I think it is rude to just tarnish someone's name with no sort of factual evidence behind it. The human eye lies much more often. It is quite simple to decipher if someone is good in the clutch as well, stats get a bad name because people apply them incorrectly. Such as "PPG" over pace adjusted points scored, "FG%" over TS%, and such.
And the equivalent of a double overtime game today was the normal pace back then. Of course it matters.
Well I would take Shaq over D-Rob as well, but that is a different story. Regarding Wilt putting up 35+ ppg, 18+ rpg. I doubt that he would do that in todays league. I mean when he was averaging 50 ppg, he was taking 40 (39.5 to be exact) FGA per game, does anyone think that he would be able to get that many shots off in the post today? I mean Kobe and Lebron last year averaged about 20.5 FGA per game and they are generally considered good at creating their own shot. I think the average team's post defense and shotblocking has improved considerably compared to the average 1950s/60s teams.
Kobe and LeBron are playing some of their minutes against backups who'd not even made the AA minor league version of the NBA if they had such a thing back then. And yeah, I think the guy taking 25 FGA/game would have scored 35 PPG.
Wilt was also less efficient than Shaq. So Shaq takes 5 less Field Goals per game in your hypothetical situation but O'Neal is more efficient throughout his entire career either way. Anyway, I like D-Rob's defense and because of his FT% (as I said before), it makes him and Shaq comparable on offense.
CelticKing will be taking Kid Chocolates position in the draft. So welcome him. Pegs picked too early, so if Umair picks between now and 20mins from now and wants the same player, then Umair gets priority.
Most teams have a 7 footer, sometimes 2 or 3 which would be rare in 50 and 60s. Coaches wouldn't play Wilt 48 mpg just as they wouldn't play well conditioned athletes like Rip Hamilton or KG 48 mpg. To be honest I think the backups like Trevor Ariza, Devin Brown, Delonte West, Wally S, would be better athletes, better dunkers, better jumpshooters, and skilled players than a lot of starters in the 50s/60s.
There's a lot of argument for Robinson when he's not even the best player to ever suit up at his position for his own team. It wasn't a good pick. But it was better than the Barkley pick.
How was it a "bad" pick when there was no significant difference in magnitude between Rob and other players available? Tim Duncan won more, I'd say Robinson was the better individual player.
I was told to pick early! Where did KC go? CK replaces him? Welcome, CK. Um, wait. The same CK who didn't finish the GM Draft 2? What happened there? Isn't it ironic that KC got replaced with CK? Creepy. I'll miss KC. I wish him well, with his creepy vampire band thing.
lol who told you to pick early? If CK misses 2 picks I'll replace him with people I can trust to be online frequently.
Wilt was guarded by plenty of big guys who are not only HOFers but top 5-10 Cs of all time. I won't mention undrafted players, but Kareem was one. Russell was an obvious other one. Kareem's backups for several teams would be starting C's in the NBA today. You do know that Wilt averaged 7.8 APG and 8.6 APG in two different seasons?
I did know that Wilt averaged 7.8 apg and 8.6 apg in two different seasons. Which definitely is very impressive. However I do think they quality of NBA player is a lot higher now, with a lot more competition to get into the league that pays millions for people to play BBall than it was when Wilt entered the league. For a superstar, the role players probably got considerably less. However Basketball is more popular, more people play it now, and more people are more serious and want to get NBA contracts now. 30 years earlier, Babe Ruth was making considerably more. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_n26_v96/ai_19437488
It's called experience. I was young and watching copious amounts of basketball at that age (whereas now I have responsibilities that don't allow me to watch NCAA double headers on a saturday etc, etc,) and I watched the NBC double headers, the playoffs and just about every game during the week that was available too. I saw David Robinson play at least 100 games and a lot of them were playoff games. I don't have a Bias against the man, in fact he was one of my favorites, but the fact of the matter is for all the regular season success, the Spurs only made the conference finals once with David Robinson as the star. And the minute Tim Duncan came aboard, Robinson was more than happy to let him take over and be the man. Your reliance on stats shows that you didn't see the man play that much. I've said it several times, stats don't tell the whole story. Beyond how many points, rebounds etc, etc you get it's HOW you get those stats too. and FYI, here's the Spurs record etc with Robinson (excluding his injured year) 1995-96 NBA San Antonio Spurs* 59 23 .720 1 Lost Western Conference Semifinals 1994-95 NBA San Antonio Spurs* 62 20 .756 1 Lost Western Conference Finals 1993-94 NBA San Antonio Spurs* 55 27 .671 2 Lost Western Conference First Round 1992-93 NBA San Antonio Spurs* 49 33 .598 2 Lost Western Conference Semifinals 1991-92 NBA San Antonio Spurs* 47 35 .573 2 Lost Western Conference First Round 1990-91 NBA San Antonio Spurs* 55 27 .671 1 Lost Western Conference First Round 1989-90 NBA San Antonio Spurs* 56 26 .683 1 Lost Western Conference Semifinals Those are the playoff years before Tim Duncan arrived. This team averaged 55 wins in the regular season and only made the conference Finals once and the Finals zero times. That falls on the shoulders of the best player who has to deliver in the playoffs. as for stats, you'll note that only Robinson's MPG go up, his PPG, ASP, blocks go down and rebounds are the exact same. His FG% goes WAY down from .518 in the regular season to .479 in the playoffs. That's quite the dip. Whereas someone like Hakeem's playoff numbers increase across the board (rebounding only goes up .1 though) so there stats show that Robinson does not step up his game and deliver in the playoffs too. But having watched it, it was more apparent that he was not the type of guy who would demand the ball in crunch time, like Hakeem would. You can't look at a stat sheet and see that, you have to watch the games.