NBA History Question of The Day.... 8-14

[shakes]

6 minutes ago, Diesel said:

I think Curry's struggle would be minds and hearts... and not skills.  It's no lie that the Splash brothers ushered in this new era.   He still had to win over some minds and hearts and it took a Steve Kerr.

Him Jumping + 3 attempts in 2012 is Jackson letting him be free  and +3 more attemp=s in 2015 is all Steve Kerr. 

Mark Jackson team put up 1351 3pters. 

Steve Kerr's team put up 2592 3 pters. 

That's almost double the amount.  Steve Kerr believes in Let it fly!  Steph needed that to become the fuller player that he is now.  Curry would have had to effect coaches in that era to want to be let it fly coaches.    Not even Westhead had tht kind of greenlight. 

 

 

 

and that's a big problem.   Like me you remember the 80s and 90s.   Back then it was considered terrible basketball to shoot more than a few 3s per game.   I think it's very unlikely that Curry would ever find himself in a spot in the 80s/90s where he would have a coach and team that let him loose like that or even saw that as a possibility.    

And let's not forget Curry's durability issues early in his career before he got stronger.  Those would be amplified by quite a bit during the very physical 80s/90s era.    

There's a better chance that we never even hear of Steph Curry as opposed to Curry becoming who he is today if he played back then.  Too many obstacles to overcome both on and off the court.

[Diesel]

1 minute ago, shakes said:

and that's a big problem.   Like me you remember the 80s and 90s.   Back then it was considered terrible basketball to shoot more than a few 3s per game.   I think it's very unlikely that Curry would ever find himself in a spot in the 80s/90s where he would have a coach and team that let him loose like that or even saw that as a possibility.    

And let's not forget Curry's durability issues early in his career before he got stronger.  Those would be amplified by quite a bit during the very physical 80s/90s era.    

There's a better chance that we never even hear of Steph Curry as opposed to Curry becoming who he is today if he played back then.  Too many obstacles to overcome both on and off the court.

Yeah, I say that but if he could have gotten with a green light coach like Lenny Wilkens... It may have worked out. 

Wilkens took Ehlo, Price, and Brandon and made the three bombarderes.

He brought that idea to Atlanta and he had Mookie, Smitty, and Ty Corbin. 

Kerr actually played on that Cleveland team but they didn't put up a lot of threes, just their main guys.   In Atlanta though...  He was one of the first old school coaches to get his team over 1500 3pt attempts.   If he had a Curry, he may have encouraged Curry to shoot the three. 

 

 

 

[shakes]

17 minutes ago, Diesel said:

Yeah, I say that but if he could have gotten with a green light coach like Lenny Wilkens... It may have worked out. 

Wilkens took Ehlo, Price, and Brandon and made the three bombarderes.

He brought that idea to Atlanta and he had Mookie, Smitty, and Ty Corbin. 

Kerr actually played on that Cleveland team but they didn't put up a lot of threes, just their main guys.   In Atlanta though...  He was one of the first old school coaches to get his team over 1500 3pt attempts.   If he had a Curry, he may have encouraged Curry to shoot the three. 

 

 

 

basically it sounds like you're saying that if Curry could go back in time and bring Steve Kerr the coach with him there's a chance.  Or maybe if we squint our eyes enough we can envision a scenario where Curry ends up on Atlanta vs one of the other 28 teams and they happen to have Wilkins as a coach  and he somehow turns his back on 60 years of basketball teaching and encourages his team to start shooting 3x as many 3s as any other team in the league.   At a time when post play was considered the end all be all to good basketball.

 

i think I have a better chance of winning Mega Millions.

[Diesel]

37 minutes ago, shakes said:

one of the other 28 teams and they happen to have Wilkins as a coach 

 

It would have had to be the right coach.  Hell, i don't know when D'Antoni started coaching in the NBA.  However, it had to be somebody who probably got a little flavor of what they were doing in other leagues.  I agree with you let it fly was shunned but had any coach watched what Curry did at Davidson, let it fly would have had to be an option that they considered. 

 

[shakes]

19 minutes ago, Diesel said:

 

It would have had to be the right coach.  Hell, i don't know when D'Antoni started coaching in the NBA.  However, it had to be somebody who probably got a little flavor of what they were doing in other leagues.  I agree with you let it fly was shunned but had any coach watched what Curry did at Davidson, let it fly would have had to be an option that they considered. 

 

that begs the next question, would Curry have even had the green light at Davidson back in the 80s/90s?

 

I don't think we can overestimate just how much of a massive change it had to take in everyone's mindset, culture, etc to move from a post oriented sport to a completely different perimeter game we have now.   

 

Loyola Maramount tried playing a fast paced shooting style, but it was always just a gimick and no one took them seriously even when they had some minor post season success.

[AHF]

Bear in mind that small guard letting it fly doesn’t really fly so long as you can grab and hand check those guards constantly.  The rule change that unlocked this kind of play was the elimination of hand checking.  It freed smaller players to get quality looks they were not able to consistently get prior to then.  So if you could import Curry and Kerr back in time I’m not sure Curry could really duplicate what he does today with Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars bumping and dragging him as he makes all his off the ball cuts.  He could still have been revolutionary in the sense that he could take a volume of 3pt shots never before seen and hit a good % of them but I’m skeptical he could have been as effective in that much more physical era.  Smaller players pay a bigger price in that type of game.