All Time Pistons One on One - Who Wins?

Post #21 » by **Cowology** » Tue Dec 9, 2025 7:30 am

Dantley would cook everybody. He'd give up some too, but he's going to give better than he gets.

Some of those other names aren't exactly wrong...just less correct.

whitehops · Post #22 » by **whitehops** » Tue Dec 9, 2025 3:05 pm

"prime piston" blake, grant hill and cade would be an awesome tourney to watch. i'd throw stackhouse in there as the fourth guy.

Dark-Oh · Post #23 » by **Dark-Oh** » Tue Dec 9, 2025 4:18 pm

These are some great names. It's a tough call. The player has to be able to handle the ball, get their own shot, rebound the misses and defend. Those factors considered, this is my order:

1 - Adrian Dantley
2 - Grant Hill
3 - Mark Aguirre
4 - Cade Cunningham
5 - Ausar Thompson

Cade would be higher, but I think he's likely to turn the ball over enough to lose. Hill doesn't win because his jumpshot wasn't there. Dantley was the best scorer to play for the franchise and had the selfish one on one game to win this. Ausar is going to the basket every time, can rebound, and can defend so he'll be in the top five.

Let me know what you think. I'm interested to know why people think Blake is the winner.

tmorgan · Post #24 » by **tmorgan** » Tue Dec 9, 2025 5:52 pm

If it was some kind of tournament, it would depend on the matchups in the bracket. There’d be a lot of A beats B, B beats C, C beats A going on.

But yeah, if I had to bet on one guy without knowing the bracket beforehand, it’d be Dantley. Strong enough to defend bigs. Quick enough to defend most smalls. Sure, Zeke would give him trouble, as would Hill, but neither are elite shooters, and you have to beat him off the dribble because he’s strong as an ox. There’d be no post ups unless the player is a lot taller, and those guys don’t have the handle or footspeed to win.

On offense, he’d just grind you to bits. Pistons Dantley could post up nearly anyone. It didn’t matter if the defender had 5 inches and/or 40 pounds on him, he just went to work with those legs of his. Just ridiculously hard to deal with. Very ugly for a team-based offense, but in one-on-one, nasty. He could shoot, too, if you didn’t come engage him for the post opportunity.

Dantley would just murder Cade unless he was really shooting well. Ausar vs. Dantley would be fun. Might take a week.

Kalamazoo317 · Post #25 » by **Kalamazoo317** » Tue Dec 9, 2025 7:38 pm

How tight would the fouls be? Because if you could be really physical on defense, it opens things up quite a bit ....

bstein14 · Post #26 » by **bstein14** » Tue Dec 9, 2025 7:49 pm

Dark-Oh wrote:These are some great names. It's a tough call. The player has to be able to handle the ball, get their own shot, rebound the misses and defend. Those factors considered, this is my order:

1 - Adrian Dantley
2 - Grant Hill
3 - Mark Aguirre
4 - Cade Cunningham
5 - Ausar Thompson

Cade would be higher, but I think he's likely to turn the ball over enough to lose. Hill doesn't win because his jumpshot wasn't there. Dantley was the best scorer to play for the franchise and had the selfish one on one game to win this. Ausar is going to the basket every time, can rebound, and can defend so he'll be in the top five.

Let me know what you think. I'm interested to know why people think Blake is the winner.

Adrian Dantley was widely considered the worst defender in the league. He's like what Trae Young is today except without the passing. Could score in bunches, but just horrible defense.

BadMofoPimp · Post #27 » by **BadMofoPimp** » Tue Dec 9, 2025 8:26 pm

Have to be Cade vs Grant. I take Cade.

tmorgan · Post #28 » by **tmorgan** » Tue Dec 9, 2025 9:50 pm

bstein14 wrote:
Dark-Oh wrote:These are some great names. It's a tough call. The player has to be able to handle the ball, get their own shot, rebound the misses and defend. Those factors considered, this is my order:

1 - Adrian Dantley
2 - Grant Hill
3 - Mark Aguirre
4 - Cade Cunningham
5 - Ausar Thompson

Cade would be higher, but I think he's likely to turn the ball over enough to lose. Hill doesn't win because his jumpshot wasn't there. Dantley was the best scorer to play for the franchise and had the selfish one on one game to win this. Ausar is going to the basket every time, can rebound, and can defend so he'll be in the top five.

Let me know what you think. I'm interested to know why people think Blake is the winner.

Adrian Dantley was widely considered the worst defender in the league. He's like what Trae Young is today except without the passing. Could score in bunches, but just horrible defense.

Huh. I really don’t remember that at all. The advanced defensive numbers available don’t back that up either.

Definitely not a good defender, not even average, but not horrible. The numbers got worse as he got older for sure, and he was bad after he left the Pistons. Part of it seems quite irrelevant to one-on-one as well. He was 31-33 during his time in Detroit and past his athletic prime. To compensate, he got even stronger. His issue was he was 6’5” and built like a power forward or center at that point.

Definitely nothing like Trae Young on either end, regardless. Never shot threes, 54% from the field lifetime (outstanding for a non-big now, even better for his era), strong not weak, great athlete in his 20’s.

Menace2Sobriety · Post #29 » by **Menace2Sobriety** » Yesterday 12:04 am

I nominate Tayshaun Prince. He can guard anyone on that list.

Dark-Oh · Post #30 » by **Dark-Oh** » Yesterday 12:47 am

Menace2Sobriety wrote:I nominate Tayshaun Prince. He can guard anyone on that list.

Tay is solid, but doesn't have the offense to win this competition in my opinion. Agreed, on my list he can defend everyone who are all basket facing players. But in a tourney he's also going to have to defend Sheed, Tobias, Budda, and Williamson who will beat him in the post every time.

Dark-Oh · Post #31 » by **Dark-Oh** » Yesterday 12:50 am

bstein14 wrote:
Dark-Oh wrote:These are some great names. It's a tough call. The player has to be able to handle the ball, get their own shot, rebound the misses and defend. Those factors considered, this is my order:

1 - Adrian Dantley
2 - Grant Hill
3 - Mark Aguirre
4 - Cade Cunningham
5 - Ausar Thompson

Cade would be higher, but I think he's likely to turn the ball over enough to lose. Hill doesn't win because his jumpshot wasn't there. Dantley was the best scorer to play for the franchise and had the selfish one on one game to win this. Ausar is going to the basket every time, can rebound, and can defend so he'll be in the top five.

Let me know what you think. I'm interested to know why people think Blake is the winner.

Adrian Dantley was widely considered the worst defender in the league. He's like what Trae Young is today except without the passing. Could score in bunches, but just horrible defense.

Dantley could play defense, but that's a team concept. He was a very selfish player. In one on one he'll defend enough to win.

chrbal · Post #32 » by **chrbal** » Yesterday 2:12 am

Grant Hill (all time as a Piston) vs Allen Iverson (wore a Piston jersey). Grant wins

Laimbeer · Post #33 » by **Laimbeer** » Yesterday 2:23 am

Bob Lanier. He'd score pretty easily on the guys mentioned so far. Maybe not if it's 2 and 1, but then again none of the guys mentioned so far are great three point shooters. He was quite agile for a guy his size and was really gifted offensively.

bstein14 · Post #34 » by **bstein14** » Yesterday 2:48 am

AI Overview of Adrian Dantley

Adrian Dantley was primarily known as an elite scorer, and most contemporary and former coaches regarded him as a poor defensive player during his playing career. His trade from the Detroit Pistons was explicitly made by coach Chuck Daly "for defense".

During His Playing Career (as a player)
A "Poor Defensive Player": Across his career, Dantley was widely assessed as having limited defensive capabilities.

Trade Rationale: The most famous instance of a coach commenting on his defense came from Chuck Daly, who traded the high-scoring Dantley for Mark Aguirre in 1989. When questioned about trading a premier player for an average one, Daly's simple reply was: "For defense". Daly sensed the team gave up too many transition points and the trade, which allowed Dennis Rodman more playing time, was key to the Pistons winning back-to-back championships.

Frank Layden's View: His coach in Utah, Frank Layden, also had a difficult relationship with Dantley and once commented he saw Dantley as a "big scorer" but also a "big deficit".

Shaping a Teammate: Ironically, Dennis Rodman attributed some of his own success as an all-time great defender to practicing against Dantley's masterful offensive post-game, which forced Rodman to use his head and move his feet to try and stop him.

DetroitSho · Post #35 » by **DetroitSho** » Yesterday 2:50 am

Menace2Sobriety wrote:I nominate Tayshaun Prince. He can guard anyone on that list.

Grant Hill would eat Tayshaun Prince for breakfast just like he did Pippen.

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Menace2Sobriety · Post #36 » by **Menace2Sobriety** » Yesterday 4:42 am

Oh I dunno. 1v1 half court? Of course Tay couldn’t match up with the ‘Big’ fellas, but he’d do fine with most others.

Now, I’m not saying he’d win, but he’d be competitive

Uncle Mxy · Post #37 » by **Uncle Mxy** » Yesterday 12:18 pm

If you're talking players at their peak (and not necessarily as a Piston), AI might be in the mix. Of course, he'd have to practice.

Uncle Mxy · Post #38 » by **Uncle Mxy** » Yesterday 12:40 pm

bstein14 wrote:Adrian Dantley was widely considered the worst defender in the league. He's like what Trae Young is today except without the passing. Could score in bunches, but just horrible defense.

No way. At his position, Dantley certainly wasn't as bad a defender as Kiki Vandeweghe. He wasn't any worse than Kelly Tripucka.
Of course, defense was different back in the 80s... often played only in the last 5 minutes of close games, and not by top scorers.
Daly was trying to change the Pistons to be more team first, more defense first, get Rodman some burn, and Dantley wasn't having it.

Dark-Oh · Post #39 » by **Dark-Oh** » Yesterday 1:20 pm

Uncle Mxy wrote:If you're talking players at their peak (and not necessarily as a Piston), AI might be in the mix. Of course, he'd have to practice.

I think we limit this to the ability of the players when they were with the Pistons. Tracy McGrady might win this tourney if we include the best play of their careers in the competition. I'm not an AI fan and he was a shadow of his former low efficiency self when he played here. I'm going to stay on track on and not go on a rant about AI.

I don't think Zeke would win because he can't rebound against a small forward like Hill or Ausar. If he doesn't miss any shots, he would likely win the tourney, but I don't see that happening with a larger athletic player challenging his attempts.

DetroitSho · Post #40 » by **DetroitSho** » Yesterday 3:43 pm

Menace2Sobriety wrote:Oh I dunno. 1v1 half court? Of course Tay couldn’t match up with the ‘Big’ fellas, but he’d do fine with most others.

Now, I’m not saying he’d win, but he’d be competitive

So you picked the guy you don't think would win, to win?

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