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Hmm, interesting. Some players' positions have become more fluid of late--how strict is positional determination? Can one put Draymond, Giannis or Davis at the 4 or 5, or are they strictly 4s even if they upsize to 5s in various lineups?
There's some flexibility, but I think most players have a pretty clear designation as to where they've played the majority of their career. There's always arguments of course (Tim Duncan's really a 5! Harden is a point guard!) but I think those are mostly the exception.
 
OK--I took the 50 greatest list, added the players mentioned in this thread, and sorted them by position. Oddly enough, there's exactly 15-17 of each position.

upload_2020-3-17_6-45-24.png

Who wants to rank the top 15 in each position (or argue about certain players' positional placements)?
 
OK--I took the 50 greatest list, added the players mentioned in this thread, and sorted them by position. Oddly enough, there's exactly 15-17 of each position.

View attachment 30252

Who wants to rank the top 15 in each position (or argue about certain players' positional placements)?
I feel like it's a victory that we've collectively only mentioned 32 new additions.

I have a really tough time ranking the pre-80's players so I'd probably have a lot of bias but I'll probably give it a shot sometime.
 
I feel like it's a victory that we've collectively only mentioned 32 new additions.

I have a really tough time ranking the pre-80's players so I'd probably have a lot of bias but I'll probably give it a shot sometime.
Yeah, I think it makes it hard for me, I've watched a ton of old NBA games, and all that but seeing it "live" and not having the context of watching those games when they were still, "relevant" for lack of a better word makes it to where really pre-95ish I have a hard time knowing. Which is odd since I believe Kareem was the best player ever and all I've seen from him is "old footage" and rewatching games on NBA TV, or streams online.
 
Yeah, I think it makes it hard for me, I've watched a ton of old NBA games, and all that but seeing it "live" and not having the context of watching those games when they were still, "relevant" for lack of a better word makes it to where really pre-95ish I have a hard time knowing. Which is odd since I believe Kareem was the best player ever and all I've seen from him is "old footage" and rewatching games on NBA TV, or streams online.
Man, center is by far the toughest position to rank all-time players for. There are centers that I could make an argument for being #1 but could also agree that same center should be like #5 or #6.
 
Man, center is by far the toughest position to rank all-time players for. There are centers that I could make an argument for being #1 but could also agree that same center should be like #5 or #6.
Also Center and PF, in my opinion, have changed so much over the course of the game's history, their size, the desired skillset, the role they play. It is almost impossible for me to judge even players I thought were extremely dominant like Shaq. Would he be dominant in today's game? I have no idea...
 
Also Center and PF, in my opinion, have changed so much over the course of the game's history, their size, the desired skillset, the role they play. It is almost impossible for me to judge even players I thought were extremely dominant like Shaq. Would he be dominant in today's game? I have no idea...
Its tough. besides all the rings would Bob Cousy be any better than John Stockton in todays game?
 
And Id rather have a John Stockton than a Russell Westbrick.
See there's a different argument if you're talking about who you'd prefer.

For example, I would probably take Hakeem Olajuwon as my center if I was starting a team but it's tough to put him higher than at best 3rd but probably 4th through 6th.
 
Alright, let's start with the centers from @PtldPlatypus' spreadsheet. Everyone (c'mon the more participation the better on this!!!!!) rank their top-15 from the list and we'll assign point values and combine everyone's list into a S2 definitive rankings! Rank according to actual NBA career only.

These are the 17 centers to rank your top 15 from. Of course feel free to add someone else if you feel someone was left out:

Alonzo Mourning
Bill Russell
Bill Walton
Dave Cowens
David Robinson
George Mikan
Hakeem Olajuwon
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Moses Malone
Nate Thurmond
Patrick Ewing
Robert Parish
Shaquille O'Neal
Wes Unseld
Willis Reed
Wilt Chamberlain
Yao Ming
 
Man, center is by far the toughest position to rank all-time players for. There are centers that I could make an argument for being #1 but could also agree that same center should be like #5 or #6.

Yup. I've generally said there's a top tier of centers (in no order): Wilt Chamberlain, Hakeem Olajuwon, Bill Russell, Shaquille O'Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I've ranked them in all sorts of orders over the years.

And then there's David Robinson and Moses Malone that you could argue into that tier, based on statistical dominance and defense.
 
OK, I'm going with this top 15 for centers

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Bill Russell
Wilt Chamberlain
Hakeem Olajuwon
Shaquille O'Neal
David Robinson
Moses Malone
Patrick Ewing
Wes Unseld
Alonzo Mourning
Robert Parish
Yao Ming
George Mikan
Bill Walton
Willis Reed

Really, REALLY tough to figure out what to do with Mikan since he basically only played 6 years, and played in the 50's, but he was absolutely dominant in that time period. I ended up dropping him way lower than he probably deserved.
 
OK, I'm going with this top 15 for centers

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Bill Russell
Wilt Chamberlain
Hakeem Olajuwon
Shaquille O'Neal
David Robinson
Moses Malone
Patrick Ewing
Wes Unseld
Alonzo Mourning
Robert Parish
Yao Ming
George Mikan
Bill Walton
Willis Reed

Really, REALLY tough to figure out what to do with Mikan since he basically only played 6 years, and played in the 50's, but he was absolutely dominant in that time period. I ended up dropping him way lower than he probably deserved.

That would be my list too. I think Mikan and Walton are short-term dominance picks--I could see someone arguing to leave them off, but my view is you can't properly tell the story of the NBA, especially at the center position, without them.
 
OK, I'm going with this top 15 for centers

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Bill Russell
Wilt Chamberlain
Hakeem Olajuwon
Shaquille O'Neal
David Robinson
Moses Malone
Patrick Ewing
Wes Unseld
Alonzo Mourning
Robert Parish
Yao Ming
George Mikan
Bill Walton
Willis Reed

Really, REALLY tough to figure out what to do with Mikan since he basically only played 6 years, and played in the 50's, but he was absolutely dominant in that time period. I ended up dropping him way lower than he probably deserved.
Where is Chris Dudley?!?!?!?
 
Decided to take a shot at small forwards and point guards.

Small Forwards
LeBron James
Larry Bird
Scottie Pippen
Elgin Baylor
Kevin Durant
Julius Erving
Kawhi Leonard
Rick Barry
John Havlicek
Dominique Wilkins
Tracy McGrady
Vince Carter
Carmelo Anthony
James Worthy
Paul Pierce

Point Guards

Magic Johnson
Oscar Robertson
Stephen Curry
Chris Paul
John Stockton
Jason Kidd
Steve Nash
Gary Payton
Walt Frazier
Isiah Thomas
Allen Iverson
Bob Cousy
Damian Lillard
Russell Westbrook
Dave Bing
 
At the 1997 NBA all star game, they had the top 50 players.

When the 2022 All Star Game happens, it will have been 25 years, should they add 25 to it?

And if so, who?

I'm including players who are currently player (even ones I dislike). This isn't my "FIGHT ME!" list, it's just 25 players Im thinking of off the top of my head. I'm not counting those who should've been added (like Dominique and Bob MacAdoo). Also, not in any order

  1. Kobe
  2. LeBron
  3. Duncan
  4. Dirk
  5. Harden
  6. Westbrook
  7. Durant
  8. Curry
  9. Giannis
  10. Wade
  11. Garnett
  12. Iverson
  13. Kawhi Leonard
  14. Damian Lillard
  15. Paul Pierce
  16. Jason Kidd
  17. Ray Allen
  18. Reggie Miller
  19. Pau Gasol
  20. Tracey McGrady
  21. Vince Carter
  22. Carmelo Anthony
  23. Chris Webber
  24. Steve Nash
  25. Kyrie Irving
I'm sure I've forgotten someone, but your mileage may vary.
We are dealing with a global pandemic. The NBA is the last thing we should be talking about. Fix your priorities.
 
We are dealing with a global pandemic. The NBA is the last thing we should be talking about. Fix your priorities.

While I understand why you did this, it's not even close to the same.

I didn't send the NBA an email about this, thinking that the NBA needs to answer my questions about something kind of unimportant. This is a post in a message board where we discus things.

Nice try though.
 
Out of curiosity, I looked up George Mikan’s stats. As a 6’10” center during a time when there weren’t as many bigs, he shot a career 40% from the floor and had a few years shooting 38% and that’s obviously with no three point line.

The game has evolved so much since then and a center shooting that low of a percentage would be unacceptable, even against other players their own size or larger.

Wondering about context, I’m curious what shooting percentages were like back then. Was he putting up stats because he was the go to player?
 
Out of curiosity, I looked up George Mikan’s stats. As a 6’10” center during a time when there weren’t as many bigs, he shot a career 40% from the floor and had a few years shooting 38% and that’s obviously with no three point line.

The game has evolved so much since then and a center shooting that low of a percentage would be unacceptable, even against other players their own size or larger.

Wondering about context, I’m curious what shooting percentages were like back then. Was he putting up stats because he was the go to player?


Look at Bob Cousys stats. His career best was 39.7% from the floor but his PER was still around 20.

It's weird.
 
That’s because they weren’t that good. Basketball was semi still new at the time so we really didn’t have a large sample size to know what was good or bad stats yet
 

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