Yesterday's NBA vs.Today's NBA

Let’s just break down today v. 1990 position by position. We’ll go top ten at each position in 2008-09, and since there were fewer teams, and starters in 1990, we’ll go top nine back then (for today’s players I will use cbssportsline’s player rankings, and for 1990 I will piece it together by referencing stats, leaders, etc.):

 

Shooting guard

2008-2009
Kobe Bryant 6’6” 220
Dwyane Wade 6’4” 212
Brandon Roy 6'6 215
Andre Iguodala 6’6” 207
Tracy McGrady 6’8” 223
Kevin Martin 6’7” 185
Ben Gordon 6’3” 200
Ray Allen 6'5 205
Joe Johnson 6'8 225
Manu Ginobili 6’6” 205

Average height/weight: ~6’6” 209

1989-90
Michael Jordan 6’6” 200
Clyde Drexler 6’7” 222
Reggie Miller 6’7” 195
Joe Dumars 6’3” 195
Mitch Richmond 6’5” 220
Ron Harper 6’6” 215
Rolando Blackmon 6’6” 190
Jeff Malone 6’4” 205
Hersey Hawkins 6’3” 190

Average height/weight: ~6’5.3” 203.5

Mitch Richmond? Ron Harper? They don’t want any of that Kevin Martin noise. I know Joe Dumars doesn’t want to throw down with Andre Iguodala. This is obviously opinion on my part, but I just haven’t talked to many people older than 20 who would call Carter, Iguodala, McGrady and Martin markedly better than Miller, Dumars, Richmond and Harper. My god an ancient Reggie Miller was still ripping up the league a few years ago.

As far as the weight difference of a whopping five pounds, do you really see Michael Jordan being affected by five lbs.? By the way, Michael Cooper is not even on that list. He’d be superior defensively to anyone at the SG position today, including Bruce Bowen. You remember Bowen right? When Michael was older in 1997, Bowen was 26-years-old.

So it stands to reason that a younger, faster Bruce Bowen would have been a force in that NBA, considering what he can do in today’s elite world, right? Wrong. Bruce Bowen was a CBA reject in 1997, playing one regular season minute for the Miami Heat. It’s interesting that CBA rejects and low-level journeymen (Doug Christie) could be so mediocre-bad in the 1990s, and yet, with older legs, be so good now.

See, the idea Hill wants you to get is that Jordan would have had a harder time today, because he would not have pulled his moves on bigger, more athletic defenders. But take the four big guys on that list. Bryant, McGrady, Carter and Davis. Only one of them is known for playing any defense at all, and that’s Bryant. As with height, you get slower when you get bigger. Tracy McGrady never even tried to guard the ancient Reggie Miller. He couldn’t. Miller at an older slower age would have lost McGrady around one screen just about every time.

You look at those two lists and tell me that the league is close today to what was in 1990, and/or as good. I’ll accept that. I disagree, but it’s an acceptable opinion. It is just not a self-evident truth that today’s league is markedly better.

More from Hill:

“Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing will be among the best centers ever, but none of them affected the league the way Shaq and Tim Duncan have.”

 

Center

For the sake of discussion, I’m going to include Tim Duncan, because Hill does, even though cbs puts him with the power forwards.

2008-2009
Yao Ming 7’6” 310
Dwight Howard 6’11” 265
Tim Duncan 6’11” 260
Shaquille O’neal 7’1” 325
Al Horford 6'10 245
Amare Stoudemire 6’10” 245
Al Jefferson 6'10 265
Andris Biedrins 6'11 240
Emeka Okafor 6'10 252
Pau Gasol 7’0” 260

Average height/weight: ~6’11.7” 268.8

1989-90
David Robinson 7’1” 250
Hakeem Olajuwon 7’0” 255
Moses Malone 6’10” 260
Patrick Ewing 7’0” 255
Robert Parrish 7’1” 250
Brad Daugherty 7’0” 245
Bill Laimbeer 6’11” 260
Rik Smits 7’4” 250
Kevin Willis 7’0” 245

Average height/weight: 7’0.6” 252.2

What do we learn here?

I see bigger players like Shaq, Howard and Ming. O’neal is at the end of his rope, averaging a thoroughly unmoving 17.3 PPG, 7.4 RPG and 1.4 BPG. Moses Malone is the best center on the 1990 list that O’neal could spar with at this point in his career.

Amare Stoudemire isn’t even known for defense. His impact in the post offensively is unquestionable, but he gets dunked on by mediocre players. He’s the perfect example of how a bigger and more athletic player can look when he lacks fundamentals, positioning and a feel for the game.

Ming is soft, brittle and not known for being a great defender. Yao, who is largely a media creation, and a product of David Stern’s fanatical desire to tap international markets, is having a solid year at 20.0 PPG, 10.0 RPG and 2.0 BPG. His 10 RPG and 2.0 BPG are thoroughly unimpressive.

As players, in their 2008-2009 form, how many centers in today’s league could rank third on the 1990 list? Zero. By not only opinion, but any empirical measure. Shaq and Duncan used to warrant that consideration, as Howard will one day, but right now, no one does.

 

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