Hakeem Olajuwon on Small Ball and the future of the big man

this article is basically hakeem saying that dwight sucks.

 

It's so refreshing to hear an all time great actually complement the league today, instead of the old tired narrative that league is watered down or soft, that you hear former players say. The league is so much more fun to watch now than it was during 90's.

 

Hakeem would be the best player if he played in this generation. Prolly go like:

1. Hakeem
2. Curry / Lebron
3. Lebron / Curry
4. Durant

Everyone else

 

Hakeem always respected his opponents. It's cool hearing him talk so glowingly about players we all hated back in the day like Payton, Robinson, Patrick, Shaq, etc.

 

Thanks for that.

Dream will always be "the man".....in so many ways.

 

Good article except i disagree with calling Draymond a big man. He's a 6'7 SF playing PF. He's as much a big man as Anthony Mason was.

I also think the big man IS being phased out. Smaller players are playing the C and F positions to allow for more agility and spacing. How many true 7 footers get over 30 mpg anymore?

Big men are now going to be Anthony Davis, KAT type of players who would have been traditional PF's back pre 2010's. They are the future of the C position. Versatile SF's that are strong enough to guard PF's are the future of the PF position. So yes, the big man is a dying breed. Certainly the back to the basket big has been dead or at least dormant since Yao retired.

I don't mind the direction of the new, smaller and more skilled "big man" and of course Hakeem sees himself fitting right in today's NBA(rightfully so), but i'd like to see them get more usage. Guard with over 30USG% is the norm, but no more big men ever get used that much anymore. Even really good players like Anthony Davis are starting to just stand around in the perimeter. Ibaka spotting up for corner 3's. When Scola was a Rocket, could any of us have imagined if he was spotting up from 3 instead of using his post skills? Well, he too now just stands at the perimeter. Things have changed, and i don't think a lot of the great bigs of the past would do that great today, just like i don't see a lot of players of today doing that great back then.

 

A truly fantastic read. Someone should translate it into crayon for Howard.

 

He probably threw them up at the end of quarters when the Rockets were in bounding but wouldn't have a chance of making a real play just to see if it would go in. Either way 143 attempts in a 17 year NBA career would mean its pretty rare for him to try one but a 20% average isn't bad for a guy that doesn't practice it.

I remember him hitting that three and freaking out. Perfect way to end the season.

 

A good read? That was a tremendous treat, Clutch. Thanks for finding and posting it. I'm already in awe of Hakeem. Heck, now I'm wishing I could write as well as he can! From a skinny red-shirted freshman at UH to this. What a journey.

 

Its funny, most of you in awe of what he said, but then, you go on to post that: Spurs chocked, Lowry sucks, both Heat and Raptors suck, that sucks and that and that aswell, you want people to act smart, but half of you brain dead people with tons of issues that you went out on internet, small minded people.

 

Did you get lost? End up at the wrong BBS?

 

Lulz. It's been 25 years and Hakeem still cant figure out how Payton & George Karl were beating our asses. Well, at least that's topic #1 from this piece in the Sonics forum. Oh wait! They don't have a forum! Mwuahahhaa.

 

They milked the hell out of the mismatch up top ...Gary either driving the lane or posting up.

And Kemp at the 4 was the other match up nightmare that was exploited to death.


Around the perimeter there be deadly shooters galore.


Double/Triple team on Dream......with NO CALLS for illegal D or fouls.

 

Kemp before the lockout and the 25 babies was a truly special player. Blake Griffin is the closest to him in the modern era and I'd still give the edge to Kemp pretty handily.

 

They would put Sam Perkins at the top of the key to launch 3's while at the same time drawing Hakeem out of the paint so Payton could drive to the basket any time he wanted.

The sonics were like the perfect storm against us. I've never seen a team consistently take us out of our game-plan as much as those 90's sonic teams. Just a matchup nightmare for us.

I still can't believe we finally beat them in 97. We even won 2 games at their place during that series. I still think that series took everything out of us and we had nothing left for the j*zz in the WCF. So even when we beat them, we still lost.

 

My guess is that most of the shots he took that qualified as 3 pointers were shots he took to beat the buzzer - probably often from half court or farther.

 

It wasnt as easy to do that against a good defensive team. They had a good defender on him and a big waiting outside the lane on his drive. He could see that before he made his move. We just didnt have any other players on the floor that made the defense have to stay home and be honest. James just doesnt have the space to drive when playing the good teams. They set up for him very well and make it tough, so a step back jumper is pretty much his only option. Unless he catches them in transition. Harden is good, but not when you the only one on the floor 5 other guys are focusing on stopping.

 

Yeah, and like someone else said, stretched out over a 17-year career and I guess it's not as many as it sounds like. Especially the 30 makes. That's like 1 every 40 games or so. Not that impressive.

He was still a pretty good player though.

 

It just seemed that for years the Sonics had big guys who could step out and shoot 3's. That wasn't that common for those times. It was a huge problem to defend.

Dale Ellis playing center and guarding Ralph defensively while bombing away from the outside. Derrick McKey, Detlef Schrempf, Tom Chambers, Sam Perkins...it was a never ending line of big guys that could shoot from the outside.

And of course you had the super athletic Kemp/Payton teams that played illegal defense but rarely got called for it.

I hated those Sonic teams. Oh yeah, Xavier McDaniels too.