NBA's home

[LKeet6]

Yeah, agree with you there vinny.

Being a "tweener" was tough for him as well. Not mobile enough to be a 3 and not powerful enough to be a 4.

It's a shame, because he'd be ideal coming into the league now as a stretch 4.

[ezzinomilonga]

I don't know, i think he miss too many movements in post, to be a really good stretch 4. Of course he has a very educated hand, but even no talking strictly about skills or how tall he is for that role, but just about attitudes, he probably loves too much to attack front on the basket, to be very effective playing constantly as 4. Is something he can do with good results only on certain situations or in emergency (as he really often does when he play for Italy, because we suffer mainly the lack of 4 and 5)..and only facing certain opponents.
I think he is just a natural 3.
He obviously pretends to be considered a star, or at least a first level player, but i don't think he is, in NBA.

A curious thing to note is that, in his first years when he exploded in Milano, one of his best weapons was exactly the agility and the speed of execution. Is one of the reasons why i believe all that mass resulted not good for him, in every sense.
But, at the same time, i think he knew really well from day 1 that to play in NBA this was definitely a requirement..even considering that when he made the choice to go in NBA he was not alone, but he was supported and adviced by his father, Mike D'Antoni, Dino Meneghin (one of the strongest european center ever, personally second only to Arvydas), all players of Milano in the 80s, no counting the advuces of the immortal Dan Peterson, the coach of that team and the man who teached the NBA to 2 generations of italian guys, me included, with his comments on tv
Danilo made his choice..and that's all, i suppose.

[LKeet6]

I would argue 4s don't really need post moves these days. Arguably 5s don't really need them!

What's good for both is to be able to rebound, Gal is decent at that, and to have enough post threat that they're able to pass out of the post. Especially for 5s.

But mostly it's all about shooting now! So yeah, I like gal as a stretch 4 myself.

[ezzinomilonga]

I agree, sadly. Is one of the reasons why i really prefer the "old" game. But the tryth is taht the most i see this new era..the less i like it.
I probably am a minority but is fine for me..i understand for someone it can be a great fun to see more possessions, less contact (zero contact is maybe more correct) and a storm of 3 shots, but i find this game is becoming technically very, very monodimensional and tactically very, very boring.
No counting that lot of foundamentals for 4 and , moves that made this game great, will disappear until will be completely forgotten (is enough to think about the skyhook. I remember someone asked to Kareem why nobody seems to be able to replicate it today, while years ago were still dozens the players who knew how to execute it properly..and Kareem said simply "nobody has the patience to work on it"). Quite soon, it will be the same for the huge majority of movements in post..i'll never see again, probably, a dream shake. Or magic things like that. And i think is just sad.

In the same way i really dislike how much defense is penalized in an absurd way, allowing who attacks to jump litterally on the defender, with the cylinder that matters zero, obtaining regularly a whistle against the defender, guilty of being unable to disappear. Meh..

But probably what i dislike the most is this very often totally hypocrite display of apparent love and respect between opponents, always, that is one of the main reasons that lead to be considered absolutely normal to build teams with 3 or more superstars. I see this thing just as a lack of pride. Fierce rivalry should be the salt of every sport. Of course is great to show respect, but what happens now is just ridicolous, sometimes. Years ago there was the same respect, if not a lot more, but there was the idea that the best way to show that respect was to fight till the last drop of sweat and blood, if necessary. Especially against the best players.

No counting all those stupid rules about the technical fouls..you receive a T if you yell a "ball don't lie" wiith the game stopped..or if you shake your finger after a block..i mean..c'mon, this is just stupid. It seems to watch the matches of an elementar school, sometimes.

[LKeet6]

No, I'm with you Vinny! What's happened with the 3pt shot has completely changed the game and it's gone too far. I think MAYBE they might make some changes eventually; I like the idea of narrowing the lane, to encourage more scoring close to the basket.

I agree about the competitive stuff like for getting Ts and stuff, but I don't mind the everybody getting on thing. When it comes down to it, everyone wants to win and tries to win just as much. I quite like the atmosphere around the league.

[ezzinomilonga]

I'm not so sure that to change the 3 pts line would change things so much, at this point. I believe everything is connected and i don't think is possible to "return back", in some way. But i also believe some change it would be needed at the "origin" of this league.

For example, the philosophy exasperated by Houston is only the result of a quite logic observation about how the game works today. I think the loss of technic of the huge majority of 4 and 5 players and absurd rules as (i forgot to add it, before) the semicircle rule that delete the charging, a rule absolutely against the spirit of the game, are among the main causes behind this thing.
If no one knows anymore how to have high %s shooting 2/3 meters from the basket and the rules helps so much who attacks the rim, to dunk is always not only the best, but also the easiest thing.
About the technic, almost nobody has high %s from 2/3 meters as direct consequence of the lack of foundamentals, because these were those things that a player was used to learn at the college. Now that the habit is to play in the best case 1 or 2 years at college, and the 4s are trained immediately mainly on the 3 shot, this is the result.

I think that a serious change of the college rules is absolutely the first thing to do. Even because that system sounds really, really hypocrite. South Park made a fantastic episode about this thing, comparing it to the slavery in a very funny way

Then i think it would be really needed to change some rule about the defence (the bodychecking and maybe even to talk again about the zone defense, but in short i would change again all those rules changed when Shaq threated to dominate the league for more than a decade) to allow the good defenders to make again some real difference.

Of course i believe is unrealistic, if not impossible, to see these changes. The only serious change i'm aware the NBA was thinking about was to create the 4 points spots (they also tried in the 3 vs 3 league of old glories), because they think this way is the right one to have a better show.

I also think that is needed a rule to avoid superteams. Is absurd to have a salary cap to avoid exactly these thing, then to allow at the same time to the superstars to have a ridicolous wage for a pair of seasons to help the franchise to build superteams. Is another things against the spirit of this league.

Unfortunately, lot of sports have some serious problem : the progress and (sometimes, as it happens in F1 and soccer) a really wrong mentality, would require serious changes to have again a entertaining sport. I think about tennis, F1 and, mainly, soccer.

[LKeet6]

I agree with you that the analytics thing has changed everything forever and there's no going back from that.

But I do think narrowing the lane would make more post play and scoring happen; coupled with some changes to defending rules that you suggested. (Though that could make people take even MORE outside shots?!)

For me though, it's the corner 3 that could be taken away. There are average shooters out there who take only corner 3s, eg PJ Tucker. And if you take that away, only the "pure" shooters will be taking on 3s. That could help.

It's also worth noting, (you kind of alluded to it,) that actually close to the basket scoring is still happening a lot! The analytics encourage it. It's 2-3ft OR 3pt that's being encouraged. As well as ft. It's the mid-range game that has really disappeared, and it's hard to see it coming back.

On your Houston point, you meant "exacerbated" not "exasperated" 😉 just helping you 😉 your English is excellent 👍

[ezzinomilonga]

Thank you for the correction, is something very helpful for me to improve. I miss a bunch of words in my english and i have almost never the patience to check if some word that in italian sounds good, it sounds good as well when translated in english, probably also the structure of my quotes is often not the proper one in English (if not definitely childish), but what i miss mainly is the understanding of all those nuances of the language and that little touch of "slang" useful to use few/less words to develop a concept. To be faster. I'm aware i also use really often always the same words (or group of words) to explain myself. But i suppose this is something i could improve only living in a place in which i would be forced to TALK english to survive
Actually i really love this thing to use another language, although sometimes can be a bit frustrating. I love also the chance to talk with people who lives in places very different.
But, to be fully honest, my knowledge of english (as for french or spanish) is absolutely limitated to the written use. I never had the chance to speak english and, especially with my sicilian accent, i bet it would sound extremely funny.

Anyway, of course this era of the game has lot of good things too. I think the medium level of ball handling is incredibly high, for example.
About how to reduce 3 points shots, i think the only way would be to return to the past, with the zone defence declared again not legal. With less defensive rotations, there would be less situations in which a shooter would have lot of free space. I think is this the main reason behind the increase of the 3 points shots. But to return back about the zone defense it would be a step back too big, to be considered. And it would be also totally anachronistic. Then definitely yes, i think there is no return from where NBA is today.
And, in any case, it still remains the best and most fair show you can find looking a sport, for me.
I really wish to see F1 and soccer to be at that level of entertainment. It would be not impossible, but the things to change are really a lot and nobody seems to be really interested to change all these things really wrong on these sports.

[LKeet6]

Agree on zone defence! Maybe that would even bring back some mid range, as teams have to take a shot whenever and wherever they find it.

Can't see any of these changes happening though.

Vinny, the fact you were even trying to use a word like exacerbated shows how good your English is! 👍 I sometimes chuckle at your little mistakes 😉 but I always understand you and you articulate yourself VERY well for a 2nd language.