RealGM 2017 Top 100 List #61

[pandrade83]

In terms of defensive impact, I think it's fairly telling that all of Hayes' teams were decent to elite on defense & suffered massive drop-offs when he left/had big bumps when he arrived.

2 of the years he led in DWS were after we had better defensive data and in one of them, he carried the Bullets to a 4th place DRTG during a year in which Unseld was ineffective due to injury. The offensive issues are problematic for sure and they reared their head in the playoffs but I don't find that more troubling than Carter's last 3 years in Toronto which cuts into his prime in a meaningful way or the fact that Carter didn't demonstrate he could anchor a strong offense in NJ.

[trex_8063]

Thru post #41:

Elvin Hayes - 6 (pandrade83, dhsilv2, fundamentals21, Outside, Clyde Frazier, trex_8063)
Vince Carter - 5 (iggymcfrack, Doctor MJ, Dr Positivity, LABird, Joao Saraiva)


Feel free to continue discussing, but I'm thinking it's time to move on. Calling this one for Hayes. Will have the next up in a moment.

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[Doctor MJ]

When they won it was on defense.

They won it with mediocrity. Their SRS was about zero that year.

If Walton had stayed healthy, Portland goes on to be a dynasty with ease and no one thinks about that Washington team any more. I think it's a mistake to focus too much on the fact that they happen to win a title to render Hayes play as super-productive.

Now, I have been hyperbolic. Hayes wasn't a horrible player and Washington wasn't a horrible team, obviously. I'm just not all that impressed with them as a whole. I do like Unseld of course, but part of what I like about him is the way he elided the parts of his game that weren't really helping the team, whereas Hayes seemed to spend his entire career hurling bricks.