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The last guy you'd expect to see on skates is 7-foot-2, nearly 300 pounds, bakes cakes, has a crew cut and a Texas twang and still believes he can play in the NBA.

On most Wednesday nights, Greg Ostertag can be found in the Ice Den in Scottsdale, playing forward in a no-checking, men's hockey league.

Hoopshype has a rumour saying he wants back into the nba......back up to perk?

Our experimenting with a big, white, washed up center failed with Pollard. No thanks.

Your like living in a different era man. We aren't interested in the last century's garbage.

Ostertag is the best player in the history of the NBA. Sign him.

LOL Ostertag. The guy was a stiff 14 years ago and that has not changed. You realized he has not played a game in the NBA since 06 right? He believes he can play in the NBA in the same way I believe I am going to win the lottery.

SonicYouth34 wrote:Our experimenting with a big, white, washed up center failed with Pollard. No thanks.

How can you be "washed up"...when you were a never was?

Bill Russell would be a better signing. At least he knows what its like to be a champion.

scott pollard looks as quick and agile as allen iverson next to greg ostertag.

is this a joke?

Dude, Ostertag was a **** wimpy 7-footer when he was in his prime...now? NO **** THANKS!

If he is healthy and anything close to what he once was, I would love Ostertag on this team. Consider that he is the only player in the modern era who was able to combine shotblocking, offensive and defensive rebounding to the extent he did.

Even dropping those levels down for aging, time away, etc, he could really help a team off the bench with his post defense, shotblocking and rebounding.

Only 11 players in the modern era have played at least 5000 MP and put up 10/20/5 for their career.

Olajuwan, Mutombo, David Robinson, Ben Wallace, Mourning, George Johnson (ex Warrior, Net, Brave, etc), Ostertag, Dalembert, Pryzbilla, Chris Andersen and Kendrick Perkins.

Sure, Ostertag isn't very talented scoring the ball but for a team that is already facing a possession crunch, even without Garnett, you would think people would be a bit more open-minded to a shotblocking, offensive AND defensive rebounding role-playing center.

Ostertag gets a lot of flack because of his play against an in-his-prime Shaq. I honestly believe if Ostertag had been on a team in the East during that period, he would have been recognized as one of the better pure centers in the league.

Two notable rookie pivots put up 10/20/5 this past season: Brook Lopez and DeAndre Jordan. Sure, each is more offensively/physically talented than Ostertag could have ever hoped to be. That being said, neither matched his activity in the three major center categories of offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding and shotblocking.

Add in the fact that he could likely be had for a training camp invite and then for a minimum-salary, if he could contribute and play at even a 8/17/4, he would be worth it as a back-up with size.

Pogue Mahone wrote:
Olajuwan, Mutombo, David Robinson, Ben Wallace, Mourning, George Johnson (ex Warrior, Net, Brave, etc), Ostertag, Dalembert, Pryzbilla, Chris Andersen and Kendrick Perkins.

Well...Dalembert is on the block, but acquiring him would hurt our cap situation next offseason. And we've already got Perk.

You are not serious regarding Ostertag?

Could he honestly be worse than Pollard, Kandi' or Patrick or Moore?

eeeeeeewwwwwwwww!!!!!!!

Pogue Mahone is Ostertag you or uncle or cousin? He has not played in 3 years and the last time he played he averaged 2 points and 3 rebounds in 20 minutes. Why in the world would you think this guy can help this team at all at this point?

I am seriously tying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of this whole thread.

Ensoul wrote:Pogue Mahone is Ostertag you or uncle or cousin? He has not played in 3 years and the last time he played he averaged 2 points and 3 rebounds in 20 minutes. Why in the world would you think this guy can help this team at all at this point?

I am seriously tying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of this whole thread.

He put up 2.4 PPG and 3.8 RPG in 13.5 MPG. He also blocked 1.1 shots in those 13.5 MP. There is obfuscation due to MP and the slow-ass pace of the teams he played on.

Realize that the only player who played over 1000 MP in the history of the modern NBA who managed to put up an ORB% of 12.6, a DRB% of 21.6 and a BLK% of 7.0 is Greg Ostertag. To provide perspective on just how difficult that is to do (if him being the only one isn't enough) consider the following:

Ben Wallace was known in his prime as a shotblocker yet never once blocked 7% of opponents non-3 pt shots. Ostertag averaged 7% for his career (close to 15,000 MP.) Dikembe hadn't done it since his first season in Atlanta (96-97) and Ostertag did it for his career.

As an offensive rebounder, Ostertag averaged 12.6% of all available misses by his team. Ben Wallace has averaged 12.3% for his career. Dikembe at 11.9 and Marcus Camby at 9.9%.

As a defensive rebounder, Ostertag averaged 21.6% of all available misses by the opposition (despite spending most of his time paired with Karl Marlone -- a career 23.5 DRB% player.) That's McAdoo, Cage, Mourning and Rollins territory. Not quite elite but pretty damn good.

As stated, when those three "center" categories are bundled together, no player with over 1000 MP was able to quite match Ostertag. A current comparison for an approximate level of impact on a minute-per-minute basis, though not great, would be Erick Dampier. Except that Ostertag was world's better as a shot-blocker.

Yes, Ostertag is not a good offensive player but as a minimum-salaried third center, despite being away from the game, you could do a lot worse for your team's defense (like play Big Baby 1000+ MP again.) Worst case, you invite him to camp and he can't cut it. Best case, 10-15 MP off the bench against bigger post players/due to foul trouble.

No thanks.....

Kefa461 wrote:No thanks.....

I nominate this for post of the millennium. It brought a tremendous amount of insight to the thread and really convinced me that researching a topic to be better informed is a silly endeavor. Clearly, talking out your ass is the much better option.

Pogue Mahone wrote:

Kefa461 wrote:No thanks.....

I nominate this for post of the millennium. It brought a tremendous amount of insight to the thread and really convinced me that researching a topic to be better informed is a silly endeavor. Clearly, talking out your ass is the much better option.

I'm not trying to pick a fight with you.....I just don't want a guy who is old and retired as my choice....there are better options. Options that have been already voiced.....because I don't care to repeat those options means I have to argue with you ?....you who will never be convinced ever you are wrong is a waste of time....the question was Ostertag anyone?...I gave a answer. The answer was straight to the point.....my answer was no and like a child you reacted as you did.

ps....if my opinions are out of my ass....you really should not care what I think and just move on.

He put up 2.4 PPG and 3.8 RPG in 13.5 MPG. He also blocked 1.1 shots in those 13.5 MP. There is obfuscation due to MP and the slow-ass pace of the teams he played on.

If he was so good - why did he play so few minutes? I think its wrong to extrapolate stats from such a short period of playing time.

Pogue Mahone wrote:

He put up 2.4 PPG and 3.8 RPG in 13.5 MPG. He also blocked 1.1 shots in those 13.5 MP.

Stats aren't everything, but lets put that into context.

Patrick O'Bryant put up 4.7 PPG and 2.5 RPG and .9 blocked shots in 11.3 minutes a game with the Raptors. Extrapolate that to 13.5 minutes a game and that's 5.6 PPG, 3.0 RPG and 1.1 blocked shots.

Or maybe you like the Celtics numbers. 1.5 PPG, 1.3 RPG, .3 BS in 4.2 minutes a game. Extrapolated to 13.5 minutes that's 4.8 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 1.0 blocked shots.

So what you're saying is that when he retired 3 years ago statistically he was a slightly better rebounder than O'Bryant, about as good a shot blocker, and would score less than half as many points per minute played.

I've got to think there is a current guy like Magloire out there who could fill that 3'rd Center spot for vet minimum and be more effective.