak defense, jacking up bad shots after jogging from 3pt line to 3pt line. Then they need load management after all that soft play. So many players are buddies and hanging out, worried more about contracts than championships. Just no edge and killer instinct.

It's all just symptoms of being a Charmin soft generation of entitled players.

I remember reading the Dennis Rodman biography and he really went into the psychological aspect of what was really going on during the 90s basketball games. Those players realized the opportunity they had with the talent they had by reaching the NBA level and went it at like it was a war for their life every night knowing what came before it.

Several generations later, now their children are in it (after their parents made it) along with other prestige basketball families that were coddled for the past several decades. Watching a modern NBA fight and any before Malice at the Palace is a great example. The old players were ready to kill each other if things boiled over. Now it's a just a typical letdown between two girls that were ready to "fight" at high school, but just yelled at each other until a teacher showed up to break it up.
 
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Barkley is correct as he often is.

NBA also lost ratings and fans with some of its behavior in 2020. I'm not getting into that specifically but it's a reality.
 
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It was Golden States best strategy to win for a while, but they were stacked for it. The whole league is not. They need to cut it out. Hasn't worked all that well for hardly any team except Golden State. More what's less effort than what's the best strategy.

How can you watch basketball your whole life and be like, "basketball is basketball"? Were we playing good basketball when getting beat in March the last few years? Is the worst team in the league playing "good basketball"? It's all the same?

Just like the league swung too physical for a bit, it's overcorrected to be too soft now. Needs to meet in the middle and correct course again. We've had playoffs the whole time. Regular season not mattering to these guys is just another symptom of softness. Sitting games out when you can go, thinking it's OK to get beat, you're cashing checks so who needs titles or victory? 🤷‍♂️

Players check out, why wouldn't the fans?
If people are soft,that means a generation of parents raised them that way.

It's not true for all of them anyway...Anthony edwards, Jason Taytum, etc don't participate in load management etc.

Most of the nba runs action offenses...zoom, floppy, etc. The same thing people like pope run... the difference is the nba is professionals.

So your real issue is analytics. Shooting a 3 or a layup is a higher % shot than a free throw line extended shot. Which steph curry is your culprit for turning it that way

The European influence of how the game is played is changed it too. The last 6 mvps are foreign born and played overseas type basketball. Add in Luka as another top player in the league. Although, foreign players generally have all around better fundamentals and that traces all the way back to how ppl learn the game. In the US, kids practice once a week and play AAU 5 days a week, in Europe kids practice 5 days a week and play once.

Your right, they'll have to adjust as 80s basketball was largely unwatchable too outside of two teams. People like bill laimbeer deserved no where near a court. The jordan rules was a strategy to just foul non stop.

There's obviously more still to playing, otherwise Brea would be the projected top pick...
 
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Barkley is correct as he often is.

NBA also lost ratings and fans with some of its behavior in 2020. I'm not getting into that specifically but it's a reality.
I think you’re correct about that. I can’t remember the GM, but the comment about the conflict between Asian countries was a huge deal too. It pulled the curtain back on who really pays the bills for the NBA. I’m not sure that sat extremely well with the average American NBA fan.
 
If people are soft,that means a generation of parents raised them that way.

It's not true for all of them anyway...Anthony edwards, Jason Taytum, etc don't participate in load management etc.

Most of the nba runs action offenses...zoom, floppy, etc. The same thing people like pope run... the difference is the nba is professionals.

So your real issue is analytics. Shooting a 3 or a layup is a higher % shot than a free throw line extended shot. Which steph curry is your culprit for turning it that way

The European influence of how the game is played is changed it too. The last 6 mvps are foreign born and played overseas type basketball. Add in Luka as another top player in the league. Although, foreign players generally have all around better fundamentals and that traces all the way back to how ppl learn the game. In the US, kids practice once a week and play AAU 5 days a week, in Europe kids practice 5 days a week and play once.

Your right, they'll have to adjust as 80s basketball was largely unwatchable too outside of two teams. People like bill laimbeer deserved no where near a court. The jordan rules was a strategy to just foul non stop.

There's obviously more still to playing, otherwise Brea would be the projected top pick...
You’re exactly right, and those are the same things that have ruined MLB (for the viewer). The analytics say picking a spot and pitch to rip a baseball is the correct approach. If that means you K looking, cool. No more B back. No more hitting behind a runner. No more working a count to let a baserunner steal. No more sac bunts. All of that is action and multiple possible outcomes that made the game more watchable. Hell, during the shift the analytics wouldn’t even have the hitter bunt just to get 1B. Neither side is wrong. The data is correct. But baseball is also brutal to watch now too. Or at least was prior to some of the rules changes lately.
 
Basketball is basketball. Teams will take the best strategy to win. If that leads to threes, so be it. But that doesn’t make up for the bigger problem for the NBA, which is that people don’t care who wins or loses for 6 months a year.
Yep. If they are going to “load manage” anyways, might as well shrink the season. Only play games one or 2 days a week. Cut the total games to 40 so the games matter for seeding.

You either do that or you play a round robin pod system similar to the World Cup and the teams in your pod could change yearly
 
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