1st vote: Artis Gilmore70sFan wrote:.
Quoting 70sFan because I'm going to refer to the video clips he'd shared in post 17 of the #35 thread while scouting my own observations [doing it this way because to quote so many video clips can end up choking the page when it's loading]. Ironically---given he's my top vote---I'm going to focus on some criticism; I just want to be up-front in illustrating that I don't have blinders on to his shortcomings......
If you go to the section of individual plays (ABA game, in B&W) 70sFan had labelled "Prime Gilmore defensive analysis":
*the 2nd clip where 70sFan noted "bad boxout": I agree, and in the limited game footage I've watched of Gilmore I find this to a semi-consistent flaw. This is perhaps reflected statistically in Gilmore's massive individual rebounding numbers, but often mediocre [to poor] team DREB%, especially during the latter half of his career. He was so big and strong [and a good leaper early on], I think he got into the habit of simply drifting to the region he thought the rebound was likely to come off toward, where he could simply rely on his athleticism to secure the rebound. Let's call this the "Hassan Whiteside Syndrome": Whiteside is frequently guilty of this, and is no doubt a contributing factor to why the Blazers in '19 [with Nurkic] were 9th in DREB%, and then fell to 27th in DREB% in '20 with Whiteside at C (despite Whiteside's obviously superior individual rebounding rates).
We actually see more of this in the very next clip, which 70sFan labelled as a good play for contesting shots hard.....but it should be noted that if he'd put a harder boxout [instead of leaping and going for the rebound] on the initial shot, there likely wouldn't have been additional shots to contest.
**In the 8th clip (the one 70sFan compliments for the block on Elmore): it is indeed a nice block on Elmore, however it should be noted how easily Gilmore gives ground--->he gives no contact or resistance at all, but rather lets Elmore get right to the basket, again relying on his athleticism [length, and quick leaping] to block the shot. Now it's possible that he's deliberately playing less physical here because of the 3 fouls 70sFan mentions; however, I've seen similar plays from early 80s Gilmore [sometimes even when not in foul trouble], wherein the opponent ends up scoring (because Gilmore just wasn't quite as quick in '82 as he was in the ABA, and thus doesn't respond
quite fast enough to come up with the block like he did on this play).
Consequently, I don't think his defensive impact is always as big as his shot blocking numbers might suggest; because sometimes he was hunting/gambling for blocks in this fashion, often at the expense of sound positional defense.
Now all of that criticism aside, there's no question he was a MONSTER defensive anchor in the ABA [when his youthful athleticism was at its zenith]--->which seems analogous to pre-back injury Dwight Howard. He just had so much length, strength, and quickness.....he was at times simply physically overwhelming to opposing offenses.
And offensively, we're talking about a center who scored a somewhat highish volume while frequently [
six times] leading the entire league in TS% (and being in the top 5 at least a handful of other times). He did this thru elite finishing and close-range shooting [which saw him lead the league in FG% four times, with multiple other top 3-4 finishes], while also drawing an insane number of fouls (a
career FTAr of .544----which is James Harden territory), while being a pretty sound FT-shooting big--->about 70% for his career (>71% if we remove the book-end years, and peaking at 76.8%).
And he frequently proved to be a force on the offensive glass, with a career OREB% of 10.8% (peaking at 12.9%).
So despite him being not much of a passer/facilitator and being a bit turnover prone [frequently brings the ball down low, inviting strips], the above factors combined to make him a considerable offensive force WELL into the 1980s.
EDITED (initially had Payton for my 2nd and Drexler 3rd)......
2nd vote: Clyde DrexlerClose call for this pick, but I'm going with Glide. Will try to bring in some talking points later, though very busy.....
3rd vote: Reggie MillerA lot has been said about him already, particularly by Doctor MJ, as well as myself in the later pages of thread #37. As noted in the edit, I've reconsidered on my placement of Gary Payton, which I think is a carry-over from an older ranking that I just haven't thought hard on in awhile. Now that I'm looking at it, though, I'm having a hard time justifying putting him ahead of Drexler and Miller.
Though I still think he, along with Paul Pierce and Pau Gasol, are going to be the next players I'm championing after these three.
"The fact that a proposition is absurd has never hindered those who wish to believe it." -Edward Rutherfurd
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire
