Post#25 » by TrueLAfan » Wed Jul 30, 2025 12:40 am
You’re really talking about two different Artis Gilmores, both of which were good players. But the first one was better and played more than peak Zo. I’m not sure Artis changed his game in the 80s as much as he had to change it as a result of the knee injury he sustained in 1979. Nba.com describes it as “devastating”; a 1981 SI article discussed the October 1979 surgery to “remove cartilege.” I’ll bet money that it was a torn ACL. And it was a different period, not just in medical treatment, but in how players (and coaches) approached play and staying on the court. And Artis was all about that—and remained all about that post injury. He had played in 670 straight games when he went down in October 1979, returned to play less than 11 weeks after surgery, and played 250 straight games after that.
But he was never the same after the injury—that’s when he moved closer to the basket. He essentially went from being “quick enough” to “not very mobile.” On defense, he went from a guy who could and did play some hybrid help/man defender to a purely man defender. This lessened his value on that side, although he was still good in either scenario. But on offense, the post injury effects were much more severe. Artis had often set up on the mid-post with the Colonels and pre-injury Bulls (he usually posted up a couple of feet in from the elbow, about 12-14 feet out). He often (much more than later) faced the basket on offense. And he could get away with that. Artis was always a mechanical player, but a smooth one; he wasn’t super quick, but his length combined with “enough” quickness allowed him to give a fake (usually to the left), and swing toward the basket for a short shot or hook shot or, if he put the ball on the ground, a dunk. Playing a bit farther away allowed him to see passing lanes better in a world that rarely used the three. Artis had an assist % of 11.1 going into the 1979-80 season. That’s markedly better than Hakeem’s pre-1993 years; better than Ewing. About 10% below Drob in his best years, and DRob was a good passer. Zo never came close to that (well, except for 1996). Artis’s assist/TO ratio was bit under 1:1 in those first 8 years, but that’s not unusual for a C. He was, again, much better in that department than Zo, and did for a whole lot longer.
After the injury, he was very different. He set up about 3-5 feet closer to the basket, about midway from the elbow to the basket. His knee kept him from planting as strongly, and his first step and lift were lessened. He became a full time back to the basket player and put the ball on the ground much less. Since he was more frequently pushing and shoving down low and had more players between him and perimeter players, his assist numbers went down drastically. From 1981 to 1986, his assists percentage was 6.6%, down over 40% from 1972-9. (and lower than peak Mourning, who was not a good passer, but still came in at 7.6%) Artis's shots per minute of court time went down almost 25%, but because he set up so much closer to the basket, his FG%--always good—went even higher. But the fact remains that he was a wildly different basketball player. The interesting question (to me) is if Artis Gilmore from January of 1980 through 1986, where he played about 500 games and averaged about 18 and 10 and 2 blocks on 63% shooting and 68% true shooting percentage, was better than Zo’s 534 games between 1993 and 2000.
