JJ Redick speaks on how the game has evolved with all the pace and space in today’s NBA. “The old heads are gonna talk about how physical it was in the 80s and 90s and that’s fine but the level of physicality in our game and the way the court has to be covered and all the movement, it’s tough”
35 comments
The spacing is one reason why it’s less physical. Guys have to stay home when guarding guys on the perimeter, so there’s more space in the paint. You don’t see guys getting mugged in the paint like Jordan was against the pistons.
You could show a supercut of todays nba and convince someone that it was just as physical as the 80s and 90s
bruh a random player like miles briges would be jesus christ if he played in the 80s
I don’t know why people try to lump in the 80s with the slow pace era. Pace was over 100 every year except for 87-88 when it was 99.6 and 89-90 when it was 98.3.
The slow pace defensive era wasn’t until the 90s into the early 00s.
Years ago, Jay Bilas wrote an op-ed discussing how college basketball was declining in watchability due to the high level of physicality allowed by the refs and recommended an NBA-style “freedom of movement” for the NCAA. I feel like we have the opposite problem in the NBA now. It used to be a big deal if a guy scored 40, now we call that “Tuesday.”
People just reading headlines. He’s not saying there’s more body to body contact, but that the increased pace, intensity, and ground they have to cover is tougher on players’ bodies nowadays.
Everyone would be better off with a 58-game season. The fans, the players, everyone except the owners making bank, it’s just about money.
58-game season, 1 home and 1 away game for every team would be the sweet spot. NFL and soccer are still profitable and play a fraction. It would let teams work out and practice more which would lead to fewer injuries and better scheming/gameplanning during games instead of just walking up, playing who’s right in front of them. Fewer injuries, the games remaining would matter more. It would be something to really look forward to as fans. Players are in famine mode during the regular season, 82 is a stupid number.
Will never happen because JB needs $300 million dollar contracts though. Even having the audacity to suggest that people shouldn’t make as much money as humanly possible is of course anti-American.
There’s a reason why stars these days play 5-10 minutes less per game than they did in the early 2000s. The last time someone played 40+ minutes per game was in 2010. Meanwhile, Iverson averaged 41 MPG over his entire career.
Everyone thinks it’s about ~~resting~~ injury prevention (and it is to a degree), but a lot of it is that nobody has the cardio to be effective for that long in today’s NBA.
JJ is correct and this analysis needs to be more widely recognized. There is less physical contact but there is in a way more physicality because of the amount of ground players have to cover and the amount of change of direction at full speed this requires. Changing direction at full speed is the thing that most causes injuries, rather than hand checking and post ups.
He’s right on some points, but to act like the game isn’t soft AF nowadays for everything being called a flagrant etc would be pure ignorance.
It’s just run around screens and shoot 3s now.
guys in the 80s would be gassed out in today’s game. they’ll be like a boxer who can only clinch cause they’re too tired to be physical. hard to throw a punch when you’re gasping for air
Thats why injuries are up. Players are moving faster, covering more ground, increases chances to get injured. In the 80s you could literally keep your entire defense under the 3. You had offensive players tgat never got more than 10ft from the basket. Now the ENTIRE half court is in play and everyone has to cover everyone
He’s not wrong, but he lost the privilege of being taken seriously on cross era comparisons when he called guys from the 50s and 60s plumbers and firemen.
KD spoke about this. He was saying when he came in there was less spacing so guys ran into each other more, so it seemed more physical due to that.
Now, the game is more physically taxing because you have to guard the entire floor, run through a million screens, etc.
Modern guards literally run a 10k every night. It’s not easy
It’s like a bunch of top tier athletes running and gunning all over the court, can you imagine if this had the fiba rules of less tv timeouts and all that stoppage we get in the nba
Love how JJ covers the game. More people need to speak out. Basketball is really rough nowadays, especially for big men. So much contact under the basket doesn’t get called and there is just so much movement. Big men have to run so much on possessions when in years past they could just sit near the basket all game long.
Now you have big men who rebound and bring the ball up the court. Big men who actually hedge up on screens. Switch onto guards. All sorts of things are happening and it seems like there is more ball and body movement than I remember seeing in the 80s/90s.
Does anyone know the stats on what distance players run in today’s game vs 20-40 years ago?
I really don’t know how you can refute this. Thinking Basketball did a great video on this recently.
Pace, space, and speed combined with the crazy amount of 3 pt attempts have made the game almost entirely different from 20-30 years ago.
I’m an old head, but i believe 3/4 of the players in the 90s and 80s won’t survive this generation. That said, that makes the greats of old special.
He would have a point if the pace and intensity were actually higher. There may be more pace in small bursts but there is a hell of a lot of standing around in the modern game and a lot of extra stoppages.
The job of a defender is much harder today, that’s obviously true though. More space to cover, no hand checking and no real contact allowed. I’m not sure why that’s seen as some gotcha against players from a generation or two ago though because they (offensive players) didn’t have those benefits.
Did the court get bigger? The space is the same its just that the plays are complex now that they have to run around and pass more than before to make a play happen. Also, back in the day defense are more static that the space is tighter which if they run today will have a lot of mismatch but if the defender isnt a physical defender
Imagine steph running his play and gets guarded by Laimbeer, he might get a shot off first but gonna get clotheslined after.
JJ knows he’s correct, the pace of the game is way faster but less physical due to all the rules.
I did a write up on this, people don’t understand how much different no zone defense was. It was iso ball, players stood around and watched what was going on in the paint. People who think basketball was more exciting back then don’t know what they are saying, it was a ton of free-throws, very long commercial breaks and very little actions being run.
Barkley would be toast having to run around today, if you think MJs knees were toast back then he would be unable to walk in after going through today’s game. Look up distance traveled for players in today’s game, it’s fucking nuts.
My theory about the all star game being unserious today is because players are so exhausted and need that bit of rest in the middle of the season while back in the golden era of the all star games players could play serious basketball all throughout the season because it wasn’t as intense.
Exactly. The league has never been more skilled than it has been. Players are expected to be competent at a lot more than they were in the 80-90s.
Whenever I watch older ball games probably before 2005 there always seems to be a few dudes on the team that did nothing. Didn’t shoot well, couldn’t pass, wasn’t particularly athletic and probably was on the team solely because they big. Now everyone are sharp shooters from every inch of the court or insanely athletic super freaks that could get to the rim in a blink of an eye. Also EVERYONE can ball handle at an elite level. It’s nuts.
Everything he’s saying is Steph Curry
Damn, i thought this is common sense for casual?
That’s why good depth really matters now, especially tall guys. That’s the reason we have 2 towers so both can play mid 20s minutes instead of 30ish
League is WAYYYYYYY more physical than old days
Today’s players have been coddled and pampered, their bodies weakened. They get hurt easily.
brother you cannot even touch a player on defense without it being a foul in todays NBA
JJ pandering to the reddit crowd. Half these goons never even heard of the bad boy pistons.
Counterpoint, it was fun to watch back then.
You can see this just by watching any game; pull up any of Jordan’s finals games and you’ll see that there is basically no off ball movement and defensive players never really needed to sprint or test their agility.
This is not their fault, its just the way of the game. However it needs to be recognized that the game’s physical demands has evolved from pure strength to agility and stamina, which is arguably more physically demanding and wearing on the players.