NBA Thread

[Kaius]

Why are you a Wizards fan?

I didn't want to be a sixers fan like everyone around me growing up?

How did you feel when they dropped the Bullets moniker?

[E.H. Ruddock]

Why are you a Wizards fan?

I didn't want to be a sixers fan like everyone around me growing up?

How did you feel when they dropped the Bullets moniker?

I liked the Bullets way better. But I think that change was announced right as I was going to boot camp, so by the time I was done with a year of training all the news around it had died down. I still think they could have come up with a better name than Wizards, though.

[Monkey_Driven]

Will they finish ahead of the warriors?

I don't think the Spurs will catch them. Pop will stick to his rest schedule and that'll cost them a few games. I suspect they'll lose 2 or 3 on their upcoming Rodeo Road Trip.

A 7-game series between them is a toss-up to me. The Spurs depth and defensive pressure could really challenge the Warriors. The Spurs wear teams out with that defense. Other teams work soooooo hard to get a decent shot, that when the 4th rolls around they are dead on their feet. They are tired of setting picks that don't get anyone free, tired of beating their man only to be met with help defense, tired passing lanes being cut off and tired of no freebie 3-pointers. It's a glorious thing to watch night in and night out. Add the ball movement and Kawhi's emergence on offense and they'll be tough to beat in a 7-game series. And if Aldridge shoots a decent percentage, it's lights out.

The Warriors will not get the looks they are accustomed to getting because the Spurs are so disciplined and their depth will mean they won't be run off the floor.

I am fascinated with the idea of a Spurs/Warriors Western Conference Finals. The Spurs would certainly make the Warriors work to get their usual offense. The matchups and game to game tinkering would be a delight.

Something tells me the Thunder will find a way into the WCF though.

[nyquillyn]

Centers:

1. Wilt
2. Kareem
3. Russell
4. Hakeem
5. Shaq
6. The Admiral
7. Moses
8. Ewing
9. Lanier
10. Dikembe

Thoughts:
--1-3 are kinda set in stone to me. Maybe not in that order, but those 3 are clearly the best ever.

--Hakeem was better than most people realized. He's probably the most well-rounded player on this list. He had a season when he average 4.6 blocks a game. And to me, those two championship runs featured some of the most-dominate performances ever displayed. I'd honestly put those up there with some of Jordan's performance.

--It pained me to put Shaq above Robinson. The Admiral and Hakeem are the only centers to average 3 blocks or better for an entire career. The Admiral was also DPoY. And Shaq could be a liability on the defensive end. Shaq had 9 years when he didn't even average 2 blocks a game. That's flat-out pathetic. And his pick and roll D was just bad. David also lost 2 prime years with his military services. That being said, Shaq was finals MVP 3 times and had twice as many all-NBA first team selections. And David simply didn't have the longevity and his numbers really dropped with Duncan next to him.

--I really just threw Dikembe in at No. 10 because he was fun. It probably should be Mikan or one of the great passing centers like Cowens or Unseld.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

i'd still put robinson over shaq

[@SkitchP]

Without looking at numbers at all I think you could make the argument that peak Hakeem (those years when Jordan was out) was every bit as good as Wilt, Kareem or Russell. He was so fucking good for that stretch.

[nyquillyn]

I think it's hard for Hakeem to compete with Wilt. Wilt's first 9 to 10 years are insane and really NOBODY can ever touch those numbers. He essentially averaged 40/25. He can at least compete against Kareem. Kareem's peak was probably 6 to 7 years were he averaged 30/16. Hakeem's peak was about 26/13. Defensively, I'd give a slight edge to Hakeem. But as I said previously in this thread, Kareem's longevity was insane, 18 years of 20+ points is almost unthinkable. You can legitimately make a case that Kareem was a top 10 player in the NBA for 15 years.

Other than rebounding, most of what made Russell great was defense and intangibles, so in that regard it's fairly easy to make a case for Hakeem over Russell.

[@SkitchP]

I think it's hard for Hakeem to compete with Wilt. Wilt's first 9 to 10 years are insane and really NOBODY can ever touch those numbers. He essentially averaged 40/25. He can at least compete against Kareem. Kareem's peak was probably 6 to 7 years were he averaged 30/16. Hakeem's peak was about 26/13. Defensively, I'd give a slight edge to Hakeem. But as I said previously in this thread, Kareem's longevity was insane, 18 years of 20+ points is almost unthinkable. You can legitimately make a case that Kareem was a top 10 player in the NBA for 15 years.

Other than rebounding, most of what made Russell great was defense and intangibles, so in that regard it's fairly easy to make a case for Hakeem over Russell.

Oh, im not talking overall. No quibble with your top 3 for entire body of work. But Hakeem over that brief stretch was just damn amazing.

[nyquillyn]

Absolutely. And Hakeem fucking owned The Admiral whenever they played. It wasn't even close. I think those match-ups were largely why Robinson got painted as "soft" in his early years. But in all honesty, Hakeem would just go through stretches when he was unstoppable and everybody looked "soft" against him.

[Monkey_Driven]

Hakeem is top 4 for sure.

[bada]

1. Kareem
2. Russell
3. Wilt
4. Hakeem
5. Shaq
6. Moses
7. The Admiral
8. Ewing
9. Willis Reed
10. The Chief

[nyquillyn]

Once you get out of the top 7 or 8, it becomes murky as hell. Tons of "very good to great" centers with fairly identical stats.

[bada]

Yeah Chief was my version of your Dikembe pick. I almost went with Smits. Really Sabonis should be top 5 but I never saw him in his prime.

[bada]

Though a lot of those guys I never saw in their prime or at all maybe Sabonis should be in there. Of course it wasn't the NBA.

[bada]

1. Kareem
2. Russell
3. Wilt
4. Hakeem
5. Sabonis
6. Shaq
7. Moses
8. The Admiral
9. Ewing
10. Willis Reed

[bada]

F it.

[Kaius]

WHERES LUC LONGLEY 72-10 M'FERS

[bada]

That was all Wellington.

[Kaius]

RIK SMITS?

[nyquillyn]

What about Big Country?

Spoiler: show