Butler/Bam/Embiid is an incredible defensive frontcourt but that spacing would be tough.
RATMpatta
joined 1 year ago
I'd take him 5th pretty easily tbh. Zeke and Cousy are coasting heavy on reputation and rings here as their actual impact really wasn't that out of this world nor were either of them ever the clear engine of any of their title teams.
Nash, Kidd and Stockton are arguable but I don't think any of them have the combination of peak and longevity CP3 brings to the table.
Messi has become incredibly overrated, especially on reddit.
Wilt was a pretty selfish scorer early on and didn't really develop his playmaking until he got to the Sixers and shot a lot less. His defensive impact was usually bigger than his offensive impact most years.
As an overall player I'd take Wilt over Jokic easy but purely in terms of offense I'd say Jokic is legitimately comparable to the most impactful offensive players ever like Oscar, Magic and MJ.
Probably not a particularly popular opinion with how boyh guys are viewed here now but imo Westbrook was the best player on the Thunder in 2016. In the regular season it was close with an advantage to KD but Durant had a pretty bad post-season, while Russ stepped up.
The bar should be the best player in the draft class, whether that's a GOAT candidate or a fringe All-Star shouldn't be the deciding factor. So the #1 picks who lived up to their draft position are imo:
Elgin Baylor (1958), Oscar Robertson (1960), Walt Bellamy (1961), Elvin Hayes (1968), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1969), David Thompson (1975), Magic Johnson (1979), David Robinson (1987), Shaquille O'Neal (1992), Chris Webber (1993), Tim Duncan (1997), Yao Ming (2002), LeBron James (2003), Dwight Howard (2004), Anthony Davis (2012), Zion Williamson (2019), Anthony Edwards (2020).
There are a couple of toss-ups where the best 2-3 players in the draft are pretty much interchangable and some of the newer drafts are still up in the air but this is roughly how I'd have it.