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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYjJe6I5auA[/youtube]

Seems like a pretty interesting player. Big, tough, physical player with skills. Great passer, even if also a turnover factory at the same time.

Parish really seemed to have a tough time with him.

So, I'm asking - where would you rank '84 Ruland among the best center peaks of the 80s? How does he compare to Kareem, Moses, Parish, Sikma, Laimbeer etc.?

I'd especially love to hear penbeast's opinion, him being a longtime Bullets fan.

Yeah, he's kind of an interesting study. Not a terrific athlete: big/stocky build, but at 6'10" is actually marginally short for a center (where he was mostly playing at his peak, if I'm not mistaken), and has what appear to be kinda short arms (like Kevin Willis); so in "effective length" he might be more like a 6'9" player. Not particularly quick or fast in the open court, not a good leaper; and while he seems coordinated, he's not exactly a fount of grace.......and yet in spite of all this, he was a pretty good player at his peak.

Before I proceed any further, I need to be up-front: I have NOT seen much of Ruland first-hand (live and/or full-game videos). So someone who knows more (penbeast) please correct me on anything I'm completely off about.....

The things I note about Ruland is he was good at using his thick build to post-up, at the very least had a nice little jump-hook coming across the lane (I think with right hand only, but I could be wrong), fairly soft touch around the rim, and pretty decent touch in the 12-19 ft range. He hit his FT's fair to decent for a big guy, was a pretty decent passer, and a solid (though not great) rebounder. Defensively, he's not a rim-protector at all, but iirc he was a pretty hard-nosed and decent low-post man defender.

Perhaps his biggest flaw was being turnover prone. fwiw, I seem to recall reading that a fair number of his turnovers were the result of offensive fouls coming on over-aggressive/moving/or otherwise illegal screens (again, correct me if that's wrong penbeast). Not that that really matters, I guess.....a turnover is a turnover. Though if he's an aggressive screen-setter, I suppose that has its up-shot (when he's not called for an offensive foul).

Overall, I think his peak is obviously well below that of Kareem or Moses; it's even considerably below what those two were doing in '84.
I'd rate him at least a little below Parish for peak, too; Parish being at least marginally better at basically everything except passing imo (OK, and Parish was more foul-prone, which could limit his minutes).

Peak Sikma and/or Laimbeer is actually probably a pretty close comparison for peak Ruland. I probably put peak Sikma marginally ahead of him, and peak Laimbeer perhaps marginally behind.


EDIT: fwiw, Ruland is the guy who comes to mind when I want to make a modern(ish) comparison for George Mikan--->similar height and natural build as Ruland (though Mikan probably with marginally higher/longer reach), similar athletic attributes, both demonstrated some shooting touch, some passing skill, both had a little jump-hook.
When asked how I think Mikan would translate to a more modern league, Jeff Ruland-level (though probably a little better rim-protector) is roughly what I think he would be.

How do you feel about DeMarcus Cousins?

Ruland wasn't that athletic but the results seem similar. Ruland's strengths were his strength and soft touch; he wasn't a good defender, just very physical, had good court vision but poor hands, dropped the ball and got stripped a lot as well as trying to thread the needle on passes too much. I don't think he's ever a lot better than we saw if he stayed healthy but he was a ray of hope in the bleak landscape of post Wes/Elvin Bullets and I always wanted to see him paired with Manute though the Bullets virtually never tried it.

Quotatious wrote:[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYjJe6I5auA[/youtube]

Seems like a pretty interesting player. Big, tough, physical player with skills. Great passer, even if also a turnover factory at the same time.

Parish really seemed to have a tough time with him.

So, I'm asking - where would you rank '84 Ruland among the best center peaks of the 80s? How does he compare to Kareem, Moses, Parish, Sikma, Laimbeer etc.?

I'd especially love to hear penbeast's opinion, him being a longtime Bullets fan.

btw, I love the end of this clip: game's over when an all-out falling on the floor tustle breaks out between Frank Johnson and I think Gerald Henderson; it's barely been broken up and then there you see McHale roaming around shaking hands with and high-fiving Bullets, saying "good game" and such. Like nothing happened. And of course there would be no penalties or suspensions. A different time......

Peak Jeff Ruland would be the best low post scorer in the NBA today.
Cousins shoots more at a lower percentage. Cousins draws more fouls but refs are more generous in calling defensive fouls now. The three point shooting spaces the floor. The legal zone makes it easier to help but illegal defense was not all that enforced when Ruland played so with the lack of 3 point shooting I think Ruland faced more help defenders than Cousins does. With many more good low post scorers like Bob Lanier playing the defenders may have had more experience defending good low post scorers.

He and Sabonis were very similar players with the exception of Sabonis having a 3pt shot.


Ruland was traded for Moses Malone straight up.

Warspite wrote:He and Sabonis were very similar players with the exception of Sabonis having a 3pt shot.


Ruland was traded for Moses Malone straight up.

Other than having good court vision, I don't see the similarity with Sabonis whose game was built around his great size. Ruland was always a bit undersized, at least in height, with relatively short arms and small hands. His game was built around movement and raw physicality while Sabonis was more of a finesse player, at least for his size.

As for the trade, a Jeff Ruland who had played less than half his games the previous two seasons due to persistent back problems and Cliff Robinson, a very solid combo forward who may have been Philly's main objective (19 pts, 9 reb the previous season), were traded for a 30 year old Moses Malone (only 3 years older than Ruland) who was in decline but still very solid, Terry Catledge, a promising young PF, and 2 1sts. As Ruland never played again, this comes across as something of a steal for Washington even though Malone didn't improve the team's record to any significant degree.

Ruland created contact an then adjusted to the defenders response with a soft release through the gaps.

I am under the impression that peak pre NBA Sabonis was a speed guy. Old Blazers Sabonis was huge and strong but not overpowering on offense and not somebody creating contact or being particularly creative as a scorer.

I think Ruland was very creative in a very ugly sort of way that isn't thought of as being creative. Moses Malone is the guy I think Ruland played like. Maybe 3 parts Moses Malone and one part Tom Chambers.

Nobody really comes to mind as being like Ruland offensively in the current NBA.

Penbeast would know better than me. I just remember the Bullets playing my Celtics tough while losing playoff series to the Celtics. The mediocre but hard working physical Bullets were part of why 1980s Celtics fans considered the Eastern Conference much more physical and hard nosed defensively than the run and gun Western conference that sometimes seemed to think they were too good to play defense.

Ruland may not have had the athleticism to be a good defender but he worked hard, kept moving and clogged the lane.

To be fair, the only young Sabonis I've ever seen was the Olympics. I'm basing my comparison on Trailblazer Sabonis.