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26th March, 2008 - 4:29 pm
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| Current Features |
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SCOOP DU JOUR: D’Antoni, LeBron, Wells, Maddux And Franzen!
The Knicks hire Mike D’Antoni, LeBron is still LeBron, Vernon Wells breaks a wrist, Greg Maddux gets No. 350, and Johan Franzen on the sidelines.
LOCKER TALK: Rick Fox Relevant Again With Televised Appearance At Laker Game
The man Bill Walton once dubbed “a true gentleman of the game” is back in the spotlight again after camera crews caught him pumping his fist “Arsenio Hall style” during a regular season Laker game.
TEAM RANKINGS: The RealGM.com Final NBA Team Rankings For 2007-08
Which teams were statistically the best in 2007-08? Which teams improved the most from 2006-07? Some of the answers may surprise you.
MOCK DRAFT: 2008 NBA Mock Draft, Version 6.0 (Post-Tournament Edition)
The NCAA Tournament is now over, Kansas is the champion and stocks have been rising and falling. We also are getting a clearer picture of the overall pool, though this list will remain fluid through the middle of May.
PLAYER RANKINGS: The Most Overpaid Players Of 2007-2008
The end of the regular season is almost upon us, so now is an opportune time to examine which players were overpaid the most.
CLASSICS: Hakeem Vs. Ewing: Who Was The Better Center?
Born within six months of each other in opposite corners of the world, two seven footers who are finalists for the Basketball Hall of Fame this fall are two of the best ever to play the center position.
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By Nick Obergan
This week’s list is headed by two of the greatest point guards of all-time. One is often compared to the other, with the latter having bigger hardware and the former having better numbers.
Next week we will look at picks 13 and 14 as we have to speed things up a little bit. There are only 14 weeks until the NBA draft, and I hope to have a surprise finish for you!
10. Al Jefferson – No. 15 in 2004
Now I know we had a large sample size, with a lot of OK players who had OK careers found with these picks, and I probably could have picked any one of those OK guys. But, despite his age and lack of longevity, it could be argued that Jefferson has already had a better career than guys like Terry Mills, Chris Gatling, Dana Barros, and others. Those guys had between 1 and 3 good seasons, with All-Star appearances sprinkled in. None of them had numbers like the 21 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks Al is putting up this year, though, especially when looking at last year, when he was already putting up 16 points, 11 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and 51.4% shooting. He is only 23 and in his fourth year in the league, but his career averages (13.1/8.1) are already better than the players listed and any others considered. Factoring in his outstanding offensive post gameand that he is about 5 years away from his prime, he is going to be an absolute stud in the block, barring injury.
9. Hedo Turkoglu – No. 16 in 2000
Hedo first earned praises due to his great bench play for the Kings in his sophomore year of 2001-02 when he averaged 10.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in under 25 minutes. After a few more bench seasons with the Kings and Spurs, he came to the Magic and saw his scoring rise from the single digits to 14.0, then 14.9, then down to 13.3 last year. He displayed his versatility all of those seasons as well, averaging over 3.5 rebounds and 2 assists in each of those 3 seasons, but you had the feeling that he wasn’t fully there yet. Well this season, he is there. New Coach Stan Van Gundy is running the offense through Hedo, who at 6’10” with handles like a guard, is a matchup nightmare. He is having a career year with averages of 19.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.9 assists – all career highs. He is also a deadly long range shooter, averaging over 40% from downtown three times, and is a career 39.2% shooter from long range. At 28, he should just be entering his prime, and Magic fans would love to see a handful of seasons with production like this. In 591 career games he has averages of 11.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 26.8 minutes.
8. Brad Davis – No. 15 in 1977
Davis definitely has longevity on his side, playing 15 seasons and 961 regular season games in his NBA career. Largely a backup point guard, he spent roughly 5 ½ seasons as the Mavericks' starter at the beginning of the 1980’s. In those 462 games, he averaged 10.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, 6.7 assists, and 1 steal in 29.9 minutes. He also shot a great percentage from the field (53.6%) and from the free throw line (84%) and only averaged 1.8 turnovers per game – an outstanding number for a point guard. He twice finished in the top 10 in assists per game and three times in the top 10 for free throw shooting. Only 5 of his 15 seasons resulted in post season play, all with Dallas, and he never had much success in those 45 games. In his career he averaged 8.2 points, 1.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 0.8 steals, 51% shooting, 32.1% from three, 82.8% from the line, and 23.2 minutes per game.
7. Ricky Sobers – No. 16 in 1975
Sobers played 11 seasons in the NBA, scoring in double figures in 8 of those, and averaged 15 or more points 4 times. The 6’3” guard was also a decent distributor when he was entrusted to run the offence, averaging more than 5 assists and 1.5 steals 4 seasons in his career. Far and away his best season in the league was in 1977-78 with Indiana, where he averaged career highs in minutes (38.2), points (18.2), rebounds (4.1), assists (7.4), steals (2.2), and shot 45.3% from the field and 82.5% from the free throw line. For his career, he averaged 28 minutes, 13.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.3 steals, 45.9% from the field, and 84.3% from the line. He only made the playoffs 3 times, but one of those was with the 1975-76 Suns who lost in the NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics . In that run, he averaged 29.6 minutes, 13.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and shot 46.8%.
6. Ricky Green – No. 16 in 1977
Green was a 6’0” point guard who played 14 NBA seasons and made the playoffs in 8 of them but did not have much success at all there, from an individual (averaged 8.8 points, 5.3 assists) or a team standpoint (only 55 games in 8 seasons). In 946 regular season games, he averaged 9.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.4 steals, and shot 46.9% from the field and 80.7% from the stripe in 24.6 minutes. What sets him apart from guys like Sobers and Davis was he had a consistently good 4-year prime that saw him appear in an All-Star game in 1984 when he averaged 13.2 points and was 6th in the league in assists with 9.2. Combined with the two seasons before that and the one after (spanning 317 games), he averaged 34.1 minutes, 13.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 8.4 assists, 2.4 steals, 48.7% shooting from the field, and 81.3% from the free throw line in those four seasons. He was top-10 in assists in each of them as well. He led the league in steals in 1983-84 with 2.7 per game, was second the year before with 2.8, and sixth the year before that with 2.3.
5. Swen Nater – No. 16 in 1973
Nater was a 6’11” big man from The Netherlands who played 233 ABA games before joining the NBA in 1976-77. The guy was a rebounding machine. After averaging 13 per game in the ABA, he averaged 12 then 13.2 in his first two NBA seasons. After a rare year under 10 due to a cut in playing time, he averaged a career high 15 per game in 1979-80 (led the NBA) as a 30-year old and followed that up with 12.4 the following year. All four of those seasons saw him in the league’s top-7 for that respective season. He also spent four seasons in the top-10 in free throw shooting. He didn’t see much playing time in his final three seasons, and they really bring down his career stats. His first 5 in the NBA he averaged 13.6 points on 54.2% shooting, 12.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists. He also shot 76.6% from the free throw line, a very good mark for a big man. He was a dominant rebounder and double-double machine, to say the least.
4. Ron Artest – No. 16 in 1999
You won’t find one basketball fan, player, or front office executive who isn’t aware of the many talents Artest posesses. The problem is, those many talents often take a backseat to his mercurial behavior. And no one can really be blamed for that line of thinking. It could be argued that, from all reports over the past few years, he is the most distracting, selfish teammate in the league; a locker room cancer, if you will. He has numerous attitude problems as evidenced by the Malice At The Palace and his courthouse hearings. Underneath it all, though, is one of the most well-rounded basketball players on the floor today. In between all of the suspensions, he has proven to be one of the best, if not the best, defender in the NBA and an All-Star talent with a variety of offensive weapons. In 2003-04 he was an All-Star, averaging 18.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 2.1 steals. He was also named the league’s Defensive Player Of The Year that season (and obviously, All-Defensive 1st Team). He was also All-Defensive 1st Team in 2006, 2nd Team in 2003, All-NBA 3rd Team in 2004, and All-Rookie 2nd Team in 2000. He has averaged more than 15 points per game in each of the last six seasons (if you count the 24.6 he averaged in the 7 games he played in 2004-05) and is averaging 20 per game this year. He has also averaged at least 5 rebounds in each of those seasons. He has averaged over 2 steals per game 7 times in 9 seasons. In 528 games, he has averaged 15.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 2.1 steals, 0.7 blocks, and 34.7 minutes per game.
3. Mike Mitchell – No. 15 in 1978
Mitchell was a 6’7” swingman who played 3 ½ seasons with the Cavs and 6 ½ with the Spurs. The guy was an absolute scoring machine, averaging over 20 per game in 6 of his 10 seasons, and 19.9 in another. He did it efficiently too, averaging 49.3% from the field for his career. He only made one All-Star team, though, when he averaged a career-best 24.5 points in his third season in the league. He was also a very good rebounder from the wing position, five times averaging over 6 per game. He had sustained success from the 1979-80 season to the 1985-86 season. In that span he played 655 games and averaged 21.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.6 blocks in 36 minutes. Four times he was in the league’s top-10 for points per game and 6 times for field goals made. He didn’t have much playoff success from a team standpoint, but in his first two playoff runs (both to the second round), he averaged 24.8/8.1 and 20.9/9.1. In 759 career games, he averaged 19.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 32.3 minutes.
2. Steve Nash – No. 15 in 1996
Nash is currently in his 12th season in the league, and fourth season in his second tour of Phoenix where he is having, by far, the most success of his career. It’s the 8th season in a row that he is averaging at least 33 minutes a game. That run, of course, started as a member of the Mavs, playing beside Nowitzki and Finley on perennial playoff teams. In his last four seasons in Dallas, he averaged 16.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 7.8 assists, and 0.9 steals. He made the All-Star team as a Mav in 2002 and 2003 when he averaged 17.9 points/7.9 assists and 17.7/7.3 respectively. Everyone figured this was the player Nash was, a good point guard capable of All-Star play. What no one envisioned was the player Nash became in a system (Phoenix’s instituted by Mike D’Antoni) that suited his vision, speed, creativity and shooting. His first season in the desert saw Phoenix go from 29 wins to 62, and Nash put up 15.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and a league-best 11.5 assists per game, and shot 50.2% from the field, 43.1% from three and 88.7% from the stripe en route to winning the league’s MVP. His next season was even better as the team needed him to score in Amare Stoudemire’s absence, averaging 18.8, 4.2, 10.5, 51.2%, 43.9%, 92.1%, clinching his second straight MVP trophy. Believe it or not, he was even better last year, averaging 18.6, 3.5, 11.6, 53.2%, 45.5%, 89.9%, but was unsuccessful in winning his third straight trophy. This year it’s much of the same: 17.6, 3.4, 11.2, 51.8%, a career-best 48.1% from downtown, 90.4%. In his four seasons in Phoenix, he has led the league in assists each season and has averaged 17.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 11.2 assists, 0.8 steals, 51.6% from the field, 45.2% from three and 90.3% from the stripe. On top of the MVPs, he is a 6-time All-Star, 3-time All-NBA 1st Team (2005, 2006, 2007), and 2-Time All-NBA 3rd Team (2002, 2003), and a sure-fire bet to make it to the Hall of Fame when all is said and done.
1. John Stockton – No. 16 in 1984
Here we have, falling all the way to 16, a player who is likely a top-5 point guard of all-time and maybe the best passer ever. He had a remarkable 19 year career, all of which were played in Utah. From the third game of the 1987-88 season, right up until his last game in 2002-2003 he started every game he played. He averaged double figures in points in the final 16 years of his career. He shot below 48% only once, as a rookie. Ten seasons in a row he averaged double figures in assists. Five seasons in a row he averaged over 13 assists per game, and 6 seasons in a row over 15 points per game. Nine seasons in a row he averaged over 2 steals per game as well, proving his worth on the defensive end of the court just as much as the offensive. He led the league in assists 9 years in a row and was top-10 eight other times – that is 17 out of 19 years in the top 10 in the league. He was top-10 in steals 12 times, and his career 2.2 per game is 7th all-time. His 10.5 career assists per game is 2nd only to Magic Johnson, but he has the most career assists in league history, as well as the most steals in league history. In the 9-year stretch that he led the league in assists, he played 734 games and averaged 36.3 minutes, 15.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, 13.1 assists, 2.6 steals, 52.3% from the field, 37.2% from long range and 82.6% from the free throw line. He played in 10 All-Star games (1989-97, 2000) and won numerous awards: 2 All-NBA 1st Teams (1994 & 1995); 6 All-NBA 2nd Teams; 3 All-NBA 3rd Teams; 5 All-Defensive 2nd Teams. And whenever he becomes eligible, he will easily be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
Comments, opinions and feedback is always welcome: nickobergan@hotmail.com |
