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I was thinking this was clearly Clyde the other day, but now I don't know.

Dame's been a legit top 10 player in this stacked era over the last two years. He's a better three-point shooter, probably a more prolific slasher and honestly a better scorer who's seemingly peaked higher in impact.

Clyde was maybe a better passer, maybe a better athlete, etc.

Who's better?

Dame's advantage offensively isn't nearly as big enough to offset the huge gap defensively.

Which Lillard season is better than '91 or '92 Drexler?

I think players in this No-defense era are getting overrated. Dame didn't challenge the shwotime Lakers or make the finals like Drexler's Blazers did.

Peak Drexler was dropping 27/8/6 and making the finals

Drexler for me, clearly so in my opinion.

Still Clyde for me.
When you consider the lesser spacing and lesser restriction on hand-checking of Clyde's era, I don't think of Dame as the superior slasher (and even if he were, he's definitely an inferior finisher).
Clyde was much more devastating in transition, a force on the offensive glass from the wing, arguably a better playmaker (at least equal), and definitely a better defensive player.

It's perhaps not a huge margin, but it's a clear one for me. I think Clyde peaked as arguably [probably, imo] a top 5 player in the league ('92, arguably '88 as well; not far off [top 8-10] in all the years in between, too, as well as one or two after '92).

Dame is great, and still young enough to work his way up the rankings by the time his career is over....BUT......Drexler is, IMO, the 5th best shooting guard of all time. At this point, it's Drexler and it's not yet close.

An Unbiased Fan wrote:I think players in this No-defense era are getting overrated. Dame didn't challenge the shwotime Lakers or make the finals like Drexler's Blazers did.

Peak Drexler was dropping 27/8/6 and making the finals

When exactly did this happen?

Perhaps in an alternate universe where you lived and I didn't?

Drexler and the Blazers lost 4-1 with a MOV of 11 Points in 1985. Is that considering "Challenging"?
His 15/5/9 on 45 TS% and 101 Ortg certainly falls short of anything special.

Did you mean in 1989 when the Blazers were swept in 3 games by an MOV of 12 points?

Clyde and the Blazers finally broke through to the Finals in 1990 when the team was far more talented than any Dame Lillard Blazers team, including players like Terry Porter, Buck Williams, Duckworth and Kersey.

The Blazers then failed to beat the 91 Lakers while having HCA.

I also find it amusing you point to Drexlers numbers, claim this era has no defense yet completely ignore the context of the NBA 1980s and the style/defense player in the era.

Easily Clyde.

Clyde was a monster. Dame is not. And I love Dame- Dame is the better 3 ball shooter, for sure. Clyde was still a much better and more well-rounded scorer, despite what modern stats will fool you to think.

Clyde was a hell of a lot better at getting to the rim and a monster on the break. Without hand-checking and the spacing for 1 v 1, he would have gotten to the rim easily 6-8 times a game, hit 10 FT's, and a few 3's.

I think Dame has been too weak of a playoff performer for this to really be a legit comparison. Drexler wasn’t some killer either in the playoffs, but Dame can’t impact the game in as many ways when his 3 ball isn’t falling.

Clyde gets super underrated IMO. I'm a big Dame fan but gotta go with Drexler.

Pelly24 wrote:I was thinking this was clearly Clyde the other day, but now I don't know.

Dame's been a legit top 10 player in this stacked era over the last two years. He's a better three-point shooter, probably a more prolific slasher and honestly a better scorer who's seemingly peaked higher in impact.

Clyde was maybe a better passer, maybe a better athlete, etc.

Who's better?

I don't agree that Dame is the better slasher. Clyde is the better rebounder; far better on the offensive glass and a little better on the defensive boards. Clyde is clearly the better defender and is one of the best finishers in transition for guards. I would take Clyde pretty comfortably.

I think Lillard is overrated. He is a terrible defender and although he may be better on offense, not enough to offset the difference.

Clyde for me.

If he came into the league 3-5 years earlier he might be considered a top 15-20 player all time. He was a legit two way player. As good as Dame is offensively, his size is limiting and defensively he's below average at best.

Dame's skills can't compensate for the huge size and athleticism gap between the two which translates to many things on the court. Clyde was like a top 25 athlete ever in the league at 6-7 and top 40 all time. Dame hasn't helped himself either by how he's usually performed in the playoffs.

Terry Porter was better than both of them

HeartBreakKid wrote:Terry Porter was better than both of them

Oh I wanna here this one, lol.

HeartBreakKid wrote:Terry Porter was better than both of them

hmm..interesting would like to hear more about that

Terry Porter was better than both of them

I wouldn't go that far but Porter is definitely greatly underappreciated. Look at Porter's 1990-91 season. I would say that season is equal, if not superior to what Dame has shown thus far.

As far as Dame vs Clyde, I believe Clyde is still comfortably the greatest Blazer of all-time. An athletic marvel with a complete all around game. Led the Trailblazers to two Finals appearances with a 63 win season and a WCF appearance in between. 2nd in MVP voting in 1992. 12th all-time in career BPM, 17th all-time in playoff BPM in 145 games. For all that is made of Olajuwon's back to back titles, I really don't believe they win in '95 without Clyde. He averaged 20 pts, 7 rbs and 5 ast on 58.7 TS% during that 22 game run against a murders row of WC opponents.

I really like Dame. I appreciate his fire, his drive to improve his game year after year and his loyalty to this team. But he still has a long way to go to catch Clyde (I hope he does).

Man, Terry Porter was amazing. He had unreal speed, and sometimes he’d hit so many shots that the basketball would literally get lit on fire.

.....at least in NBA Jam TE.

RCM88x wrote:

HeartBreakKid wrote:Terry Porter was better than both of them

Oh I wanna here this one, lol.

Terry Porter bailed out Clyde Drexler a ton - basically all of the Blazers deep runs consisted of bail outs from Terry Porter. Porter had an all-nba caliber half court game, and as a result his style translates better far more in playoffs than Clyde Drexlers style which was disproportionately reliant on transition buckets.

Basically

- Terry Porter is on another tier of passing and floor generalship. This is rather obvious and should be a given.

- Terry Porter was an amazing shooter for his era - something that Clyde struggled with. He did could stretch defenses - most of Clyde's off ball work had to come from cutting (which he was good at, but still not great for spacing).

- Terry was the better scorer in the post season, which is Clyde's primary advantage. If you don't want to go back and look at the games, then you could just look at their stats. Terry and Clyde even had around the same PPG in some of their deep runs yet Terry was way more efficient.

Clyde was a highlight wheel, more highly touted college player and a scorer - thus Terry Porter was always assumed to be inferior. Because of how limited the media was people greatly overlooked that Terry Porter was a legit stud - he is better than someone like Kyle Lowry who gets a lot of push around here. Saying he is superior than Damian Lillard doesn't seem like a stretch - Lillard is still a relatively good post season player but people overrate him because of his high PPG during the RS.