Best first. Gary Payton: the OG. Couldn't shoot but defended like a motherfucker. All-time trash talker - didn't back down from MJ in the finals. Jason Kidd: also taken #2 in the draft. Also couldn't shoot. Also a good defender, but may have been the best passer of his era. Dragged two mediocre Nets teams to the finals and finally got a ring with Dallas (where he started). Dame: kind of the anti-Kidd. Definitely the best shooter or scorer of the three, and it's not close.
I went Lillard > Kidd > Payton. Payton was one of my favorite players of the 1990s, but I decided to rank them based on whom I'd want in today's game and lack of shooting is just a killer these days. Rubio is a great defender and maybe the best passer of his generation and yet has settled in as a role-player because his lack of shooting has really killed the team offenses he's been a part of. Lillard's shooting is too valuable not to make him #1 here, and I put Kidd second because he did actually develop a late-career three-point stroke. That at least provides hope that if he came up today and was putting all his focus into developing a shot, he might be successful.
Ranking five-player lineups by offensive rating, and setting the minutes to 200 minimum (to weed out noise) gets: Rubio, Booker and Oubre are the only players to feature more than once in the top 6. (Nice to see that top one! Let's hope it wasn't all because of Ariza...)
I am a Oregon state fan so I love Gary Payton but I gotta admit he probably wouldn’t be an all star in today’s nba. I see him being like a glorified version of Patrick Beverly.
Different hand checking rules changed the game, which was done with intent to make it more “exciting”. Payton was great with the rules of his era. Dame is great in the current era. Not sure either would be able to switch eras and still have the same impact. Dame’s D would be pretty weak for Payton’s era, but he probably could adjust better than GP who just couldn’t shoot well enough for today’s game.
200 minutes in a single season doesn't actually weed out much noise in using these types of team metrics to evaluate a given individual. That said, this is actually one of the rare seasons in Rubio's career where he's shooting a decent percentage from three, at .351. I'm a fan of Rubio's. If he could shoot well, I think he'd be a perpetual All Star and maybe Hall of Famer. But I think as things stand, Lillard has much more positive impact on team success than Rubio. I think Kidd and Payton might end up in the Rubio neighborhood today, though Kidd had an advantage as a rebounder and, as I mentioned before, at least showed the hope that focused effort might have yielded a superior shot if he played today.
Of course Lillard > Rubio. That said, I think Rubio could be to some team what Iguodala was for the Warriors. I think he could actually do that for the Blazers. OKC has show that 3 PGs at once can be a winning combo, and Dame could play some off the ball next to Rubio. Here's hoping the Suns lowball him or are prepared to dump him because they want to move Booker to PG
If we're talking about 90's NBA I'd go Payton, Dame, Kidd. If it's today's NBA I'd go Dame, Kidd, Payton.
Payton and Kidd were exceptionally good around the basket. Rubio simply has no consistent offense. That's a failure of a comparison, IMO.
Doubters can keep doubting. But Dame is a special talent. The best to ever wear the Trailblazers uniform IMO. But i've only been a fan since '77.
I went Kidd, Damian, GP. Kidd was an incredible passer. Might be the best I’ve ever seen. He also was a 9x all nba defense. He was a terrible shooter coming into the league and ended up top 10 all time in 3’s. He was also one of the most incredible college players ever - GP was right there with him. Kidd also had great size. Damian can’t come close defensively to either one of them.
