ushvinder88 wrote:There is no defensive stat that indicates Hakeem is an entire notch above david robinson/kevin garnett/tim duncan. As a matter of fact, duncan got screwed over in defensive player of the year voting because he played in an era where defensive specialists like mutombo and wallace were winning every year. Olajuwon won his trophies in an era where MJ, Payton, D-Rob were also winning the trophy. Being fancier and more visually appealing defensively doesnt make you a better defender. Hakeem's defensive game has become very mythologized. If he was so great defensively, then why did shaq shoot 59% on him during the finals, this was supposed to be the dominant hakeem that everyone talks about?
Olajuwon was never top 3 in mvp voting once in his first 8 years, there is no excuse for that. Barkley carried weak teams and almost won an mvp, even drexler was an mvp candidate from that era.
Don't be silly. Hakeem's combination of blocks and steals is completely unprecedented in the 40 years the stats have been tracked. I'm not saying that clinches his superiority, but not only do stats favoring Hakeem exist, but the stats that do exist in his favor are the most well known defensive stats in existence. You're getting turned around if you've forgotten that.
Duncan did get screwed over to some degree in my opinion, but it's not for any reasons as clear cut as "defensive specialists". I mean yeah, you could label that as the name of the problem, but the root of the problem is that the voters simply suck at their job. Which is what happens in any sport when you don't have good stats for something. Opinion blows with the wind of narrative prejudiced by prior reputation.
Re: Why did Shaq score on Hakeem. I guess you didn't notice, Shaq scored on everyone. He scored on Duncan, Garnett, Wallace, Mutombo, Hakeem, Robinson, Ewing, etc. When a man is that big, strong, and agile, you're simply not going to stop him with one defender.
More importantly, if you're judging the best defender based on their ability to do man defense, you have major issues. The most important thing a defender can do is help defense. When you're extremely long, agile, coordinated, and shrewd, you can have a global impact on defense unmatched by any other kind of defender. That's your ideal defender, and no, to the extent anyone can match up with Shaq, this defender isn't going to be ideal for that. No one can do it all.
It is worth noting that the most dominant defense we've seen in recent year's was the '03-04 Pistons with Sheed. There you had 2 great big man defenders, which allowed the team to free up Ben from his Shaq duties. With Sheed as the primary man defender, and Ben in help, you had as good of a double team as you could ever want on Shaq, but you could also make use of Ben in his most valuable with far less concern for the risks.
