Detroit Pistons icon Isiah Thomas appeared on the latest episode of the Come And Talk 2 Me podcast, where he was asked how his Bad Boys team would fare in today’s NBA. To no one’s surprise, Thomas believes his team would dominate.
“A lot of teams wouldn’t get 100 points, I tell you that,” Thomas said. “… If your objective is to take 50 three-point shots against us, you are going to miss 40 of it. And the 40 that you missed, those are fastbreak layups for us. Those are like turnovers.
“You’re talking about defending the perimeter, we could all guard the perimeter,” Thomas continued. “We weren’t getting beaten off the dribble. Now, maybe once or twice somebody would beat us off the dribble.
“But for the most part, I wasn’t getting beaten off the dribble,” Thomas stated. “(Joe) Dumars wasn’t getting beaten off the dribble, (Dennis) Rodman ain’t getting beaten off the dribble, (John) Salley ain’t getting beat off the dribble.
“And this what I know: I’m beating all these cats off the dribble,” Thomas added. “I’m laying it up. I’m Tony Parker right now, I’m Kyrie Irving, I’m going to the hole and making layups. And if I’m not making layups, then I’m dropping dimes. I think I would do well and I think our team, defensively, would be a juggernaut in this era.”
Host Mark Jackson agreed with Thomas. Jackson called those Pistons a “great great” team that was tailor-made for today’s NBA. He believes they would have dominated in this era.
Thomas then reiterated his point about the style of play in today’s NBA being perfect for those Pistons from a defensive standpoint.
“The strategy for most NBA teams right now is to shoot jump shots,” Thomas stated. “And that was our strength, defending the perimeter. You weren’t getting wide-open jump shots. And then you don’t have a screen to get open either? All you gonna do is dribble, dribble, dribble, and then shoot? (shakes head).”
That Pistons team did have some great defenders, with Dennis Rodman being the headline act. Rodman made the NBA All-Defensive First Team seven times while Joe Dumars made it on four occasions. John Salley was a pretty good defender too and while Thomas wasn’t great on that end of the floor, he wasn’t terrible either.
With Thomas leading the way, the Pistons won back-to-back titles in 1989 and 1990, so they do deserve a ton of respect. They were an incredible team but would they be as dominant today as well? Well, the difference in eras makes it a bit difficult to give an accurate answer to that question.
That Pistons team was obviously incredibly physical and even introduced the “Jordan Rules” in order to slow down Michael Jordan. Those tactics were effective then but would not be allowed in today’s NBA so they’d need to tone things down. Would that take away a bit of what made them great? Sure, but great teams tend to transcend eras and that one would have figured out a way to do well in today’s NBA too.
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