defense: 80s vs today

[buduan]

Originally posted by <b>Bball_Doctor</b>!


Ok I see.

A.C. Green, Mychal Thompson, and James Worthy dominated the PF spot in the latter half of the 80's< This is wrong.

Barkley, Malone, and McHale were the most dominating 4s in the latter half of the 80s.

I meant they dominated the PF position on the Lakers. He was trying to say that Rambis was their 4. Not true. Once Green joined the team Rambis rarely played. Rambis played a whopping 800+ minutes in 1988 and wasn't even on the team in 1989.

So yes, Green, Worthy, and Thompson played the position primarily. Green was considered the best defending big man. He covered alot of the quicker SF's so that Worthy and Magic weren't run down covering guys like Nique. Worthy played the 4 more often than you would like to admit happygrinch.

Since you claim you watched the Lakers in the 80's, who guarded McHale the majority of the time in those classic series?

The answer is Worthy and Thompson. Who did McHale guard? Worthy.

[buduan]

Originally posted by <b>SkywalkerAC</b>!
i think we can all agree by this point that the 80s had some great defensive teams but overall, today's defense is better

Let's just say we'll agree to disagree.

[Da Grinch]

Originally posted by <b>buduan</b>!



I meant they dominated the PF position on the Lakers. He was trying to say that Rambis was their 4. Not true. Once Green joined the team Rambis rarely played. Rambis played a whopping 800+ minutes in 1988 and wasn't even on the team in 1989.

So yes, Green, Worthy, and Thompson played the position primarily. Green was considered the best defending big man. He covered alot of the quicker SF's so that Worthy and Magic weren't run down covering guys like Nique. Worthy played the 4 more often than you would like to admit happygrinch.

Since you claim you watched the Lakers in the 80's, who guarded McHale the majority of the time in those classic series?

The answer is Worthy and Thompson. Who did McHale guard? Worthy.

mchale guarded worthy for the same reason that green was often put on the other team's best frontcourt scorer , to save bird's energy

but i'm almost positive the only time in the late 80's worthy switched off the human highlight film was in the all-star game that would have meant guarding kevin willis not exactly a walk in the park for a player pyhsically

and skywalker what you last said is what i've felt all along but conversations often sway from topics

[grelsner96]

Originally Posted by golgor

That's exactly my point. That Malone and Stockton were two of the top at their positions by the time they beat LA in the late 90s.

They were never close to being top anything in the 80s in their prime. When competition disappeared and posers like Kobe and Shaq appeared they became top even though they were already 35 years old and not as good as in the 80s

Do you get it now???????

The reason I mention Utah vs LA is because that is direct proof of a mediocre 80s team beating the Lakers with Kobe and Shaq

You guys can speculate and talk all you want. I am giving real life results.

Utah - LA 4-0

Utah - LA 4-1

San Antonio - LA 4-0

It is only after these teams got even older and could barely walk that LA had a chance ( even then they needed all the refereeing help they could get.

As for the defense, all you need to do is watch. There are more dunks because it's much easier to get around defenders. Most missed shots are wide open or semi open. There are planty opportunities to score , yet they don't.

Nothing makes your defense look better than bad offense.

That's basically what you have today.

The messed up thing about this post is that kobe was a bench player for most of this time. Definitely his second year when jazz went 4-0 and the next year i think he may have started some games. Either way, he was still very young and not even close to his peak. So if you say Malone/Stockton beat LA in their peak but "It is only after these teams got even older and could barely walk that LA had a chance" which is when LA was at their peak, whats the difference? Mute point.

[XxIrvingxX]

Originally Posted by grelsner96

The messed up thing about this post is that kobe was a bench player for most of this time. Definitely his second year when jazz went 4-0 and the next year i think he may have started some games. Either way, he was still very young and not even close to his peak. So if you say Malone/Stockton beat LA in their peak but "It is only after these teams got even older and could barely walk that LA had a chance" which is when LA was at their peak, whats the difference? Mute point.

Why the **** did you respond to a nine year old post and actually expect an answer to be made...good ****ing christ didn't we just have this happen not to long ago?

[RollWithEm]

Rereading this thread was fun. I miss mook, skywalker, and bball doctor. I had some good arguments with those guys once upon a time.

[ChrisWoj]

Wow. The basketball fans once had a joek...

[MDanton]

Originally Posted by MemphisX

Really. Other than the top 4-5 teams name these teams that had 3 players with solid mid range jumpers.....

Lets take 1985 for example:

Celtics: Bird, Ainge, DJ, and even Wedman was decent although he didn't really play that much.
Bucks: Moncrief, Pierce, Cummings
Pistons: Tripucka, Thomas, Laimbeer and Vinnie Johnson
Nuggets: English, Lever and Issel
Mavs: Blackman, Harper and Aguirre
Jazz: Dantley and Bailey, can't remember how good Dr. Dunkenstein was from the mid
Spurs: Gervin and Mike Mitchell, maybe Moor and/or Banks, can't remember much about them
Lakers: Scott, Cooper and Magic (who actually had a pretty decent mid jumper, that he didn't is a myth and a bunch of baloney)
Blazers: Drexler, Vandeweghe and Jim Paxson

As for the rest of the league:

Sixers: Erwing and Toney, maybe some more, didn't watch much of the Sixers
Nets: Otis Birdsong
Bullets: Jeff Malone
Knicks: Bernard King
Bulls: MJ and Dailey
Cavs: World B. Free, can't remember the rest
Hawks: Nique and perhaps Rivers
Pacers: Fleming, can't remember the rest
Rockets: McCray and Lloyd
Kings: Theus and Eddie Johnson
Suns: Walter Davis, maybe some others
Sonics: Chambers and Sikma
Clippers: no idea to be honest, didn't watch them
Warriors: Floyd and Short

Hope this satisfies you.

[RollWithEm]

Originally Posted by MDanton

Lets take 1985 for example:

Celtics: Bird, Ainge, DJ, and even Wedman was decent although he didn't really play that much.
Bucks: Moncrief, Pierce, Cummings
Pistons: Tripucka, Thomas, Laimbeer and Vinnie Johnson
Nuggets: English, Lever and Issel
Mavs: Blackman, Harper and Aguirre
Jazz: Dantley and Bailey, can't remember how good Dr. Dunkenstein was from the mid
Spurs: Gervin and Mike Mitchell, maybe Moor and/or Banks, can't remember much about them
Lakers: Scott, Cooper and Magic (who actually had a pretty decent mid jumper, that he didn't is a myth and a bunch of baloney)
Blazers: Drexler, Vandeweghe and Jim Paxson

As for the rest of the league:

Sixers: Erwing and Toney, maybe some more, didn't watch much of the Sixers
Nets: Otis Birdsong
Bullets: Jeff Malone
Knicks: Bernard King
Bulls: MJ and Dailey
Cavs: World B. Free, can't remember the rest
Hawks: Nique and perhaps Rivers
Pacers: Fleming, can't remember the rest
Rockets: McCray and Lloyd
Kings: Theus and Eddie Johnson
Suns: Walter Davis, maybe some others
Sonics: Chambers and Sikma
Clippers: no idea to be honest, didn't watch them
Warriors: Floyd and Short

Hope this satisfies you.

How long ago was the post you are responding to here? Did you sign up for this site just to list these players?

[e-monk]

I thihnk there's a much more recent thread where we hashed this out from only a few years back - this is so strange that it pops up like this and its the second one in a week

(maybe this is the new a10 thing?)

[MDanton]

Originally Posted by RollWithEm

How long ago was the post you are responding to here? Did you sign up for this site just to list these players?

I checked to see if the poster is still active, if they weren't I wouldn't have bothered.

[RollWithEm]

Originally Posted by MDanton

I checked to see if the poster is still active, if they weren't I wouldn't have bothered.

He definitely is still active. I hope this thread will inspire you to be active as well. Welcome to the site!

[MDanton]

Originally Posted by RollWithEm

He definitely is still active. I hope this thread will inspire you to be active as well. Welcome to the site!

Thank you very much

[E.H. Munro]

It amazes me that people still think of "mid-range jumpers" as a sort of arcane skill. It's just shooting. But with any jumper the problem is getting separation to shoot them, which is a lot more difficult for perimeter players than big men. This is why so many big men shoot them well (because defenses want a possession to end with a Brandon Bass or Glen Davis long two) and why so many guards try to shoot everything from behind the arc or within ten feet.

[Jamel Irief]

Originally Posted by buduan

Like I said before, if you didn't watch the game in the 80's why are you posting?

A.C. Green, Mychal Thompson, and James Worthy dominated the PF spot in the latter half of the 80's. Rambis started I think one year. He was a heck of a rebounder and defender. Unlike the foul a minute Madsen. The guy is out of control most of the time.

Are you telling me that a trapping lineup of

PG Cooper
SG Magic
SF A.C. Green
PF James Worthy
C Mychal Thompson

wouldn't trap the current Lakers into oblivion? They have a hard time crossing halfcourt against the Warriors. Kobe ends up playing the point and there is no way he can sustain that level of energy for 48 minutes.

80's Lakers had depth, the current Lakers have none. I can't believe a fellow Laker fan can't see that.

10 years later I see his response to my post. Is it too late for me to reply?