Crazy thing is, I was just reading this Michael Cooper interview on Dray guarding Kareem lol
Michael Cooper Q&A: 'Los Angeles will always be about the Lakers'
The style of play in the NBA has changed so much in recent years, with teams shooting a lot of three-pointers, putting less emphasis on positions, switching a ton on defense and things like that. What do you make of today’s style of play and how it’s evolving?
MC: Well, I was just talking about this with a good friend of mine and my former teammate,
Norm Nixon. We do a show together and he said something that I really agree with. He said, “The NBA has always been the center of attention and everybody always tried to play the game like us. Now that the game is everywhere and you’re seeing many more European players, now European basketball is sort of taking over the NBA and we’re starting to play the game like them.” To me, that’s a bad thing. Now, it’s all about three-point shots. It’s all about point forwards. It’s about players moving out of positions. There’s no true point guard, no true two-guard, no true three, no true four.
Is this a good thing? I think, eventually, it could be. But we have to get back to understanding that championships are won in the paint and by playing a certain way. When you get a team like Golden State that shoots a ton of threes and has 6-foot-8
Draymond Green at the center and they win multiple championships, [teams are going follow that model]. Draymond can play all five positions and that’s great! But someone like Draymond can’t defend a center; at least, he couldn’t in our era. I would love to see Draymond try to guard
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or
Wilt Chamberlain or
Bob Lanier or
Jack Sikma. But the league has changed and everyone tries to go with that same format. What it’s doing is making the league more like European basketball.