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Another thread on Giannis, but what are the players who have had a better a better 3 years in a row than Giannis has had in the last 3 seasons?

Homer38 wrote:Another thread on Giannis, but what are the players who have had a better a better 3 years in a row than Giannis has had in the last 3 seasons?

Russell 63-65
Wilt 66-68
Jabbar 77-79
Bird 84-86
Magic 87-89
Jordan 89-91/ 96-98
Hakeem 93-95
Shaq 00-02
Duncan 02-04
LeBron 12-14 / 16-18


Yeah, pretty much the consensus Top 10 OAT.


Could probably argue for any of the 2nd Tier ATG as well: Oscar, West, Erving, Moses, Barkley, Malone, Robinson, Garnett, Kobe, Nash, Nowitzki, Wade, Paul, Durant, Curry, Harden

People do realize Giannis has literally been a second tier star at BEST in any 3 year playoff stretch of his life right.


Prime Chris Paul is a better playoff player than Giannis.


He hasn’t had a true disaster series(exposed defensive awareness and walled off offensively), by pure luck. But his defense and offense has been repeatedly exploited in his playoff career. Miami lit him on fire last year, and then shut him down this past year. Just a simple, more recent example.

He’s not a particularly great “playoff player” when considering his drop off. And he tails off against higher level competition. But he really hasn’t seen amazing competition on his conference anyway, compared to some names ITT.

s0ciety wrote:

Homer38 wrote:Another thread on Giannis, but what are the players who have had a better a better 3 years in a row than Giannis has had in the last 3 seasons?

Russell 63-65
Wilt 66-68
Jabbar 77-79
Bird 84-86
Magic 87-89
Jordan 89-91/ 96-98
Hakeem 93-95
Shaq 00-02
Duncan 02-04
LeBron 12-14 / 16-18


Yeah, pretty much the consensus Top 10 OAT.

That's a pretty good list I would say with 81-83 Moses, 74-76 Dr. J and 15-17 Steph also being in the discussion. I think all 3 have reasonable arguments to be above Giannis. Probably 49-51 Mikan as well. I think Giannis' 3 year run is pretty safely top 15 all time given his combo of accolades and ring.

too many to list

Cavsfansince84 wrote:

s0ciety wrote:

Homer38 wrote:Another thread on Giannis, but what are the players who have had a better a better 3 years in a row than Giannis has had in the last 3 seasons?

Russell 63-65
Wilt 66-68
Jabbar 77-79
Bird 84-86
Magic 87-89
Jordan 89-91/ 96-98
Hakeem 93-95
Shaq 00-02
Duncan 02-04
LeBron 12-14 / 16-18


Yeah, pretty much the consensus Top 10 OAT.

That's a pretty good list I would say with 81-83 Moses, 74-76 Dr. J and 15-17 Steph also being in the discussion. I think all 3 have reasonable arguments to be above Giannis. Probably 49-51 Mikan as well. I think Giannis' 3 year run is pretty safely top 15 all time given his combo of accolades and ring.

This, I would take Giannis slightly over Dr. J and Moses, and slight below Steph.

1949-51 George Mikan
1958-60 Bob Pettit
1961-63 Bill Russell
1962-64 Oscar Robertson
1966-68 Wilt Chamberlain
1968-70 Jerry West
1972-74 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1974-76 Julius Erving
1981-83 Moses Malone
1984-86 Larry Bird
1987-89 Magic Johnson
1989-91 Michael Jordan
1993-95 Hakeem Olajuwon
1994-96 David Robinson
2000-02 Shaquille O'Neal
2001-03 Tim Duncan
2003-05 Kevin Garnett
2007-09 Kobe Bryant
2009-11 Dwyane Wade
2012-14 LeBron James
2016-18 Kevin Durant
2019-21 Nikola Jokic

These have solid cases over him, I don't think anyone else has. That said, I would take Giannis over quite a few names here.

1 - 50/52 Mikan
2 - 56/58 Pettit
3 - 61/63 Russell
4 - 63/65 Oscar
5 - 66/68 Wilt
6 - 72/74 KAJ
7 - 84/86 Bird
8 - 87/89 Magic
9 - 88/90 Jordan
10 - 93/95 Olajuwon
11 - 94/96 Robinson
12 - 99/01 SHAQ
13 - 01/03 TD
14 - 03/05 KG
15 - 09/11 Wade
16 - 08/10 Lebron
17 - 17/19 KD

, these are clearly better peaks. And 60/62 Baylor, 68/70 West, 74/76 McAdoo, 75/77 Doc, 81/83 Moses, 89/91 Barkley, 05/07 Dirk, 08/10 Paul, 08/10 KB, 15/17 Curry, 17/19 Harden, 19/21 Kawhi like of the names had comparable historical impact with 19/21 Yannis.

I'm pasting this from that other thread, not sure if this inspired the discussion or not.

No-more-rings wrote:I think it's debatable is all. If we look at 3 year peaks here's what we have for cases.

Mj(pick the 3)
Lebron(pick the 3)
Kareem(pick the 3)
Hakeem(93-95)
Shaq(00-02)
Russell(pick the 3)
Duncan(01-03)
Bird(84-86)
Magic(87-89)
Wilt(Pick the 3)
Oscar(64-66)
Curry(15-17)
Wade(09-11)
West(64-66)
Kobe(pick 3 between 06-10)
Dirk(pick 3 between 05-11)
Nash(05-07)
Durant(12-14 or 16-18)
Barkley(pick 3 between 88-93)
Drob(94-96)

That's 20. I don't think the cases necessarily stop there either. Not saying Giannis is worse than them all, but i wouldn't consider it difficult to name 20 better because well i think all those guys have cases, maybe not accolade wise but impact wise. Career wise, i see no case over them, even if Giannis is better than some in 3 year peaks, it's not by a wide enough margin to catapult ahead of them all.

I'd like to point out that i forgot KG from this list, he's a clear choice for me. I'd also add Harden as debatable(18-20), and i wouldn't fuss if someone wanted to add CP3, Dr J or Moses but i was being conservative nonetheless. If i was being more precise I'd probably break it down as such.

Confident are better:

Mj(pick the 3)
Lebron(pick the 3)
Kareem(pick the 3)
Hakeem(93-95)
Shaq(00-02)
Russell(pick the 3)
Duncan(01-03)
Bird(84-86)
Magic(87-89)
Wilt(Pick the 3)
Oscar(64-66)
Curry(15-17)
Wade(09-11)
West(64-66)
KG(03-05)

Probably better but not 100%:

Kobe(pick 3 between 06-10)
Dirk(pick 3 between 05-11)

50/50 can go either way:

18-20 Harden
94-96 Drob

Have a case but not necessarily a strong one in my mind:

Nash(05-07)
Durant(12-14 or 16-18)
Barkley(pick 3 between 88-93)
Dr J(pick whatever years)
Cp3(pick 3 between 2011-2017)
Jokic(19-21)

Have a weak case, almost non-existent:

Moses
Karl Malone
Westbrook

I think that about wraps it up. That's actually more names that i initially expected. I don't think anyone else is good enough to be mentioned really, but i suppose i could be forgetting a name or 2. Unlike some others i don't overreact and live in the moment too much, and i don't overrate players by PER and BPM anymore.

Giannis this past year i think went from a great defender top 10 in the league type to legit top 1-3 DPOY type, at least in the playoffs. However, i don't think his offensive issues magically disappeared despite winning a title like many seem to think. So while yes, i think Giannis 3 year stretch is probably in the top 20, I'm not buying this idea that it is clearly top 15 or borders on the top 10 i don't see that at all.