grade The Bobcat's season

Heh, yeah, I should have looked that up. I suppose I should have said that the Bobcats would have won even fewer games if Okafor had played as many games as Wallace did and if Wallace was limited to the number that Okafor played. And in case you wondered, Charlotte was 21-34 (.382) with Wallace and 5-27 without him (.185). So the point was correct, I just shouldn't have characterized Wallace as someone who hadn't missed significant time.

 

The Bobcats playing downtown only means one thing: Crime

 

Just when you thought this thread couldn't get any stupider...

 

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I'd argue the opposite is true. The East is still weaker than the West, but it's stronger than in recent years. They have the best team in Detroit, and the top 4 can play with the top 4 in the West. The West is just stronger with second tier teams in the middle. All the West playoff teams are decent.

Regardless, Jordon's popularity masked the overall decline in talent in the mid to late 90s, as well as the hack and grab style of play that existed in the East at that time, like in those terrible Knick/Heat series. It's therefore more difficult to build a team, particualry when you don't have a scorer.


The NBA may never get back to the Golden Years of Bird, Majic, Thomas, and Jordon all playing, but there's a lot more talent now than 10 years ago, and the rule changes that allow teams like the Suns to do well have improved the watchability for casual fans like myself who just want to see good games, not muggings and one on one basketball.

It hasn't been since the 80s that we've seen young stars that are not only great but play unselfishly and not just isolation basketball. Lebron, Wade, Billups, Melo, Nash, Brand (the next Malone), Novitski, Parker, Gasol. If you saw Lebron play, you saw a great player who can get and make his own shot, but also make his teammates better and get their shots. Which is why Lebron is already better than Kobe, who is only great one on one.

Think about the stars that have 9-10 years in the game now, minus Shack, who is an old school player. Iverson, Webber, McGrady, Kobe, Starbury (ok, he's not a star). Much different type player that was less team oriented.

 

The East's record against the West has improved over the last two years, but it's still far worse than during the first two seasons of either of the last two expansions (below .450 in '05 and '06), and much of even that improvement has to do with Detroit and Miami emerging as powers. Along those lines, the East is more top heavy than ever, with only 6 teams (out of 15) having winning records, while three teams besides Charlotte had fewer than 30 wins. Contrast that with 96 and 97 when both conferences had multiple teams above the 55 win mark. The same holds true for the Miami/Charlotte expansion years in '89 and '90. Moreover, the lower shooting percentages and lower scoring averages in the current game make it easier for an expansion team to compete, as teams can focus on rebounding and defense without needing much scoring talent.

 

Or you could say....

Talent level, comparitively, was worse. in 97-98, the NBA was living off fumes from their golden era with Jordan, Ewing, Hakeem, and Malone.

And compared to 97-98 season (the last one I could find stats on quickly on NBA.com), scoring is up from that season.

The style of play isn't as good as it was in the late 80s and early 90s, when even the Bad Boy defensive Pistons averaged 104. But it's a lot better than the mid 90s grind, which was my point.

 

Actually it's pretty much identical (97.0 vs 96.9), but the scoring average was higher in '96-'97 and significantly higher in '88-'89 and '89-'90. Meanwhile the shooting percentages in each of the last two seasons were lower than all of the other four years we're talking about, and significantly lower than all but '97-'98. Additionally, assist totals have been significantly lower for the last two seasons than in the earlier expansion years.

*shrug* To each his own, but the statistics dispute your view.

 

Again, I'm not debating that the late 80s wasn't the pinnicale from the NBA. It was. Bringing up stats from that era supports both our opinions.

The Bulls and Jazz lead the league in 97 with 103.1 per game. The median was 95.4 (Indiana).


This year, the Suns lead with 108.3 per game. It does go down from their (Seattle 102.6), but the median (Cleveland) is 97.6. Scoring is up.

 

No, it isn't, and I already explained that out to you. First of all, you looked at the wrong season. The Toronto/Vancouver expansion was in '95-'96, so we're looking at that year and the following season of '96-'97. As I already noted, the scoring average in '96-'97 was 96.9 (pretty much identical to this season's 97.0) and the median was 97.2. Meanwhile that initial expansion year of '95-'96 featured a scoring average of 99.5 and a median of 99.4. So no, scoring isn't up. Scoring is down, field goal percentage is down, and assists are down.