I love me some Plumlee. For whatever reason, even when he was at Duke, I proclaimed him as the non white WABC bust
Nope, but he has validated his draft position, proven he belongs in the NBA and I wanted him well before we traded for him. Stereotypes are stoopid. Oden wasn't white. Neither was Sam Bowie. Should we assume all black American board centers will be injury prone busts? Fact is, there are a ton of big men that are drafted way too high in almost every draft. Some are white, some are black, some are American, some are European and some are even Asian these days. Big men are a risky proposition. They are higher risk and higher reward than other positions. They are also in shorter supply. So, for every success story, there are countless failures, independent of race or country of birth. BNM
Oden and Bowie both got hurt. Nothing about their actual play says bust. Guys from Syarcuse and WABC both perform well below their draft position if taken early. Melo is a good player, but he hasn't won shit. Stereotypes are stupid, but usually somewhat accurate
Which is why I asked if we should assume all black American born centers are injury prone. Or maybe, centers in general, since that seems to correlate with us selecting them with high draft picks. At least Walton was able to win us a title before injuries did him in. But wait, he was a WABC. Guess we shouldn't have drafted him either. BNM
I'd argue that. Towns was unanimous for a reason, dude beasted last year. Jokic was moderately inconsistent. Jokic is solid though, and this 3rd year could be a big one for him.
Towns had a great year, but there are some reasons to think that Jokic was right there, too. Jokic matched Towns in scoring efficiency, was close to him in terms of Rebound Rate (and, in terms of breakdown, was actually a bit better than him in terms of Offensive Rebound Rate, which is the tougher type of rebound to get), was much better than Towns in terms of Assist Rate and while Towns had the significantly better Block Rate, Jokic had the superior Steal Rate. Turnover Rate was about equal. Offense and Defense Rating suggest they had similar impacts also and Jokic actually had the greater Win Shares per 48. Now, does all this mean that Jokic was just as good? No, a stream of advanced stats isn't conclusive. But I think Jokic, when he was on the floor, was pretty comparable to Towns. Towns racked up bigger numbers as he played more and had a larger Usage Rate (though Jokic's wasn't tiny, by any means)--and those things matter. It's not easy to play more quality minutes or to use more team possessions efficiently. I think Towns deserved Rookie of the Year. But I don't think there was a ton of separation between the two players. And for those who like PER, Towns was 22.5, while Jokic was 21.5. Pretty close. I'd take Towns going forward, but I'd consider myself to have a likely franchise big man if I had Jokic.
Their large bodies are clearly subjected to greater stress than humans of average size. Combine that with being in a profession that is much more physically demanding than the typical desk job and injures are a huge risk and a cost of doing business. But, they are more than adequately paid for their services. Some here consider Meyer Leonard a bust and a huge disappointment. Others consider him a bargain at $41 million over the next four years. Good work, if you can get it. How many other people have a guaranteed income of $41 million at the age of 24? If only I'd been 7" or 8" taller... BNM
I meet guys 6'10 or so every so often. I feel bad for them if they didn't make tons of cash from being tall. At my size, things are too small.
If I could have been 10 inches taller but exactly as athletic as I was Shaq and I would have had epic battles. My friends called me baby Sabonis because I could do it all. Haha
And maybe that's the key. Jokic is "only 6'10". I wonder what the correlation is between height and likelihood of serious injury. How much more likely is a player of > 7' to suffer a career ending injury than someone 6'10". Of course, some of it is genetic, some just suffer freak injuries by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it sure does appear (and seems intuitive) that the taller the player, the more prone they are to seriously debilitating injuries. Of course, Brandon Roy was only 6'6", but he was the exception rather than the norm for a player of his size. BNM
I think guys legit over 7 feet barefoot are usually just twigs. Not always, but most. I don't know how tall Shaq really is but he is just a huge guy of somewhat normal proportions.
I was a low post stud in my younger days. I had good low post moves and could score equally well with either hand around the basket. Even up to my early 40s I was dominant in the paint when playing against younger guys, and had Pat Connaughton like hops (ok, not quite, but close) in my 20s, but no one needs a 6'4" white American born center at anything beyond the high school level. BNM
I should have been a football player (hated it) 6'2 with a 30 inch inseam. Short legs. Had Steph Curry range, just not the percentages. Mostly due to being blind as a bat without glasses.
I played against a few 7-footers in high school and college. Most were slow and incredibly weak - very easy to push around for someone with a lower center of gravity. I don't think I was ever outrebonded by anyone over 7 feet tall. They were easy to box out and I was much quicker to the ball. Of course, none of them were built like Shaq either. If they were, they would have had no business playing against the likes of me. BNM
I never developed a 3-point shot. It wasn't even a thing when I was in high school. I did, and still do, have a very reliable midrange jumper out to 17 feet to go with my low post moves. I also had a 38" vertical and hands big enough to palm a basketball in 6th grade. Now, I'm just old. BNM
I could barely ever palm an underinflated basketball but could dunk it until I was 24. I had Rod Strickland spin off the glass and a wicked fade away from the left corner three, it was my favorite.
Yeah. Well I uh......fuck...I was and am terrible at basketball. I made Babbitt look like an upgraded MJ.
