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Combine the best traits of Dirk Nowitzki and Rudy Gobert. Is this player the GOAT?

sp6r=underrated wrote:Combine the best traits of Dirk Nowitzki and Rudy Gobert. Is this player the GOAT?

he would have one of the greatest peaks ever for sure

First, I think we need to settle on the name... Dirk Gobert or Rudy Nowitzki?

He'll be GOAT level or close to it.

LAL1947 wrote:First, I think we need to settle on the name... Dirk Gobert or Rudy Nowitzki?

He's probably be GOAT or close to it.

Rudy Nowitzki with that assonance and rhyme would be a GOAT worthy name.

homecourtloss wrote:

LAL1947 wrote:First, I think we need to settle on the name... Dirk Gobert or Rudy Nowitzki?

He's probably be GOAT or close to it.

Rudy Nowitzki with that assonance and rhyme would be a GOAT worthy name.

IKR, haha! Rudy is a more chant-able first name too.... Lock him up, Ru-dee, Ru-dee, Ru-dee!

Btw, I'm assuming Dirk's shooting, skills and BBIQ is transferred into Rudy's body here?

Um...maybe the GOAT? Top 3 candidate I think.

I think pretty easily a GOAT talent. Assuming he can stay healthy for a reasonable length career, which may be a given here? Notably better than KAJ at a lot of things, and not much worse in many notable areas (I'd have Kareem as a notably better passer, though still not a huge margin).

sp6r=underrated wrote:Combine the best traits of Dirk Nowitzki and Rudy Gobert. Is this player the GOAT?

No this guy would be so slow on the court.

Very weak passer for a GOAT candidate, for mine. However, the unprecedented offensive and defensive gravity is very, very tempting.

eminence wrote:I think pretty easily a GOAT talent. Assuming he can stay healthy for a reasonable length career, which may be a given here? Notably better than KAJ at a lot of things, and not much worse in many notable areas (I'd have Kareem as a notably better passer, though still not a huge margin).

This guy has the best traits of both. So he has Dirk level durability, which is excellent, only one injury in his prime which sadly occured in WCF

Dirk's already unblockable fadeaway gets like 6-7 inches more wingspan on it? lol.

Just making Dirk that much of a lob and dunk threat would make him pretty significantly better tbh. Dirk was pretty good at driving and finishing already, imagine him having all that length and dunking power too.

The Shaq vs Rudy Nowitzki battles would be fun to watch.

NO-KG-AI wrote:Dirk's already unblockable fadeaway gets like 6-7 inches more wingspan on it? lol.

Just making Dirk that much of a lob and dunk threat would make him pretty significantly better tbh. Dirk was pretty good at driving and finishing already, imagine him having all that length and dunking power too.

Yup, the fadeaway is what made me think of this combination. Imagine defender's reaction to it.

I feel like he's the GOAT.

Dirk was already an MVP level player.

Add a bit of extra offensive versatility (better lob threat/offensive rebounder, the extra inches) and making him a notably better defensive player with Dirk-level longevity seems like he'd be the GOAT.

It's worth noting that whilst the "3 point era" might be slightly less friendly towards a traditional rim protector, the OP never specified that we had to play in the modern day.

After all, from 2002-2006, Dirk was literally the first ranked offensive player via ORAPM (http://apbr.org/metrics/viewtopic.php?t=9689) and Gobert is currently the first ranked defensive player via DRAPM (2020-2022). Throw him into the 2000s, improve his defence a bit to compensate for the 3 point explosion, give him better offensive boards... yeah, the guy would be something else.

Dirk's mediocre D becomes all-league, not to metion the extra height and athleticism on offense. I have him as the GOAT.

Cool combo! I tend to be quite high on hybrid players, so I think I agree that this player would be GOAT level.

Just to put some numbers to this, I decided to check what combining Dirk's offense with Gobert's defense would produce using the Backpicks CORP +/- (not the best metric, but easily accessible and easy to split into offensive and defensive components). At age 24–25, Dirk has an offense of +4 and Gobert has a defense of +3.25, leading to a combo of +7.25 (in line with peak MJ and LeBron). As he gets older, this hybrid would likely get even better.

I have Gobert's defense peaking in 2021 at age 28, and I have Dirk's offense peaking in 2011 at age 32 (though his late 2000s seasons are close), so using this metric, the hybrid player would surpass peak LeBron/MJ from his mid 20s to his late 20s or early 30s.

Of course, this is a rather simplistic approach to get a ballpark estimate of value. We could go more in detail. As I see it, there's ~3 ways to think about creating a hybrid player:
Method 1: Combining Player A's offense with Player B's defense. This is the simplest way to create hybrids, and thus the net value is easier to estimate, but it's somewhat unrealistic.

Method 2: Combining all the better skills, values, traits of Player A and Player B. For example, we might combine Dirk's shooting touch, Gobert's length, Dirk's foot speed, Gobert's defensive IQ, etc. etc. This is slightly more complex than Method 1, but it is a bit more realistic to what that player might actually play like.

Method 3: Like Method 2, while also accounting for value lost to limited practice time, motor, etc. This is the most complex method, and the hardest to estimate. It's similar to Method 2, but there's a key difference: presumably the player has a limited motor, which might limit the ability of the hybrid player to have Peak Dirk's offensive skills at the same time as having Peak Gobert's defensive skills. Similarly, presumably the player has limited practice time, which might take away from the player's ability to maximize their potential. For example, if the player chooses to focus on developing Dirk's fadeaway in the gym, that might limit the time they have to dedicate themselves to the film room studying defense (to gain Gobert's defensive IQ), etc.

As I see it, Method 1 and Method 2 both clearly lead to a player with a higher peak than LeBron and MJ. If we account for Dirk's longevity, this hybrid is clearly the GOAT>

Method 3 is much more complex. I think this player would still clearly be a GOAT candidate, but I'm not sure how much separation they gain if they aren't able to maximize all of Dirk and Gobert's skills at the same time.

Very easily the goat, assuimng this hybrid can take both guys' best physical traits.
He would have had a case for being both the best defensive and offensive center of all time.

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