Jokic is amazing but Dream over Jokic even in the modern era of shooting bigs. Dream was a freaking monster on all facets of the game and most importantly he was the go to all game long. Dream was triple teamed every game except vs Seattle where he was guarded by everyone including George Karl and the beer vendor. Jokic might be double teamed half the game. Dream in a landside.
The skills challenge would be playing basketball. Hakeem not only the greater defender but he is just better at winning.
This. I think I know where this is coming from but I’m just not going to go there. When you consider the fact that defensive skills are also premium skills and know that Dream is a superior offensive player, this is all ridiculous.
Let's not get caught up on semantics. My point is that while Hakeem didn't get a high number of assists relative to other passing big man like Jokic, he easily could have if the era demanded it from him.
So "who is more skilled at basketball" is just another way of saying "who is better at basketball"? Question: Is Giannis a more skilled basketball player than James Harden, today?
Jokic is another version of Tim Duncan with a little less defense and rebounding. It's not like Duncan has ever offered his services, that I'm aware of, post retirement.
This was ridiculous when it was initially posted... Now its borderline trollish to defend...lol.. I will give credit tho that Jokic has been screwed the last 2 years with injuries to his "co-stars"... Hard to show greatness against great teams without help.
It was 1989/1990. Dream: Led the NBA in Total RBs, RBs per game, Defensive RBs, Def RB %, Blocks, Blocks per game, Block %, Def win shares, DBox +/-, Defensive Rating, and was #10 in Steals per game and #7 in total steals. He led the NBA in every defensive category except steals but he was still Top 10. As a Center. It was one of the greatest defensive seasons ever but nobody cared because the Rockets weren't on TV that year. Plus, he averaged over 24 ppg that year. Dennis Rodman was DPOY and Dream was 2nd team All-NBA behind Ewing--both of those terrible travesties. But Rodman! Man, he could guard all 5 positions and gave lots of effort--I saw it on TV when he dived for balls and all that awesome stuff. (He just never gave enough effort to develop any kind of offensive game.) Dream also had a great argument for DPOY pretty much any season he played until his mid-30s.
There is no way i can see jokic being better than Dream if bigs were to stay in there lane like the bigs of dreams era jokic wouldn't even be a factor. I totally agree with you on the feast that dream would have with no hand checking he would average 40 plus a game MJ 50.
i was going to dismiss this as millennial ignorance.... I mean the yung'uns didnt get to see Dream actually play - so they may not have as deep a respect for the mans game... but then i thought... naw... even if you just watch youtube highlights, you should still be able to grasp the greatness that was Olajuwon.... so no excuse - just ignorance and/or stupidity... Have we seen Jokic just dismantle an MVP like Olajuwon did to Robinson? <iframe src='' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen width='640' height='404'></iframe><p> <a href="">via Gfycat</a></p>
It's not a real comparison now because Giannis is in the midst of an all-time great prime and James is about done. But what I think James meant is that he isn't as physically gifted (Harden was never a top-tier NBA athlete despite being a good player.) as Giannis and had to really learn how to use everything he had to become a great player. Which is right & WRONG. James is right, Giannis is a superior athlete and James is a craftier ballplayer. But where Harden is DEAD WRONG is the inference that Giannis was born the way he is. Giannis came into the league as a stick and through hard work changed his body. Giannis's transformation physically is nothing short of amazing. That's sheer work ethic and mental toughness. To imply that Giannis didn't have to work is just stupid. That man worked his tail off. Giannis has amazing talent, amazing physical gifts, and AMAZING WORK ETHIC. That's how you get an all-time great.
I don't think I disagree with any of that. But my question is who is the more skilled basketball player today. What is your answer to that?
The title of this thread pissed me off so much that I've never even clicked on this topic until now. I was curious as to why this BS won't go away. It keeps popping up on the first page for almost 3 months. I'm not even watching that video. I refuse to give it views. VORP, RAPTOR, and all these other newfangled statistical measurements should only be seen as a piece of the overall evaluation of a player's impact. One more source of data. This is getting out of hand. Fanboys are really out here online making arguments that Jokic is better than some of the most dominant centers of all time because of his PER and BPM.
