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NBA Unpopular Opinion Thread

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I've been working on making my top-50 players of all-time list, and I've noticed that I'm going to end up having a bunch of things that are different from the average fan, so I figured we could have this thread to throw our crazy and off-the-wall opinions out there. Here are some of mine:
  • Chris Paul is far superior to John Stockton; not a knock on Stockton, but just goes to show how highly I regard CP3.
  • David Robinson, Karl Malone, and Moses Malone are all top-15 players in NBA history. David Robinson is consistently criminally underrated.
  • Tim Duncan was a better and more impactful player than Kobe Bryant.
  • Larry Bird was a better and more impactful player than Magic Johnson. Johnson, despite all his length and ability to play "positionless" basketball, was an average defender on his best day. He was a better playmaker than Bird of course, but Bird had him in overall scoring, shooting, post play, defense, and leadership.
  • VERY few players considered stars pre-1980 would still be considered a star in today's NBA. A few notable exceptions I can think of off the top of my head are guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Bob Lanier, Elgin Baylor, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I feel like guys like Bob Cousy, Paul Arizin, and Gail Goodrich would be average NBA starters at best.
  • On the contrary, I feel that your typical upper-level rotation player in today's NBA (mostly big men), would be superstars back in the 1960s/70s. Guys like Andre Drummond, Hassan Whiteside, and DeAndre Jordan would average 25/25/5 with relative ease in that era.
  • Bill Russell is the most overrated player in NBA history and would be no more than Ben Wallace was should he have played in the 21st century. I'll be surprised if I have him anywhere near my top-40/45 players. He was a winner and a great leader, but he would be as run of the mill as can be in today's NBA.
  • The top-end talent among each era is incredibly comparable (guys like Wilt vs. Shaq, Jordan vs. LeBron, and Bird vs. Durant), however, the average talent of a roster in 2018 is far higher than that of a roster in 1988. A lot of that has to do with international players being integrated into today's game.

Feel free to rip me apart or give your own unpopular opinions.

Here are the ones I disagree with or have comments to add. I dont disagree with allot.

Stockton is over rated. He pick and rolled his way with Karl to the NBA assists record but was at best medicore in every other aspect of the game. I love him as a passer especially on the pick and role, but not an all time great pg all around.

The issue with Robinson is he had a rivalry with a far superior player in Hakeem, who is criminally undervalued in my opinion then played with a young Tim Duncan, also better than Robinson. Of the 2 on your list, Moses Malone is the criminally underrated. I love all 3, but Moses is really up there as all time great big men. This is not meant to throw shade at David, I like him, just isnt really a top 20 player. So many good players in NBA history if you do the against the competition comparison.

Magic is far superior to Bird. His passing was game changing, really drove the Lakers to those 5 championships. Yes Bird was a better shooter. Rebounder the stats say yes, but Magic played pg and often didnt crash the boards like a sf like bird would. Magic is a far superior defender than given credit for. He didnt defend his position, thus people think he was a poor defender, but he could defend decently. He really was an incredible player.

The top end talent comment is being kind to the old guard NBA players. As athletes evolve, they just get far, far superior. Durant would blow peoples minds in the 60's. He would have been one of the tallest players in the league and the best shooter. It would have been insane. Not to mention the physical dominance of a Lebron.

And love what you said about Bill Russell. Because they won as a team, the best player on the team gets way over valued. PS, there were only 8 teams in the NBA when Bill won his first championship. Not really that big of a feat to "win it all"
 
Would be interested to hear your reasoning here and how you’re defining big man

Is Davis included? Love?

Well, context is I posted that during their epic showdown at the end of the regular season, so perhaps a little biased because of that :chuckle:

I do think they should be in the conversation, though. Davis and Embiid obviously a different breed because of what they bring on the defensive end. But on the offensive end, Jokic and Towns are strong, independent bigs that don't need no point guard to get them involved in the offense. I like that.
 

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