in terms of potential: ming/griff = jabbar/worthy?

woohoo! i love a good bball debate! i'm almost sorry i missed the past couple of days (sorry, the casino beckoned!)


anyhoo,


Memphis/Laker Fans(trolls) :


i don't know if you have crash5179 on ignore or something, but he has pointed out to you guys over and over again that we are not saying that ming/griff will be "clearly better" than worthy/jabbar. nor are we saying that ming will put up 30 ppg his first year in the nba. this is about the potential impact they can have on their team and on the nba.

i don't even want to address the "gasol" topic because it's, well, ridiculous. gasol's ceiling, imo, is pretty well defined. ming's is not. gasol, imo, has not shown the physical tools necessary to become a dominant center in the nba. ming has. just ask ben wallace. or antonio davis. or any other nba player that asked for a double team on ming. think they doubled gasol?

i forget who in this thread said it (may have been crash again), but ming/griffin do not have to be as good as jabbar/worthy in order to have the same nba impact. comprende? if not, think of it this way: is shaq "better" than jabbar? i'd say no....not by a long shot. but has shaq had - at least - the same impact on his team and the nba as jabbar? that is at least debatable. shaq - like jabbar - is THE dominant center of his era. now look at ming v shaq or ming v jabbar. can ming have the same impact on HIS era of the nba (probably the next 10-13 years) that shaq/jabbar had on theirs? i'd say he DEFINITELY can. same goes for griff v worthy. it's not about #s guys, it's about impact.


heypee:

what i'm betting is that ming - like every other nba player - will face an adjustment period once he begins this season. fortunately for us, he'll go through that adjustment period facing single coverage. by the time teams figure out that they absolutely MUST double team him, he will already have his feet wet. and i agree with you that those double teams will be coming sooner rather than later.

as for whether he can handle (read: manhandle) these double teams? i think so. and i think he'll have to in order to reach the impact echelon of jabbar/shaq/wilt/hakeem/russell.


MemphisX:

care to answer RC Cola's question, big guy? or should we take your silence as an admittance of defeat?


ricerocket:

i'm not so sure about that. how is it that they do not equal gasol/gooden? did gooden ever dominate griffin? no.

do you think gasol will dominate ming? maybe in the first or second matchup he may get ming in foul trouble, but my goodness i don't think gasol will be the more dominant player by the end of this year.

as for them needing a great point guard to get there...i don't agree with that either. did hakeem have a great point guard to reach that level? did wilt? does shaq? jabbar had it, but did he NEED it? i don't believe so. great frontcourt players, imo, can make it on their own...as long as they have a competent backcourt. they don't need "great" ones.


New Yorker:

are you saying he needs to be better than shaq or just hold his own? shaq didn't show up big time against hakeem his first year, imo. in fact, he was outclassed by hakeem. but he did show his ability. that's all i expect from ming...show your ability. i'll give it the third matchup before ming shows that ability. i'll give it 2-3 years before ming is beating dominating shaq on the court. why: shaq's toe...ming's growth physically and mentally.

i wonder if that first statement would be true if he were from anyplace other than china?

it's possible. then again, you could have bet that shaq would have a couple of decent season then flame out like john "hot plate" williams or stanley roberts or oliver miller. it's possible, but we never really know.

pradaxpimp

you're probably right. but, imo, once ming/griff get settled in to their respective roles i don't think rudy will have it any other way. rudy may be x and o challenged, but he understands that great basketball is played from the inside out.