Power Shift
Zach was part of the West power summit.What happened to the Western Conference hoarding all the elite power forwards? Since the top dog, Tim Duncan, won his fourth ‘chip a couple months ago, we’ve seen Kevin Garnett and Zach Randolph move East, and then the West took another blow yesterday when news broke of Elton Brand‘s possibly season-ending injury. Brand ruptured his Achilles while working out in Cali, and while some reports have said he’s only supposed to be out for six months, that type of injury usually sidelines you for at least a year … And how snake-bitten are the Clippers? Just when you think they’re turning it around by making the ’06 playoffs, they had a so-so ’07 season, lost Shaun Livingston for who knows how long with his gruesome knee injury, and now Brand is hurt. The Clips are gonna be awful next year without Brand, unless Chris Kaman somehow regains — and then exceeds — his form from a couple years ago. Even if Elton does come back around All-Star break, you saw how the Grizzlies responses to not having Pau Gasol at the beginning of last season. The silver lining, if any, is that L.A. could be in good position to shore up the backcourt if they lose enough games to land Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose or O.J. Mayo in the ’08 Draft … Meanwhile, the Clips signed Brevin Knight to give Sam Cassell some relief. Sorry, Celtics fans … Pretty slow day around the Dime office on Friday, but NBA TV saved us by showing Bulls/Knicks in Game 5 of the ’93 conference finals, a.k.a. “The Charles Smith Game.” After all these years it was still hard to watch for the Knicks fans we have in the crew, obviously for that last sequence, but also because you could watch that game and argue that New York had a better team than the Bulls that year. If Smith converts, NY takes a 3-2 lead in the series going to Chicago for Game 6, and Game 7 would have been at MSG … There were stretches of that game where John Starks was actually the best player on the court, but MJ took over in the second half and started destroying Starks on pull-up jumpers … During the game the question was brought up: Is Patrick Ewing the greatest shooting center/post player ever? Dirk‘s name came up, but he’s not really a post player. Who else could you consider? Hakeem Olajuwon? … The Mavs inked Eddie Jones to a two-year deal. The bigger story isn’t so much how Jones helps Dallas, but that the Heat just got worse, or at least thinner on the bench … The Juan Carlos Navarro sweepstakes is over, with Navarro going to Memphis in a trade for a first-round pick. This was the best situation for Navarro, as he gets to play with his boy Pau Gasol, and in a system that suits his game. Watch out — everything looks to be in place for Gasol to have a monster season. He’s got some solid point guards to get him the rock (Conley, Lowry, Stoudamire), scorers off the wing (Rudy Gay, Tarence Kinsey) and shooters (Mike Miller, Casey Jacobsen) to draw double-teams away from him, and some bigs in there to get his back (Darko, Warrick, Stro Swift). Gasol was real close to 20-10 last season (20.8 ppg, 9.8 rpg); no reason he can’t hit that mark next season … A couple weeks ago the Warriors were trying to get Kevin Garnett. Yesterday they officially signed Austin Croshere. HUGE letdown … Jannero Pargo re-upped with the Hornets, because every team has to have a smallish combo guard who is prone to shoot too much … P.J. Carlesimo will be the coach of that team of youngsters that will take on Team USA leading into the Olympic qualifying tourney. Two of P.J.’s new Sonics – Jeff Green and Nick Collison – will be on the team, but this also means Carlesimo will actually coach against Kevin Durant before he ever coaches him … And the Toronto Star is saying Jason Kapono and LaMarcus Aldridge are also gonna be on the squad … We’re out like easy layups …
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August 4th, 2007 at 11:29 am
James Wright says:
I have to consider Hakeem to be far better than Ewing, and not just because Hakeem at least won a chip. Just look at career stats:
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/hakeem_olajuwon
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/patrick_ewing
Olajuwon is better in virtually every category (FT% notwithstanding). You might also throw “The Admiral” into that mix:
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/david_robinson
August 4th, 2007 at 11:57 am
123 says:
dont forget about yao… nice shooting touch and probably owns the 3 above mentioned in ft% (shooting skills)
August 4th, 2007 at 11:57 am
KL says:
Totally agree. If I’m starting a new team from scratch, I’d choose the Dream and Admiral well over Ewing without hesitation. Not only for on the court presence, but off court too. Having an ass that won’t sign autographs on game day? You’re just asking to alienate your team with jackasses.
August 4th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Jim says:
I think we are missing the point of the argument, though. Certainly you take Hakeem over Ewing as a player (Admiral is debatable, and I’m from Austin), but you can’t judge shooting touch on FG%. I think with a 12-15 foot jump shot Ewing is better than those two guys, and I think that’s what we’re talking about. But he isn’t even the best Knicks shooting big man ever, Willis Reed has to take that, right?
August 4th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
JT$ says:
Best shooting center ever is Big Smooth Sammy Perkins man. Obviously if the argument is best Hall of Fame center, the argument focuses around Ewing and Dream, but they didnt have the stroke from three like SP
August 4th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Scott says:
Kareem had that “impossible to defend” sky hook with the softest touch this side of heaven.
August 4th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Ian says:
read that opening line kudabeen and bron 42 “Since the top dog, Tim Duncan, won his fourth ‘chip a couple months ago” TOP DOG not kg
August 4th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Ian says:
i dont like when people lable under achievers like ewing with something like that just to make it sound that he at least was better at something than the other players that were better than him
david and hakeem were ten times better than ewing at everything
for me in his prime robinson was the best of the three
August 4th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Keith says:
For best shooting post player, I’d have to go with Hakeem or Kareem. I’d only pick Robinson on defense because of his great reaction time. His shooting touch was good, but not as good as Kareem and Hakeem.
August 4th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Alan says:
Hey, when is that USA against the youngsters game?
August 4th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Jesse says:
Arvydas Sabonis, hands down best shooting center/low post.
August 4th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
The Jed says:
Does Mchale count? And if dirk counts, he wins this.
August 4th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Bron42 says:
did someone just mention my name for no reason? anywayz….first off, of course TD is top dog at the moment, he just won a title but like its been proven…HE DIDNT DO IT ALONE. Hence he wasnt even finals MVP. So chill with that. And then on top of that, I never said KG was the top dog, I just said people need to quit makin it like Duncan is god and KG is smush parker just because duncan has won with a MUCH MUCH MUCH better supporting cast while KG has been basically playin with a pile of jerseys for his entire career. The one year KG had even a hint of talent (though past their prime) the team went some where. Duncan has really never had to carry a team himself for a while season. HE is the teams leader and all that but hes never been in a Paul pierce, Tmac, Kg situation where the rest of the team sucks and he has to do it all by himself yet management does nothing to help. So relax with all the rah rah about duncan. I’m out like my name in Ians mouth.
August 4th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Eric - DC says:
David Robinson could not hold Ewing jock strap, especially on the offensive end. The only reason that he has a Championship is that he had the best player this side of Michael Jordan on his team. P Ewing had a variety of moves on the block and consistently had his team in the conference finals(finals once). An underachiever is someone like a KG who can’t get his team to the playoffs. The further we get away from Patrick Ewing’s career, the less we appreciate him.
August 5th, 2007 at 6:09 am
Ian says:
eric im with u on the kg part
but that comment that the admiral cant hold ewings strap
in their primes ewing had a better team and got didnt win
robinson
got
mvp
scoring title (for the offensive end part)
defensive player
and was better all round
ewing was never 1st nba while david was in his prime
please explain why ewing was WAY better please
btw those 2 rings count
if not only the best player on the team gets them
pippen doesnt have six then
bron u said kg was the best player in the league on yesterdays posts
August 5th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Bron42 says:
whoaa…go reread it. NEVER said he was the best. one of the most consistent but not the best. Is duncan miles ahead of him better? hell no, but i still dont say KG is the best. I was just sayin its dumb for everyone to say he sucks and completely overllok how his team was run from: coachin changes(compare flip to greg pop), managment, supporting cast( tony parker or marko jaric please), draft picks (spurs draft manu, wolves have no pics for 4 years cuz of joe smith) etc..and just put it all on KG who has had about 20-10 his whole career no matter the situation. Greatest player ever? probably not. But a loser? not even close.
P.s: Robinson won all those but ewing was WAYYYY more effective on the offensive side.
All of davids points were mostly put backs and fill the lane dunks.
And when he won MVP he didnt even deserve it that year, just ask the dream who proceeded to light him up in the playoffs.
August 5th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Austin Burton says:
Hakeem had his way with Robinson in the ’95 playoffs, but I wouldn’t say Robinson didn’t deserve (regular season) MVP that year. Look at the numbers:
David averaged 27 points, 10 boards and 3 blocks in 81 games. The Spurs won 62 games, and his supporting cast was Dennis Rodman (who only played 49 games that year), Sean Elliott, Avery Johnson, Vinny Del Negro and Chuck Person.
Hakeem put up 27-10-3 in 72 games. The Rockets won 47 games with a supporting cast of Clyde Drexler/Otis Thorpe (They were traded for each other: Thorpe was there for the first half of the season, Drexler for the second half), Vernon Maxwell, Kenny Smith, Horry, Cassell and Mario Elie.
I wouldn’t argue too hard against anyone who voted for Robinson that year.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
Ian says:
bron sorry man
robinson did deserve the mvp
and ewing wasnt more effective anywhere
im a spurs fan
and i remember that series like it was yesterday
the coach fucked us up
david was being triple team all series and hakeem was single covered
thast (/%/&$( bitch rodman didnt want to help out
but all doesnt matter
playoffs dont count for mvp
if u didnt say kg was better than duncan then my bad
but u said i think that u rather start a team with him than duncan
austin has his facts straight david had a bad supporting cast and took a lottery team to being one of the best all through the 90s just look at the season he went out. we got duncan
ewing couldnt get to the playoffs for a couple of seasons when he got in
now that guy is an underachiever
August 6th, 2007 at 10:50 am
kudabeen says:
Who is Ian…? The headline is the end all be all of debates. If that’s so, why do people post? Just read the articles and say how great they are. Tim is Top because his teams on Top. That’s how that goes. The debate we had in a the OTHER post was about individual talent. I see Ian still ha trouble with that concept… Believe what you want. But don’t reference a headline to make a point. That’s weak.
August 6th, 2007 at 11:22 am
kudabeen says:
My Man tossed Willis Reeds name out there and no one bit. It’s that generation bias again. Wilt is documented as have a nice 12ft shot, but we couldn’t see him or Willis do their thing on sportscenter, so the don’t count right.
I’ll go with the best shooting/post center in the last 20 odd years and say Hakeem. His overall skill in the post alone puts him above david and ewing. Ewing wasn’t a great post player, He was a great athletic big (for a while) who had a nice fading J that was unblockable. David was a much greater athlete then both guys, but didn’t really dominate his matchups enough. He was, as stated previously, a great offensive put back guy and developed a nice J as well. Hakeem on the other hand had a great post game, a nice J, but he also had the best handle and foot work of any big man I’ve had the opportunity to see of that era. How many 7 footers routinely take their man of the dribble from 15ft out? That and he was a true finisher. He carried his teams to wins even when the match-ups weren’t in their favor. He knew what to do and when to get his team over the hump.
I’d go that way…
August 6th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Ian says:
kudabeen
cant i post what i want?
u said kg was better than td
shows how much u know basketball
August 6th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
kudabeen says:
Dick eating is not basketball knowledge. I never metioned KG and Tim in comparison. I said I would start my team…MY TEAM…key word being ‘MY’…M and Y Team with KG. You came in with balls and all hanging out your mouth…”you pick KG and I’ll take Tim and knock you out the first round”. Huh? How old are you? “shows how much u know basketball”…
You post what you want…But learn to read and comprehend before poppin off. My preference has nothing to do with you. I don’t have to knock another player down to lift another player up. Fact is Tim Duncan can play hurt, Not score, and get kicked out in the fourth quarter and the Spurs can still beat most teams most nights. KG never had that kind of support. Individually What does Tim have over KG? You never say that. You spit alot of statistics, but that has nothing to do with what I was talking about.
For Everyone with sense, please educate me. If you Had a team. What type of player would you want on that team. Don’t think about NBA stats just charateristics, talents, abilities.
An individual player is as great as his team allows him to be. That’s my take. Why wasn’t Jordan scoring like 30 a game in college, but when he got in the league he was a beast? College is harder? Not really. Players are more confined to a team concept. NBA championship teams are made in that same mold. They play to the strengths of the players on the floor. If the players on the floor are playing in a offense that doesn’t fit their strength you don’t win. If a player is being counted on to hit open shots and can’t, run the offense and can’t, rebound and can’t, needless to say your team won’t be successful and your “Star” player aka the most consistent player on your team will be hated on by empty-headed highlight watchers turned NBA insders/Just people who post in blogs. KG was a MVP, when his team allowed him to be. I guess that’s hard to grasp, because the best players win not the best teams. Duncan is a Hall of Famer. I don’t need to knock him. That’s ignorant…ya know…To knock a Hall of Fame player to make another Hall of Famer look like a Hall of Famer. And Yes KG will be a Hall of Famer. That doesn’t happen to losers. I’m done. Point made. My favorite player, Who I think is the best all around player in the League is Kevin Garnett. I don’t know basketball, because that is my choice. So be it…
August 6th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Ian says:
too long
August 6th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Ian says:
u know how many good players can put up great numbers for a bad team
sure ill take richmond over jordan on MY team