JO v. Amar'e

[Pharmacist]

JO over Amare, at least JO plays both offense and defence

[HeartBreakKid]

It often seemed like Artest was the most important player on those Pacers teams. Subsequent events seemed to confirm it. JO was dubbed the 'star', but Artest was the key to those teams.

Was O'Neal dubbed the star? Artest got DPOY over him.

[penbeast0]

Hard to go against JO here I think. He was a better offensive player than his poor shooting percentages suggest. His highest scoring, healthy years came during the absolute worst offensive environment the NBA has seen since probably the early 70's. And on top of that, his team sucked on offense, so he had to take on greater USG% than he should have. He was a very good post-up player - deceptively strong with his back to the hoop. Indy was a top-notch defense, and he was their main defensive rebounder, shot-blocker, and overall paint deterrent. He doesn't get enough credit for that.

Big Amar'e fan, and he gets too much flak on this board. I'm not talking about his defense - he's the worst defensive player ever who managed to play more than 30 MPG - but people don't respect the offense enough. Modern era, he's there with Dirk, Shaq, and now Jokic as far as pure scoring skillset goes. Guy was an absolute animal. 6'9" with a Worthy-like first step, automatic jumper, amazing power and body control to jump into a defender's chest and finish through contact. Amar'e was unstoppable.

Assuming your building around one of these guys and that one will be by far your best player, it's probably a bit more doable to build a contender around J.O. Plus the longevity edge.

You could also say, "Modern era, he's there with Enes Kantor and Jonas Valanciunas," with similar accuracy. He was a truly great shooter but in addition to his subpar defense, he was a poor/unwilling passer which we have found over many seasons is not conducive to good offenses even when you have great shooting. Suns offense didn't take a massive hit when he went out for 2006 even though Boris Diaw and Kurt Thomas were nowhere near the scorer that he was because Diaw was a decent passer and they got enough from getting extra shots from Marion, Bell, Barbosa, etc. to make up most of the value of Amare's shot creation.

[tsherkin]

Modern era, he's there with Dirk, Shaq, and now Jokic as far as pure scoring skillset goes.

That seems a little hyperbolic.

He was a nasty mid-range shooter who knew how to move well without the ball, though, that's for sure. He came no where near Dirk, though. He was considerably worse as a shooter and post scorer. He was more athletic than Dirk, which helped close the gap in his best years, but he was also notably less effective away from Nash. Still quite good, of course, but not quite as incredible, since his game was predicated on being the roll man and moving around the paint with cuts around dribble penetration, running transition routes and such.

More like Karl Malone than Dirk, Shaq or Jokic in terms of skill set, and then added excellent athleticism on top. And that isn't accounting for how passing changes scoring opportunities, and Amare was the worst passer of anyone I've just mentioned.