“Terrified To Let Tim Duncan Catch The Ball”: Kenyon Martin Lambasts Today’s NBA Defensive Efforts

Basketball has changed a lot in the past few years. There are tons of differences in how the games used to be played back in the 90s and 2000s, and how they’re played now. While we see a lot of quick-fire 3s on offense, many often forget how the defenses have had to adjust as well. This has been a small topic in the larger debate about the stylistic differences between the different eras of the league — and how some fans perceive today’s players to be lazier on the defensive side of the ball.

Kenyon Martin called out the defensive efforts of today’s NBA players. He broke down how his team used to defend during an appearance on “Gil’s Arena” with Gilbert Arenas.

Martin came into the league in 2000, two seasons before the NBA allowed teams to run zone defenses. Before that zone defenses were illegal as the NBA believed it made scoring harder, a fact that even His Airness Michael Jordan publicly acknowledged. Since players were forced to only play man-to-man defensive schemes were a little simpler to operate, including an abundance of double or triple teams on an opposing team’s star player.

Regardless of zone or man-to-man schemes, Martin’s major gripe is with today’s era not playing deny defense. He exclaimed that their lack of effort allows star players to run freely, a tactic his era was taught to shut down. He used Steph Curry as an example of someone hard to deny because of his unique movement but specified that “not everyone” in the modern league can move like Curry.

“I was terrified to let Tim Duncan catch the ball. Terrified to let Kobe catch the ball. Deny him. If he give it up, deny him as far as you possibly can,” screamed Martin. “You can’t go backcourt to catch the mother f***er…it’s illegal.”

Players like Martin will constantly make arguments about this or that but the NBA in 2025 is drastically different than the NBA was ten years ago, let alone in the 2000s. The 3-ball being shot at such a high volume makes it difficult to “deny” all the time, especially when big men like KAT or Jokic can even sink a 23-footer with ease. Not only that but there’s proof that Martin isn’t watching every game as closely as he should be.

The Lakers showcased an incredible defense scheme on Jokic that negates Martin’s entire point

This past Saturday Lakers’ head coach JJ Redick prepped a “deny heavy” defense on reigning three-time MVP Nikola Jokic during his team’s routing of the Nuggets 123-100. An X (fka Twitter) user known as @lilkobe2402 shared footage of the Lakers’ Jokic scheme that assured that the Nuggets offense wasn’t dictated by him as it usually is. This included limiting The Joker’s movement, blocking his path, and even triple-teaming him off the ball. 

While Jokic still finished the game with a triple-double he was only limited to 13 points, well below his season average of 29 PPG. This single game doesn’t showcase the entire league’s defensive efforts but it is proof that this era is hardly lazy on the defensive side of the ball.