Clyde legitimately thinks he is better than Jordan but Jordan shot more according to the Dream Team book.
Imagine if Portland had talked Sabonis into signing in 1989 (age 25). He was given the OK by the USSR. Marculionis signed that year. Add him to the Portland team that went to the Finals in 90 and 92 ... does Portland now win both? Wouldn't mean Drexler is better than Jordan, but still ... This is a slam dunk had Portland also been able to convince USSR not to force a rehabbing 24yr-old Sabonis into playing in 1988 Olympics. Portland doctors had done achilles surgery on Sabonis and were pleading with USSR not to play him.
Yea, they were supposed to take MJ instead of Bowie, but they had Clyde already. And then they made the same mistake of taking Oden over KD because they already had Brandon Roy. Imagine if Warriors decided to take Jordan Hill instead of Curry because they already have Monta Ellis. All the expert expected Curry to go to the Knicks because they didn't think they would take Curry since Monta was scoring 25 points a game. Drafting Need over talent never works out
I wonder if the major difference is intensity. Even today, I cannot imagine MJ doing the happy talk commentary that Clyde does on TV.
That was probably Portland's loss but if they had Sabonis and became a dynasty Drexler might never have ended up on the Rockets. For that matter if Portland had been that good they would've been a major threat to the Rocket's 94 Championship. The What If I would rather think of is what if Karl Malone hadn't grabbed Clyde at the end of game 6 1997 WCF.
Clyde has always been publicly a laid back guy but I'm not sure that reflects how intensely competitive he was. There are a lot of really great players who when not in the heat of competition come off as very laid back and / or soft spoken (Roger Federer, Tim Duncan, even the later Hakeem). That doesn't mean that they aren't intensely competitive. That said the amount of competitiveness in Jordan was off the scale. He said it himself that he was very motivated in the Finals against the Blazers because people were saying Clyde was comparable.
Yup. Kind of like Kobe and Harden. Kobe always try to have an edge on someone and didn't treat his teammates so well. Harden doesn't get into it with his teammates like Kobe or MJ and only beef he has is internet beef with Greek Freaks
I think if Clyde played in later eras he'd be viewed as a much different player. I never really thought of Clyde as a "shooting" guard even when he was playing & I watched him as a fan. In today's era with his size he'd most likely be a 4. He'd basically be the player that Aaron Gordon wants to be, or Blake Griffin when he was putting up number in LA, but with GREAT handles especially in the open court. He was listed at 6'7" but always looked bigger in the games. Especially with the Rockets when he was basically a post up player. Would have been a great player in this era, and really had the versatility to have an answer for the Warriors, and the Lebron teams who couldn't handle their small ball.
Not really. He didn’t have DWades handles. Only thing he had on DWade was range. Wade does everything else, arguably, better and equivalently. Maybe he was a better player off the ball than wade but it’s debatable
Clyde also had the edge in speed , size, and athleticism. Other than LeBron or Westbrook, I haven’t seen many players grab a rebound and become a one man fast break like Clyde did. And my point of reference was 1995 when he was already getting old. From all accounts, he was a monster in the open court in his prime.
Imagine if the Rockets took Portland’s offer for Ralph Sampson. Drex plus pick no. 2. Even if they didn’t take MJ with the no. 2 but say Barkley or Stockton... that Bulls dynasty likely wouldn’t have happened either way.
Clyde was unique since the other SG in his ERA such as Reggie Miller, Joe Dumars, Mitch Richmond, etc did not have any of his ability to Rebounds and Drive to the hoop for a strong finish or make a pass for his teammates. Look at Miller and Dumars rebounds #...those guys were grabbing 2 to 3 rebounds in their prime while Clyde was grabbing 7 rebounds a game, not to mention the 7 assists, while Miller and Richmond were averging 3 assists a game.
not only was he immensely fun to watch, he was unselfish and sneaky clutch. his portland teams lacked structure, which worked defensively creating chaos, but on offense they really had no bread & butter. clyde setting up his drives with 20ft midrange J's right in the defender's face was not the best percentage shot. especially with his jumpshot release (he would actually shoot on the way down after his jumps, and after defenders had already landed back down lol)!
If Clyde played now I think he would be a beast. Without the type of hand checking D that he faced along with getting fouls calls like Harden I think he would dominate.
The no bread and butter on O is the Adelman style. Spread the ball around balanced scoring. That's why Adelman teams usually seem to have a lot of players doing well but no one really dominating. It was the opposite of the 90's Rockets and 90's Knicks. I wonder if because of the nature of Adelman ball is also why Clyde didn't get the props that he deserved as that combined with his laid back style meant he didn't get a lot of attention.
This is always one of the great What Ifs of basketball. The Rockets had a few occasions to get Jordan for Sampson. I think a lot of people forget how good Sampson was from the early to mid-80's He was a revolutionary college player and when he was healthy in the NBA could do stuff that most big men even those much shorter than him could do. I remember Pat Riley saying in one of the All Star games that Sampson could play as a point guard. Sampson was another guy who's reputation suffered as he was both soft spoken but also not that easy to get along with. After he got injured in Boston in the 1986 he never could get back close to what he had been but I feel comfortable saying if he had stayed healthy we might be talking about him as one of the all time greats and how he revolutionized being a big man.
Drexler is a better player than Barkley, Harden, Paul and Wade, IMO. around 20th best player from 1980 to 2020.