Where would ‘04 Kevin Garnett rank today?

[Matt15]

Where would ‘04 Garnett rank today?

[70sFan]

Definitely top 5, candidate for the best player in the league.

[dygaction]

For big men, behind Giannis and Jokic, right there with AD and Embiid. Then you have Luka, Curry, and Tatum, so 3-7 range.

[No-more-rings]

For big men, behind Giannis and Jokic, right there with AD and Embiid. Then you have Luka, Curry, and Tatum, so 3-7 range.

Kg’s peak is pretty widely considered top 15 of all time and sometimes higher. Do you really believe we’re witnessing 5 or 6 top 15 peaks this year alone?

[Statlanta]

Best player in the league. Yes better than Curry and Antetokounmpo

[dygaction]

For big men, behind Giannis and Jokic, right there with AD and Embiid. Then you have Luka, Curry, and Tatum, so 3-7 range.

Kg’s peak is pretty widely considered top 15 of all time and sometimes higher. Do you really believe we’re witnessing 5 or 6 top 15 peaks this year alone?

The question is KG for today. Current NBA players are just much better offensively. How many players, when putting back to 2004, would be better than KG would be another question.

[MyUniBroDavis]

For big men, behind Giannis and Jokic, right there with AD and Embiid. Then you have Luka, Curry, and Tatum, so 3-7 range.

Kg’s peak is pretty widely considered top 15 of all time and sometimes higher. Do you really believe we’re witnessing 5 or 6 top 15 peaks this year alone?

The question is KG for today. Current NBA players are just much better offensively. How many players, when putting back to 2004, would be better than KG would be another question.

KGs defense today would be insane, and offensively I don’t see why he’d struggle.

I don’t think he’d be as good as he was maybe, with post play generally not being as effective, but still an incredible playmaker and incredibly athletic and able to take guys off the dribble

I think there are a few guys arguable, but the only ones I’d be comfortable saying I prefer are current form Curry and Giannis. Jokic if his defense in the playoffs improved I think

[eminence]

My first instinct was #1 and that's how I voted, but if Curry stays strong all season I could see the argument.

[No-more-rings]

Kg’s peak is pretty widely considered top 15 of all time and sometimes higher. Do you really believe we’re witnessing 5 or 6 top 15 peaks this year alone?

The question is KG for today. Current NBA players are just much better offensively. How many players, when putting back to 2004, would be better than KG would be another question.

KGs defense today would be insane, and offensively I don’t see why he’d struggle.

I don’t think he’d be as good as he was maybe, with post play generally not being as effective, but still an incredible playmaker and incredibly athletic and able to take guys off the dribble

I think there are a few guys arguable, but the only ones I’d be comfortable saying I prefer are current form Curry and Giannis. Jokic if his defense in the playoffs improved I think

I’m not sure what you mean by post play isn’t as effective. Or what you consider post play, but KG took a lot of mid range and long range type 2 shots. He definitely doesn’t lose anything offensively given his playstyle.

[Colbinii]

I would love to see someone like Garnett who was insanely impactful off-ball in a gunky era like 2000-2005 be utilized as a secondary passer and screen--can't really picture a better player in NBA history for this role.

His shooting would space out the floor, even if just for corner 3's where he would rather easily be 42-45%.

Defensively, clearly the best defender in the league. Bit better help defender than Giannis and much better on-ball with switches against quicker guards/wings [did a tremendous job on TMac and young Kobe].

Not sure if he is #1 but I have a hard time seeing all 3 of Giannis/Jokic/Curry being better.

[MyUniBroDavis]

The question is KG for today. Current NBA players are just much better offensively. How many players, when putting back to 2004, would be better than KG would be another question.

KGs defense today would be insane, and offensively I don’t see why he’d struggle.

I don’t think he’d be as good as he was maybe, with post play generally not being as effective, but still an incredible playmaker and incredibly athletic and able to take guys off the dribble

I think there are a few guys arguable, but the only ones I’d be comfortable saying I prefer are current form Curry and Giannis. Jokic if his defense in the playoffs improved I think

I’m not sure what you mean by post play isn’t as effective. Or what you consider post play, but KG took a lot of mid range and long range type 2 shots. He definitely doesn’t lose anything offensively given his playstyle.

I mean, a good midrange game isn’t a bad thing but I don’t see why that particularly translates well today lol

I don’t think KG loses much offensively if you plop him in, but his midrange shooting probably isn’t as important if we’re assuming he can’t shoot threes.

In hindsight I probably take back what I said about post play not being effective, I think you need to be in the upper echelon of post players for it to be viable but KG was obviously there, but I mean I mean possessions where his back is to the basket and he works from there whether he faces up or not I guess lol

[dygaction]

The question is KG for today. Current NBA players are just much better offensively. How many players, when putting back to 2004, would be better than KG would be another question.

KGs defense today would be insane, and offensively I don’t see why he’d struggle.

I don’t think he’d be as good as he was maybe, with post play generally not being as effective, but still an incredible playmaker and incredibly athletic and able to take guys off the dribble

I think there are a few guys arguable, but the only ones I’d be comfortable saying I prefer are current form Curry and Giannis. Jokic if his defense in the playoffs improved I think

I’m not sure what you mean by post play isn’t as effective. Or what you consider post play, but KG took a lot of mid range and long range type 2 shots. He definitely doesn’t lose anything offensively given his playstyle.

Those are the most inefficient shots nowadays and KG's TS% was in the ~.55. It is hard to improve unless you count him developing a 3 shot. There are more than 20 players with >.65TS%, including Jokic, Durant, Curry, and AD; 60 players have TS% >60 this season, including majority of the top 30 players.

[MyUniBroDavis]

KGs defense today would be insane, and offensively I don’t see why he’d struggle.

I don’t think he’d be as good as he was maybe, with post play generally not being as effective, but still an incredible playmaker and incredibly athletic and able to take guys off the dribble

I think there are a few guys arguable, but the only ones I’d be comfortable saying I prefer are current form Curry and Giannis. Jokic if his defense in the playoffs improved I think

I’m not sure what you mean by post play isn’t as effective. Or what you consider post play, but KG took a lot of mid range and long range type 2 shots. He definitely doesn’t lose anything offensively given his playstyle.

Those are the most inefficient shots nowadays and KG's TS% was in the ~.55. It is hard to improve unless you count him developing a 3 shot. There are more than 20 players with >.65TS%, including Jokic, Durant, Curry, and AD; 60 players have TS% >60 this season, including majority of the top 30 players.

Effeciency has gone up for everyone as bball strats and spacing has evolved though, I’m sure KG would be a >60 TS guy and it’s not like his offensive impact came from being hyper effecient, it was always him being effective as a scorer in general and being such a good passer

[dygaction]

I’m not sure what you mean by post play isn’t as effective. Or what you consider post play, but KG took a lot of mid range and long range type 2 shots. He definitely doesn’t lose anything offensively given his playstyle.

Those are the most inefficient shots nowadays and KG's TS% was in the ~.55. It is hard to improve unless you count him developing a 3 shot. There are more than 20 players with >.65TS%, including Jokic, Durant, Curry, and AD; 60 players have TS% >60 this season, including majority of the top 30 players.

Effeciency has gone up for everyone as bball strats and spacing has evolved though, I’m sure KG would be a >60 TS guy and it’s not like his offensive impact came from being hyper effecient, it was always him being effective as a scorer in general and being such a good passer

We are bringing his 04 version, not a 04 upgraded version. Not like his jumpers are going to get even better or suddenly you add 35% 3s. Dirk had 5 .60TS% seasons and Malone had 4 from the same era. Jokic, AD, and Embiid just have better efficiency and higher volume. I am not convinced KG can outperform all three by having an edge on defense.

[70sFan]

Again, scoring is the only thing that matters...

[dygaction]

Again, scoring is the only thing that matters...

Such sarcasm from a senior poster as if others do not care about defense at all does not add much to the discuss. If scoring is the only thing that matters, I would not have KG as top 10 in current nba at all ...

[Dutchball97]

If we simply take the impact KG had in 04 and say he'll have exactly the same level of impact now then I'm confident he'd be the best player. However, with these era of increased spacing I don't think his defense would be as effective as it was in his own era. Now don't get me wrong, he'd still be a DPOY candidate but taking any player out of their own era and putting them in an era where different strengths are valued is going to reduce their impact, which is why I don't really like these type of questions in the first place.

Another thing that doesn't make things easier is that you're taking a player who played a full regular season and 3 rounds in the play-offs against guys who have played around 20 games so far.

[70sFan]

Again, scoring is the only thing that matters...

Such sarcasm from a senior poster as if others do not care about defense at all does not add much to the discuss. If scoring is the only thing that matters, I would not have KG as top 10 in current nba at all ...

Yeah, as always people say:

"Yeah, KG is a great scorer, so he is top 10 player... but look at his scoring! He just can't compete for the best player in the league with that..."

Defense is always treated here as a bonus, nice additional little thing that can differentiate two elite offensive players. I don't hear you complaining about Jokic or Luka defense and it's just as important and Garnett scoring. You don't complain about Curry defense, even though it's clearly weaker than Garnett's offense. You don't consider Davis relatively weak passing game, because Davis is a good scorer.

Scoring isn't everything in basketball and it shouldn't be treated like the main thing that matters. I really hoped we could learn evaluating defense better, but we're still at "he's good, he's bad" stage...

[MyUniBroDavis]

Those are the most inefficient shots nowadays and KG's TS% was in the ~.55. It is hard to improve unless you count him developing a 3 shot. There are more than 20 players with >.65TS%, including Jokic, Durant, Curry, and AD; 60 players have TS% >60 this season, including majority of the top 30 players.

Effeciency has gone up for everyone as bball strats and spacing has evolved though, I’m sure KG would be a >60 TS guy and it’s not like his offensive impact came from being hyper effecient, it was always him being effective as a scorer in general and being such a good passer

We are bringing his 04 version, not a 04 upgraded version. Not like his jumpers are going to get even better or suddenly you add 35% 3s. Dirk had 5 .60TS% seasons and Malone had 4 from the same era. Jokic, AD, and Embiid just have better efficiency and higher volume. I am not convinced KG can outperform all three by having an edge on defense.

The things around people effect their effeciency, TS% going up league wide is more because of strategy and gameplanning than players getting upgraded all around.

I mean, a role change for AD turned him from a 23ppg 58TS guy the first half of this season to a 32ppg 73TS guy the second half of this season lol.

I don’t think KG would be a historic scorer today or anything but the nba is generally easier to score in for superstar players and KG isn’t an exception to that, he wouldn’t be at 55TS today with current rules even if you plop him in

[HeartBreakKid]

Garnett also played in an era where volume wasn't very high in general. Garnett is seen as a sub 25 PPG type of guy, but I think most seasons he played he was in the top ten of PPG. Not a lot of guys scored over 20 points in his era if I can recall.

Thinking he's a Scottie Pippen type of scorer is missing the mark. There's a lot of middle ground between the Pippens and the Durants