Post#4 » by penbeast0 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:25 am
For the nomination:
PG -- It is between Kevin Johnson who was a very solid player in all respects though often injured, the surprisingly efficient Chauncey Billups, and possibly Lenny Wilkens from the 60s or the purely offensive Nate Archibald or Pete Maravich from the 70s. I lean to KJ for his all around game.
Wings -- On the wings, there are still great scorers left . . . I like Alex English's consistency and Ray Allen's 3 point shooting over the more spectacular but less consistent Bernard King, Mark Aquirre, or David Thompson, or the statistically most efficient Adrian Dantley. Paul Arizin, Sam Jones, and Hal Greer also should come into play reasonably soon and I am interested in how they match up to the likes of English or Allen but for now I lean English.
Big Men -- At PF, Bobby Jones and Dennis Rodman may be the greatest pair of defensive forwards but Jones, while extremely efficient, didn't score or rebound that much while Rodman had no offense and for 1/2 his career, left his man at times to pad his rebounding stats at the team's expense. On the offensive end, Amare Stoudamire and Chris Webber just have too many issues to rank above Jones or Rodman. Actually comparing these guys to the other big men left, I would have to suck it up and go with Rodman despite my dislike for what he did in San Antonio. He's a punk but his rebounding is GOAT level and his post defense excellent (earlier in his career he defender out on the floor well too but he gave up doing that to pad his rebounding totals, another reason I don't like him . . . but it's hard to argue with his level of success).
The centers left all have some issue with their games. Neil Johnston and Mel Daniels played against inferior competition during their primes and were more limited besides. Bob McAdoo while his 5 year peak is spectacular, didn't play big man defense and his teams didn't dominate; Bob Lanier and Walt Bellamy had nice numbers but their teams weren't that much either and Detroit with Lanier sucked defensively for 9 of Lanier's 10 prime years which I consider pretty bad. Finally there are lesser scoring Wes Unseld and Dikembe Mutombo who were consistent players for years; Unseld brings GOAT picks and outlet passing, Deke great shotblocking. Finally, Bill Walton had one great year (not that much better than Wes Unseld's MVP year) but every other year he broke down and left the Portland and San Diego teams which had built around him destroyed until he made another 1 year comeback as a top reserve. I wouldn't choose a one in eight shot at catching lightning in a bottle at the expense of a virtually guaranteed team crash the other seven over most of the above named players. I can't see taking any of them ahead of Rodman, moron that he was; just had too much success and was too unique a rebounder.
So, overall, KJ v. English v. Rodman. KJ v. English has English as the better individual player with better scoring, efficiency, and both slightly above average defensively; the question is whether KJ has some kind of a Steve Nash type team bonus that elevates him over his numbers. English v. Rodman is the classic good v. bad as English was a perpetual good citizenship nominee but I think rebounding and interior defense win more championships than versatile and efficient wing scoring.
Nominate The Worm.
“Most people use statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost; more for support than illumination,” Andrew Lang.
