HoopsHype.com Columns

Who's bad?
by Daniel Walsh / February 4, 2003

Coupled with a style of unusually physical play, the recent mental meltdowns of Ron Artest have made many columnists around the country compare the Indiana Pacers to the former championship Detroit Pistons teams from the late 1980’s. Those teams were spearheaded by current Pacer Head Coach Isiah Tomas and people see similarities in style of play as more than coincidence, but are the comparisons fair? The answer in a word is NO, but answers without explanations are about as useless as Pro-Bowl defensive coordinators.

So let’s start with the old argument crutch: statistics. The 2003 Indiana Pacers are giving up 94 ppg and opponents are shooting 43%. In their championship seasons of 1989 and 1990, the Pistons gave up 100.8 ppg (second best in the league) and 98.3 ppg (best in the league). During those two years, opponents shot 45% and 43%, respectively. On paper, the argument looks good, right? Wrong.

In the 1989 playoffs, the Pistons gave up 92.9 ppg, which was the lowest amount allowed by any NBA Champion since the advent of the 24-second shot clock in 1954-55. In the 1980’s, NBA offenses flourished and teams routinely averaged over 100 ppg. So when a team in the ‘80’s held an offense under 100 points, it actually meant something, which is why the statistic “holding an opponent under 100 points” became a measuring stick for defenses. Thus, when teams were scoring a lot every night, the Pistons were breaking ground by holding offenses under 100 points on average for an entire year.

The Pacers are allowing 94 ppg in a league where teams are lucky to score more than 90 each night.

Now that the statistics are out of the way, we can concentrate on the real analysis. The Detroit Piston Bad Boys were a collection of angry men that contested every shot and never allowed a layup attempt in the lane without a forearm to the head, chest or neck. It was a badass attitude that won games but also represented a hard-nosed example of how the game should be played. In the past 10 years the NBA has become a finesse league, with better defense being played at your local YMCA.

The league caters to superstars, which means that superstars don’t get touched and are free to make acrobatic moves freely while defenders wave their red capes for fear of getting a letter from the league office.

But then the Indiana Pacers come along this year and they are not afraid to play tough defense and deliver the hard foul. And suddenly the Pacers are the new Bad Boys, right? Wrong. Just because the Pacers play hard-nosed defense in a league of players that let Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady dunk from wherever they want to, doesn’t mean that this Indiana squad belongs in the same sentence as the Bad Boys.

Do a tale of the tape at each position: Isiah Thomas would have destroyed Jamaal Tinsley, Joe Dumars would have eaten up Reggie Miller, Dennis Rodman would have embarrassed Ron Artest, Bill Laimbeer would have slapped Brad Miller silly and James Edwards’ handle bar mustache would have made young Jermaine O’Neal cry. Throw in Vinnie Johnson, Rick Mahorn, John Salley and Scott Hastings off the bench for the Pistons and you’ve got a horrible mismatch in this tough man contest. The Pistons were not Bad Boys, they were Bad Men and the Pacers just don’t belong in that class.

Speaking of class, remember the Bad Boys were responsible for one of the most class-less acts in NBA history, walking off the court and refusing to shake the Chicago Bulls’ hands after losing in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals. This was fun to watch, but in a weird way you respected the Pistons for being bastards to the bitter end. You even found yourself having a strange level of respect for the Bad Boys’ ability to consistently display complete lack of regard for every opponent, in victory or defeat. And you realized that the Pistons won two championships with that style of play and that’s what these reindeer games are about.

The Indiana Pacers have a long way to go before they can put themselves in the classless class of the Detroit Pistons’ Bad Boy championship teams. But, if Ron Artest keeps melting down the way he has and the Pacers keep playing hard defense, this Indiana team may be on the wrong right path.

Daniel Walsh writes for the Daily Southtown and is a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com

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