Top 5 bigmen with best touch inside the paint

[tsherkin]

Embid's touch is up there

His perimeter shooting, sure. His touch THIS SEASON has been quite good, and he has the 2020 season at a similar rate, but he has none of the consistency of the guys being discussed, so I find it challenging to include him.

[JimmyFromNz]

Zach Randolph not top 5 but an honourable mention to me, he had a bully ball element to his post game which overshadowed his actual touch.

[tsherkin]

Zach Randolph not top 5 but an honourable mention to me, he had a bully ball element to his post game which over overshadowed his actual touch.

He's an interesting one. From like 07-11, he had pretty good short-range touch. But in general, he was horrifically inconsistent, and pretty crap at the rim, especially because he just couldn't get all the way and slam it most of the time... dude dunked in double digits in 4 seasons and never quite reached 2 dozen in any individual season. That's... damning for a big man. Now, he had some injuries that stole a bunch of athleticism at some point, but man, hooooof.

[dygaction]

Pau Gasol had great hands and soft touch.

[Yinwest]

Do you guys consider Magic Johnson a ‘big man’?

His inside scoring, hooks, layups, finishing seems butter soft to me.

[JimmyFromNz]

Zach Randolph not top 5 but an honourable mention to me, he had a bully ball element to his post game which over overshadowed his actual touch.

He's an interesting one. From like 07-11, he had pretty good short-range touch. But in general, he was horrifically inconsistent, and pretty crap at the rim, especially because he just couldn't get all the way and slam it most of the time... dude dunked in double digits in 4 seasons and never quite reached 2 dozen in any individual season. That's... damning for a big man. Now, he had some injuries that stole a bunch of athleticism at some point, but man, hooooof.

Agree on the athleticism limitations, however I'd view that as the prime reason why he was forced to have the offensive game and score the way he did. For the most part he was one of the best post scorers in the league through his career.

Beyond athleticism his inefficiencies are documented, many came from shot selection and decision making with the ball. For me, when he wasn't choosing to fall in love with jumpers or swallow up offensive possessions his post game and actual touch around the rim was really impressive, with a superb mix of strength, footwork followed by a deceptively soft release either over the length or through step backs.

You've mentioned Al Jefferson already, they're quite similar players with slightly different repertoires. Al backs you down left block, and then fades into a hook or leans into a flip, whilst Zach sets you up right block with the option to face up or work you down with the shoulder width before getting that tiny separation to launch a float shot.

[tsherkin]

Agree on the athleticism limitations, however I'd view that as the prime reason why he was forced to have the offensive game and score the way he did. For the most part he was one of the best post scorers in the league through his career.

Well, no, semantically I wouldn't say he was one of the "best posters scorers" in the league through his career (especially later on). But he WAS quite good at finishing post moves where he couldn't get to the rim. That's not quite the same thing, and he was missing a bunch of other key elements of good big scorers, including off-ball movement. Isolation isn't the only component of post play. But yes, he had skillful touch on his shots away from the rim.

You've mentioned Al Jefferson already, they're quite similar players with slightly different repertoires. Al backs you down left block, and then fades into a hook or leans into a flip, whilst Zach sets you up right block with the option to face up or work you down with the shoulder width before getting that tiny separation to launch a float shot.

Indeed. Another good example where gaming for certain kinds of shots isn't actually a great strategy if you can't supplement with the high-efficiency stuff also. But fancy footwork and pretty much always able to get a clear hook out of an iso possession.

[Cavsfansince84]

Do you guys consider Magic Johnson a ‘big man’?

His inside scoring, hooks, layups, finishing seems butter soft to me.

No, I wouldn't at all. To me you gotta be at least 6-9 barefoot or around there to be a big man. I don't even really consider Barkley to be a big man for debates like this one tbh. Also need to have some kind of legit post game(which has nothing to do with Magic, just putting it out there). I actually think Wemby will be mentioned in these kinds of threads 5 years from now.