Which "role players" from this era will be remembered, which stars will be forgotten?

[falcolombardi]

Think about every nba decade/era and how there are always these guys who were very high end players, maybe made a bunch of all stars or even all-nba teams....and they are still obscure trivia for the most part and for whatever reason

like how often do you see people who remember rolando blackman or eddie jones ?

Now think of all those guys a notch ot two below who are memorable or remembered really well in spite of not being big stars.

Who will be this era examples of each?

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

And Yet I think Joe Dumars is remembered. I would consider Blackman a star. Eddie Jones a borderline star and a good role player.
Ring counting is stupid but rings get players remeberred.

We are probably call Draymond a role player. A lot of fans hate Draymond but they will remember him.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Think about every nba decade/era and how there are always these guys who were very high end players, maybe made a bunch of all stars or even all-nba teams....and they are still obscure trivia for the most part and for whatever reason

like how often do you see people who remember rolando blackman or eddie jones ?

Now think of all those guys a notch ot two below who are memorable or remembered really well in spite of not being big stars.

Who will be this era examples of each?

Reddick and draymond

Mitchell

[Fadeaway_J]

Four-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA, two-time DPOY Draymond doesn't really fit my conception of a "role player".

I think guys like Marcus Smart or Andre Iguodala are better examples.

As far as stars, LMA and Joe Johnson leap to mind immediately. LMA in particular seems decidedly unmemorable relative to the quality of player he was in his prime.

[sp6r=underrated]

Four-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA, two-time DPOY Draymond doesn't really fit my conception of a "role player".

I think guys like Marcus Smart or Andre Iguodala are better examples.

As far as stars, LMA and Joe Johnson leap to mind immediately. LMA in particular seems decidedly unmemorable relative to the quality of player he was in his prime.

I actually had a role player discussion in a recent thread. I was pushing a poster, whose name I removed, who considered Marion a role player to name defensive players who were not role players. He ended up naming defensive players who were also elite scorers.

For a lot of fans if you can't create your own shot you're a role player. I disagree. A role player to me is someone with a very defined job that is plug and replaceable on schemes that aren't built around them. But there is no true definition of role player. I can't say I'm right and others are wrong.

Is there any defensive centric player you can list who isn't a role player just so we have a frame of reference?

Marcus Smart and Rudy Gobert are role players IMO. Giannis and Dwight are not.

This pretty clearly established to me you have a PPG requirement because Giannis/Dwight are/were also elite offensive players.

[sp6r=underrated]

Think about every nba decade/era and how there are always these guys who were very high end players, maybe made a bunch of all stars or even all-nba teams....and they are still obscure trivia for the most part and for whatever reason

like how often do you see people who remember rolando blackman or eddie jones ?

Now think of all those guys a notch ot two below who are memorable or remembered really well in spite of not being big stars.

Who will be this era examples of each?

In the long-run everyone gets forgotten eventually. I heard Conan say "all go unattended eventually." And he is right.

Which stars will be forgotten quicker than we would have expected when they were at their apex?

1. Melo. This is an easy first choice. He entered the league after a famous college season. Got hyped up as a rival to Lebron. And played in the biggest market. But nothing much interesting happened in his career. His game was aesthetically pleasing but it doesn't lend itself to highlights. And there just isn't much to talk about.
2. Lilliard. A great, great player. But he played the position in his era and was overshadowed for almost its entirety.

Which role players will be remembered is really hard to tell. It depends so much on subjective factors like hitting a memorable shot, playing for memorable teams and of course role players need tons of titles. But even then they usually need something memorable about them.

Take Danny Green. Green is an amazing role player. He's played on multiple title teams. Including title teams in huge cities with massive fanbases. He kicked ass in the 2014 Finals. Interesting career arc: played at a major program, 2nd round pick who nearly flushed out of the NBA, turned his career around in SA. But I doubt anyone will remember him.

[BenoUdrihFTL]

I think Bradley Beal is already in the process of being forgotten, especially now that he's committed to Washington for another 5 years. Not sure what qualifies as a star itt but the guy is Washington's franchise player and had b2b 30+ ppg seasons

One guy I'd definitely describe as a role player is Klay Thompson who's very likely to be remembered, tho I get that many don't think of him as a role player

[An Unbiased Fan]

Draymond Green

[Texas Chuck]

Draymond Green

I agree he is the star most likely to get forgotten in 25 years. Especially since the Curry supporters will still be around selling him on having changed/saved basketball. Draymond, like Pau Gasol, like Chief, like Pippen, unlikely to receive his rightful due.

[penbeast0]

And here I had Draymond as the "role player" (ie. player not remembered for his scoring) most likely to be remembered as this generation's Dennis Rodman. I think Gobert is the defensive impact player more likely to be forgotten due to the Warriors' titles.

[falcolombardi]

Draymond Green

I agree he is the star most likely to get forgotten in 25 years. Especially since the Curry supporters will still be around selling him on having changed/saved basketball. Draymond, like Pau Gasol, like Chief, like Pippen, unlikely to receive his rightful due.

By chief did you mean robert parish?

[Statlanta]

Danny Green and PJ Tucker will be remembered. Timofey Mozgov's heroics will be forgotten, Jonathon Simmons is long forgotten, I think Shai will be overshadowed by the Thunder's new draft picks.

[falcolombardi]

Danny Green and PJ Tucker will be remembered. Timofey Mozgov's heroics will be forgotten, Jonathon Simmons is long forgotten, I think Shai will be overshadowed by the Thunder's new draft picks.

Giddey is good but even if he learns to shot i am unsure his athletism will let him be a legit star

Holgrem is ripe with potential but him being more of a defebsive big prospect means the actual focus of tge praise will always be on the scoring guard regardless of who is more impactful (aka like mitchell and gobert)

[parsnips33]

Danny Green and PJ Tucker will be remembered. Timofey Mozgov's heroics will be forgotten, Jonathon Simmons is long forgotten, I think Shai will be overshadowed by the Thunder's new draft picks.

Danny Green was the first name I thought of. PJ is another good one

Think both will have Rob Horry style legacy

[The-Power]

Looking at multiple times All-Stars between 2010 and 2019, players that may end up being mostly forgotten include Cousins (4x), Aldridge (7x), Millsap (4x), Beal (3x) and maybe even Wall (5x). Essentially all those players who are not needed to tell the story of the NBA during that time because they lacked high-end playoff success, were not MVP-level players in the RS, and were not the kind of superstars who changed the game or had kids emulate them.

Role players who will be remembered are mostly those that were on some iconic teams and/or had memorable playoff moments. I would have to think about this more but others have already mentioned some interesting names.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Draymond Green

I agree he is the star most likely to get forgotten in 25 years. Especially since the Curry supporters will still be around selling him on having changed/saved basketball. Draymond, like Pau Gasol, like Chief, like Pippen, unlikely to receive his rightful due.

Being in Jordan's shadowed is outweighed by being the Robin to Jordan's Batman on 6 championships.Same for Draymond and Parish.

At least amoung Warriors fans Curry casts no shade on Draymond. Warriors fans get Draymond. Are you saying that Curry makes it hard for regular NBA fans to understand Draymond.

I think being in the spotlight is what gets you rememberred. I bet that John Salley is somewhat rememberred because he was in. The spotlight. With out the Pistons championships Salley gets forgotten even though he was good. There are too many good players to remember them all but good plers on championship teams get rememberred. So the good role players on champion teams get rememberred more than stars on bad teams.

We suspect that Carmelo will not be rememberred. Being a star on bad teams is not good enough. Something must be unique and eye catching about the star. Maravich is remembered. Is Alex English rememberred?

[PistolPeteJR]

Stars (as in, made All-Star Teams) that’ll be forgotten:

Bradley Beal
John Wall
Zach Randolph (sadly)
Blake Griffin
DeAndre Jordan
Jeff Teague
Paul Millsap
Danny Granger
Mike Conley

Role players that will not be forgotten:

Shane Battier
Tony Allen
Lou Williams
Jamal Crawford
Doug Christie
Kyle Korver

[Cavsfansince84]

Draymond Green

I agree he is the star most likely to get forgotten in 25 years. Especially since the Curry supporters will still be around selling him on having changed/saved basketball. Draymond, like Pau Gasol, like Chief, like Pippen, unlikely to receive his rightful due.

I tend to think the opposite with regard to Draymond. I mean he's basically the Rodman of this generation and Rodman is probably the most remembered or notorious role player of all time. More so if Draymond pursues being a tv guy after he's done which he's already been doing so will most likely try to do. Draymond won't be forgotten near the way most role players are even if we can admit he's closer to mvp caliber than role player(which imo is more like guys who come off the bench or very one dimensional starters). Now maybe he won't quite get his due by virtue of playing with Steph but I think people will have to look at how highly rated those teams were defensively and know that Draymond pretty much carried the defense while being the emotional sparkplug also.