real shocker here...
that last thing you mention, the 'perfect teammate', how underrated is that???
I still think I'd put him above KG (ankles healed, of course...)specifically for that reason. He absolutely makes everyone else on his team better.
Not to jump on the KGsux, TDrulz bandwagon, but I don't know that about KG. I think it might be, and if I watched every Minny game, I might be more sure, but I don't know that. With TD, I know that.
Anyway, really looking forward to this exercise. Can hardly wait for #3 (and beyond...)
I have no idea how to determine the value of being a good teammate.
In KGs defense, the Spurs are loaded with "perfect teammates." Manu is one of the most unselfish offensive players in the game. Bowen and Rasho are willing to just play defense. If you put Spree and Cassell on the Spurs they would still probably be whiny assholes.
word...
I watched Spree in his first year or two out in the Bay Area, and I just can't help feeling inside the 'whiny asshole' we've seen ever since, there's a 'good teammate'. Unfortunately, that part has been so long buried, it's really not worth even talking about. But I can't see him without a twinge of regret for the kind of player he could have been.
And of course, you're right. It is impossible to quantify how much being a good team player means. I just happen to think it's on the high end of the scale.
And like I said, that whole argument is not meant to denigrate KG. I hate the whole 'rings' argument as applied to team sports. Clearly, some players make mediocre teams good, and good teams great. Clearly, no stats exist currently which capture completely how much effect any one member of the team makes this happen.
I really do have no idea if KG would be just as successful as TD in the Spurs' environment. And you don't either. And neither do the jackasses who point to him and say he SUX because he hasn't made the Wolves into the Spurs. At least you and I admit it...
Maybe this is this generation's Russell-Chamberlain thing. Forty years later, it's still an open question. I still say Wilt would have won even more with the Celtics than Russell did...
booth52, standing up, applauding.
well said, rocat. well said.
thanks and all, but I'm not sure how I feel you quoting me in a post where you pick someone over Duncan as best!!!!
I think you, Matthew and I probably are really close on this. I'd go with Duncan by a hair on inside presence and who knows what else (hometown bias? TD never shot his mouth off about going to war in a first-round series? Just pure man-crush on the guy?). You'd go with KG by a hair on measurables, explosiveness, who knows what else. And neither of us made a bad choice...
btw -
both of you need to pick up the pace here, I'm checking constantly and always disappointed when you haven't written something great in the last hour or two. Like you had lives or something...
Really looking forward to the next ten (twenty, thirty, hundred) selections. That's where things are really going to get... controversial.
Best off-season idea ever!!!
Yeah, the pace needs to quicken for sure. Booth initially held up the process by taking a month to craft some incredibly intricate empirical formula. Now it's my fault for only writing up one guy a day. The individual entries will shorten as we move higher.
I am looking forward to reading the "I cannot believe you have X above Y" comments. Especially when people find out where I have Pau Gasol.
You were doing fine until the part about Duncan being the "most efficacious defensive player in the NBA." It's a large word, efficacious. But not so large that you can hide Ben Wallace behind it.
Duncan is the best of all time. Tim Duncan!!!!!!!!!!!!
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