Oscar Robertson Blames Defensive Coaching For Curry’s Success

Hall-of-Famer Oscar Robertson feels that today’s NBA offers terrible coaching defensively, and that’s why Stephen Curry and the Warriors are seeing success.

The Golden State Warriors continue to rout any and all NBA foes. With a 52-5 record and no signs of letting up, the all-time record is well within sight. It wouldn’t be farfetched to project them getting to 74 or 75 wins instead of just making the 72-win mark.

Impeccable shooting, textbook ball movement and gritty defense are just a few reasons why the Warriors are looking like one of–if not the–best team in NBA history. There is however, one legend that doesn’t believe this team is as good as they seem. Hall-of-Famer Oscar Robertson was on ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike yesterday speaking on his feelings of why the team, and more specifically Stephen Curry are so effective:

"“If I’ve got a guy who’s great shooting the ball outside, don’t you want to extend your defense out a little bit?” the 77-year-old Big O said Thursday during a phone interview on ESPN’s Mike & Mike show. “I just don’t think coaches today in basketball understand the game of basketball. They don’t know anything about defenses. They don’t know what people are doing on the court. They talk about analytical basketball and stuff like that.”“They double-teamed me an awful lot during my career,” said Robertson, who in 1960-61 became the first and only player in league history to average a triple double. “I look at games today, and they’ll start a defense at the foul line. When I played, they were picking you up when you got the ball inbounds. So it’s a different strategy about playing defense.”“If I’ve got a guy who’s great shooting the ball outside, don’t you want to extend your defense out a little bit?” the 77-year-old Big O said Thursday during a phone interview on ESPN’s Mike & Mike show. “I just don’t think coaches today in basketball understand the game of basketball. They don’t know anything about defenses. They don’t know what people are doing on the court. They talk about analytical basketball and stuff like that.”“They double-teamed me an awful lot during my career,” said Robertson, who in 1960-61 became the first and only player in league history to average a triple double. “I look at games today, and they’ll start a defense at the foul line. When I played, they were picking you up when you got the ball inbounds. So it’s a different strategy about playing defense.”"

In no way, shape, or form am I trying to disrespect one of the greatest players to ever play the game, but this was a typical “get off my lawn” response. What Robertson is claiming is coaches like Gregg Popovich and Rick Carlisle, arguably two of the best coaches in history, don’t know the game of basketball and understand defense. Well, that’s news to me and if that’s the case, my resume will be sent to the teams that relieve their current head coaches of their duties after this season concludes.

To address his statement from the beginning with extending the defense out further, sure teams have tried that approach. But Big O, even though you were an all-time great, you never played against a player with the ball handling of a Stephen Curry nor the shooting ability he possesses. Don’t you think if extending the defense was the answer to stopping him, teams would’ve taken that approach already?

Here’s another thing to think about: Robertson was the last player in NBA history to average a triple-double, which occurred during the 1961-62 season. Robertson was a dominant force, sure, but there HAD to be some lack of defense in order for a player to post 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists per game, right? Take a look at the league averages from this season:

Rk Team PTS/G
1. Philadelphia Warriors*:125.4
2. Cincinnati Royals*:123.1
3. Boston Celtics*:121.1
4. Syracuse Nationals*:120.7
5. St. Louis Hawks:118.9
6. Los Angeles Lakers*:118.5
7. Detroit Pistons*:115.4
8. New York Knicks:114.8
9. Chicago Packers:110.9
10. League Average,118.8

List provided by basketball-reference.

Pretty impressive defense shown in those numbers, right? The NBA’s points per game average for this season is currently 102.1, and that’s considering today’s game includes the three-point line, something that didn’t exist in Robertson’s playing days. Also, the shooting skill of players today is much better than the majority of historical players, simply because players dedicate more time to shooting a tremendous amount of shots daily. Also with sports sciences and analytics, players can tweak their shooting form and dissect where they are taking shots in certain situations to be more efficient.

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Another preposterous claim that Robertson made was when he underplayed Curry’s ability to shoot by claiming his old teammate, Adrian Smith, was a great shooter as well. He didn’t directly say it, but it was implying that Smith was on the same level as Curry. Who is Smith you ask? Smith played in the ABA from 1961-1972 for the Cincinnati Royals, San Francisco Warriors and the Virginia Squires. His best season came during the 1965-66 season where he averaged 18.4 points per game. Since they didn’t have the three-point line, the only way to determine whether or not he was a good shooter was by his basic field goal percentage, which was at it’s highest point in 1967-68 at 46.4 percent.

Since he played so long ago, there isn’t much film to go off of, but my guess is he wasn’t pulling up from 30 feet and efficiently knocking them down like Curry. There’s a reason why when Curry does these things, people are saying he is one of a kind. According to NBA.com, Curry is 45.5 percent from 25-29 feet, 60 percent from 30-34 feet, and 50 percent from 35-39 feet.

And if this wasn’t obvious already, Curry can make a defender look silly off the dribble and finish in the paint as well, this isn’t a one trick pony type of guy. Referring back to NBA.com, Curry has attempted 288 shots from five feet or less (making 64.6 percent of those shots), which displays that he is more than comfortable when it comes to scoring in the paint.

All in all, this was just a ridiculous claim from Robertson.

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Oscar, you’re an all-time great that everyone respects. But when you make these type of statements, the only questioning of basketball knowledge that surfaces is your own. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the most amazing athletes do things that we’ve never seen before. You solidified your legacy in this game’s history and everyone gives you credit for that despite the lack of complexity in defensive philosophies when you played, so it isn’t right to criticize a game that has changed so much over time.