re: MJ: “I would never call myself the greatest ever”

That shite goes both ways....

I agree the Suns are similar in construction, but I do think some of their stats show the skill evolution.

You reference KJ, Ceballos and Dumas on the perimeter. They shot a combined 2-13 from 3 for the entire season.

Barkley shot 3's, but was a low percentage gunner at 30% on 220 attempts.

That's been the greatest leveling of skill. Today, you just can't have a bunch of non-shooters or low percentage options and be a contender.

I'd argue the number of specialists have declined. That Suns team, you see interior defenders, shooters, slashers and Barkley. Other than maybe Majerle, no one else is really a defender, shooter and slasher (or postup option).

Nowadays, that specialization is rarer. Even a relatively specialized team like the Rockets have two high level all around guys in Harden and CP3. Then, their shooters are also generally proficient defenders in the 3 and D model. Capela is a rim runner/slasher and defender.

Giannis is the only guy in the top 20 scorers who really doesn't shoot 3's this year. In 1992-93, there were over half the top 20 who didn't shoot from the perimeter.

I get the argument it wasn't as encouraged then, but that's always the difficulty in projection.

quote:

---

players are actually smaller now on average at almost every position

---

Lmao

So many lies

MJ's legacy is how he handled himself getting inducted into the HoF that night.

quote:

---

Oakley wasn’t a center he was 6-9 not 6-8 and he 245 not 225. Get off the PlayStation and into reality.

---

That what he's listed at. If we're just going to make stuff up, sure, we can do that with all of the current players too.

quote:

---

 by Madking ? on 1/3/19 at 7:50 pm to Mr Perfect

Wrong as usual just centers alone with fewer teams there were 19 of 27 starting 7 foot centers in the 91 season 70%.

---

The centers from that era are about the only thing more embarrassing than Mark Price being an all Star.

Some of those guys could barely walk and chew gum at the same time

I remember the first time I ever saw basketball too. If you don’t know what you’re talking about you don’t have to jump into the conversation. If you’d ever seen some of those 7 footers play ball it would shock you. Patrick Ewing could hit 20 footers all day long, Hakeem could hit 3s and nearly all of them had better footwork than every front line player in today’s game by lightyears. And anyone who ever saw Mark Price knows what kindve player he was. He’s one of the only guys to ever go 50-40-90, 50% from the field 40% from 3 and 90% from the line, and that’s in an era you could be grabbed and hand checked. In his prime he’d run circles around 90% of today’s guards. What an ignorant child. I don’t knock today’s players I think some are incredible, you can’t even acknowledge the past eras greatness one bit which proves you’re a completely biased fanboy and have zero knowledge about the game. We are done here go pester someone els.

But Simmons is an outlier, Magic was a 6-9 point guard just like Simmons from a previous era. Take away those 2 players and you end up with a lot of guys from both eras around the same size like The Glove, Westbrook, Jason Kidd, Kyrie Irvin, Steve Nash, Steph Curry. You had two 7 foot 7 players, two 7 foot 6 players a 7-4 guy as well. The dominant 4s were KG listed at 6-11, Duncan 6-11, Webber 6-10, Rasheed Wallace 6-11, Dirk 7-0, Gasol 7-0, O’Neal 6-11 and that’s just off the top of my head. Today’s allstar 4s are Draymond Green 6-7, AD 6-10, Blake Griffin 6-10, Kevin love 6-10, Tobias Harris 6-9, Randle 6-9. When comparing the sizes of front line players it’s really not close and the only position where there’s a noticeable size advantage for the new generation is at the point guard position.

quote:

---

The centers from that era are about the only thing more embarrassing than Mark Price being an all Star.

---

OK I have to shut this nonsense down once and for all, Mark Price is one of the great three-point and free-throw shooters of all-time and an integral component if not leader of that Cavs team in the late-80s-early-90s, a great distributor of the ball and defender as well (set the Cavs all-time steals record)