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Always run across him running stat searches/ looking at all star teams/ etc but wasn’t around to watch him live and hardly ever see him mentioned. Obviously really unique intersection of size and playmaking— there’s a narrative that Magic was the first supersized point guard, but Theus entered the league basically the same time. Turnover numbers are extremely high, okay efficiency, bad teams, etc.

For those who saw him live or are better acquainted with the era than I am, what was he like as a player? Was he legitimately good? How was he defensively? Would he be better today? FT% is high enough to indicate he could be a decent three point shooter.

Was there ever any public discussion of him/ Magic? I just find it fascinating that this massive point guard with a pretty impressive statistical portfolio (maybe not in the impact side) has become so forgotten.

All you need to know.

http://assets.sbnation.com/imported_assets/72744/theus.jpg

Theus played for some bad teams in his career. Interesting to think of what playoff team could have used him to put them into contention.

BIg guards with high assist totals have been around since Tom Gola in the 50s, Magic was just by far the best of them. Theus impressed me as a "me" player who just wanted his stats and his money. If the team won, great, he would certainly like that but not to the extent of sacrificing his game or his potential paycheck by becoming less of a scorer or putting major energy into his defense. Never one of my favorites.

Mailed it in on defense on a regular basis. Had literally no desire to expend effort on the defensive side of the ball.

Was there ever any public discussion of him/ Magic?

God no.

Theus played 13 seasons (1978-79 to 1990-91). Committed the most turnovers of any player during that time (3493) but threw for 3400+ less assists than did Magic Johnson, while being a much worse shooter and just 1/2 the rebounder Magic was.

After the Bulls and Kings, Theus sort of bounced around some during his last three NBA seasons, although he remained a starting two guard for the Atlanta Hawks in ‘89, the first-year Orlando Magic in ‘90 and the New Jersey Nets in ‘91. His backcourt partners during that time were mainly Doc Rivers (Atlanta), Sam Vincent (Orlando) and Mookie Blaylock (New Jersey).

After a couple seasons overseas, Theus almost came back to the NBA with the Denver Nuggets in ‘94 only to be off the roster before the season began. However, I wonder what would’ve happened if he would get to start at SG like he had been in the past or if he would’ve been asked to come off the bench behind Bryant Stith.

As for his impact, I believe Theus would’ve added to their unexpected first round series upset victory over the #1 seed Seattle SuperSonics, and maybe at least try to get Denver past Utah in the second round. After all, Theus last averaged 18.6 points and 4.7 assists in 36 minutes per game for the Nets in ‘91 (as their starting two-guard even after the mid-season acquisition of ex-Blazer Drazen Petrovic) and even had his best season in terms of being an outside shooter from behind the 3-point line, so he clearly had some value left in the tank.

He was an exciting offensive guard and was a better athlete than Magic. That’s the only area he was better, he refused to play defense, didn’t play well in the playoff’s and was never a shooter!

DNice68 wrote:He was an exciting offensive guard and was a better athlete than Magic. That’s the only area he was better, he refused to play defense, didn’t play well in the playoff’s and was never a shooter!

R u the same DNice with the Kobe post?