mstat13shuh wrote:"Like Russell, he gets underestimated because there aren't nice neat numbers to look at"
Like nice, neat, shot-blocking numbers?
As you may have noticed, both here & on other chat forums, I provide these once in awhile whenever I deem necessary.
And no, he certainly doesn't have the winning legacy of Russell, or several other more well-known centers & players, etc.
Nonetheless, I'm still convinced he shouldn't be blamed for his teams failures & lack of success compared with other players.
Lastly, I'm still asserting Warrior management was wrong for depriving Nate of his 1st & only NBA title ring.
He deserved better.
Much better.
There is evidence through impact stuff that Nate was ... well great. Such numbers are fuzzy, aggregating disparate data/info on older players is tough etc. But I could see people getting really high on Thurmond.
I would imagine odd forum posts of game numbers (what I'd guess you have) are indeed less "nice [and] neat" than official ones available universally. Beyond availability comprehensiveness, context (comparable with all peers) would also help with this. One would hope, as official statistics, presumably with official guidance, they would be recorded more consistently than reporters counts.
Not sure on the last, bolded bit. It reads as though...
1) A team title is a player accolade
2) Thurmond rightfully possessed one ("his 1st & only").
3) The Warriors knew it was happening and "deprived" him of it. They did "wrong".
The Warriors didn't know it was coming. Play it again with Thurmond (and this would seem by no means to be the best version of Thurmond) or without him and they probably don't win. If players being traded is objectionable (and there is
some case for this, though realistically it's part of a franchise structure of league and the CBA and players know they're signing NBA contracts) then it's a much bigger case than Nate Thurmond. And if one were arguing on player performance 67-68, maybe '69 depending on the data one uses are where he's showing huge impact. It could be said to be unfortunate that a great player left a team before a title (though at an advanced age he brought in a productive piece [and a pick]) but going beyond that with the moralizing angle ... isn't for me. A ring isn't a player achievement and Thurmond wasn't on the '75 Warriors.