RealGM Top 100 List #94

[penbeast0]

Criteria: Take into account both peak and career play, era dominance, impact on the game of basketball, and how well their style of play and skills would transcend onto different eras. To be more exact, how great they were at playing the game of basketball.

Voting Will End In 2 Days -- Please vote and nominate

NOTE: PEOPLE HAVE NOT BEEN POSTING DISCUSSION FOR THEIR CHOICES RECENTLY. LISTS WITHOUT DISCUSSION WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE FINALS VOTE

Mitch Richmond

3x 2nd Team All-NBA
2x 3rd Team All-NBA
2002 NBA Title (Lakers)
1989 Rookie of the Year
6x All-Star


Chris Mullin

1x All-NBA 1st
2x All-NBA 2nd
1x All-NBA 3rd
5x All-Star

Dave DeBusschere

Hall of Fame 1983
1x All-NBA 2nd Team
2x NBA Champion
6x All-Defense 1st Team
8x All-Star

Tim Hardaway

1x 1st Team All-NBA
3x 2nd Team All-NBA
1x 3rd Team All-NBA
5x All-Star


Bill Laimbeer

2x NBA Champion
4x All-Star


Brad Daugherty

1x NBA 3rd Team
5x All-Star


Jerry Lucas

3x All-NBA 1st team
2x All-NBA 2nd team
1 NBA Championship 1973
Rookie of the Year 1964
7x All-Star

[penbeast0]

VOTE:

There are no primary scorers left you want leading a good team. Lots of good second option types such as Lucas, Daugherty, Mullin, and Richmond; possibly even Timbug though his poorer efficiency probably drops him behind all the others but Daugherty. None of these guys have any defensive chops though.

Defensively, DeBusschere and Laimbeer stand out but they are way behind any of the other players offensively; well behind guys like Shawn Marion too.

Secondary attributes, you have Jerry Lucas who is a near GOAT level PF rebounder and Tim Hardaway who is a very good distributor. Laimbeer, DeBusschere, and Carmelo are solid rebounders but not on the Lucas level; Mullin was a good distributor for a wing.

I think Lucas is one of those guys who you may not like much. Like Michael Jordan or Wilt, he was focused on his own stats and unlike them, he wasn’t a good defender, but his numbers are so much more dominant than any of his competition here, I think you have to accept his limitations and vote him in. He’s Kevin Love with a long prime of years like last year – that’s a 1st ballot HOF player (over Willis Reed in the same year). No one else here is close to a sure thing Hall of Famer.

VOTE JERRY LUCAS

[penbeast0]

Among the nominees, Shawn Marion is pretty clearly the cream of the crop. Amare was/is a better offensive player but Marion was much more important to those Suns teams providing great rebounding and defense as well as good offense -- notice that when Amare went out for a year, Nash and Marion kept the Suns at the same high level. Nash got an MVP; Marion's contribution gets ignored for some reason. For that matter I'd favor Terry Cummings over Amare too though I could see a stronger argument the other way.

On the wings, Hudson was a pure shooter but a poor defender; Marion is far superior; providing a level of scoring not that much below (3 point shooting is almost even actually -- 0.7 out of 2.3 attempts for Marion; 0.8 out of 2.2 attempts for Mullin) and Marion provides outstanding defense and rebounding. Dandridge is a poor man's Marion with similar scoring on faster paced teams and a little less defense, better handles and some clutch playoffs, but without the terrific rebounding and help defense that makes Marion stand out.

The only other players getting mentioned are Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose who, while impressive so far, have really only played one or two good years.

NOMINATE SHAWN MARION

[therealbig3]

I'll hold my vote for now, don't have the time to make my argument, I'll just repost my nomination:

Nominate: Dandridge

Compared many times throughout the project to guys like Worthy and Marion. I brought him up a few times before, which was a probably a little early, but it's a probably a little late now. He was actually more of a 2nd option than Marion or Worthy, who were more 3rd option players than Dandridge was. Dandridge begins as a 3rd option behind Kareem and Oscar on some fantastic Bucks teams, including the 71 championship team. In fact, he's the 2nd leading scorer on the team in the 71 playoffs.

After Kareem leaves in 75, Dandridge takes over as best player on the team, and he actually leads them to an identical record from the previous season, and a playoff berth. Then in 78 and 79, when Dandridge is in Washington, he plays 2nd option to Elvin Hayes, and the Bullets win the championship in 78. You could actually make the argument that Dandridge is the best scorer on the team. In fact, in the 79 playoffs, Dandridge goes for 23/7/6 on 53% TS (the Bullets make the Finals this year), compared to Hayes's 23/14/2 on 47% TS, and Unseld's 10/13/3 on 52% TS.

Overall, Dandridge is a very good scorer and rebounder (around 10% TRB as a swingman), and he proved throughout his career that he can fit on excellent teams and give them a legitimate 2nd/3rd option scorer, and he was even the 1st option scorer on a playoff team.

[lukekarts]

Vote: Dave DeBusschere.

Stellar career. His era's Dennis Rodman - versatile defender, undersized but an excellent rebounder - supremely valuable to a 2 x Championship winning Knicks team, coming up with some big performances such as limiting Wilt Chamberlain in the 1970 Finals.

[penbeast0]

well, after two days and only 2 votes and 2 nominations, I will leave it open to sudden death . . . first candidate to get 2 votes wins.

Nomination isn't as key.

[therealbig3]

Vote: Tim Hardaway

Very good all-around PG, and I was actually going to vote him in before D-Will, but then I changed my mind. He had some big playoff performances as well, and I'm convinced that he had a pretty big offensive impact. His longevity and efficiency isn't nearly as bad as I feel some people think it is.

This doesn't really help the sudden death much, lol.

[ronnymac2]

I think RealGM has been having connection problems, because I couldn't get on for a few days on any device, and my friend couldn't either. I'm guessing that's why the others haven't gotten here yet, too.

Vote: Tim Hardaway

Nominate: Amar'e Stoudemire

Hardaway is the best offensive player to vote for here. In 1991 against Magic and the Lakers (who were a very good defensive team as well, top 5 I believe), Tim dropped something along the lines of 27/13 on 50 percent shooting with 4 steals and 2 turnovers per game. He was sick. He had some great years with RunTMC, then was the lone creative entity on a slow-paced, defensive-oriented Miami squad that was making ECFs and hitting 50 wins consistently.

Amar'e...kind of the same deal. He had the 37 ppg again Duncan and the Spurs. He was a major part of a team that was winning 50 games consistently and getting to WCFs. Amar'e is an all-nba first team guy and an efficient scoring threat who is proven in the playoffs.

[penbeast0]

And Timbug sneaks in after the buzzer (Russian timekeepers) -- no new nominees.