Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson thinks the change is fueled partly by a reluctance to emphasize defense and said he believes coaches don’t understand the game.

“[Curry] has shot well because of what’s going on in basketball today. In basketball today, it’s almost like if you can dunk or make a three-point shot, you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread … there have been some great shooters in the past … but here again, when I played … if you shot outside and hit it, the next time I’m going to be up on top of you,” Robertson said recently on ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” show. “I’m going to pressure you with three-quarters, half-court defense. But now they don’t do that. These coaches do not understand the game of basketball, as far as I’m concerned.”

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Phil Jackson, in a tweet, compared Curry to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, a claim he later tried to clarify.

The irrepressible Charles Barkley sees Curry as the beneficiary of rule changes.

“The Warriors have a terrific team, but you have to admit they have benefited from the looser defensive rules,” Barkley said at Tuesday (via Newsday). “That’s not a knock. That’s just a fact. I’ve got a bunch of NFL friends of mine and they’re like, ‘They might as well be playing touch football out there now.’ That’s not a knock on the NFL.

“Like right now, Steph Curry is great. But you have to admit he’s benefited from the rules change. They always look at us old guys [comparing eras]. Hey, listen, I’m pretty sure if Tiny Archibald came out, Walt Frazier came out, Isiah [Thomas] came out, I’m pretty sure if they played by the rules today, as great as they were, they would have been even greater.

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“I would love for a guy not to be able to [expletive] touch me. I got over 20,000 points. If every time I move a guy touches me [under current rules] I would have shot 10 more free throws a game. Guys would [expletive] put their arm in our back and I couldn’t [expletive] move. That doesn’t mean I’m hating on the Warriors, but they have benefited by the looser rules.”

It fell to LeBron James, a grizzled veteran of 31 who has been through one of these transitions more recently than the Hall of Famers, to express a little more sympathy for the young guns even if he has occasionally devoted an inordinate amount of his time to considering how he’d stack up against Michael Jordan.

James admitted that “they like to talk down on a lot of our players.”

“I heard Dennis Rodman say if I played in their era I’d just be an average player – yeah, about me, that I’d be just an average player,” James told USA Today on Wednesday. “And they say the same things about Steph, ‘If Steph played in our era, then we’d be more physical with him and we’d go at him.’ And it sucks because we’re just trying to carry the torch for the next group to come behind us.

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“I just want to be able to leave a mark personally, and be able to leave this game, this beautiful game, when I’m done with it for the next group of guys. I’m never one to talk down on a group of guys. If they can play, they can play.”

Curry’s coach, Steve Kerr, resorted to sarcasm to defend his player in what, absent the invention of a time machine, is a debate without end.

“Oh, I’m sure, yeah, I could have stopped this back in my time,” Kerr said (via Fox Sports). “Boy, I would have shut Steph down. Because athletes, you know, 50 years ago were much bigger, stronger and faster, more finely tuned. So Steph might not have made it in the league.”

Leave it to Reggie Miller to strike a conciliatory middle ground.