penbeast0 wrote:Quite possibly Muggsy was the GOAT at dribble stopping though his height gave him significant defensive issues with getting in passing lanes, getting up to stop shots, and defending post scoring.
Currently, I probably go with Pat Beverly for this one limited skill though not willing to die on that hill.
Peak Muggsy was a one man press. I think half the posts at realgm are by people under age 25 and they probably do not know who Muggsy was.
Muggsy had fast hands and being short might be good for dribble stopping.
Young me was short and very fast. My dribble was unstoppable and I could stop dribbles. But that is all I could do. I was otherwise a bad basketball player. If I had court vision I could have been a point guard but my court vision was bad. My facial recognition was bad. I met my wife 4 times before I figured out that all 4 of her were all the same person and she had a very pretty face every time. I would blow past everybody but then it would take me too long to figure out who were my teammates. Shirts skins made things easier for me. I could use my speed to get an open shot for myself but most days I was a bad shooter so I preferred to set up my teammates if I could figure out who my teammates were.
Dribbling me being short made it hard for defenders to get their hands near my low dribble. As a dribble stopper my opponent’s ball was spending a lot of time down near my hands as it needed to leave his hand and travel 6 inches down past my hand, hit the asphalt then bounce back to the level of my hand where the offensive player can’t reach the ball before traveling 6 inches higher to the offensive player’s hand. The ball spends more of it’s travel near my hand level than the ball spends atmy taller opponent’s hand level.
Magic Johnson had a work around for this exposed high dribble problem. Magic would often extend his dribble out away from his body in the direction that his defender was not located. If the defender was forward Magic could dribble almost behind his body. If the defender was right side Magic extends the left and dribbles on his left side shielding the ball with his body. Defendee left side Magi dribbles on his right side and yet despite shielding the ball Magic was fast with the ball and had a lot of forward push on the ball.
Muggsy had quick hadnds and was going his chest practically touching the dribblers stomach. Muggsy had quick feet that could change directions quicly but bigger guys could cover ground quocker than Muggsy if they could get into their long straight away strides. Muggsy’s straigh baseline to baseline speed was not that good. Muggsey had fast feet and could take more steps per second but his short strides meant he was not covering much ground per step.
Pat Bev is annoying pest who crowds the dribbler and players do not like being guarded by him but I don’t think Bev actually had top tier speed. I prefer peak Rondo to peak Bev as a dribble stopper and Rondo’s long arms help and Rondo had top teir speed.
I regret not seeing enough of Jrue Holiday to decide where to rank Him. I know I am missing 10 good dribble stopping current players. I like Pelicans Alvarado’s short quickness but I know his quick dribble better than I know his dribble stopping.