KG is a 3, 4 and 5...he could never pass as a 1 or 2 on offense. walker comes much closer than any player in the league...i know that taking the ball up the court does not make him a pg, but it does show that he can handle the ball...shooting 3's does not make him a sg, but it does show that he has an outside touch... i too would take dirk before walker as a better player, but dirk is not a 5 position player like antoine is. walker would not be a star at pg or sg because he cannot drive and dish like the stars of those positions...but he is one of the most capable big men who could possibly play those positions...but i agree...he is not as capable as a real guard. but i stick to my story...he is the closest 5 position player that the league has right now.
You are seriously overestimating KG's scoring skills. He's an ok scorer, but he won't dominate scoring in a playoff series. He is very versatile and a great player, but definitely not a dominant scorer.
I'm telling you, a 5 position player comes around once in every 20 years, you guys are making yourself believe that the guys you are mentioning are 5 position players. If there was a 5 spot player in the NBA right now, believe me there wouldn't be an argument, everyone would say the same guy because those type players are something special.
It seems like 5 position players are the flying saucers of the NBA. "Hey! I've seen one! Yesterday! Believe me!"
Every player in the NBA can bring the ball up the court or try to guard Shaq down low. They may not be very good at it but they can do it. I know I watched Hakeem bring try to bring the ball up the court a couple of times in his early years, but he was not and could not play point guard. What I am talking about when I say 5 postition player is someone that can at least dominate to a certain extent at every single position. Not someone that had to play point guard in an emergency situation for a part of one game. Magic is the only player that I ever saw that could be a dominant force at all 5 positions. Maybe Oscar Robertson could have but I never saw him play. You put Dirk or KG at the point and coaches are instantly trying to upgrade that position. Same goes for Walker trying to play the 5, 2 or 1. I agree with Nike about Odom being the closest but even he falls short because he would get abused at the 5 spot.
The Big O was far too small to mix it up inside...He was, what, 6'5? Magic is probably the only good 5-position player. I would rather have an awesome 3-position player, like Dirk or KG, than try to play either of them at the guard spots. That said, Odom is probably as good as it will get for a while as far as 5-position players go.
Actually, teams would sometimes play of Magic because of his poor (well, decent) shooting - the one weakness to his game. But that wouldn't have made him any worse a 2-guard. With Worthy filling the lanes on fast breaks, he was a great transition scorer (which is key) and could find a way to break halfcourt defenses. He would also have taken quite a bit of pressure of of whoever else was playing point. As for Dirk? He's not doubled nearly as much as Garnett. IMO, the most important ability for a small forward to have is passing out of double/triple teams. Garnett has to create shots for cutters and spot-up shooters when defenses collapse on him. He also has a larger defensive burden than Dirk, having to defend out on the perimeter when his team runs some sort of box-and-one.
I think Odom is the closest thing to a 5-position player in the league. He wouldn't get abused at center, mostly because there aren't very many good centers in the league. After all, he's roughly the same size as Marcus Camby and Theo Ratliff, and he has a solid post game and good shotblocking instincts (9 blocks in a game once when he started at PF). IMHO, there has never been a true 5-position player. Magic really only played center for a few minutes in that one memorable game, and at his size (even smaller than Odom at the time), I don't think he could have endured it for multiple games. I think that such a player would have to have true center size and excellent ballhandling. I'm thinking of someone like Tim Duncan with more quickness-- scary. Actually, Duncan himself is a pretty good candidate-- he has very good ballhandling skills but doesn't show them off much in the Spurs traditional offensive set. All that said, I think versatility is somewhat overrated. Shaq can pretty much only play one (maybe two) positions, but he is far and a way the best player in the league because he plays it better than anyone else. On a lesser scale, a guy like Elton Brand is very valuable for the same reason.
Are you talking about the NBA finals game where he started at Center in place of Kareem and scored 42pts grabbed 15 rebounds handed out 7 assists with 3 steals? Who was Philly's center at the time? Daryl Dawkins. Magic played a lot more than a few minutes at center in that game. Magic was 6'9" exactly 1 inch shorter than the most dominant center in the league at that time. Moses Malone. Even Elvin Hayes was only 6'9". I know Magic was listed as 215 lbs but look at any picture of him back then and it was obvious that he carried some bulk. Certainly later in his career he was more like 240.
Yep, that's the game. Magic was fantastic, but he really didn't play much center. Philly's center at the time was, I believe, Caldwell Jones, who was perenially 40 and didn't require that much attention on defense. Magic was pretty thin at the time (I think 215 is generous); he definitely bulked up later on, especially when he made his comeback at PF in '96 or so. I just don't think, at any point in his career, he could have routinely guarded the big guys in the league, like Olajuwon, Ewing, Parish, Sampson, either Malone, and probably a slew of others. It's one thing for bulky undersized players like Barkley, Elvin Hayes, and Elton Brand to be able to match up with larger players, but another for more slender guys to try to do it. Even Larry Bird, who was a little bigger than Magic, had great hands, and was a tremendous rebounder, could not survive at C, IMHO. Magic may be the closest we've ever seen to a 5-position guy, though. Certainly he is a one-of-a-kind talent, to have that kind ballhandling ability and court vision at that size.
statman is right. Magic jumped center at the opening tip but really just played his normal (hybrid) position for most of that game
Magic will be the closest person to have a legitimate shot at playing all five positions. He was a PF playing the point. Garnett is the closest currently playing.
Back when Manning still had his body, he was pretty close to a 5 position player on offense & maybe a 3 or 4 position player on defense. Then he blew out his knees 4 times in 5 years.
If you define a "5 position player" as someone who can DOMINATE at every position and that the definition of dominating is being an all-star material, Then I don't think anyone is. Not even Magic, who we all agree is the closest thing. Magic could not be an all-star for every position. He could be an all-star at 1 and 4, maybe 3. He's not good enough a shooter to be an all-star 2 guard. (Remember, we are not talking about a GOOD SG, but an ALL-STAR SG. That's a BIG difference.) He is certainly not big enough to be an all-star center. He was pretty slim (relative to those "undersize" big men like Barkley, Moses, Hayes etc.) at his prime. When he did bulk up in the mid 90's he was not fast enough to play at an all-star guard level.
I think they're defining a "5 position player" as a player who can play all 5 positions on the floor at a high level. Thus, Magic is the closest we have had.
