I watched an NBA game from every decade

i watched an nba game from every decade starting in 1950 all the way up to this year's nba finals it took me well over a month but i condensed each game into a breakdown for this video along the way i focused on a variety of key themes how has the skill level and athleticism of players changed over time how did the three point lines change shot selection and spacing did referees used to officiate the game differently how have x's and o's evolve and were players in the 50s really plumbers and firemen i also focused on the biggest superstars of each decade bill russell's in the video dr j is in it larry bird magic kareem mj kobe shaq lebron steph they all make appearances settle in grab some popcorn hit the like and subscribe buttons and let's watch some basketball [Music] finding full game footage from the 50s isn't easy but youtube has the majority of a january 7 1950 matchup between the fort wayne pistons and the new york knicks that was the first season the nba was known as the national basketball association the league was founded in 1946 as the basketball association of america but changed its name prior to the 1950 season the style of basketball back then was very different than it is now for example look at how the majority of players shot free throws but beyond just that the gameplay itself was also very different the pistons next game started out about as sloppy as possible with a combined five turnovers before a single field goal attempt had been taken by either team when the ball wasn't being turned over shot selection was erratic despite there being no three-point line players would fire up 30 foot two point jumpers at the basket and you can see why the league average field goal percentage was just 34 back in 1950 no team in the nba shot above 40 percent from the field that season the most popular type of shooting form during the game was the set shot meaning instead of shooting what we now call a jump shot players would plant two feet on the ground and almost chest pass the ball up to the hoop with two hands the next most common way of shooting the ball was the one foot runner jumping off of one foot and shooting what we now usually call a floater but at one point in the game there was one particular shot that stood out to me as something closer to what we might see nowadays watch how the player rips through and dribbles to his left before rising up for a jumper it's closer to the technique we'd see today from someone taking a mid-range pull-up there are also tons and tons of hook shots from the nicks and pistons sky hooks running hooks baby hooks you name it and this game had it as soon as the ball went inside the post player was looking to get to his hookshot even if it meant taking one from 10 to 15 feet out later in the video i'll show you how post play has evolved over time but at this point it was all about the hook shot had social media been around in 1950 passing was the one area of the game that would have made for some legitimate highlight tapes i was surprised at how many flashy passes the game had like no look passes or behind the backs and that passing was especially on display when the knicks and pistons were running the fast break because the court was so clogged in half court situations getting out in transition seemed to be the best option for creating efficient looks [Music] x's and o's wise there wasn't a whole lot to analyze back in the 50s but the primary half-court offense was a dribble weave with the players handing the ball off to each other back and forth on the perimeter by the way the weave is still used by teams today as an entry into different set plays offenses will now start a possession with a weave out on the top get the defense moving or distracted and then flow into another action there was no shot clock back in 1950 so the weave theoretically could be infinite lasting as long as necessary for the defense to break down but that wasn't really the case until the knicks went up late in the game only in the fourth quarter did they begin wasting time by repetitively moving the ball out on the perimeter the 24 second shot clock would eventually be implemented four years later in 1954 which leads us into the 1960s a decade that was dominated by bill russell and the boston celtics for the rest of the video every game selected is from the nba finals starting with the 1963 finals between the celtics and lakers i went into watching these historical games expecting to see a very controlled and disciplined style of play we always hear how basketball used to be more of a team game with fundamental passing and ball movement but the 63 finals was surprisingly frenetic celtics head coach red auerbach was known for introducing the fast break into the game of basketball but both teams played very fast and at times a little reckless just watch this sequence during the first half which featured one fast break after another neither team interested in slowing the ball death in fact i started noticing there were a lot of possessions where the lakers or celtics made zero passes before taking a shot unlike what we're usually led to believe about old school basketball this game from 63 didn't feature a lot of passing and instead had quite a bit of one-on-one play another narrative we often hear about the 60s is that players couldn't or at least didn't dribble with their left hands we've all seen those videos of guys awkwardly moving to their left while dribbling with their right hand to test that narrative i charted every single dribble from the first quarter of this game in total the lakers and celtics combined for 280 dribbles in the front court 219 of those were right-handed dribbles or 78 that sounds like a lot but i wanted something to compare it to so i picked a laker celtics game from this season in 2022 in the first quarter of that game the teams combined for 278 dribbles a similar amount of total dribbles but now just 55 of those were with the right hand a pretty significant difference that supports the narrative that players in the 60s were less skilled as ball handlers back to the game now as you'd expect bill russell was a difference maker defensively he blocked shots and protected the paint all game long for the celtics but besides from shooting a couple sky hooks per quarter he was more of a role player offensively the biggest difference between the 60s and today was spacing the game was played with a pack paint making it very hard for the offense to generate open shots watch the spacing on the ball screen here the handler dribbles right into his teammate in the post giving him nowhere to go same thing on this pick and pop the players are spaced on top of each other the game was officiated differently as well referees were much quicker to call traveling violations nowadays players are given much more leeway when catching the ball on the move or bobbling a pass but in the 60s any even slightly awkward movement was usually called a travel the game was also not nearly as physical with referees calling fouls as soon as any type of contact was initiated offensive fouls were especially different the defensive player didn't need to be set or to fall down to take a charge if the offensive player initiated contact it was called an offensive theft from an x's and o's perspective one of the celtics favorite concepts was scissor action they would bring bill russell out to the foul line and then have their guards cut off of him like in the shape of the scissor it's another concept still used by teams today and speaking of concepts still used today the celtics also initiated offense using pistol action with guards handing the ball off to each other and setting a screen out on the wing many years later that action would be one of the primary options in mike d'antoni's revolutionary seven seconds or less offense with the phoenix suns next up we skip ahead to the 1977 finals between dr j's philadelphia 76ers and bill walton's portland trailblazers a series that was won by the blazers the game is starting to get more modern i mean we even have a nice flop from lloyd b3 while trying to take a charge or as the announcers called it an acting job let's recap the state of the game so far we saw that jump shooting form was pretty ugly in the 50s by the 70s we're starting to see more modern shooting with guards now taking smooth off the dribble jumpers on balance and off of two feet it might not be steph curry but it's a big improvement from this i haven't talked much about athleticism yet but there was little to no dunking in the games from the 50s and 60s there was this bill russell put back dunk off of an offensive rebound but that's about it that's now changed in the 70s as well on one of the first plays of the game bill walton rolled to the basket and dunked on dr jett in general the blazer sixers game was played above the rip with alley oops and players catching bodies referees called a tight game in the 50s and 60s leading to less physical play that's still largely the case in the 70s for example with the 76ers losing henry bibby tried to jump start a comeback by pressuring the blazers ball handlers to create a steal only to be called for three ticky tack reach-in fouls in a row one area that's still lagging behind in the 70s is ball handle consider a superstar player like julius erving obviously he's one of the best dunkers in nba history he had the body type of a modern big wing like adjacent tatum or paul george he hit tough contested fadeaway jumpers all game long against the blazers excelling as the sixers go-to guy in isolation situations but the area of his game that didn't quite line up with modern nba wings was his ball handle he largely played with his back to the basket backing his man down and shooting over the defense instead of relying on quick dribble moves or crossovers the biggest improvement from the 60s to the 70s was the ability to move without the ball and read the defense watch doug collins on one of the first plays of the game he walks down to the screen sees his man as cheating in the paint and then fades out to the corner instead for a jumper on this play collins comes off of a pin down sees his man is trailing him and then curls the screen to get all the way to the basket both the 76ers and blazers used off-ball cutting and screening to free up players for open shots the on ball screen wasn't nearly as big of a part of the game as it is nowadays but motion offenses were beginning to be developed that relied heavily on off ball screens we'll see even more of that in the 80s from larry bird and the celtics the blazers used their center bill walton to initiate that motion offense walton would catch the ball around the elbow area and then act as the distributor looking for his teammates cutting on the weak side that's very different from anything we've seen so far remember the post players we saw in the 60s were all about the hookshot their offensive responsibilities started and ended with the ability to score off hooks but for walt and his passing ability allowed him to have more responsibility within the offense playing away from the basket and looking to pass with shades of how someone like jokic plays today defensively walton was sensational the blazers essentially played a one-man zone walton would roam around the paint and block or at the very least disrupt nearly every sixer shot attempt watch here how he double teams dr j when the ball goes in the post and on this ball screen walton is essentially playing what we now call drop coverage years before drop coverage was ever formally named walton's size and athleticism combined with the blazers defensive game plan were too much for the 76ers the 80s were again dominated by the celtics and lakers so now we head to the middle of the decade for the 85 finals the first thing that stands out is there's now a three-point line on the court the lakers even have four players spaced around it in this frame very different spacing from previous decades but this freeze frame is actually very misleading neither team consistently spaced out to the three-point line even though it was now on the court this shot was actually the only made three-pointer in the entire game and it came because the celtics desperately started shooting threes at the end of the fourth quarter instead spacing usually looked like this with two big men occupying the blocks on the entry into the post magic johnson double teams and just watch the celtics positioning on the weak side pretty much as if the three-point line doesn't exist even larry bird one of the best shooters in nba history had little interest in taking open threes during this game the celtics offense centered around floppy action two bigs would start out on the block while two guards would start below them on the baseline coming off screen set by the bigs bird made a living using those screens to get open for shots on this play he comes off the screen and misses the mid-range jumper but here he uses the screen to pump fake and get all the way to the hoop and on this example both lakers defenders go to birds so robert parish is left open on the inside the guards could also interact with each other and switch places on the baseline adding another layer for the defense to react to here's an example of that the guards switch and bird is left alone in the paint however the majority of the time the celtics ran floppy they were looking to feed the post bird or whichever player received the screen would then look to get the ball inside to parrish and kevin mccabe watch how the defender is fronting the post here which sets up a lob right over the top into parish on the other hand the lakers also played with two big men on the blocks but their primary action was the cross screen early in the possession the big on the strong side block would go set a screen for the big on the weak side block looking to get a paint touch the lakers would flow right into that cross screen for kareem abdul-jabbar and james worthy as soon as the ball crossed half court on this cross screen watch how the celtics defend it they double team the post with the passers man completely sagging off of magic both teams played that sagging defense all game long instead of picking the ball up past the three-point line and pressuring it the celtics and lakers dropped way back and dared the handler to take a shot because no offensive player had any interest in keeping the defense honest by taking a pull-up three the strategy was an effective way to double team the post it created a cat and mouse game where the offense would awkwardly try to feed the post while the player guarding the ball was trying to be in two places at once sometimes that cat and mouse game would result in the post player and ball handler just passing the ball back and forth to each other multiple times obviously the worse the shooter the farther back the defender would go away from the ball but even a sharpshooter like larry bird was given space when he had the ball it's pretty jarring to see no pressure being applied to the ball and everyone being dared to shoot it also directly contrasts the ideas that the hand checking rules in the 80s and 90s made it more difficult to score back then in the 85 finals it didn't really matter what the rules were at all the player guarding the ball was positioned too far back to hanchak even if he wanted to of course there's a reason they played defense like that guarding dominant post players like kareem and mikhail wasn't easy kareem started the game seven for seven and had five sky hooks given how crowded the paint was during kareem's career it kind of makes sense that he developed a signature shot that was nearly unblockable no matter where defenders were positioned meanwhile mchale had even better numbers he finished with 32 points and 16 rebounds despite the double teams but it was the lakers that went on to win the title moving on now to the 1998 finals the three-point lines now a little bit more prevalent michael jordan started out game six by hitting three threes in just the first half here dennis rodman screens for the mj three-pointer while tony cu coach is coming off of an empty ball screen and on this one the balls go to their split action out of the triangle offense it actually wasn't the only time they hit a three off of the split cuckoo chit a big one in the fourth quarter the jazz even hit a pull up three in transition with no one picking up the ball jeff hornacek let it fly from downtown all that being said there were still only six combined three pointers made by the two teams nowhere near the amounts we see nowadays and when guarding the ball the pickup points were still very low like we saw in the 80s here jon stockton has the ball he was a very respectable 38 percent three-point shooter for his career but the bulls still sag off of him and dare him to shoot regardless with stockton showing no real interest in pulling the trigger besides from his three-point shooting michael jordan did his best work in the post he nailed a fade away jumper over his left shoulder buried another fadeaway over his right shoulder and he also faked to fade away getting his man off balance for a beautiful step-through move to the basket the game was really a battle between michael jordan isolating in the mid-range area and carl malone isolating in the low post that's partially because of how dominant jordan and malone were on the offensive end it made sense to let them isolate but it was also partially thanks to the rule book at the time let me explain to you the illegal defense rules of the 1990s the truth is the rules aren't easy to explain a headline from the deseret news in 1998 read illegal defense rule is as confusing as new tax laws and full of nearly as many loopholes the article estimated that 80 percent of nba fans had no idea what it was and that even tv broadcasters were afraid to talk about it because they didn't entirely understand the rules the basic essence of the rules was that defenders weren't allowed to play zone they either had to stick to guarding their man or do the complete opposite and fully commit to double team anything in between like shading towards the player with the ball but not completely leaving your man was illegal so in response to the rules offenses would clear out a side and give their star players the freedom to isolate there were some exceptions to illegal defense let's say the ball is out on the wing and a player is trying to post up on the block if a weak side offensive player was located above the foul line the weak side defender wasn't allowed to help in the post but if a weak side offensive player was located below the foul line the weak side defender was allowed to help in the post even if the post player didn't have the ball for the jazz that post player was carl malone and of course the bulls wanted to give help on it so in response the jazz would space their offense like this leaving the corner completely empty and positioning all three players above the foul line in today's nba this would be pretty dumb the lowest defender would give help and then the two other defenders would zone up on the weak side because the offensive players are so close to each other it would be an easy cover but that was a legal defense in 1998 in fact the bulls got called for four illegal defenses in just the first half three of them were because of that jazz three-man alignment the illegal defense rules of the 90s fundamentally changed how the game was played offenses would try to game the system by strategically placing players on the weak side above the foul line and defenses would do their best to adapt while staying within the rules it all led to a lot of isolation and standing around on offense and in my opinion it limited creativity the jazz ran the same plays with the same spacing over and over again in the finals to isolate carl malone eventually in 2001 the illegal defense rules would be legislated out of the nba which brings us to the next decade before we get into the 2004 finals let's take a minute to get our bearings for where we are in nba history during the inaugural season in 1947 the league average was just 68 points per game however scoring steadily increased throughout the 1950s by 1962 the league was averaging 119 points per game which is still an all-time record to this day scoring then stayed steady in the 70s and 80s the average hovered around 108 or 109 points but then the 90s hit in 1997 scoring went below 100 points per game for the first time since 1956. that started an 11 season period where the league average was below 100 each year 2004 was perhaps the lowest point for offense not only was the league average just 93 points per game but the nba title was won by the defensive minded detroit pistons this is a list of the 10 lowest scoring champions of all time 9 out of the 10 teams on the list are from 1955 or early the only exception is the 2004 pistons despite winning a ring detroit averaged just 90 points per game and they did it with an elite level defense with the illegal defense rules gone players were now free to give help without worrying about being called for a technical fat the pistons defense revolved around that help whenever kobe had the ball the defender one pass away would shrink the floor forcing kobe to either pass or drive into traffic watch how taishan prince is pointing towards the middle here he wants richard hamilton to get into his health position so he can send kobe's drive towards the middle by constantly shrinking the floor the pistons held kobe to just 38 shooting during the series and beat the lakers in five games watch how the pistons defended kobe's ball screens rasheed wallace is hedging here putting two players on the ball but even when kobe splits the screen chauncey billups is right there to give more help that's three players on the ball in today's spaced out three-point shooting nba it's hard enough to get away with putting two players on the ball let alone three but in o4 the lakers just didn't have the shooting or spacing to make the pistons pay for loading up to kobe instead you had possessions like this where phil jackson's triangle offense led to all four players roaming around the paint and the lack of three-point shooting from the lakers 4-man slava medvedenko only made things worse ben wallace and rasheed wallace were able to roam the paint and help out on shaq instead of guarding medvedenko out on the perimeter so with the illegal defense rules gone defenses had gotten smarter isolation basketball wasn't as effective because of the ability to help on defense and the problem in the early 2000s was that the offenses didn't adapt quickly enough the best way to make a defense pay for helping on the ball is to space the court and pass to open three point shooters yet the lakers averaged less than five threes per game during the finals something had to change with the way offense was played before we move on to the next decade here's just a quick montage of how absurd shaq was in the post even with the lack of offensive spacing shaq shot 63 from the field while leading the lakers in scoring at 27 points per game it's fun to just watch defenders bounce off of him or go to ridiculous measures to foul him just imagine him in the modern nba with four shooters around him it's not exactly a secret that the nba game has drastically changed in the last 20 years offensively that's thanks to two big reasons three pointers and ball screens first let's take a look at ball screens from the 2012 finals the heat guards criss-cross along the baseline ultimately winding up spread out on the perimeter the center eudonus haslam sets a screen for lebron causing russell westbrook to help on the roll opening up a catch and shoot 3 for norris cole the very next possession the heat went right back to the same play with lebron again finding cole for an open three spacing the court with shooters and setting a spread ball screen has taken over the modern nba but in 2012 the whole league wasn't completely there yet the thunder for example also set plenty of ball screens but notice how different the spacing is from the heat as westbrook dribbles into the paint okc doesn't space out to the perimeter they duck in in the paint here's an example of kendrick perkins getting a bucket off of the duncan so yes both teams did use ball screens but spacing wise the 2020 finals was a battle between old school and new school the heat were new school playing lebron at the four and putting shooters around him like shane battier or mike miller off the bench the thunder were old school playing two traditional bigs together in perkins and serge ibaka one way the heat utilized their small ball lineup was by using the horns formation in horns miami would put their shooters in the corners in this case battier and miller with lebron and haslam out at the elbows again notice the open paint here the play was just a simple double screen for mike miller and this time down the heat again went right back to the same play but watch what lebron does when miller isn't open he clears him out to the corner gets his three shooters aligned on the perimeter and then finds the open man when okc shrinks the floor this is the same type of defense that kobe faced against the pistons but the antidote was three point shooting in spacing in fact mike miller himself had seven three pointers in this game he had zero twos to go along with those seven threes a sign of the changing times overall the heat as a team made 14 3s by comparison the most the lakers made in a finals game during 2004 was just six lebron himself didn't make a single three during game five but i'd argue he's the best passer in nba history at finding spot up shooters on the perimeter no one is better at drawing the defense towards him and then manipulating it to find the open shooter than lebron at times that willingness to find the open man has even sparked criticism of james from people who want him to be more aggressive as a scorer but when his teammates are hitting the open shot like they were in this game it's hard to argue with the results he finished with 13 assists and a triple-double dwayne wade wasn't a three-point shooter for the heat either but d-wade and lebron were so good at cutting off of each other instead of spotting up on the perimeter they'd use those basket cuts to get down hill into the paint and that all brings us to our final decade and the current year warrior celtics 2022 chances are if you've made it this far in the video you're a pretty big basketball fan and you probably already have a good feel for what the current nba is like if you're a subscriber to the channel i've also already done full length videos on some of the biggest changes there's a 16 minute video on how defense's switching screens has changed the game and there's a 13 minute video on how offenses are now using five out spacing in this year's finals we saw plenty of switching in five out from the warriors and celtics as a result versatility is now more important than ever it's hard to be on the court during the playoffs in 2022 if you can't switch screens and guard multiple positions otherwise you're going to be targeted in mismatch situations offensively of course the superhuman shooting of steph curry has changed the game players are taking more off the dribble threes than ever before and you certainly can't get away with the sagging on ball defense of the 80s and 90s against the league's top shooters it was fun to watch marcus smart's physical ball pressure against steph and the rest of the warriors guards the celtics as a collective are as aggressive and physical as any defense i saw while making this video teams do still strategically sag off of non-shooters payton pritchard is out well above the three-point line to take away jordan poole's jump shot but instead the celtics are able to sag off of andre iguodala giving help in the paint on pool while at the same time daring a three from a below average shooter by sagging off of a non-shooter like iguodala it can help you contain the shooters the trajectory of al horford's career might just show how much the game has changed more than anything the first seven seasons of his career he made a total of ten three pointers the next seven seasons he made 510. not only that but in game 1 of this year's finals he made a career-high six 3-pointers the most by a player in a finals debut ever here horford sets a stagger screen for white but then pops out to the three-point line off of a screen from tatum that's not something you'd see a center do 20 years ago and on this play horford sprints the court as a rim runner but instead of staying in the paint he relocates out to the perimeter and eventually nails another three players now have more versatility on both offense and defense but as much as things change and they have changed other things stay the same remember when i showed you the celtics running pistol action back in the 1960s well flash forward to 2022 and watch smart signal the play he's got his fingers raised in the air like he's shooting a pistol 60 years apart and the celtics are running the same play so yes things have changed but basketball is still basketball thank you very much for watching a video like this one takes quite a bit of time and effort if you enjoyed it i'd really appreciate you hitting the like and subscribe buttons feel free to leave a comment on what you'd like me to watch next and i'll see in the next one oh well you know he was being guarded by plumbers and firemen

Channel: hoopvision68

Views: 1,083,395

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Id: AoeTN2-q7I4

Length: 31min 59sec (1919 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 17 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/themightythor7]

Awesome video with great insight into the evolution of the game. If you have the time I can't recommend it enough