Martin basically said he didn’t respect Garnett because Garnett in his opinion was “soft” and his tough guy act was just that an act. He also said the game today has been watered down because there are no more enforcers in the NBA the way it once was.
He agreed with David West about Andrea Bargnani in that in todays NBA he would be dominant because he shied away from physical play. He said they beat the hell out of Bargnani and he wanted no part of that kind of play. Martin and West agreed that European Bigs in the NBA are only successful because most of them are stretch 4’s and 5’s who do not play on the block. Outside of Dirk Nowitzki, most European Bigs, struggled in the NBA before the stretch era came into existence according to West and Martin. Dirk didn’t shy away from physical play and that was one reason for his success.
Oh yeah and that’s what Martin was saying. I know my uncles talk about the old NBA days of the 1970s and 1980s when guys like Maurice Lucas, Kermit Washington, and a few others from the 1970s and 1980s whose job it was to intimidate other teams stars and sometimes that led to fights. Those days are gone now.
Yeah the rules have changed but to some degree he is right in that most guys from Europe for whatever reason will not mix it up and get physical and that’s why I believe the NBA has turned into a stretch 4 and 5 league because Euro big men tend to play facing the basket and they would rather shoot a jump shot versus posting someone up inside. In todays NBA, guys like Shaq would be ineffective because Shaq’s game was being a brute and punishing people on the block and today he would need to be able to shoot jump shots and that’s not his strong suit.
Just my opinion but 10 20 years ago, guys like The Joker would be irrelevant in the NBA because they tend to play as perimeter players as opposed to being inside the paint on the block guys. Ewing, DRob, Duncan Shaq, Hakeem etc all played on the block with the exception being Hakeem had a mid range game as did Ewing, Duncan and DRob so they would do fine in todays NBA but guys like Shaq, Rick Mahorn etc would struggle.
Yeah I remember when he played at Cincinnati and he would intimidate Louisville’s whole front line LOL I’m from Louisville. He basically bullied U of L’s whole team back then.
He was a beast in college and that injury he suffered cost Cincy a shot at the NCAA title. They had a good team back then.
I disagree with you simply because Shaq was not skilled offensively. He was just brute force and power. On the other hand, Hakeem, because of his offensive skill set would be dominant today because he had a fall away jump shot, spin moves etc on the baseline and the block so he would do fine as would DRob, Ewing because they were more skilled than Shaq.
Outside of dunking, Shaq had no jump shot, no jump hook etc and those other guys did so from that perspective, they would succeed and since Shaq played with force, he would get into foul trouble today because they call fouls way closer now than they once did and that would hurt Shaq’s game on the offensive end.
Problem is Shaq wouldn’t gaurd out at the three point line.
I love Shaq, one of my favourite all time players to watch and definitely a top personality. He would kill someone like porzingis on the block but he couldn’t chase him around. Young Orlando Shaq would have a go but he has little chance
That’s quite horrible take mate, have you watched Jokic at all? His an inside banger with one of the best post games in NBA. The 3 ball is only an addition to his game, but not his game.
Not the only bad take.
Shaq would absolutely murder these Cs nowadays. Kat would be going home crying. And a smart coach would be able to hide him on defense so he doesn’t have to step out as much.
That dude was a scoring machine back when the game was way more physical…today BBQ chicken all day
smh