Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers?

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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#61 » by Texas Chuck » Thu Mar 26, 2020 10:14 pm

Bill Russell is a no-brainer.
Tim Duncan pretty much too. Shaq wasn't good enough the 2nd half of the decade and apologies to Kobe, KG, Dirk but they aren't quite Timmy.

But yes, the Lakers have had a ton of top end talent over the years without question.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#62 » by Texas Chuck » Thu Mar 26, 2020 10:17 pm

Tiny ball wrote:I would give the 1960s to John Havlicek no one was beating him.



appreciate the "homer" shout, but obviously he wasn't better than Russell on a year by year basis and he missed nearly 1/3 of the decade and didn't ramp up his minutes until the tail end of the decade.

He's more the Manu to Russell's Duncan. Great, great player, but not close to player of the decade of the 60's.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#63 » by Tiny ball » Thu Mar 26, 2020 10:23 pm

Texas Chuck wrote:
Tiny ball wrote:I would give the 1960s to John Havlicek no one was beating him.



appreciate the "homer" shout, but obviously he wasn't better than Russell on a year by year basis and he missed nearly 1/3 of the decade and didn't ramp up his minutes until the tail end of the decade.

He's more the Manu to Russell's Duncan. Great, great player, but not close to player of the decade of the 60's.
He was the young guy with the legs. In 8 years i think it was they won 6? It was him more than any other player after his rookie year.imho
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#64 » by An Unbiased Fan » Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:12 pm

Lost Angel wrote:Kobe played in 7 of the 10 finals in the 00’s and won 5 of them. He’s the best player that decade.

And pretty much everyone named Kobe as player of the decade in 2010. Duncan is close on regular season success, but Kobe is clearly ahead when you factor in the postseasons
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#65 » by HeartBreakKid » Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:26 pm

Depends on how we consider someone to be the best player of every decade. The best player of the 80s was still Michael Jordan - the best player of the 00s was O'Neal - their primes just didn't coincide with the entire decade.

10s - James.

00s - O'Neal. This is 2x now for LA. If we are factoring in "longevity", then Duncan and Garnett were the best players of the 00s.

90s - Jordan.

80s. Jordan again, but if we factor in longevity then Bird was a bit better than Magic most years.

70s. Kareem, that's 3 for LA.

60s. Russell. I have Russell over Chamberlain, though it is close of course.

50s. Russell. Factoring in longevity it's probably Bob Pettit.

40s. Mikan. Though this is getting real far back. So that's 4 for LA based on peak play, 3 based on decade-longeivty.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#66 » by Fencer reregistered » Fri Mar 27, 2020 1:24 am

HeartBreakKid wrote:
50s. Russell. Factoring in longevity it's probably Bob Pettit.


For me it's Cousy. Pettit's heyday was more mid-decade to mid-decade, while Cousy's matched up better with the calendar.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#67 » by Lalouie » Fri Mar 27, 2020 2:12 am

bill russell was the best player in the 60s and besides wilt touched down on the lakers too late to warrant consideration, so that's two strikes. i guess by the strict letter of the law, wilt did play for lal after all.

i'm not going to argue kobe, it's close enough
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#68 » by Asianiac_24 » Fri Mar 27, 2020 4:18 am

Overall career Duncan is higher, but just 2000s alone I'd say Kobe was better. Kobe has more championships, equal amount of Finals MVPs, same amount of MVPs, and year by year Kobe was better most of the years as well.

2000: Tie (Duncan was easily better, but he didn't play in the playoffs)
2001: Kobe
2002-2005: Duncan
2006-2010: Kobe

Shaq was irrelevant for the second half of the decade, and LeBron not relevant for the first half.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#69 » by Jaqua92 » Fri Mar 27, 2020 4:57 am

Pennebaker wrote:
BigtimeNBAfan wrote:1950's - George Mikan
1960's - Wilt Chamberlain
1970's Kareem Abdul Jabbar
1980's - Magic Johnson
1990's - Michael Jordan (Obviously did not play for the Lakers)
2000's - Kobe Bryant
2010's - Lebron James


Pretty insane that a case could be made one team had the best player of every decade other than one suit up for them.


Kobe was absolutely not the best player of the 2000s.

From 2005 to 2010 the best player in the NBA was LeBron James (scoring champion [2007-08], NBA Finals [2006-07], 2x MVP [2008-09, 2009-10], 1x MVP runner up [2005-06], 1x DPOY runner up [2009-10]).

Duncan is in the mix somewhere and also ahead Kobe. Shaq in the early 2000s was also ahead of Kobe.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#70 » by Jaqua92 » Fri Mar 27, 2020 4:58 am

BigtimeNBAfan wrote:1950's - George Mikan
1960's - Wilt Chamberlain
1970's Kareem Abdul Jabbar
1980's - Magic Johnson
1990's - Michael Jordan (Obviously did not play for the Lakers)
2000's - Kobe Bryant
2010's - Lebron James


Pretty insane that a case could be made one team had the best player of every decade other than one suit up for them.
Bird was the best player in the 80s

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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#71 » by Fencer reregistered » Fri Mar 27, 2020 7:50 am

We could make the OP closer to being true if we broke decades starting with the "2" year or so. Kobe might have a strong case for 2002-11. LeBron still gets the next decade. Magic has a better case against Bird the later we start the 80s. Wilt and West have a better case against Russell the later we start the 60s, until we start so late that Havlicek beats everybody. Mikan has the 40s no matter where we start. Lakers have no chance at the 50s no matter what. Kareem gets a decade no matter where the 70s start. And it might even be possible to get Shaq in over Jordan.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#72 » by Gooner » Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:14 am

dhsilv2 wrote:
NotaHypeJob wrote:
prophet_of_rage wrote:Neither of those statements is true.

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Kobe definitely accomplished more in the 00's.
They have the same number of MVPs, same number of Finals MVP but 4 rings compared to 3 for Duncan. And 6 finals visits compared to 3.


Duncan has 2 MVPs to Kobe's 1. Kobe missed the playoffs. Kobe had a worse record overall. Duncan made more 1st team all nba's. Duncan made more all nba defensive teams. Duncan has a higher regular season and playoff WS, VORP, and PER.


No....duncan just flat out was better than Kobe in the decade.


MVP is an irrelevant regular season award voted by Rachel Nichols.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#73 » by dhsilv2 » Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:11 am

Gooner wrote:
dhsilv2 wrote:
NotaHypeJob wrote:Kobe definitely accomplished more in the 00's.
They have the same number of MVPs, same number of Finals MVP but 4 rings compared to 3 for Duncan. And 6 finals visits compared to 3.


Duncan has 2 MVPs to Kobe's 1. Kobe missed the playoffs. Kobe had a worse record overall. Duncan made more 1st team all nba's. Duncan made more all nba defensive teams. Duncan has a higher regular season and playoff WS, VORP, and PER.


No....duncan just flat out was better than Kobe in the decade.


MVP is an irrelevant regular season award voted by Rachel Nichols.


What does that have to do with someone making a factually incorrect statement? I then went on and went beyond the MVP to make sure someone that thinks Skip makes good points, would be able to see that Duncan didn't just dominate the subjective awards (which include all nba's, all defense) but also the statistical case too. Also...someone with your posting record attacking even as bad a reporter as Nichols is a pretty good one. Remember, you're both on record SAYING and then DEFENDING the stance that Skip Baylass...a man who when asked BASIC basketball questions, cannot answer them, makes good points. Nichols will forget today more about basketball than Skip will ever know...which frankly isn't saying much about Nichols.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#74 » by dhsilv2 » Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:18 am

An Unbiased Fan wrote:
Lost Angel wrote:Kobe played in 7 of the 10 finals in the 00’s and won 5 of them. He’s the best player that decade.

And pretty much everyone named Kobe as player of the decade in 2010. Duncan is close on regular season success, but Kobe is clearly ahead when you factor in the postseasons


Playoff stats

BPM 7.4 vs 5.8
WS/48 .210 vs .168
PER 26.6 vs 22.7

Not only does Duncan have the better playoff stats, but outside of a very small dip in WS/48 Duncan noticeably has better playoff metrics in the other areas while kobe's PER and WS/48 took noticeable drops.

So no...Duncan was the clear better playoff performer in the decade as well. And if you want to give extra credit for team success in the playoffs, you have to take just as much off for Kobe's team missing the playoffs all together, something Duncan never let happen to his team.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#75 » by Firespo » Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:24 am

DavidSterned wrote:No.

Dolph Schayes was probably the best player in the 1950s (Mikan didn't even play the 2nd half of the decade).

Bill Russell is probably the best player in the 1960s.

Tim Duncan is probably the best player in the 2000s.

And Larry Bird has a pretty good argument over Magic for the 80s. I have him as the better player in 6/10 years that decade.
lol the butthurt is strong with this one
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#76 » by DavidSterned » Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:13 pm

Firespo wrote:
DavidSterned wrote:No.

Dolph Schayes was probably the best player in the 1950s (Mikan didn't even play the 2nd half of the decade).

Bill Russell is probably the best player in the 1960s.

Tim Duncan is probably the best player in the 2000s.

And Larry Bird has a pretty good argument over Magic for the 80s. I have him as the better player in 6/10 years that decade.
lol the butthurt is strong with this one


Care to actually refute any of what I wrote?

Didn't think so.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#77 » by snaquille oatmeal » Fri Mar 27, 2020 2:02 pm

elBJ wrote:
snaquille oatmeal wrote:
elBJ wrote:There is no way around Russel with 9/10 championships that decade, so a clear cut no!!! :crazy:

Don’t mean to knock any individual player involved, but the Celtics had a better overall team than wilt and Jerry West so it wasn’t Russell above everyone else in the 60’s.

Sorry, but I'm not going to discuss, if the best player of the team that won 9/10 in the 60's is the decades best player.

You are overlooking the fact that the Celtics were the best team overall as the reason why they won so much and simplifying it to Russell being the best player.
Look at it this way if you rate the players on a scale from 1 to 10 the Celtics overall totals would be higher, but Russell’s rating would not be above Wilt, equal in a best case scenario, but definitely above the rest of the Celtics players.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#78 » by mrsocko » Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:02 pm

snaquille oatmeal wrote:
elBJ wrote:
snaquille oatmeal wrote:Don’t mean to knock any individual player involved, but the Celtics had a better overall team than wilt and Jerry West so it wasn’t Russell above everyone else in the 60’s.

Sorry, but I'm not going to discuss, if the best player of the team that won 9/10 in the 60's is the decades best player.

You are overlooking the fact that the Celtics were the best team overall as the reason why they won so much and simplifying it to Russell being the best player.
Look at it this way if you rate the players on a scale from 1 to 10 the Celtics overall totals would be higher, but Russell’s rating would not be above Wilt, equal in a best case scenario, but definitely above the rest of the Celtics players.


Before he joined the league he won 2 college championships and an Olympic gold medal.

The Celtics had never won a championship before Russell showed up won 11/13 and then promptly stopped winning as soon as he retired. He averaged 42 minutes a game while the next highest Celtic barely averaged 30. The Celtic players in the Hall owe it to Russell for having put them there.

Cursory look at stats shows Wilt as a monster. Looking at the opinion of contemporaries shows they thought Wilt was the greatest individual player while Russell was the greatest team player. Many writers outline the strategy of the Celtics trying to stop Wilts teammates and letting Wilt try and win it all by himself making the team offence less efficient than the Celtic fast break offence lead by Russell’s amazing outlet passes.

You can’t judge Russell without realizing the context of what made him so great.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#79 » by An Unbiased Fan » Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:19 pm

dhsilv2 wrote:
An Unbiased Fan wrote:
Lost Angel wrote:Kobe played in 7 of the 10 finals in the 00’s and won 5 of them. He’s the best player that decade.

And pretty much everyone named Kobe as player of the decade in 2010. Duncan is close on regular season success, but Kobe is clearly ahead when you factor in the postseasons


Playoff stats

BPM 7.4 vs 5.8
WS/48 .210 vs .168
PER 26.6 vs 22.7

Not only does Duncan have the better playoff stats, but outside of a very small dip in WS/48 Duncan noticeably has better playoff metrics in the other areas while kobe's PER and WS/48 took noticeable drops.

So no...Duncan was the clear better playoff performer in the decade as well. And if you want to give extra credit for team success in the playoffs, you have to take just as much off for Kobe's team missing the playoffs all together, something Duncan never let happen to his team.

Kobe was the best player on the court in the 01,02,04,08 LA v SA series. I like how Kobe missing the playoffs in 05 while hurt matters.....but SA getting manhandled by LA in the 00s doesn't. It would be like picking Curry over LeBron for the 10s and pointing out the 2019 season.
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Re: Has the best player of every decade other than the 90's played for the Lakers? 

Post#80 » by elBJ » Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:01 pm

snaquille oatmeal wrote:
elBJ wrote:
snaquille oatmeal wrote:Don’t mean to knock any individual player involved, but the Celtics had a better overall team than wilt and Jerry West so it wasn’t Russell above everyone else in the 60’s.

Sorry, but I'm not going to discuss, if the best player of the team that won 9/10 in the 60's is the decades best player.

You are overlooking the fact that the Celtics were the best team overall as the reason why they won so much and simplifying it to Russell being the best player.
Look at it this way if you rate the players on a scale from 1 to 10 the Celtics overall totals would be higher, but Russell’s rating would not be above Wilt, equal in a best case scenario, but definitely above the rest of the Celtics players.

I'm not overlooking the fact the Celtics had the best team overall, but winning 9/10 chips as the centerpiece just trumps everything else. Though luck for Wilt.
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