[2quick4uParticipant]

that is what marc gasol stated yesterday, and you know what, he’s absolutely right…

in today’s game everything it’s about numbers, about quantity instead of quality wich i guess is just a reflection of today’s superficial and materialistic world..

today’s game is in a bubble just like economy, and numbers are begining to be inflated, just like it happened in the 60’s, and russell westbrooks achievement is just the reflection of that.

the nba began a few years ago to shape today’s game by changing rules in order to make a more attractive and marketable product..in fact they’ve succeeded and the nba is more successful and global than ever..the product is higher than never and contracts are sky high..

but personally i feel like gasol, i feel like the essence of the game is being lost and people can’t even recognize it anymore, because they get lost and fascinated with numbers..

westbrook achievement is amazing, harden’s season has been great but we can’t overlook than these numbers are just the consequence of a higher pace, of a weaker defense in big part due to rules, because of a lack of intensity in many many games and because of a great number of teams that are not competitive in this league of 30 teams..

it seems like today anybody can score 50 or have a triple doble and the problem is that we give more value to those numbers than to what is intangible and cannot be contained in numbers.

when talking about all nba teams or best players, people for example still say cousins is the best center because he gets 30 a game when he’s averaged 28 wins/year in almost 7 years in sacramento without making the playoffs once.. when this year, marc gasol or rudy gobert have carried their teams full of injuries to the playoffs and are not in conversation for 1st all team…and this applies for other players.

i guess i’m a romantic and i prefer watching a game where teams are not giving away any basket, where teams play actually like teams sharing the ball instead of playing for a "star" and where players play to win and not just for the numbers.

but well this is just the opinion of an old school fan..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ThenilonatorParticipant]

 

[ThenilonatorParticipant]

great post, couldn’t agree more. Cousins is the perfect example for your argument, he even joined another "stat machine" in Anthony Davis who has never been on a winning pro team and they were worse than what they were before. The Spurs are a franchise that has not concerned itself with "numbers" and it’s worked out pretty well for them!

[Andrew1984Participant]

 Got any stats to back that up?

[2quick4uParticipant]

 yes i do, trends move very slowly but if you look closely you can see where direction are guiding..

here you have some "numbers":

-season 1986-87:   pace= 100.8 / league PTS average= 109.9 / nº teams 110+ ppg= 12 / nº teams <100 ppg= 0 / nº teams 25+ AST= 14 / 3PA= 4.7 / FTA= 30.5

-season 1996-97:   pace=  90.1  / league PTS average= 96.9  /  nº teams 110+ ppg= 0  /  nº teams >100 ppg= 8 / nº teams 25+ AST= 3 / 3PA= 16.8 / FTA= 25.3

-season 1998-99 (after MJ retired):   pace= 88.9 / league PTS average= 91.6 / nº teams 110+ ppg= 0 / nº teams >100 ppg= 0  / nº teams 25+ AST= 1 / 3PA= 13.2 / FTA= 25.8

————-seasons 1999-2005 change of rules= absolutely no contact allowed+floor spaced+movement———–

-season 2006-2007:   pace= 91.9 / league PTS average= 98.7 / nº teams 110+ ppg= 1 / nº teams >100 ppg= 9 /  nº teams 25+ AST= 1 / 3PA= 16.9 / FTA= 26.1

-season 2016-2017:   pace= 96.4 / league PTS average= 105.6 / nº teams 110+ ppg= 4 / nº teams <100 ppg= 1 / nº teams 25+ AST= 4 / 3PA= 27 / FTA= 23.1

 

 .conclusion: after changing the rules, the league is going faster again, wich means more possesions, more points and more assists and if you sum up that the floor has been spaced and contact is not allowed and therefore defenses are a lot weaker (as the FTA tendency shows, well actually whoever watches a games can see it…) you have as a result a higher pace and numbers that are inflated..

 

after changing the rules in 2005, phoenix suns was the "trojan horse" infiltrated in the league to mark the path that the league is following today..that year the pace in the league was 90.1 and the ppg 97.2 while phoenix had 95.9 and 110.4… they were the demo and the toy/product they wanted the league to be and they rewarded steve nash (who passed from 7 ast pg in dallas during 7 years to 11 in phoenix with that system) with 2 MVP, that’s more than shaq or kobe..

now, if you can see how in the last 10 years the league is in an uptrend tendency and in the middle of a bubble with numbers inflating with "just" a difference of 4 points in the pace, you can imaging now why in the 60’s the players had those type of numbers taking into account that the pace in the season 1962 (when wilt averaged 50 points/25 rb and had 100points or robertson averaged a triple double) was 126.2 !!!

and this is why i believe that MJ is by far, really by far the best player in the history of the game..when you truly understand that he actually played in the toughest era, in the most difficult conditions, against the best centers of all the time and with the lowest pace in the history of the game and still was able to score all those points and in the way he did it..that’s just a miracle.. and it’s very disgusting when you listen all those players and some media disrespect MJ (i guess because of envy) and they give all the credit to the "stars" of the 60’s and those inflated numbers…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[MatosParticipant]

 Agreed. Too many teams look for the flashy player, but those are the guys that are making the company money. Those are the ones that people pay money to see so the owners love em regardless. Personally, I want to see good basketball. There are folks out there who hated watching Spurs games (pre-Kawhi) because they thought Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili were boring compared to some other teams who weren’t nearly as good as them but had a "superstar" in the eyes of the NBA. Although Duncan has undeniable talent (greatest PF in my eyes), people aren’t giving Marc Gasol a tune in. But this is due to the casual fans. Not the die hard fans. The casual fans are like kids. They like shiny toys. 

[Author]

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