vagelis wrote:Reddy83 I agree with your last post with the prediction of tmac-s offense in numbers and Paul George's defense.
Soxfan2003 I disagree with you that Wiggins is worse athlete than Lebon James.
I agree that Jordan was a better athlete. But as you have said, Wiggins is taller.
The thing with Wiggins,in my opinion is that he has not athletic disadvantage, he is above average in all athletic aspects.
This a little funny but If I would evaluate their atletic tools in each ones prime(Wiggins is not yet there), I would give
Jordan
2 foot jump 10/10
1-foot jump 10/10
first step 10/10
speed 9.5/10
direction change 9/10
strength 8/10
Wiggins
first step 10/10
2 foot jump 10/10
direction change 9/10
strength 9/10
speed 8.5/10
1-foot jump 8.5/10
Lebron James
speed 10/10
strength 10/10
1-foot jump 9.5/10
first step 8/10
direction change 7.5/10
2 foot jump 7.5/10
I mean that Lebron has parts that made him dominate( extraordinary speed,strength and one foot jump).
But also he has/had parts that he is not above average(first step,direction change,2-foot jump).
This is the athletic part.
As for the handles, Wiggins got better this year and I think he can get even better.
I think he will be like Jordan in handles and dribbiling ability and don't forget his spin move, which is the best/fastest that nba has seen.
I agree that Wiggins needs a lot of improvement to get in Lebron's, Durant's or Bryant's level but I think he can in the next 2-3 years. Jordan was something very special and I also think that it is very difficult to get in this level. I just hope and wait to see his improvement
If Wiggins is Jordan like in handles, he will win 3-4 MVPs. I just don't see it. Jordan could have easily played PG for his entire career. Jordan wasn't necessarily great at show off dribbling like a Curry but it was pretty much impossible to steal the ball from him. His huge hands, excellent handle, arguably GOAT quickness/first step/change of direction for a 6"5 player, made it a loss cause to try to pressure him.
I grew up watching/cheering for Larry Bird but I was also envious of him NOT because of his shooting ability... I was a pretty darn good shooter even if I was about 10 levels down from Bird. My effort in practicing my shooting consistently paid off to a certain extent at least. I kind of realized with the right instruction, I too could have been a truly great shooter. Not Bird like but actually NBA quality in that sole department.
But Bird had incredible coordination/natural dribbling skills for a player of his height. He had those skills from pretty much day 1 in the NBA and I was extremely envious of them since my coordination absolutely sucked in comparison and I am a little under 6 ft. No matter how much I practiced, I didn't see much improvement. I see Lebron maybe not Bird like in that coordination department but much closer than Wiggins and I can't picture Wiggins narrowing all of that gap. Just look at some of the moves Lebron was making in high school and how he was basically playing PG a lot of the time. Lebron doesn't show off all of his coordination all of the time since he doesn't have to and he is almost like a computer out there trying to make the most efficient/best play possible.
I see neither Lebron or Wiggins with Jordan's first step but I was more impressed with Lebron's first step considering his strength. Many players have quicker first steps than a young Lebron but how many actually have his size/strength? Not many.
I watched Wiggins at Kansas a lot and in the NBA the Wolves were actually the team I watched the 3rd most last year but its fun when he throws on his speed. It reminds me a little bit of Eric Dickerson how he stood out with his combination of speed/height upright running style.
The main reason I give Lebron the better athlete label for basketball is his huge strength advantage. Wiggins is not weak as his postups that I saw in realtime against Lebron indicate and I saw the clips of him playing against Randle in high school but Lebron is basically 85% as strong as Karl Malone which is incredible considering his perimeter skills/quickness when he was younger.
If you don't assign serious value to strength/coordination, I don't think it is crazy at all to consider Wiggins the superior athlete but I assign serious weight to both of them when discussing athleticism.
But again the whole reason I was 90% convinced Wiggins (if healthy) would be a top 25 player and as high as #3 in the entire NBA to go alongside his speed/explosiveness/length, he is very strong for his weight. So, I am hardly saying Wiggins is weak but just Lebron is an absolute beast when it comes to the strength department.
The advantage that Wiggins may have there is that he doesn't look as strong as he really is so the refs may give him some calls driving to the hoop that Lebron for a superstar just does not get as much as Jordan did. Lebron sometimes is barely affected when he is hacked.
I have liked Wiggins spin move all along but I will be very surprised if Wiggins equals Jordan in the ball handling department. Jordan could have been a great PG. In fact he did play that position for a brief period. His change of direction was exceptional. It was a lost cause to ever pressure young Jordan since his ball handlign skills/change of direction were just so fundamentally sound.
Wiggins
