It is a honor to meet a 1970 Cavs fan. One question- What is the biggest difference between nba basketball from 1970 to today? Anything stand out?
Oh my, it's the rule changes.
1) Offensive fouls - if the offensive player initiates the contact, it's an offensive foul. That takes away many of Trae Young's, Lebron's, and Harden's free throws. This is the biggest change I'd want to undo.
2) traveling/carrying the ball. In the 60's your hand had to stay on top of the ball. Bob Cousy started getting away with steering it and then Earl Monroe instituted the spin dribble. He was called for a carry a lot of times, until the NBA gave up. These changes helped the offensive players.
3) zone defense/hand-checking defensive rules. You could touch your opponent from one end to another, just don't push. Very hard to call subtle pushes, so they canceled all hand-checking. No zone defense at all, while now it's allowed. That change promotes outside shooting.
4) Changing from two referees to three. With two a LOT of fouls went uncalled. They just weren't seen. The net effect was a lot rougher game. It was common for every team to have an enforcer who'd go out and belt a hot shooter to cool him off.
The overall effect of all of these changes was to help the offense and hurt the defense. These changes are some of the reasons true shooting efficiency of the league has gone up.
I'll tell you a story about the offensive foul change I experienced. I was playing one on one with a University of Kentucky guard. I was taller and he was quicker. He'd drive into me with his shoulder in my stomach. I outweighed him by twenty pounds and he'd just bounce off. He'd call "Blocking!" and I'd say, "Hey, you initiated the contact." He got so ticked off, he wouldn't play with me anymore. This was around the late 70s or early 80s.
I was never coached at any level of basketball. Everything I learned was from the playground from 18 when I began to teach myself basketball.