Antoine Walker in the 1960s

[onedayattatime]

Antoine Walker goes to sleep the night before draft day, but he magically wakes up in 1960 and gets drafted by a random team. In our reality, he couldn't shoot fours because they don't exist, and now he can't shoot threes because those don't exist either. In the 1960s, his shot selection might improve, and league average efficiency isn't great anyway. Moreover, his skillset will be even rarer in this era. How valuable would Antoine Walker have been in the 1960s?

[70sFan]

Not very valuable, peaking as a low all-star type player - depending on a team context.

[penbeast0]

Well, since he was time travelled there, he will have a lot of adjustment to do. Physical adjustment to the rules and style of play; mental adjustment to the overt and accepted racism especially since he was not the shy and retiring sort verbally.

It's 1960 and he's not an obvious star level talent so, assuming he could adjust to all the changes, he probably would get used as a defensive 4 and not get the ball a lot (a complaint of many black players who had been scorers before they came to the NBA). Maybe Woody Saulsberry 2.0.

[tsherkin]

Antoine Walker sucked. He was stupid in his approach to the game, and had early-60s level efficiency WITH 3pt shooting. He was horrifically bad and low IQ on the court.

[ronnymac2]

You're talking about a guy who'd probably average 26 points, 16 rebounds, and 8 assists with average defense. This guy was a walking triple-double at PF in the dead-ball 1997-2004 era, which was also the golden age of power forwards. He could handle the ball, post up...do a little of everything offensively.

Pettit would obviously be better through 1963, but after that, what forwards are keeping him off the All-NBA team?

People now talk about his inefficiency, but you basically didn't need a brain for shot selection back then. Walker would fit right in.

[Cavsfansince84]

He wouldn't hack it back then, especially in this time travel scenario. I think he'd be out of the league in a few years and maybe try to join the Globetrotters.

[penbeast0]

You're talking about a guy who'd probably average 26 points, 16 rebounds, and 8 assists with average defense. This guy was a walking triple-double at PF in the dead-ball 1997-2004 era, which was also the golden age of power forwards. He could handle the ball, post up...do a little of everything offensively.

Pettit would obviously be better through 1963, but after that, what forwards are keeping him off the All-NBA team?

People now talk about his inefficiency, but you basically didn't need a brain for shot selection back then. Walker would fit right in.

I would guess he would be closer to 12 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, if playing around 34 minutes and eventually his coaches would decide he wasn't worth the headache. Again, I think you overestimate his talent and underestimate the systemic racism in basketball of 1960. Coaches aren't going to put the ball in his hands.

[Owly]

You're talking about a guy who'd probably average 26 points, 16 rebounds, and 8 assists with average defense. This guy was a walking triple-double at PF in the dead-ball 1997-2004 era, which was also the golden age of power forwards. He could handle the ball, post up...do a little of everything offensively.

Pettit would obviously be better through 1963, but after that, what forwards are keeping him off the All-NBA team?

People now talk about his inefficiency, but you basically didn't need a brain for shot selection back then. Walker would fit right in.

I would imagine "a walking triple-double" (at the time, as indicated by "was" and the indicated era) would get more than 15 triple-doubles in their career or in an 8 year span. Even for the era (and this is generous, nobody obliges anyone to all anyone a "machine" at any aspect of the game and there is little room to curve for difficulty when the threshold is set [you need 10 in each category] ... there might be no such "machines" in a given era) Hill had almost that many in a year (13), Kidd gets 9 (in that era, more later)

Westbrook and Robertson could justify "machines" with their year averages (and Robertson's across year averages, though the 5 year span tended to see 1 over and 1 under at a year level, meaning less than might originally appear. The term was perhaps coined and certainly popularized for Magic. I could see James too ... there will be others worthy of mention ... Jokic these days for instance ...

It doesn't really matter as it's not a measure of goodness and as far as it goes, he' relatively frequent in amassing 3x10s but I would suggest nothing close to the level of automaticity . Fwiw, what this does highlight is that he was willing/able to play at or above 40mpg a lot for at or around 82 games a season.


To OP I would answer time travel stuff with any confidence. How players adapt to a different whistle (rules and interpretation), different equipment, different support, different training, different pay ... is too much like a game for me to get too invested in.

[HeartBreakKid]

You're talking about a guy who'd probably average 26 points, 16 rebounds, and 8 assists with average defense. This guy was a walking triple-double at PF in the dead-ball 1997-2004 era, which was also the golden age of power forwards. He could handle the ball, post up...do a little of everything offensively.

Pettit would obviously be better through 1963, but after that, what forwards are keeping him off the All-NBA team?

People now talk about his inefficiency, but you basically didn't need a brain for shot selection back then. Walker would fit right in.

There were only two all-nba teams back then, so 4 spots.

There is Chet Walker, John Havilcek, Elgin Baylor and select years from Rick Barry, Dave DeBusschere, Elvin Hayes, Connie Hawkins, Billy Cunningham, Paul Arizin, Cliff Hagan, Lou Hudson.

Don't see much space for him.