An Unbiased Fan wrote:Hmm....so I guess I go back to my question about how we should look at Mikan then. He was a true pioneer of the game, and used that hook to yield a tremendous span of dominance in comparison to his peers.
Both this and the below question are good ones. For me this is where I get into "How impressive was the talent/skill pool?"
It's quite correct in my mind to view the talent/skill pool as an S curve:
I think most would agree that depending on where you are on the S curve, the more impressive a certain level of dominance is.
I think that the formation of the NBA occurs during the steep part of the curve, and that by the late 60s we're on the high end of things. There's more to it than that of course. The talent/skill pool has gotten bigger since then, but we've also had a ton of expansion.
Why do I say the late 60s is at about the modern levels? The FG% is a big one for me. In the first yea of the BAA the average FG% was 27.9. 10 years later it was at 38.0. And then in the next 10 year increments: 44.1, 46.5, 48.0, 45.5, 45.8.
So FG% has been about the same for the past 45 years, after skyrocketing for the first 20. To me that stabilization doesn't happen if we're seeing major changes to the quality of players in the league.
An Unbiased Fan wrote:What exactly would Russell do, that a guy like Mutumbo didn't in today's game? Could he even realistically match Dwight's imapct on Orlando? I hate asking these questions, because it seems like I'm diminishing Russell as a player, but I have to ask.
I think the key thing to understand about Russell is the quickness that comes partially because of his smaller frame. People tend to want to think that the bigger a center is the better, but everything is a tradeoff. Russell talked about his advantage over Wilt being the "horizontal game". This obviously didn't mean Russell didn't get vertical, but rather that he was always moving in and out from the basket to impact the opposing offense in more areas than a big, slower guy like Wilt could.
Now consider Hakeem Olajuwon. Hakeem was about the same size as Russell, and he's the only guy since they started tracking the stats who averaged 4 blocks and 2 steals in a season. Body-wise, he's the guy to compare Russell to.
But then also consider Kevin Garnett, who also is a long, lanky guy. In addition to moving around a lot like Russell, he's become a master defensive quarterback (or "linebacker" - I'm trying to get that slang term going). He has the awareness to see how the offense is flowing, make the right move, and tell his teammates to make the right move. I believe Russell had that in at least the quantity Garnett does - and frankly I can't imagine him being named player/coach otherwise.
