RealGM

Best 1 Year Peak

Give me 1977 Kareem.

Djoker wrote:Give me 1977 Kareem.

Wonder why the sky hook didn’t continue

89' baby here. Too young to have seen Kareem/Wilt/Hakeem (Prime), Bird, or Magic lol. I'm sure many fall into that category, but I'd love to see how others rank them.

Wheres 70'sfan?

I think its 99-00 Shaq, but I could see an argument for 94 or 95 Hakeem as well with his superior defense. Shaq to me had a worse team though, Kobe was still one year away from being a superstar and the rest looked meh on paper/statistics.
So I will give the nudge to Shaq, but I would have to see both playoffs to be sure.
1986 Bird could be 1# if he had more volume scoring. 26 9 and 8 on better TS % than both bigs and smart defense. Shoot more 3's Larry... someone tell him about Curry!

Wilt had 35 ppg in his highest scoring postseason run on 5 TS% worse than Shaq and he played more minutes (all 48) as well. As a scorer when defenses got better, Wilt seems inferior to both Shaq and Hakeem.

His 1967 postseason with 29 rebs 21,7 pts (54.6 TS %) 9 assists and a reported 9.2(!) blocks with a ring seems like his best and has to be considered here.
If we could see his turnover stats that would be very interesting to compare to Shaq and Hakeem. He played 4.4 minutes more than Shaq in 00 so its not inflating his stats too much. And if you have the stamina to affect the game all 48 thats a strength.

Idk, maybe Hakeem is the best choice, probably the best defender (67 Wilt a contender but Hakeem was more agile/more steals etc) but also gives you elite playoff volume scoring, worse rebounder and playmaker than Shaq/Wilt though. Still when a center in the 2's era gives you elite scoring and defense in one, you kinda just need to put shooters, wing defenders and some playmakers around him and you will contend for a ring.

1986 Bird is the most complete player in history.

KGtabake wrote:1986 Bird is the most complete player in history.

Come on.. you know LeBron is more complete. No comparison as defenders in terms of ability and flexibility. LeBron is also the better volume scorer.

Millennium Shaq is the most dominant player/big man/force of nature i have ever seen.

It was impossible to stop him,he was destroying everybody.

(And i'm a Spurs fan,so i wasn't really enjoying it at the time...)

was it in one particular year, 1985, that bird "became" Larry Legend

anyway,,, in1978 walton played what many thought was the most complete game for a center up until that time.

he was a 3rd year player leading a team of starters with a total of 10 years under their belt, to a Championship

MMyhre wrote:

KGtabake wrote:1986 Bird is the most complete player in history.

Come on.. you know LeBron is more complete. No comparison as defenders in terms of ability and flexibility. LeBron is also the better volume scorer.

Bird is a better scorer, shooter, playmaker, passer, rebounder and a great defender
And far better leader.
No, nobody is like Bird in mid 80s.

KGtabake wrote:

MMyhre wrote:

KGtabake wrote:1986 Bird is the most complete player in history.

Come on.. you know LeBron is more complete. No comparison as defenders in terms of ability and flexibility. LeBron is also the better volume scorer.

Bird is a better scorer, shooter, playmaker, passer, rebounder and a great defender
And far better leader.
No, nobody is like Bird in mid 80s.

LeBron has him beat in both volume scoring and efficiency over a longer sample size, but you do you.

99/00 Shaq 30/14/4 with 3 blocks and Lakers cruised to a championship winning 67 regular season games

MMyhre wrote:

KGtabake wrote:

MMyhre wrote:Come on.. you know LeBron is more complete. No comparison as defenders in terms of ability and flexibility. LeBron is also the better volume scorer.

Bird is a better scorer, shooter, playmaker, passer, rebounder and a great defender
And far better leader.
No, nobody is like Bird in mid 80s.

LeBron has him beat in both volume scoring and efficiency over a longer sample size, but you do you.

Larry Bird is the more complete player.
Lebron's not even in the poll but nice job bringing him up.

I didn't see it, but from 61-62 Wilt averaged 50-26. he averaged 58.5 & 26 in the 45 games he finished with 50+ in that season.

Over the 2-year period from 61-63 he averaged 48-25. Over that 2-year span, Wilt had 75 games over 50 points.

To put that in perspective, the most 50-point games any other player has had in a season is Kobe Bryant with 10 in 06-07. More perspective: the 75 Wilt had in those 2 seasons is only 5 less than the next 3 guys on the all-time 50-game list for their careers: Jordan (31), Bryant (25), Harden (24)

HMFFL wrote:

MMyhre wrote:

KGtabake wrote:
Bird is a better scorer, shooter, playmaker, passer, rebounder and a great defender
And far better leader.
No, nobody is like Bird in mid 80s.

LeBron has him beat in both volume scoring and efficiency over a longer sample size, but you do you.

Larry Bird is the more complete player.
Lebron's not even in the poll but nice job bringing him up.

LeBron's not in the poll because he would likely be leading it (same for Jordan). Not because he doesn't belong.

And the user you quoted brought up LeBron in response to someone saying Bird was the most complete player in NBA history... which I think opens up the floor to bringing other players up.

MavsDirk41 wrote:99/00 Shaq 30/14/4 with 3 blocks and Lakers cruised to a championship winning 67 regular season games

This is my pick too. Teams were throwing triple teams at him and he still punished them. He was likely the most unstoppable player ever during that run.

Competing teams had to waste a roster spot on some 7ft stiff to try and slow him down. None of the other guys had teams try and go to that level to stop them.

MMyhre wrote:

KGtabake wrote:

MMyhre wrote:Come on.. you know LeBron is more complete. No comparison as defenders in terms of ability and flexibility. LeBron is also the better volume scorer.

Bird is a better scorer, shooter, playmaker, passer, rebounder and a great defender
And far better leader.
No, nobody is like Bird in mid 80s.

LeBron has him beat in both volume scoring and efficiency over a longer sample size, but you do you.

Bird was a better scorer from anywhere on the court.
Hand checking or not.
I also mentioned playmaking, passing, rebounding, leadership but hey if the "volume scoring" makes you feel better about the completion part, you can have it.

Ps. I leave aside the fact that LeBron isn't even on the poll.

Giannis is a better defender than all of them, plus he gives you 29.9 points per game, 11.9 rebounds, 6.0 assists, .575 field for the last 6 years.
He's in a class of his own, and he won a championship with less help than anyone.

ConSarnit wrote:

MavsDirk41 wrote:99/00 Shaq 30/14/4 with 3 blocks and Lakers cruised to a championship winning 67 regular season games

This is my pick too. Teams were throwing triple teams at him and he still punished them. He was likely the most unstoppable player ever during that run.

Competing teams had to waste a roster spot on some 7ft stiff to try and slow him down. None of the other guys had teams try and go to that level to stop them.

Yea Shaq is the most physically dominant player that i have ever seen. I remember him catching the ball down on the block in the post, taking one dribble, and then turning around and dunking on dudes like it was nothing. He was amazing in his prime.

KGtabake wrote:

MMyhre wrote:

KGtabake wrote:
Bird is a better scorer, shooter, playmaker, passer, rebounder and a great defender
And far better leader.
No, nobody is like Bird in mid 80s.

LeBron has him beat in both volume scoring and efficiency over a longer sample size, but you do you.

Bird was a better scorer from anywhere on the court.
Hand checking or not.
I also mentioned playmaking, passing, rebounding, leadership but hey if the "volume scoring" makes you feel better about the completion part, you can have it.

Ps. I leave aside the fact that LeBron isn't even on the poll.

I remember seeing Bird talk about peak LeBron in glowing terms. Honestly it sounded like he thought LeBron had peaked higher than himself. Larry isn't one to lie about this kind of stuff.

Anyway I had to go with Wilt, his peak numbers are unparalleled. Yeah he'd score/rebound less in todays game but he was just too much of a monster.