Better overall player (during their prime): Dwyane Wade or Clyde Drexler?

[TheNaturalWR]

I'm surprised as people saying Drexler was a better passer. Wade is a GREAT passer but people never tend to notice it. This might be a really dumb argument to use but did people watch him in the skills challenge? He did those passing drills with relative ease and it shows with his career average of 6.5 APG.

[SuperPippen]

Drexler took his teams to the finals where the second best player was KEvin Duckworth (rip.)

Wade has never led his team to the Finals.

Did 2006 never happen?

[L.Kizzle]

Did 2006 never happen?

If you think Wade led that team to the Finals than not sure what you witnessed 6 years ago. A fellow by the name of Shaq was right there with him.

[ShaqAttack3234]

Someone needs to look at how stacked those Blazers teams were before making dumb comments.

Yeah, what a joke. I've seen this revisionist history several times actually. Of all the stars to say was unfortunate, people were picking Drexler? Hell, I have a hard time naming players who were blessed with more talented teams in their prime than Clyde was from '90-'92. Portland was considered the most talented team in the league at that time, and they were favored over a deep and talented '91 Laker team featuring Magic Johnson who may have been just slightly past his prime by that point, but still had one of his 5 best seasons.

Here's a post I made a while ago responding to an equally ignorant comment. it's funny how some seem to think that 1 or 2 players sums up how good the entire cast is. It's truly unbelievable, but I see people compare how much help a player has just by comparing their best teammate or 2. There is absolutely no logic behind that.

Keep in mind that all of these players were at or near prime age. Drexler and Kersey were 28, Porter was 27, Buck Williams was 30, Duckworth was 26, Cliff Robinson was 24 and Ainge was 31. Name another team from '91 that was as talented as the 63-19 Blazers.

SG Clyde Drexler- An all-time great open court player, capable outside shooter, elite post up guard, an elite rebounding guard(probably the best offensive rebounding guard) and one of the best passers ever at the SG position.
Awards- All-NBA second team, 6th in MVP voting and all-star in '91. 5-time all-nba, 10-time all-star, all-nba first team in '92 and 2nd in MVP voting in '92.
Statss- 21.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 6 apg, 2.8 TO, 1.8 spg, 48.2 FG%, 56.3 TS%, 34.8 mpg

PG Terry Porter- Excellent shooter, solid playmaker, good pick and roll player, a solid defender for his position and capable of playing off the ball like a 2 guard. The best comparison I've heard is the Chauncey Billups of the early 90's.
Awards- all-star and 9th in MVP voting in '91 and a 2-time all-star overall.
Stats- 17 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 8 apg, 2.3 TO, 2 spg, 51.5 FG%, 63.2 TS%, 32.9 mpg

SF Jerome Kersey- A big and athletic forward ideal for the Blazers running game. He was also a solid rebounder. Not the best shooter, though he hit some mid-range shots. He averaged 21/8 in the '90 playoffs and 18/7 in the '91 playoffs.

Stats- 14.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 3.1 apg, 1.4 spg, 1 bpg, 2 TO, 47.8 FG%, 52.6 TS%, 32.3 mpg

PF Buck Williams- One of the best defensive players at the time, a strong rebounder and a capable inside scorer.
Awards- All-defensive 1st team in '91, all-nba 2nd in team in 1983, 5 all-nba defensive teams, 1982 rookie of the year, 3-time all-star
Stats- 11.7 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.7 TO, 60.2 FG%, 63.9 TS%, 32.3 mpg

C Kevin Duckworth- One of the more skilled offensive big men with a very good post game, great size and a good touch around the rim and on short jumpers.

Awards- all-star in '91, 2-time all-star overall and 1988 NBA most improved player

Stats-15.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.1 apg, 2.3 TO, 48.1 FG%, 52.5 TS%, 31 mpg

Forward Clifford Robinson- Versatile player at 6'10" who at different points played all 3 frontcourt positions. Excellent defender who fit into the Blazers transition game and he could shoot for a big man. Averaged 15.5 ppg on 50% shooting in the 11 games he started that year and 2 years later, he averaged 19 ppg in the first season he played 30 mpg in.

Awards- 1993 Sixth Man Of The Year, 1994 all-star, 2-time all-defensive second team

Stats- 11.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.6 TO, 1 spg, 46.3 FG%, 50.7 TS%, 23.7 mpg

Guard Danny Ainge- Excellent shooter, solid passer and a good leader who always played hard. Brought championship experience with him. He was coming off an 18/4/6 season in Sacramento.

Awards- 1988 all-star

Stats- 11.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 3.6 apg, 1.3 TO, 47.2 FG%, 57.4 TS%, 21.4 mpg

And how about the '90 team that got to the finals? Drexler didn't lead the Blazers in scoring during any of the 1st 3 rounds to get to the finals.

In the 1st round, Porter led them at 21 ppg in their 1st round sweep of the Mavs. Kersey was 2nd at 20.3 ppg and Drexler was a distant 3rd at 16 ppg(on 36.8%), while Buck Williams was close behind at 14.7 ppg.

In their 7 game series with a young and talented Spur team, Porter was the one who came up big. He led the Blazers in scoring again at 23.3 ppg, while Kersey was 2nd again at 21.3 ppg, and Drexler was just behind at 21.1 ppg(on 40.3% shooting).

In their 6 game victory over the Suns in the conference finals, Kersey led them at 21.5 ppg, Drexler was 2nd at 20.2 ppg(on 43.6%) and Porter was 3rd at 18.5 ppg.

Porter was also the guy who seemed to take most of the big shots.

Even in '92 when Drexler had his best season and the Blazers relied on him a bit more, Porter was the one who came up the biggest in the WCF destroying Stockton. He also averaged 26 ppg and 8.3 apg on shooting % of 55/53/85. He made 18/34 threes in the series. Clyde averaged 23.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 7.7 apg in the series on shooting % of 47/31/80.

Clyde's Blazers did lose to some damn good teams in the '90 Pistons who were the defending champs, had a variety of scoring options, the league's best defense, the league's most physical team and they were a tremendous rebounding team. And despite being favored and probably more talented than the '91 Lakers, that's still a damn good team with the league's 2nd best player, another star in Worthy, a very deep frontcourt with defenders and 4 post options including Magic and Worthy in addition to 2 perimeter threats in Byron Scott and Terry Teagle. They were also arguably more talented than the '92 Bulls, but I definitely can't blame a team for losing to them. They had the man who imo, is probably the best player ever in his prime, the game's best small forward Scottie Pippen who was coming into his prime, and he had done a terrific job in the point forward role all season in addition to being arguably the best perimeter defender not named Jordan, and a 21 ppg scorer himself. Then they had Horace Grant, a standout defender and double/double power forward who did everything well except create his own shot. But he hit mid-range jumpers and finished strong, which is all you needed with Jordan and Pippen. And some pretty solid role players in BJ Armstrong, Bill Cartwright, John Paxson and Will Perdue.

But those are only excuses for the Blazers not getting farther than they did, it still doesn't mean they overachieved, because they didn't. And I'm being kinder than a lot would be for a team that had championship expectations not winning 3 straight years in a row.

And look at some of the other talented teams Clyde had that underachieved. No way should his '89 Blazers have finished 39-43. Drexler was in his prime. They had Terry Porter in his prime, one of the league's most skilled offensive big men Kevin Duckworth, Kersey and a team similar to their '90 team.

They went 53-29 in '88, but lost in the 1st round to Utah with Drexler shooting 39% in the series. Utah was an excellent defensive team, but I'm giving Drexler an awful lot of excuses for a superstar in his prime. You think Wade gets cut this much slack?

His '93 Blazers went 21-12 without him to finish at 51-31, but lost in the 1st round to a Spurs team that went 49-33. And this Blazer team not only returned basically the same team they had in '92 when they went to the finals, but added a very talented guard in Rod Strickland.

In '94, they still had the very talented guard rotation of Drexler, Porter and Strickland and some talented frontcourt players including all-star Cliff Robinson who led them in scoring at 20 ppg and was a fine defensive player. They finished 47-35 and once again had a winning record without Drexler at 8-6. They lost in the 1st round to the Rockets, excusable considering they were the champs, and Hakeem murdered them like he was doing to every team at the time, but they should have won more games in the 1st place.

Clyde consistently played on talented teams that either did contend, or should have, including his time as a Rocket whether it was the '95 championship team, or the big 3 team in '97 when Barkley joined the team.

[RRR3]

Blech Clifford Robinson and Duckworth were shitty rebounders based on those stats

[Linspired]

Someone needs to look at how stacked those Blazers teams were before making dumb comments.

09 Wade against MJ in the Finals would have been legendary and he certainly would have not been sonned in a legendary fashion.

MJ or scottie would shut down wade.

[StateOfMind12]

I'm surprised as people saying Drexler was a better passer. Wade is a GREAT passer but people never tend to notice it. This might be a really dumb argument to use but did people watch him in the skills challenge? He did those passing drills with relative ease and it shows with his career average of 6.5 APG.

Drexler was LeBron-lite to be quite honest. Drexler was kind of like LeBron without the handles.

Drexler was the type of player that had to look down in order to dribble so he couldn't create off the dribble or break down players off the dribble like Wade could and that is the ultimate separation and the ultimate reason why Wade is better because they are close at everything else.

If Wade were to some reason call it a career tomorrow, I would have Wade above Drexler in my all-time list. Wade may not have as many good seasons as Drexler did but Wade peaked much higher and I believe the separation between peak more than makes up the 2-3 extra seasons Drexler may have had over Wade.

[Smoke117]

Serious? Dwyane Wade and quite easily. Drexler had little to no game in a half court set. He was lucky to play in those up tempo offense's in his prime.

[WockaVodka]

If you think Wade led that team to the Finals than not sure what you witnessed 6 years ago. A fellow by the name of Shaq was right there with him.

Wade was still the one who led them there though.

The answer to the question is easily Wade. 2009 Wade was arguably the greatest season by a perimeter player not named Jordan.

[Legends66NBA7]

09 Wade against MJ in the Finals would have been legendary and he certainly would have not been sonned in a legendary fashion.

Nah, he would have gotten sonned like the rest of them.

Infact, it wouldn't have been that legendary either, IMO. Only on paper, but the results would have shown Wade didn't belong on the same floor, just like Jordan did to Drexler in 92.

[TerranOP]

If you think Wade led that team to the Finals than not sure what you witnessed 6 years ago. A fellow by the name of Shaq was right there with him.

Did YOU not watch those playoffs?

Shaq averaged 18/10 in those playoffs. Wade averaged 28/6/6. Wade was clearly the leader of that team. Shaq couldn't even play 35 minutes. You're saying the team's leader played less than 35 minutes a game in the PLAYOFFS?

Give me a break.