Iverson is also the MVP who impressed me the least. I see it as some combination of best peak years and "body of work". I think Paul was far better in each of the last two seasons than Iverson was at any point this decade, and its tough for me to look past that. But thinking about it further, I'm probably biased towards crediting a player I expect to go down as the far greater player when its all said and done.
How does Dwyer determine who is what position? I always thought Joe Johnson and Tracy Mcgrady where clearly SG's. Of course, because of height, any tall SG can play both positions but if anything their on-court style lends itself more to SG/PG than SG/SF. They are distributors.
thanks for the links. and thanks T-mac1 for posting the link as well. interesting convo you guys are having about AI. i have to say i agree with a bit of each of you. i wouldn't want iverson on my team either, durvasa, but that doesn't take away his accomplishments. a list like this should take winning into consideration as much as personal accomplishments. if i were to make a list of the top 5 (make this easy on myself) i think we can all agree on: 1)kobe and 2)wade after that i would say 3) iverson and 4) carter should be there on talent, but not on being able to win. now if you want to focus more on who can really play a winning brand of basketball, i would say 3) ginobili 4) allen and 5) hamilton i think this list does a good job of balancing talent with accomplishments though.
b/c before the detroit debacle, he was actually pretty damn great. regardless of whether or not you like his playing style, he has had a first-ballot HOF career and will go down as one of the legends of this game.
the PF list is even worse guys http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ba...er-forwards-of-the-last-decade?urn=nba,193073 sure duncan does play center, but he's going to go down in history as a PF. and he's always been called by analysts who call spurs game as the best PF to play the game. secondly, antawn jamison above chris bosh? stats may be similar, but jamison has never been a franchise player nor a top-tier player like bosh has. also, chris webber should be above jamison (webber's 99-04 was still part of his great prime despite injuries) but again, most of these lists released by the media before the season starts generally aren't very good anyways b/c it's all opinions.
Really? I always thought Iverson was the poster boy for all stats no stars...guys who put up ridiculous numbers based solely on the amount they dominated the ball. Was never really impressed with him, even when he took his team to the finals. Dude was like one of the narrowest athletes in the league, you have to have the perfect coach, the perfect system and the perfect teammates for him to succeed. Iverson is definitely one of the most unique athletes in NBA history though, I'll give him that. I doubt we'll see another player like him when he retires.
before the detroit debacle? you serious? you don't make 7 all-nba teams by being an all-stat type of player. you just don't. you don't consistently join the MVP talks by not being a good team player. just b/c at this stage of his career, his style of ball doesn't fit most teams doesn't mean his style of play wasn't great earlier in his career. he was a franchise player then, and the sixers built around him (pretty successfully i might add b/c not every great player wins a ring) thirdly, he's a LEGEND. he's gonna go down as one of the greatest to play the game. you don't get that by being an all-stat type of player. zach randolph is an all-stat player.
Wasn't a good decade for PF. I would put dirk over KG. KG has been a constant loser as the no 1 option. Can't say the same about dirk, and where is amare.
Bosh is neither a top-tier player nor a franchise player. Top-tier/franchise players do not make videos dressed as used car salesman and beg to be voted onto the all-star team.
Well its just the way I see him. Considering all the accolades he's won I don't really expect other people to agree with me. You are right, the stuff Iverson has won is not something losers get: 1st batch HOF, tons of MVP points, ALl NBA selections. However check out Iverson's career statline at basketball referrence: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/i/iversal01.html In a typical game Iverson would average 27.1 pts, which would be awesome but his career FG% is .425%, and his career 3 Pt % is .313. To get that 27.1 pts he has taken 22.1 shots. Think about that, a typical Iverson game means he scores 27.1 pts on 22.1 shots. Do you honestly expect his team to win games with that kind of performance? To be fair Iverson's always played with lousy teams, but considering his play style I'm not sure he would have performed better if he'd been paired with better players in the first place.
That is a terrible list. Rasheed Wallace is Way too high, he was never a go-to-guy or franchise player. Chris Webber is far too low, the guy was GREAT in the early 00s. Shawn Marion also sucks and is the most overrated player of the decade And sorry, but Tim Duncan plays PF and should be listed as such.
It probably means Kelly thinks Duncan was at his best as a C, whereas Gasol has been at his best as a PF.
I wish people would label players' positions by their style of play instead of just how many minutes they log at a specific position. Duncan and Gasol are PF's and if the crop of centers wasn't so awful you would almost always see them play at that position. Oh yeah and Pau > Dirk
In terms of style of play, Duncan is arguably more center-like than power forward-like. Last season, the Spurs officially categorized Duncan as a PF and Matt Bonner as their starting C. Which would say, stylistically, played more like a forward on that team?
But he is listed at PF, that is all I need to see to call him a PF. I don't care what position they play more like, I care what position they actually play.
Both, both are forwards. Bonner is a three point shooter, he plays almost like a SF in their offense but because of his strength on D (he's better than people give him credit for) and rebounding I'd feel comfortable calling him a PF. Timmy is at his best operating in the mid-post using crafty spins/drop steps, shooting occasionally from the high post, and running the PnR. His game is similar to Luis Scola, a traditional PF, he just happens to be 7 feet tall. I honestly think the center position is being eliminated from the game. The rules changes have made it impossible to guard a quick perimeter player, regardless of their skill level. This makes it smarter to just play 2 PF's, leave the paint more open and let your guards run in and score/draw fouls. By todays standards, big PF's are C's. And, on occasion I'll call Duncan a center but I don't think that's where his skill set is.
