1st and 10: How would Wilt do in today's NBA (Anyone catch this today?)

[Sir Charles]

You people are insane...Wilt would dominate in today`s game with ease. His arm strength was like Karl Malone but just add to that to a man that was around 7`2 and add a little more. He would probably weight around 320-330 lbs with todays vitamins and his natural shoulder/arm strength would inrease more likes of Malone do to that fact. His stamina we don`t have to talk about He would lead the league in Blocks, Rebounds, Scoring over the years and would be second to Shaq in FG% efficiency inside over the years. His numbers would look like this: [COLOR="Red"]25-36 PPG (50-57% FG), 12-20 RPG (no way any one today can out rebound Wilt!), 3-6 AGP, 2-4 BPG...over the years[/COLOR]. He would be the most fouled player like a larger version of Karl Malone I say again. His fadeaway would be perfected and he would be able to knock and drunk as hard as he could which he wasn`t allowed before do to pitty and rules.

Look Wilt outrebounded Kareem by miles, shot at a higher FG% and held his own from 1969-1972 and this is what Kareem achieved vs Hakeem in their 29 meetings from 1984-85 to 1989-90:

Remember this...

[COLOR="Blue"]Kareem: 37-41 Years Old (atleast 4-5 years passed his prime and Yes! no where near his physical prime)[/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Hakeem: 22-27 (total physical prime and practically prime)[/COLOR]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...1&p2=olajuha01

[COLOR="Blue"]Kareem: 15.2 PPG on 56.7% FG Shooting (Far from Stoping Him! ), 5.8 RPG, 1.4 BPG, 1.4 APG and 0.5 SPG but in ONLY 28.4 MPG[/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Hakeem: 21.8 PPG on 47.5% FG Shooting (Kareem lowered his FG! ), 11.9 RPG, 3.0 APG, 2.5 SPG and 2.6 BPG but IN 37.8 MPG[/COLOR]

Kareem held his own agains the Dream while playing lesser minutes, making more FGs, Taking Less FGAs PG , Shooting 9% FG Superior to Hakeem and playing 9.4 MPG Lesser (a quarter pretty much)

[OldSchoolBBall]

welcome to the the real world...lol

Huh? I don't get it. You see many 7'1"+ guys in the league accelerate that fast in a burst like that?

[bdreason]

He could be a 26/12 big man.

Remember, the rules are different now.

[gts]

Huh? I don't get it. You see many 7'1"+ guys in the league accelerate that fast in a burst like that?

yeah wilt!
for someone that follows the game like you do i'm just surprised you realized it now...lol

i'm at the office tonight and my computer is doing double duty so i can't really search... but on youtube there was at one time a great call by chick hearn where wilt blocks a shot, controls the block makes an outlet pass, runs the fast break and scores off a baylor assist... one of the best calls by chick hearn ever and a great play by wilt and elgin... hearn must have said the name "wilt" 8 times in the call lol

[OldSchoolBBall]

He could be a 26/12 big man.

Remember, the rules are different now.

He's a better scorer than Yao and a better rebounder than Dwight. I'd say 27/14+ at the minimum. Especially the rebounds.

[OldSchoolBBall]

yeah wilt!
for someone that follows the game like you do i'm just surprised you realized it now...lol

No, I knew he was a freak and a track athlete, that was just a very stark video example of his speed. Given the scarcity of Wilt footage, it's not often you see such a clear example of his acceleration.

[plowking]

I think David Robinson's game resemble's Wilts the most. Strength, speed and great all round game. Thus I don't really think he'd do any better then Robinson in todays league.

Maybe 27 and 12 as his max.

[Lebron23]

Prime Wilt was a beast during his time, but he's no better than Prime Shaq and Hakeem Olajuwon.

Slower Pace Era = Less Points, and Less Rebounds.

Teams in the 1960's averaged more than 110 ppg.

[VCMVP1551]

If you compare his 1961-1962 season to Shaq's 1999-2000 season using league averages and give him 40 mpg.

33.0 ppg, 14.7 rpg, 1.8 apg, 53.3 FG%, 61.3 FT%, 24.8 FGA

Yes I did factor in the team rebounds stat when adjusting that. Now that is simply by adjusting pace and minutes, so it's highly doubtful that he gets 2 more ppg against today's slightly bigger, more athletic players.

I gave him less minutes because there's no way in hell he'd play near 48.5 in today's league. Team's value stars too much and nobody has come close. I gave him 40 because that's what Shaq played in 2000 and Jordan's career high in mpg was 40.4 so that's fair.

I also highly doubt any big man could get 24.8 FGA in the modern era, if you give him the 21.1 FGA Shaq averaged in 2000 then Wilt's adjusted ppg becomes 28.1 ppg. That seems a bit low, but more realistic than 35.

In reality I think Wilt's best scoring seasons would have been in the 29-30 ppg range. Shaq did that 3-4 times and David Robinson did that once so I could imagine Wilt doing that a few times as well.

For rebounds I'd say he'd drop from closer to 15(adjusted) down to about 14.

If you want me to give an estimate for early to mid 60's Wilt I'll say 29.5 ppg, 14 rpg, 3 apg, 3 bpg, 56 FG%. So pretty much prime Shaq type numbers.

If you mean Wilt in the late 60's when he was focusing more on team basketball, defense and rebounding then I'll say more like 18 ppg, 15.5 rpg, 5 apg, 4 bpg.

His skills are well documented on film. At 7'1", the only player at that height that rivaled Wilt's athleticism in NBA history is Shaq. Aside from Shaq I can't think of a stronger player either. He was an elite passer and IMO talking about Wilt's later career the only big men in NBA history who compare as passers are Walton, Kareem, Webber, Sabonis and maybe guys like KG, Daugherty and Divac.

He had an assortment of moves that would still be effective today such as that finger roll, hook shot fadeaway, turnaround, bank shot ect.

[DahLollipop]

Anyone watch 1st and 10 on ESPN today? Well since it was the 47th anniversary of Wilt's 100 point game, Skip Bayless and the 2 Live Stews were arguing about how Wilt would do in today's NBA. I didn't really agree with either one of them, but I definitely leaned more towards Skip's argument. Skip said he'd average about 35ppg/15rpg, while the one of the Live Stews said he wouldn't do anything in this league and Shaq and Dwight would destroy him, while the other one said he'd be an above average Tyson Chandler. The most ridiculous statement was the first Stew said that Wilt dominated midgets and today's players are specimens compared to them, and Wilt WAS NOT a specimen. And when Skip started talking about his track and field numbers, they still didn't change their opinion. I do think today's players are specimens compared to most of the players from the 60s but DEFINITELY not compared to Wilt who would be a freak of an athlete even in today's game. Now I definitely don't think Wilt would average 35/15, but probably Shaq's prime numbers + more rebounds instead and one of the best players in the league if not the best. I think most players from back then probably wouldn't have the same success, but I think Wilt is one and maybe the only one who would still have relatively the same, as far as where his place in the league is but not the inflated numbers. Anyway, anyone see this and what was your reaction? And remember the context of the topic was if Wilt AS HE WAS, and not if he had the advanced workout and coaching techniques to follow, was in the NBA today.

Skip Bayless analyzed in a weak era.

[Lebron23]

If you compare his 1961-1962 season to Shaq's 1999-2000 season using league averages and give him 40 mpg.

33.0 ppg, 14.7 rpg, 1.8 apg, 53.3 FG%, 61.3 FT%, 24.8 FGA

Yes I did factor in the team rebounds stat when adjusting that. Now that is simply by adjusting pace and minutes, so it's highly doubtful that he gets 2 more ppg against today's slightly bigger, more athletic players.

I gave him less minutes because there's no way in hell he'd play near 48.5 in today's league. Team's value stars too much and nobody has come close. I gave him 40 because that's what Shaq played in 2000 and Jordan's career high in mpg was 40.4 so that's fair.

I also highly doubt any big man could get 24.8 FGA in the modern era, if you give him the 21.1 FGA Shaq averaged in 2000 then Wilt's adjusted ppg becomes 28.1 ppg. That seems a bit low, but more realistic than 35.

In reality I think Wilt's best scoring seasons would have been in the 29-30 ppg range. Shaq did that 3-4 times and David Robinson did that once so I could imagine Wilt doing that a few times as well.

For rebounds I'd say he'd drop from closer to 15(adjusted) down to about 14.

If you want me to give an estimate for early to mid 60's Wilt I'll say 29.5 ppg, 14 rpg, 3 apg, 3 bpg, 56 FG%. So pretty much prime Shaq type numbers.

If you mean Wilt in the late 60's when he was focusing more on team basketball, defense and rebounding then I'll say more like 18 ppg, 15.5 rpg, 5 apg, 4 bpg.

His skills are well documented on film. At 7'1", the only player at that height that rivaled Wilt's athleticism in NBA history is Shaq. Aside from Shaq I can't think of a stronger player either. He was an elite passer and IMO talking about Wilt's later career the only big men in NBA history who compare as passers are Walton, Kareem, Webber, Sabonis and maybe guys like KG, Daugherty and Divac.

He had an assortment of moves that would still be effective today such as that finger roll, hook shot fadeaway, turnaround, bank shot ect.

Unbelievable posts from VCMVP1551. Jeff should appoint him as one of the Forum Moderators in the NBA Forum.

Repped


This is like the Oscar and LeBron comparison on Basketball Reference.

But that was all conjecture, as it turns out, nothing more, nothing less. What’s fact, however, is something that never occurred to me until I discovered APBRmetrics much later. Bear with me for a moment while I explain: Okay, so you’ve all seen Wilt and Oscar’s numbers from 1962… but have you ever sat down and looked at the league averages that year? In ‘62, the average team took 107.7 shots per game. By comparison, this year the average team takes 80.2 FGA/G.

If we use a regression to estimate turnovers & offensive rebounds, the league pace factor for 1962 was 125.5 possessions/48 minutes, whereas this year it’s 91.7. Oscar’s Royals averaged 124.7 poss/48, while Wilt’s Warriors put up a staggering 129.7 (the highest mark in the league). On the other hand, the 2009 Cavs are averaging a mere 89.2 poss/48. It turns out that the simplest explanation for the crazy statistical feats of 1961-62 (and the early sixties in general) is just that the league was playing at a much faster tempo in those days, with more possessions affording players more opportunities to amass gaudy counting statistics.

Let’s say LeBron ‘09 could switch paces (note that I didn’t say “places”, which is another argument entirely) with Oscar ‘62… That means we would have to scale down the Big O’s per-game numbers by multiplying them by .715, giving Robertson a far more reasonable line of 22.0 PPG, 8.9 RPG, & 8.1 APG — which are still really good numbers, to be sure, but not as crazy as they looked at the breakneck pace of ‘62. By contrast, we have to multiply LBJ’s stats by a factor of 1.4 if we want to see what they would look like if he played at a 1962-style pace. The results: 40.1 PPG, 10.3 RPG, & 10.0 APG!! As you can see, those 35.5 extra possessions per game really make a huge difference when comparing the two players’ stats.

So, no, LeBron probably will never average an Oscar-esque triple-double in today’s NBA… but it’s more a consequence of the league’s pace than any failing on his part. Just like we wouldn’t say a .400 hitter in the 1894 NL (league BA: .309) was as impressive as Ted Williams hitting .406 in the 1941 AL (league BA: .266), basketball fans should keep in mind that the league’s pace factor has gone down steadily since its inception, and with those fewer possessions come fewer chances to put up monster stat totals. This isn’t meant to denigrate Oscar and Wilt in any way, but it does mean that their eye-popping stats from back then are, in reality, not quite as impressive as they appear at first glance.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=1423

[YoungRich]

if wilt was still alive and they could just make him go back to his 20s body he would **** on ppl, how hard would he go out and dominate afer hearing all these fools say tht he would do ****, or tht we would just be 20/10, i wouldnt put it passed him to just play 1 year and be 40ppg + then retire and tell every 1 to suck it

[Micku]

I'll say Wilt will be similar to Hakeem. He'll probably average 20+ points a game with great rebound numbers.

[VCMVP1551]

Unbelievable posts from VCMVP1551. Jeff should appoint him as one of the Forum Moderators in the NBA Forum.

Repped

Thanks.

[momo]

Skip Bay-less blathered in a weak era.

Fixed. Good job VC mathing it for us.