2021-2022 NBA Regular Season

[foucault87]

Vitaly Pontapaneko would've been a monster in any era

 

[cavsfever]

Yea I tend to think both Hakeem & David Robinson in their primes would be the best 2 bigs in today’s game….

However Embiid & Jokic would be perennial all star caliber bigs back in the day….

Robinson might have been the best defensive big, but better than Jokic on offense?

Robinson’s teams never really went anywhere in the playoffs during his peak years, until they got Tim Duncan later in his career. One WCF appearance where the Rockets beat them pretty easily, otherwise mostly first round washouts, a few second round appearances

 

[PIP]

Robinson might have been the best defensive big, but better than Jokic on offense?

Robinson’s teams never really went anywhere in the playoffs during his peak years, until they got Tim Duncan later in his career. One WCF appearance where the Rockets beat them pretty easily, otherwise mostly first round washouts, a few second round appearances

Yea but Robinson was literally playing with nobody… Outside of Rodman (who was a defensive dominant player) that team featured a slightly above average small forward in Elliott and guys like Del Negro & Avery Johnson…

He played early on with Strickland but never had a point guard really…. Team was still able to win 60 games or so but lost to the champs in 6 games in the western conference finals… So it’s not like David couldn’t lead his team in the playoffs — he did need slighty more help tho…Hakeem had way better role players and a deeper bench..

In terms of the player I think Robinson was a unicorn…. That athleticism, that size, being left handed…. He was fantastic at stepping out and shooting and to me there’s no reason why he couldn’t have extended his game to the 3 point line ? To me Robinson doesn’t get enough credit for being the guy to really get the big man to pick and pop and extend out a bit….

Hakeem (who is my favorite big of all time) I don’t see extending that far out…. He was so talented in the post or facing up and taking his man off the dribble that he could still do that today and dominate…

 

[Ohioplayer00]

I don’t remember Hakeem having a jump shot outside of 15 feet or so and a modern center has to be able to hit an open three. I could be wrong about that as he probably didn’t try many shots from distance, but that’s my memory. Also no way Hakeem was the passer Jokic is - he was a good passer but there’s a difference between good and great

Just two very different players and eras

No the Dream can’t touch the Joker as a passer and he rarely went out further than 15 feet….but that was by design and the way the game was played then. But trust and believe the Joker can’t touch Hakeem as a low post player or player in the paint! Actually there aren’t any centers today that can. The only one that comes close is Embid.
There’s another big that could have shot the three ball in todays game Dave Cowens! A lot of his jump shots came from the top of the key….it wouldn’t have been hard for him to work on it and extend that shot another couple of feet!

 

[Bob_The_Cat]

One guy I haven’t seen mentioned that is probably the best offensive fit for a modern big: Arvydas Sabonis. He got to the NBA past his prime and post injuries, but young Arvydas would be a savage in this current league up with his passing, shooting, size, and rebounding. There’s no one currently in the league that could defend him.