My brother asked me the following question...
1) In their prime, if you had the first pick for an NBA team and your choices were:
- Shaquille O'Neal (think with the Lakers, early 2000s)
- Hakeem Olajuwon (mid 90's, rockets)
- Tim Duncan (mid 2000s)
That was a really good question, and I really thought about it and still don't really have an answer. What do you think?
And through that question came...
2) In their prime, what centers would you take as a first pick for a team? (So now, throw in guys like Chamberlain, Walton, etc...)
The part of the hypothetical question about a guy being the first pick and not knowing who else is on a team is crucial to the answer, in my opinion. When Shaq has been paired with another dominant player (like Kobe), he's invaluable. However, I don't think he could win with a supporting cast of Sam Cassell, Vernon Maxwell, etc... the way that Hakeem did. And I don't think playing with Shaq makes his teammates better, whereas I think that Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili et al are better through playing with Duncan. I therefore would probably not take Shaq over Duncan or Olajuwon.
Some more random NBA notes:
1) in 1993-1994 the top three scorers in the NBA were centers.
2) The Miami Heat just signed Penny Hardaway. They must've just dropped Laettner this year. With Penny, Laettner, Mourning and Shaq their roster looked like an All-Star team from 1995.
3) My brother and I just made two bets:
a) Boston will win the East (or, Boston vs. the field to be the Eastern Conf. Champs). I said no, he said yes. Even though Boston looks great, so much can happen in a season that to bet one team against the field after 3 games seems too much.
b) I gave him 3 to 1 odds and said that Kevin Garnett would NOT be on the all-NBA first team, while he said that Garnett would. Is he really going to beat out Lebron, Dirk, Duncan et al...? Maybe he will. It seems unlikely though. He is going to have to share everything with Pierce and Allen this year and that might not make him look as individually as good.
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3 comments:
The correct answer is Hakeem Olajuwan. There's not even a discussion.
Some guys would argue that Tim Duncan is not a center, but putting that to the side, the Big Fundamental is really just a slightly lesser version of Hakeem.
Shaq is nowhere near the level of these other two.
1) Hakeem. Duncan was never unstoppable like the other two, just reliable, and Shaq wasn't a defensive MVP.
Also, that scoring list is amazing.
Not only were the top 3 centers, but 4 of the top six. And only one guard was in the top 10. No point guards in the top 20 (though, technically, Ron Harper played PG when he went to the Bulls later.)
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