I love every year watching a team like MIA, who actively prioritizes zone schemes, come out and crush NBA teams because the players have never played against it, and have no clue what to do.
If teams actually practiced and coached on how to beat it as much as they do other defenses, it wouldn't be nearly as effective as it is, and that's with the 3 second rule.
The 2 closest defenses we've seen to an actual zone defense in the modern era came in the late 2000's with Thibs famous overloading defense in Boston and Stans famous funnel defense in Orlando. Both broke the NBA for a while and made teams actually work to score, and both worked essentially like a zone defense. KG used to talk all the time how they essentially just played zone with him sitting in the paint and just taking a step out every 3 seconds, or just running from one side of the paint to the other.
Those teams were absolutely awesome to watch, and imo that era of basketball was great. Every team played different, and guys like Pierce, Kobe, and Dirk really shined because they were experts at all 3 levels. It took LeBron till 2012 to finally learn to beat that defense by realizing he had to beat you from the inside out too, not just taking the gimme jumper.
That's what playing actual defense does, it makes players work on their game constantly, and learn new aspects. I'll always point to 2012 being the year LeBron really became a true legend of the game, because that's when no defense would work on him.
Do people really think teams would just hire a 7'2 stiff to just sit in the paint for 48 a game? Because they wouldn't, players would just learn the scheme and hit the open man. You ever watch a denver nuggets game? Ever see how Jokic sets AG up on the backdoor cut? Those are the skills guys would have to prioritize.
People think it wouldn't be good because right now the players don't think like that. If you can't shoot, teams already leave you open and suffocate one of your team mates. If you can't pass out of traps or dbls teams are going to blitz you (Suns tried to do it to Ant all series and he crushed them with the passing game).
How did not showing on screens and dropping a man into the paint work for the Celtics in the 2022 finals?
This is such an overblown facet of the NBA, and just a bunch of prima donnas who want easy points, and not have to actually work for their points.
But as others have mentioned, we're now in an era were almost everyone on the court can shoot from distance or put the ball on the floor and make a play if needed. I don't think it would be as bad as some would think, and we know this because all of us are going to love watching the Olympics in a few months
NBA players and the media just gaslit all of you because if teams could actual play true zones youd see more games with Sam Hauser going for 20 than Tatum going for 40 and that's not good for business and marketing
