Retro Draft: Winner is Stun704

[BigSlam]

You have to think that was a controversial photo back in the day

No kidding - especially considering they look like they are telling Bird's junk to "shhhhhhhhhh"!!

[BigSlam]

When you think of these:



The ONLY person you should ever really think about is one guy. This guy. The holder of "the secret":



I'm taking Bill "11 Rings" Russell as my front office dude.

11× NBA Champion (1957, 1959–1966, 1968–1969)
5× NBA Most Valuable Player (1958, 1961–1963, 1965)
5× NBA rebounding champion (1957–1959, 1964–1965)
12× NBA All-Star (1958–1969)
3× All-NBA First Team (1959, 1963, 1965)
8× All-NBA Second Team (1958, 1960–1962, 1964, 1966–1968)
NBA All-Defensive First Team (1969)
NBA All-Star Game MVP (1963)
NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team
NBA 35th Anniversary Team
NBA 25th Anniversary Team

Best season? Pick one of many. I'll go with something like 1961-1962:
18.9 points per game
23.6 rebounds per game
4.5 assists per game
4 steals a game (estimated)
8 blocks a game (estimated)

60 wins and 20 losses
Won the Eastern Conference
Won the NBA Championship

[fatlever]

long live the "secret"

[BigSlam]

long live the "secret"

Which is why I am going with Rick Barry for my 2nd round pick!

[LamarMatic7]

As I wish to build me a tough and good defensive team (although at some point I'll probably just go with a BPA, who's a head-case and doesn't give a **** about team play), I go with Hakeem Olajuwon as an Olympian.



I can't think of a better player to start off with the 6th pick in the draft. The ultimate offensive center, could be the second greatest defensive center behind Russell, a great team-mate and simply could do it all on the basketball court.

[fatlever]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[fatlever]

i hate you lamar.

[fatlever]

thats ok, hakeem is overrated. who needs him. dude is a bum. he couldnt even teach okafor how to score in the post.

[LamarMatic7]

I guess I should make an Alex English video to make this up to you, ha ha.

[LamarMatic7]

At first filling out an Excel document with all these categories is pretty fun, but god I simply hate it now. Couple of categories to go till the job is done though.

[BigSlam]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[fatlever]

I guess I should make an Alex English video to make this up to you, ha ha.

yes. you can be my friend again if you make another nuggets related 1985-1989 video

[Paydro70]

Jeez, Hakeem is "the ultimate offensive center" now? I'd rank his peak no better than fourth all-time on that side of the ball. Not that he's a bad pick at #6.

Just a thought, but should we be specifying what we consider the player's "prime?" Hakeem, for example, reached his offensive peak unusually late in his career (94-95), when his rebounding and defensive abilities had begun to slip. Arguments could be made for three different parts of Jordan's career, his best individual seasons (late 80s), his best all-around seasons (first 3-peat), and the seasons where he demonstrated the most skill (second 3-peat).

[captaincrunk]

Wilt Chamberlain for Hall of Fame. I don't think I even need to make any more picks. Most teams average less points than he can score in a game (100).

[BigSlam]

Wilt Chamberlain for Hall of Fame. I don't think I even need to make any more picks. Most teams average less points than he can score in a game (*100).

* = allegedly

[fatlever]

sure. adding what you consider to be prime will be a nice added bonus. i was planning on doing that for my posts.

who do you have as better than hakeem offensively?
1. kareem
2. wilt
3. shaq?

is this where we debate shaq vs hakeem again? or where we debate what defines being better offensively, averaging more points or having more offensive skills. shaq in his prime was a more dominate scorer than hakeem, but hakeem was most definitely more skilled offensively. he just didnt have shaq's brute size and strength. but i am ok with shaq at #3 on the offensive rankings.

he may not be the best offensive center in terms of raw scoring but you could argue he was the most well rounded offensive center. he had the 2nd best post moves of his era behind mchale. he also was amazingly quick and could dunk with power. finish over players. he had a baseline jumper and a fadeaway jumper. to top it off he was a 70%+ ft shooter. had the best feet of any big man. and was one of the best passing bigs. he was almost like watching a guard in a 7-footers body.

first of many many debates in this thread i imagine.

of the top 10 centers, hakeem is #2 on the defensive side of the ball behind russell. so even if he is #4 on offense and #2 on defense thats quite a combo, but i know nobody is arguing defense.

[SWedd523]

I think Kareem is the best offensive Center ever. Not because I picked him and not because he has the most points scored ever. It's more than he has what many consider the most unstoppable offensive shot the game has ever seen.

Hakeem is obviously a great offensive/defensive Center (and probably my favorite Center ever), and I'd have loved to be in the position to pick him. I do think it's fairly safe to say Hakeem and a couple of the other great all time Centers are just a tier below KAJ, Russell, and Wilt. Not that it's a knock in any way.



As for the prime. All I did was give what I thought his best individual season was. I hope that's fine.

[fatlever]

Oscar Robertson - ironman - played 43,000 minutes

peak 1960-1967 where he averaged 30.5ppg, 9.5rpg and 10.5apg
best season 1963-64: 31.4ppg, 9.9rpg, 11.0apg

- in 2000 he was voted the "player of the century" by the national association of coaches
- 1964 MVP
- 12 time all-star
- 9 time 1st team all-NBA, 2 times 2nd team all-nba
- 1971 NBA champion
- only player to average a triple double for an entire season
- NBA career leader in triple doubles
- and one angry mother ****

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecgwZVnvPIc[/youtube]

[LamarMatic7]

Jeez, Hakeem is "the ultimate offensive center" now? I'd rank his peak no better than fourth all-time on that side of the ball. Not that he's a bad pick at #6.

Just a thought, but should we be specifying what we consider the player's "prime?" Hakeem, for example, reached his offensive peak unusually late in his career (94-95), when his rebounding and defensive abilities had begun to slip. Arguments could be made for three different parts of Jordan's career, his best individual seasons (late 80s), his best all-around seasons (first 3-peat), and the seasons where he demonstrated the most skill (second 3-peat).

That's why I think that we should just write down which season's performance do we want from the particular player.

And yes, I consider him to be. I made that statement not because where he would rank, but because of how versatile he was on offense. He might not be better than Wilt, Kareem and Shaq, but he certainly could score in more ways.

sure. adding what you consider to be prime will be a nice added bonus. i was planning on doing that for my posts.

who do you have as better than hakeem offensively?
1. kareem
2. wilt
3. shaq?

is this where we debate shaq vs hakeem again? or where we debate what defines being better offensively, averaging more points or having more offensive skills. shaq in his prime was a more dominate scorer than hakeem, but hakeem was most definitely more skilled offensively. he just didnt have shaq's brute size and strength. but i am ok with shaq at #3 on the offensive rankings.

he may not be the best offensive center in terms of raw scoring but you could argue he was the most well rounded offensive center. he had the 2nd best post moves of his era behind mchale. he also was amazingly quick and could dunk with power. finish over players. he had a baseline jumper and a fadeaway jumper. to top it off he was a 70%+ ft shooter. had the best feet of any big man. and was one of the best passing bigs. he was almost like watching a guard in a 7-footers body.

first of many many debates in this thread i imagine.

of the top 10 centers, hakeem is #2 on the defensive side of the ball behind russell. so even if he is #4 on offense and #2 on defense thats quite a combo, but i know nobody is arguing defense.

Thanks. Pretty much wrote everything I wanted to.

[-Ian-]

Wow, I'm the last one to pick. FML.