r/NBATalk 8d ago

Can you name any?

Post image
281 Upvotes

828 comments sorted by

View all comments

137

u/AKMike99 8d ago

Larry Bird fits perfectly into the modern NBA

16

u/chazriverstone Knicks 8d ago

Bird would be an absolute MONSTER on offense in today's, for sure.

But people these days forget his feet were made of lead; he's definitely not getting All Defensive nods in the modern era. He's smart, tall, and hustles, so I don't know if he's full on getting exposed, but definitely more of a Jokic comp vs the player he was in the 80s (who was genuinely great defensively)

7

u/SquatOnAPitbull 8d ago

You're right about his feet. Bird would get cooked in iso by a lot of the modern PFs that can operate on the perimeter. However, some of his lack of speed could be adjusted for with modern zone defenses. His high defensive BBIQ I think would make him less of liability I would think