What a stupid, idiotic thread. "Did dream deserve his DPOY?" Yeah, he is the the all time leading shot blocker and top 20 all time in steals, and he played center. Get a job or go vote or find a hobby or something. The time it took for me to post this is 3 minutes of my life I will never get back. You owe me....
Dream was that good. Sometimes I wonder how many individual awards he could have accumulated playing in a different era. I remember watching the Bucks v Hawks game today and the announcers were highlighting how Josh Smith had 100 blocks and 100 steals in a season. Hakeem was routinely doing 200 blocks and 100 steals a season as well as averaging 20-10 and shooting 50% from the field!
Dream is the all-time leading in steals among centers. and is the 8th all-time. All time NBA Playoff leader in blocks. How a center can get more than 100 steals, its unreal, its not the task on defense for a center, and the ball has to be near the paint so the center have a shot to steal the ball. Ewing is a great player but you cant compare him with Hakeem.
Patrick Ewing's defense was pretty good on that. It's just that Hakeem was just too good. It's like David Robinson said after they lost to the Rockets in 1995 when they asked what happened to his defense, "I don’t know how I can tell you this with a straight face, but I believe I played good defense on him." Ewing wasn't the defender that Robinson was, but he wasn't bad. It's just that Hakeem was so much better than his peers (the greatest group of centers ever in the league at the same time), that he could beat the best defenders there were.
after looking of some defensive stats by Hakeem, I think the thread title should be "Did Hakeem deserved more DPOY awards?" I mean he is only the player to get 200 blocks and 200 steals in the NBA. and that year he didnt won the award. and how a center can have so many steals, a center i(on defense) is more focus about not letting enter the paint, make players change their shot and block. usually a guard gets the steals and the PF- Centers get the blocks.
Yes? Yaos another guy whos defensive impact is undervalued. I wish we had more stats instead, easier to dissect the #'s than endless hours of tape (which is what I would need to really observe their defensive impact). Ewing vs Dream vs D-Rob defensively those years. The debate spun off into a discussion revolving around the ability of their teammates because Tinman made the claim that not only was Dream a better defender but his teammates were as well. But you cant have your cake and eat it too, if 1 guy is a better defensive anchor and hes surrounded by superior defenders then the team HAS to be a better defensive team. But there have been only 2-3 teams (modern era) that compare with the Knicks D of the early 90's. Again this was a historically great defensive club and all they had to show for it was a 2nd team selection for Starks. I just found it fishy
It's not a claim. It's the truth. 1992-93 NBA Defensive Player of the Year 1993-94 NBA Defensive Player of the Year 1993-94 NBA Finals MVP 1993-94 NBA MVP Finals (4-3): Houston Rockets over New York Knickerbockers
I like Yao and all, I go to bat for Yao when he gets bashed. But you totally make no cents. You say in one breath Hakeem was overrated and in the same breath you say Yao is undervalued defensively? This is when I realized you have no credibility. Yao's size and presence does change the opponents game plan, but it's is no where in the same stratosphere as Hakeem. Then I told myself, "calm down, the kid has never seen Hakeem play". Kinda like when my 5 year old boy say something silly that doesn't make cents and I know he's wrong but I still tell him "yes" son, "but don't worry you'll understand when you get older". Chronz, your basically trying to argue something that even most Knicks fans that saw the two play will concede. Honestly this thread "Fails"!
They were a great defensive club because they just focused all their energy on that end of the court. To do that they played a grind it in, low-motion offense so their guys would have the energy on D. That doesn't make their players great individual defenders. Mason, Smith, Ewing, didn't do their damage defensively one on one, they did it by smothering and help-D. They did it by diving after lose balls, bumping everyone they could get away, pushing, shoving, grinding, slapping, wrestling, and out-muscling. They challenged every shot, and forced teams to get out of their rhythm. It wasn't by defensive talent they played their defense, it's because they didn't have the offensive guns, so Pat Riley instilled a nasty D. If you want to know the greatest Defensive club in league history - to me it has to be the Detroit Pistons of the early 90's. That team had both defensive talent and a team style of play. It was superior to the Knicks team. The fact that no Knicks player was recognized as a great defensive player tells you a lot about how they played their defense.
attempting to compare ewing to dream and suggesting that there was ANY aspect of ewing's game that surpassed dream's is ridiculous. dream wasn't just a better player than ewing, they weren't even in the same class. you couldn't have watched very many games dream and ewing played in to even make that claim. dream was a difference maker defensively. ewing was a good defensive center. big difference.
I'm not here to discredit Hakeem's defense, I do think Hakeem is always a better defender than Ewing. But I got to say that do you know how does DPOY works? Marcus Camby got his DPOY in 07 despite Denver was one of the worst defensive team. Block and Steal is the primary stats for that award, so yes, Dream well deserves his DPOYs.
