Let's do it...

[countryboy667]

Prime Wilt Chamberlain vs best of the current bigs (Embiid, Jokic, etc. etc.)

by TWO standards--

1. Peak Wilt vs best of current bigs if they had all played using the training regimens and medical/surgical practices available in the 1960s playing the 60's style game.

2. Peak Wilt vs best of current bigs if they all played with current training and medical advantages available today playing today's style of game.

[penbeast0]

Unless we can assume stamina/health/conditioning equal for Embiid with the amazingly healthy Wilt, I don't see a match here. Jokic is the best offensively of the 3 but easily the worst defensively which matters a lot even today. Peak Embiid might compare to WIlt for 35 minutes a game if he was in his best shape and fully healthy but 35 minutes of Embiid and 10 minutes of a sub isn't going to match up to Wilt for 45 minutes a game. So I go Wilt here.

[trelos6]

60’s rules I go Wilt. I think they others will get injured and Wilt has shown he can look after his body.

Current rules, I wonder if Wilt tries to be a stretch big which will render him less effective. He might try handling the ball more and distributing, but at his best he is an elite play finisher and no one is stopping him once he gets in the charge circle unless it’s a foul, but he was so strong, he might just dunk it anyways.

So if he plays like a defensive C who is an elite lob threat, kinda like a rich man’s Rob Williams, then I’d take Wilt. If not, Jokic and Embiid for the modern game due to their abilities to stretch the floor.

[Samurai]

Under 60's rules, I'd take Wilt. Don't really have any doubts about that at all.

Under current rules, I am assuming that means Wilt was born in 1995 or so and has been exposed to comparable coaching and basketball philosophies as guys like Jokic and Embiid. The issue is that coaching can vary considerably. If Wilt benefits from really good coaching (Milojevic seems to have done an outstanding job in coaching Jokic), I could see him being the best big in the game today. But there's a number of things that we'd have to make assumptions on. For example, we know Wilt, like all centers in his day (not named Russell), didn't like to guard people on the perimeter and preferred to stay near the basket. Which I do not penalize Wilt for because that is how the game was played then and how he was coached to play. If he were born in 1995, he would have grown up having to spend more time defending smaller guys on the perimeter. Wilt was around 260 or so when he entered the league and if he kept his weight reasonably close to that today, I would think his world class athleticism plus his insane wingspan would give him the tools to do so with greater success than pretty much any big playing today. If he gets his weight up to over 300 pounds (as it was later in his career), I could see playing today's style could put more stress on his knees with the added weight.

I also don't know how willing Wilt would be with the coaching he is receiving today or how much he would enjoy basketball if he were born in 1995. He was such a unicorn athletically and knowing that he had such a wide range of interests beyond basketball in his own time, I could see him turning his interests into any number of other fields if he doesn't enjoy the "let's just toss up as many 3's as possible" style of today's NBA.

[KobesScarf]

Wilt kills them equally in both scenarios

[countryboy667]

Under 60's rules, I'd take Wilt. Don't really have any doubts about that at all.

Under current rules, I am assuming that means Wilt was born in 1995 or so and has been exposed to comparable coaching and basketball philosophies as guys like Jokic and Embiid. The issue is that coaching can vary considerably. If Wilt benefits from really good coaching (Milojevic seems to have done an outstanding job in coaching Jokic), I could see him being the best big in the game today. But there's a number of things that we'd have to make assumptions on. For example, we know Wilt, like all centers in his day (not named Russell), didn't like to guard people on the perimeter and preferred to stay near the basket. Which I do not penalize Wilt for because that is how the game was played then and how he was coached to play. If he were born in 1995, he would have grown up having to spend more time defending smaller guys on the perimeter. Wilt was around 260 or so when he entered the league and if he kept his weight reasonably close to that today, I would think his world class athleticism plus his insane wingspan would give him the tools to do so with greater success than pretty much any big playing today. If he gets his weight up to over 300 pounds (as it was later in his career), I could see playing today's style could put more stress on his knees with the added weight.

I also don't know how willing Wilt would be with the coaching he is receiving today or how much he would enjoy basketball if he were born in 1995. He was such a unicorn athletically and knowing that he had such a wide range of interests beyond basketball in his own time, I could see him turning his interests into any number of other fields if he doesn't enjoy the "let's just toss up as many 3's as possible" style of today's NBA.

That's a really excellent analysis. In making comparisons like this, not many people consider the expanded opportunities available today, and the fact that Wilt was a very intelligent man with many interests. It's very possible today's game would bore him and make him look elsewhere for a career.

[CharityStripe34]

Wilt would probably be a 7'2" 285lb version of Greek Freak with a money turnaround bank shot.