Dream is absolutely one of the best offensive and defensive players to ever live, if he had a good team throughout his career he could've easily brought at least 2 more to chips to Houston, very fair assessment and Hakeem is a top 10 player of all time for sure.
Like Rick James says, "Cocaine is one hell of a drug". It certainly derailed what the Rockets had going on in the 80's (Wiggins, Lucas & Suite Lou)
Hakeem is the greatest player to ever step on a basketball court. So, he got hosed by this "analyst".
this was a great read. not so secretly hoping cp3 has been conserving his juice for this postseason and moves up the ladder. I'm okay with #6 for dream. I think Shaq has to be #5 as he and Dream cant be separated by more than 1 spot. It'll be interesting to read how to justify shaq's horrid perimeter defense ... but he was a lot more efficient than hakeem overall, elbowing his way to dunks whereas hakeem is shooting fadeaways against 2-3 defenders as the article points out.
I love this series of analytical breakdowns, but I have a hard time putting Shaq in front of Dream. Both great players but even this analysis of Dream points out that he didn't really have help. Hakeem is still on my starting GOAT squad.
I agree. I still think Dream is better than Shaq overall, but if shaq was theoretically better, he'd only be one spot over him. It's a pretty valid argument to bring up the topic of having superstar wings all of his career. Who knows if shaq would have been even better without them (not taking summers off as he admitted to doing when he had kobe), but I don't think he'd have solo-carried the way Hakeem did, because you'd have to have great d to do that, which he wasn't.
Yeah- he's it. This guy's rankings take into consideration longevity, and Kareem had a looooong career. I can't fault him, although I'd love to have just a solid GOAT ranking based on best stats.
I'm hoping this guy does just that. Would be interesting to see which obscure players come out of the woodwork on a one-year basis.
Hakeem was more all-round than most players, skill set for a big man second to none and you cannot argue against him in your top 5 all-time at his peak because he had no weaknesses. He could literally do it all: shoot, rebound, handle the ball, iso / create for himself, pass, handle the ball, post play, unstoppable go-to moves(!), block shots with excellent timing on and off the ball, get steals, shoot FTs, but : - had a great 3-year start and then 5 years of nothing noteworthy team record wise. - then peaked which was short and mostly showed during the playoffs. - finally his play dropped dramatically partly due to injuries after ‘97. Based on this I can see why you put MJ, Lebron, Russell and Kareem over him. Shaq’s career is tied up with Kobe’s too much for me to put him over Dream + he had more flaws and much less skill.
Didn’t see a thread on this. It’s a month old so may have missed it. His in-depth break down of the top 10. Seems to really value defense, but then puts Curry first... but this is way better thought out than those **** lists the morning talking head shows do from time to time. Curry Giannis Durant Davis Kawhi Lebron Harden Embiid George Jokic
Great freaking analysis. The comments at the end are frustrating, people obsessing about putting Shaq and Duncan lower than Hakeem. I really like those other guys, but people just forget how great Hakeem was.
