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Today’s NBA is barely recognizable.

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Yeah they weren’t just running up the floor jacking up three ball every 3-4 times down the floor! And to your point of players back then getting run off the floor there isn’t one PG in this league that could “run” Zeke, Joe Dumars, or Norm Nixon off the floor or “strip” then. And nobody in the game today would be running The Doctor, Nique, or for that matter Hakeem off the floor! To put it in perspective NOT ONE CENTER in today’s game could stop Shaq, Hakeem or David Robinson. Not one!
Are you trying to suggest to me that Jaxson Hayes would find it difficult handling Karl Malone ?

Hell I'd settle to see if James Wiseman could stop Rik Smits 2 times in a row....
 
Yeah they weren’t just running up the floor jacking up three ball every 3-4 times down the floor! And to your point of players back then getting run off the floor there isn’t one PG in this league that could “run” Zeke, Joe Dumars, or Norm Nixon off the floor or “strip” then. And nobody in the game today would be running The Doctor, Nique, or for that matter Hakeem off the floor! To put it in perspective NOT ONE CENTER in today’s game could stop Shaq, Hakeem or David Robinson. Not one!
Shaq would also have a BIG problem defending nowadays, no?
 
Shaq would also have a BIG problem defending nowadays, no?
Without a doubt because today’s centers would take him outside of the key! But I’m just pointing out the craziness of saying “dropping of players from the 90s into today’s game and they would run off the court and stripped of the ball” is ridiculous!
 
Without a doubt because today’s centers would take him outside of the key! But I’m just pointing out the craziness of saying “dropping of players from the 90s into today’s game and they would run off the court and stripped of the ball” is ridiculous!
The greats wouldn't be run off the floor.

But staters like Brevin Knight? He damn sure wouldn't make it now. Greg Anthony would be run out of this league. Eric Snow was a starter for the vast majority of his career. Not today.

Guys nowadays are likely to survive in previous eras, but there are plenty of players from as recent as the late 90s and early 2000s who would be in the G-League now.
 
Shaq would also have a BIG problem defending nowadays, no?
Perhaps. But I think he’d be even more dominant today with his size and would be even more of a mismatch...

Would really force teams to defend different and utilize different personnel...
 
Perhaps. But I think he’d be even more dominant today with his size and would be even more of a mismatch...

Would really force teams to defend different and utilize different personnel...
In a league where Drummond can get you 26 and 22 some games, I still believe Shaq could be dominant (offensively).

BTW I disagree that a Drummond-like player can't play winning basketball in 2020 - like some say. I think if his IQ was higher and he was less worried about stats, he could be a very impactful player (in a good way).

But I think Shaq would be great. It's not like players have gone away from the Shaq model. He was just that unique of a physical specimen. Embiid's body is similar to a younger Shaq, but he's clearly not as strong. In terms of durability, he couldn't get away with playing that way and not ending his career for good with a foot injury. Peak Dwight Howard is shorter and not as skilled.
 
Also not to be controversial but 80s and 90s basketball sucks!!!!
The entire Michael Jordan era sucked because he sucked, the way he played basketball sucked, nobody wanted to watch him play and if he was playing now Dylan Windler would crush him on both ends of the court.
 
Comparing across eras is hard, but what made the greats well...great is that they had the extra stuff beyond skill and athleticism. Shaq would absolutely bull 99% of players that ever played in the NBA. MJ would get his jumper off against anyone. Steph would moonshot even when it was only worth 2 points.

Now this isn't universal, for example I'm not sure George Mikan would be any better than a Plumlee now. But, from the early 80s to now, the greats would have basically been fine in any year.

I think one thing we are forgetting is how awful the talent was between 88 and about 06. There was a 20 year period of just limited talent with all the young stars just never developing or some other nonsense. The early mid 80s and the 2010s were talent booms and those are the times where a. Offenses picked up like all hell b. Playing good defense wasn't just playing at a snails pace (looking at you Riley) and c. The periods everyone loves talking about as peak basketball.

Right now, we have so many players who are talented and won't sniff an allstar game. Look at Mike conely. Dude has been a top 5-10 pg for like 8 years and has maybe a few players of the week to show for it. Drop him in in that period I mentioned and im sure we talk about him the way people talk about players like Brandon and Chauncey. There is 0 chance 13-8 Jamal Magloire makes an allstar team in this era or the peak 80s era.

I honestly cannot say that any of this applies pre-merger. There were certainly some ABA guys who would thrive now (Dr J, Ice, Roger Brown, Connie Hawkins etc) and probably some super old NBA guys (Wilt, Oscar, Lucas, Russ) but on thr whole the mailman Wilt dunked on and Rhodes scholars MJ dunked on would be useless in the modern game.
 
The greats wouldn't be run off the floor.

But staters like Brevin Knight? He damn sure wouldn't make it now. Greg Anthony would be run out of this league. Eric Snow was a starter for the vast majority of his career. Not today.

Guys nowadays are likely to survive in previous eras, but there are plenty of players from as recent as the late 90s and early 2000s who would be in the G-League now.
 
I think the disconnect here throughout this conversation (not saying the old guys are right) is that the older posters have a slight advantage whereas we grew up watching the game in the 80s and 90s and have followed it's evolution into the game it is today. Whereas the younger generation only have video clips of YouTube as a reference. We've seen the league over the years on TV and up close at the arenas. As for the crossover as foucault87 pointed out several players from the 80s and 90s (ABA included) could definitely play in today's game (David Thompson, Rick Barry, Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway. etc).

Wait!!!! I hope James Harden doesn't blow out a knee moving too fast on defense :)

 
Wait!!!! I hope James Harden doesn't blow out a knee moving too fast on defense :)
C'mon, give Harden a break. He's too busy to play defense because he's trying to imagine a way to get to the line the next time he has the ball in his hands.
 

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