Gilbert Arenas has once again reminded us why he’s the least respected voice in NBA media after sharing his take on how the league can fix its defensive problem.
No doubt defense in the NBA has become far too secondary to offense.
Rules and skills have started to favor offense, witnessed in the recent scoring boom by players like Luka Doncic and Joel Embiid, who both recently had 73 and 70-point games.
“Get rid of all Europeans,” Arenas proposed on the latest episode of Gil’s Arena.
“You go to college to learn defense. What college do Europeans go to? They have no athleticism. They have no speed, no jumping ability. They are a liability on defense,” he said. “They are 150 Euros in the league today… name the top defenders. None! Just Rudy [Gobert] and the Greek Freak. Other than that, they are offensive players.
“The NBA took away aggression. They took away aggression to open up the EuroLeague. When they first started getting here, it was too rough for them. They didn’t make it. Eventually, they softened the rules. They didn’t soften the rules for the Americans. They softened the rules to open up international.
“So when they say the euros are going to run the league in the next five years, why do you think that?,” he continued. “More threes, passing, cutting — this is not our league, this is not the American style, this is the Euro style. Drive in, suck the defense in, pass the ball to the three-point line.”
Europeans who are currently in the league, like Luka Doncic, made his professional basketball debut at just 16 years old for Real Madrid – he was the youngest player to ever play for the team.
Just over three years later, Doncic became an NBA player when he was selected in the 2018 Draft.
So although he didn’t go to college, he was competing in high-level basketball from a young age where he was taught fundamentals while dealing with a high pressure and very real basketball game.
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