r/nba

Am I wrong or do the majority of NBA fans severely underrate the impact of the all time great big men/front court players who are DPOY level defenders but aren’t great scorers? Draymond , Ben Wallace, Mutombo , Rodman , Tyson Chandler , Rudy Gobert , and most of all the goat Bill Russell .

Defense looks easier than offense to people because you don’t need skills with the actual basketball ,

but in the NBA today there are WAY MORE PLAYERS who could average 20-25ppg (given the minutes and shot attempts) than there are guys who can impact a game as much as a DPOY level player like Gobert can .

That being said I have some very controversial takes

Bill Russell over Wilt and Kareem peak and career

Duncan over Shaq and Kobe peak and career.

Draymond Green over Kevin Love peak and career .

And last and most controversially

Kevin Durant is objectively the greatest scoring small forward of all time , 4x scoring titles 2014 MVP

Steph Curry is arguably the most impactful offensive player of all time up to that point in history .

Draymond Green was a more impactful basketball player than Kevin Love ever was .

Klay Thompson is the greatest 3rd scoring option of all to time because he doesn’t need to dribble to score fits in perfectly anywhere 3 and D

Andre Iguodala was a former allstar best player on playoff teams in Philly and Denver, another all time great defender .

Steph Curry is the 2nd greatest player of the 2010s to LeBron .
LeBron had to face him 4x on super teams .

If Jordan after his first 3 peat didn’t retire

Here’s the next 2 years

1994 Bulls vs Rockets - Rockets win
1995 Bulls vs Rockets -Rockets win

And here’s what would happen if Hakeem was on a team as stacked as the 2017 Warriors

1996 Bulls vs Rockets Rockets win
1997 Bulls vs Rockets Rockets win

LeBron with Jordan’s finals schedule 2015-2018 was

Suns, Sonics , Jazz , Jazz

He’d go 4-0

So i say switch places difficulty Jordan would be 3-4 in Finals

LeBron would be 6-2

And all of that means nothing but I had a couple edibles and am totally talking out my ass right now but it low key makes sense to me . I think I understand NBA history now .

Which of these arguments seems craziest to you and which seems most reasonable?

In other words, who is the best ever at carrying weak rosters and who is the best ever at raising a team's maximum potential, especially a championship-level team? Are there any players that are great at both? Is there one singular player that is the best ever at doing both roles?

1- John Wall 439 blocks | 647 games
2- Jason Kidd 425 blocks | 1315 games
3- Shai Gilgeous Alexander 422 blocks | 530 games
4- Russell Westbrook 418 blocks | 1301 games
5- Magic Johnson 361 blocks| 874 games

Tied with Danny Green at 68 games, LeBron was next with 67. Anthony Davis started 62.

Source: https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAL/2020.html

Edit: JaVale

I was doing some basketball reference surfing today at work and came across Brad Daugherty. Daugherty is a player I knew of as one of the great UNC big men ever, #1 pick in ‘86, and a great Center for the Cavs. What I didn’t realize was that he retired at the age of 28! He had back issues that cost him his career. Made me want to hear some thoughts on some of the guys in nba history that had injuries derail their promising careers.

Here’s my list and some honorable mentions

PG:Derrick Rose

SG:Brandon Roy

SF: Grant Hill

PF: Maurice Stokes

C: Brad Daugherty

HM: Bill Walton, Jay Williams, Greg Oden, Penny Hardaway, Yao Ming, Demarcus Cousins, Lonzo Ball, Bernard King, Shaun Livingston.

Let me hear your guys thoughts!

Despite going up against maybe the greatest defensive center rotation of all time (Wemby and Gobert) 😭, Jokic shines and Serbia wins in an exciting game!

Got close at the end