Comments on: GOTME (Part V): Power Forward

By: Z

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:12:27 +0000

What about Buck Williams? It’s hard to give Oakley serious consideration without mentioning Buck. Same rebound rate as Oak, better scoring (highly efficient, leading the league in TS% a few years).

By: Ted Nelson

Ted Nelson — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:01:17 +0000

I would feel good with Oakley in the 2nd group. Not only did the Knicks win a lot, but had the best defenses of all-time. I think McHale has to be clearly ahead of Webber. McHale topped 10 in Win Share 7 times; Webber, twice. McHale topped out at 14.8 WS and 24 PER; Webber, 11 WS and 24.7 PER. Webber missed a lot of games in his career. I would also make a case for Shawn Kemp over Webber. Terry Cummings would be more like 4th team to me, maybe 3rd. Probably take Bosh or Amare over him given that they should just be entering their primes now.

By: Nick C.

Nick C. — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:56:51 +0000

I guess if you’re interested and energetic Caleb, Terry Cummings and Shawn Kemp might fill out your second tier among retired players. Hard to know what to do with the Oakley/Maurice Lucas style of PF, their game isn’t geared towards PER since that relies favors, to some extent, high usage types.

By: Caleb

Caleb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:51:05 +0000

Webber is an interesting case – no way does he fit with those top 5 but I think I would put him in the 2nd group. Partly because I am biased toward “peak performance” instead of longevity. Totally arbitary, it’s just that when we talk about “the best” players, in my mind it’s “imagine this guy on the court, at his best.”

Second 5 is interesting – I would probably put Rodman as the closest – just a huge, huge impact player. Hard to measure, but you might make a case that he was as valuable as Dirk.

I think I would throw in Oakley. Also underrated, without great offensive numbers, but a major impact player on defense – IMO he was clearly the best defender in the league at PF for a few years. Also led the league in rebounding. The Knicks were a contender for many years, and aside from Ewing – a legit superstar – the rest of the team was mediocre, at best. SOMEONE was getting them to 55-60 wins. Another measuring stick: Horace Grant was good – really good – but if you look at the #s from their head-to-head matchups in the playoffs (huge # of games) Oak just ate him alive.

Aside from those two, I’d probably throw in Webber & McHale…. would have to pore through Basketball Reference to decide who fits..

By: BigBlueAL

BigBlueAL — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 20:27:02 +0000

I just brought up Webber cause I was curious since I knew he had some big seasons but not enough of them.

Im not a fan of Harrington at all but he was clearly the best player for the Knicks last night.

By: Nick C.

Nick C. — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:46:02 +0000

I didn’t pay careful attention but I heard Gallo was covering Deron Williams after the first quarter (when Williams was on fire and being guarded by Douglas). Was that really true and did it have anything to do with anything or did Utah just cool off of their own volition and well randomness for lack of a better word?

By: Ted Nelson

Ted Nelson — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:37:09 +0000

@17 and 18 Wasn’t a good shooting night for the team, but only 3 guys had bad nights: House (surprise, surprise… doesn’t take a genius to realize you make more shots when you set your feet and don’t have two hands in your face), Gallo, and Douglas. Of course, that’s worrying because two of those are our “core” guys and one is D’Antoni’s best-bud.
Another troubling thing is that Walker only took 3-pters. Maybe either he is trying to be or D’Antoni is telling him to be the Raja Bell/Bruce Bowen of the team. The guy is way too athletic not to get to the basket, though. Bell and Bowen don’t/didn’t camp-out outside because they wanted to, but because they couldn’t do anything else. His defensive versatility is nice.

@ 19 I hear you on scoring volume, but not sure who else you would make the player of the game… Harrington had 17 rebounds, played 39 minutes, and was +6 on the game (only other + on Knicks for game was Rodriguez). 1 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk, 1 TO, 1 PF. His TS% for the game was 53.3%, which isn’t very good but also isn’t terrible.
Douglas and Gallo had more shots than points. Rodriguez only got 19 minutes. Lee got out-rebounded by Toney Douglas (who played 7 fewer minutes), had 4 TOs, 5 PFs, got eaten up by Boozer, and was -8. Bill Walker was solid, but I would say not player of the game. T-Mac is the only other real candidate, but I would give Harrington the nod.

@20 I’m with you, Webber is second or third tier.

By: Nick C.

Nick C. — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:44:02 +0000

BBA @ 13 I just took a look at Webber and if you go by PER he’s not in these guys league. He tops out @ 24.7 and only from 99-00 through 01-02 is he over 23 with the exception of a 15 g season in 95-96. For his career he averages 20.9 PER with a TSP of 51.3. If you like WS he tops 10 twice. So I’m not sure where he would fit but its a clear step below the Duncan, Malone, Barkley, KG and Dirk.

By: The Honorable Cock Jowles

The Honorable Cock Jowles — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:41:36 +0000

Al Harrington: 26 points on 20 shots. “Player of the Game.” Will the infatuation with scoring volume ever end?

By: ess-dog

ess-dog — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:34:02 +0000

I agree BC. Considering how bad the shooting was, we played pretty good defense after the first quarter. We really need to take higher percentage shots though. I think Bill Walker only had taken 3 pointers by halftime which is not cool. And then there’s Al: I really can’t tell if he’s keeping us in games or losing us games.