Some props for DL from SI - NBA free agency: Winners and losers
- Thread starter My2Cents
- Start date
The old school Jazz wouldn't have to change much to compete in today's nba, they would just need to actually use the 3pt line. Stockton/Malone would still decimate with the PNR, maybe even with better efficiency.
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Bryon Russell would probably benefit the most with an emphasis on taking more 3s.
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I don't know how many 3s per game were shot by this team, but I seem to remember the Jazz shooting a healthy amount. Probably above average for the era.
framer
Well-Known Member
Can you imagine defenders not being able to touch Stockton. like in today's NBA? If Scotty Pippen had been unable to manhandle Stockton, the Jazz would have had at least 1 championship. Obviously, Stockton gave as well as he took, but he would be amazing with the new rules. With the absolute lack of legit interior defenders in the NBA today, the Stockton to Malone pick and roll would absolutely destroy. Think of the front lines of beef in Portland and Houston the Jazz had to regularly face, none of that happens in today's NBA.
No, the Sloan era Jazz were typically along the lowest in the league when it came to number of 3s attempted.
Yes and no. It was harder to legally pack the paint back then because of the illegal defense rules. Of course, we also know that one of the pillars of the Bulls winning philosophy was to put the pressure on the refs to call it every single time, knowing they wouldn't. And they were right.
I'm familiar with the narrative, but was somehow skeptical since Jerry Sloan isn't supposed to be an idiot.
Well...
The Jazz had the 4th-best 3-point FG% in '97-'98 and were DEAD. LAST. in attempts. Furthermore, they shot less than 2/3rds the league average. In all my Sloan grumblings, I've never thought him an outright moron, buuut...
He knows those shots are worth more, right? And they render illegal defenses moot, right?
*grumble grumble*
Yeah, that is why I think a guy like Russell would have been really good in this current era of role players who are allowed to jack up 3's. Imagine how valuable Russell would be if he shot 6 3's a game instead of 3. Same with Hornaceck. The funny thing is we had a team that could support a high volume of 3pt shots, at least in the starting lineup.
In Sloan's defense, the analytics to break things down (what fraction of missed 3s result in fast break points, etc) didn't exist back then. It was all just kind of done via gut feelings, and looking at more general trends such as "How successful are the teams that shoot a lot of 3s?" By the end of his career that second question was starting to be answered, but for much of his career even that wasn't very clear.
But yeah, what if Sloan had had Stockton and Hornacek and Russell pepper the Bulls with 3s? Oh well.