Where would Jerry West rank in the 90’s?

[tsherkin]

Yeh I disagree. If we could teleport West into today's game I feel alot of laughs would be had about modern guys bodying him left and right.

Who is it you think would be bodying him more than he dealt with in his own era? The guy was an aggressive driver in a packed-paint period. He was 6'3 and built well, quick, had hops and good wingspan. His physical tools wouldn't be a problem in today's game and even with the relatively early development of skills in that period relative to now, he had a good pull-up jumper, good range, was an excellent FT and mid-range shooter and had great passing ability.

I think you're overdoing it a little on this one.

[One_and_Done]

It's not just about strength, it's about speed. West would be unable to move side to side to hang with modern guys. He played in clogged toilet era.

[70sFan]

It's not just about strength, it's about speed. West would be unable to move side to side to hang with modern guys. He played in clogged toilet era.

Based on what? Do you believe people 60 years ago were physically unable to move well?

[One_and_Done]

All measurable athletic markers certainly indicate vast improvement in that regard. But there are alot of factors. Today's player pool is much larger and more coached and conditioned from a young age. They grey up watching a much more modern game, with hundreds of millions of dollars invested into development at a young age. West grew up at a time when the NBA was barely a (segregated) national sport, and players got minimal early skill development.

In West's era you didn't need burst and insane lateral movement as much either, because the halfcourt was clogged. Today the extra space is lethal.

West wouldn't be bad today, he had useful skills, but even in the 90s he'd be outclassed.

[70sFan]

West wouldn't be bad today, he had useful skills, but even in the 90s he'd be outclassed.

So West wouldn't be bad, but you'd still laugh at him? You are a strange man then.

[One_and_Done]

West wouldn't be bad today, he had useful skills, but even in the 90s he'd be outclassed.

So West wouldn't be bad, but you'd still laugh at him? You are a strange man then.

A supposed mega star is teleported into today's game, and his stans have to eat crow while he gets bodied and dunked on? Sounds funny to me.

[70sFan]

West wouldn't be bad today, he had useful skills, but even in the 90s he'd be outclassed.

So West wouldn't be bad, but you'd still laugh at him? You are a strange man then.

A supposed mega star is teleported into today's game, and his stans have to eat crow while he gets bodied and dunked on? Sounds funny to me.

Every player gets bodied and dunked on, you have a very strange sense of humour.

[SickMother]

Teleportation doesn't exist. If it did, I'd likewise imagine they could give Jerry a shot or pill or inject him with some AI (Allen Iverson, not Artificial Intelligence) fortified microbodies that scaled up his athleticism and intellect to levels beyond that of even the era that he is teleporting into.

Like they could send a Jerry with 2069 level evolutionary traits back to the 1990's (even though his mastery of the four point shot will be obsolete in that archaic time) and relegate Jordan and Hakeem down to the Drexler/Ewing tier as he won ten straight chips with Bimbo Coles, Mario Elie, Loy Vaught and Felton Spencer as his running mates.

[One_and_Done]

It's called a hypothetical. We do those on player comp boards I hear.

[tsherkin]

It's not just about strength, it's about speed. West would be unable to move side to side to hang with modern guys. He played in clogged toilet era.

I think you're overrating speed, especially given the proliferation of pick and roll sets taking a lot away from the initial defender.

[Cavsfansince84]

All measurable athletic markers certainly indicate vast improvement in that regard. But there are alot of factors. Today's player pool is much larger and more coached and conditioned from a young age. They grey up watching a much more modern game, with hundreds of millions of dollars invested into development at a young age. West grew up at a time when the NBA was barely a (segregated) national sport, and players got minimal early skill development.

In West's era you didn't need burst and insane lateral movement as much either, because the halfcourt was clogged. Today the extra space is lethal.

West wouldn't be bad today, he had useful skills, but even in the 90s he'd be outclassed.

The halfcourt wasn't that much more clogged in the 60's than it was in the 90's and the pace was so much faster in West's era that it opened up the court a lot more. 90's nba was much more slowed down and plodding in many ways. West also gets to benefit from

a.lax dribbling rules
b. 3pt shot
c. lax offensive fouls
d. stars being more the focal point
e. way better shoes and travel

If Mark Price(whose career I saw from beginning to end) can be 1st team all nba with way less size and athleticism while being a way worse defender then I think West could easily be top 5-10 every year of his prime.

[One_and_Done]

Pace does not equal speed. Pace can just mean your team tends to chuck bad shots early in the shot clock. Today's players have to run around far more to defend elaborate actions than teams from older eras had to jog up and down in a straight line.

[Cavsfansince84]

Pace does not equal speed. Pace can just mean your team tends to chuck bad shots early in the shot clock. Today's players have to run around far more to defend elaborate actions than teams from older eras had to jog up and down in a straight line.

Even if its just shooting shots earlier in the shot clock that gives defenses less time to set up and all of that. Its obvious if you watch games from back then there was less set offense and all of it was more free flowing than in the 90's. Also, this is about the 90's and not today.

[onedayattatime]

Reviewing this thread, I agree with the short answer that West is probably competing for third with Robinson. Of course, there are some dream scenarios in which he's stellar. Imagine Jerry West replacing John Starks on the Knicks. West leads that team to multiple titles during the Jordan era and, in the mainstream, he's probably seen as #2 in this era.

While I tend to agree that players tend to be worse when you 'time travel' them, I feel that West is somewhat resilient to this effect. He played in an era that didn't maximize his skillset, and maybe more importantly, he had an all-time work ethic that would help him to adjust. I read about how, as a child, he would practice his quick release all night to the point that he would end most practice sessions with a bloody nose: this foreshadowed how, as a pro, West broke his nose *9 times* driving into a paint that had pretty much zero spacing from his teammates. So even just based on competitive drive, I find the idea that West would be 'bad' teleported forward similar to the idea that Bird would be bad. Worse, possibly, but West really was an outlier.