Thru 9 years: Tom Chambers, Charles Oakley, Terry Dischinger, Greg Ballard, Christian Laettner, Richard Jefferson, Andrei Kirilenko, Tony Kukoc, Rodney McCray, and Jerome Kersey. Career: Gerald Wallace, Nene, Dischinger, ZBo, Red Robbins, Frank Ramsey, McCray, Ballard, Bob Boozer, and Bob Love. Not exactly Hall of Famers. Interesting list, nonetheless. Boozer is in better company, IMO. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/boozeca01.html
Re: Luol's player similarity scores from bereft You're the first person I've read who put Luol Deng and Hall of Fame in the same post. Similarity scores are based on traditional measurables. Deng has never benefited from such analyses, but bbref's list actually ain't that bad.
Re: Luol's player similarity scores from bereft Deng's basically been untouchable. Management refused to pull the trigger on a trade for Pau Gasol. Gasol's similarity scores: Elgin Baylor, Havlicek, Elvin Hayes, Chet Walker, Kevin McHale, Paul Pierce, Shawn Marion, Horace Grant, Rick Barry, Bailey Howell. How's that list compared?
Re: Luol's player similarity scores from bereft Pau's list is better. Pau's had a better career. Pau's 32 with his best years behind him. Deng's 28 and in his prime. Pau's probably still better, but that's changing.
Re: Luol's player similarity scores from bereft Gasol won two championships and lost in the finals since the deal was turned down. His best years, it seems, were in front of him.
Re: Luol's player similarity scores from bereft And Gasol was moved, so there must have been some truth to the rumor.
Re: Luol's player similarity scores from bereft As I recall, the Bulls involvement was at the 2007 trade deadline and Gasol was traded at the 2008 trade deadline. The Bulls definitely talked to the Grizz...both then Grizz GM Jerry West and Grizz owner Michael Heisley confirmed it. According to Heisley, “Chicago wouldn’t offer us any of their good, core players.” What was never said by anyone was "if the Bulls would have included ______ in the trade, we would have accepted." Most speculated it was Deng, but Gordon and Hinrich were also possibilities. West retired and the new Grizz FO ended up wanting cap space (via expiring contracts) and draft picks most of all so they traded Gasol for Kwame Brown's expiring a couple 1st rounders and the gem of the deal, the rights to Pau's brother Marc, who at the time was a 2nd round pick still playing overseas and not that highly thought of. I'm glad the trade didn't go through because the key to the deal from the Bulls side was reportedly Noah and he's my favorite player. Gasol was certainly good, but despite the similarity scores, never a superstar as evidenced by his inability to lead the Grizz beyond the first round of the playoffs. This said, as the Lakers learned, Pau can play a mean "second fiddle" to a truly great player like Kobe.
Re: Luol's player similarity scores from bereft http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-02-06/sports/0702060254_1_luol-deng-grizzlies-gasol-bulls Gasol's Grizzlies teams were really awful once you got past Gasol. James Posey was the #2 option there. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-07-21/sports/0907200492_1_mistake-salmons-luol-deng We've made a lot of trades. I don't think we move too slowly. Pau Gasol, we didn't move slowly. We said no. We were prepared to give them players. What they wanted to do was dump stuff on us that we would be immobilized and we wouldn't be able to improve our team. Gasol made sense for the Lakers because, what is he, their third-best player probably? He would've been our best player at that time. It would've been the wrong role for him. ^^^ That's Reinsdorf. The horse's mouth. Instead of maybe trying to get a really good player to go with Gasol, he didn't bother.
Re: Luol's player similarity scores from bereft I really like Noah. I'm glad he's on our team. I'd rather have had Gasol all along though. As much as I like Noah as a Bulls fan, as a realist I think he is a very similar player to this guy: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/grantbr01.html FWIW And we should have kept Tyson Chandler, who'd have been our C alongside Gasol. Not too shabby at all.
