anyone who thinks a big man from 60's,70's,80's,90's,00's would dominate today.......

[LAZERUSS]

Rick Barry and Hakeem Olajuwon don't think the big man role has been diminished by rules and they both openly oppose such suggestions in interviews. They aren't stans or arguing in favor of past idols/gods. They've got pretty gifted minds and a firm handle on the game too.

Cousins at 24 ppg on 50% shooting is all I need to know.

Peak Wilt, KAJ, and Shaq easily blow those numbers out of the water...especially when you factor in the lack of competition at the center position.

And I don't want to hear any nonsense regarding defense today. Those three were, BY FAR, the most heavily-defended centers in NBA history.

[Smoke117]

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Al-Jefferson-2979/

Plus Al Jefferson = physically identical to Wayne Embry in size, ~ 6-8 270 with long arms and big hands, you know just another one of the helpless examples of "undersized" bigs Wilt was crushing that wouldn't even be able to make it in today's league where every big is a "7 footer"

Never thought I'd see that name brought up here...Wayne Embry.

[CavaliersFTW]

Never thought I'd see that name brought up here...Wayne Embry.

Where I work, Wayne Embry used to work as a board member. Everybody who worked with him/has met him who's still there talks about how unbelievably huge he was. They've come down to my floor just to show me pictures, it's one thing to see him next to other giants like Wilt, but totally incredible to see him standing next to some of us mere mortals. I found an article from the 1980's that said his hands spread 12 inches thumb to pinky... that's 2 inches wider than Kawhi's and unlike Kawhi his hands weren't skinny in fact he's the only player I'm aware of with hands that spread thumb to pinky wider than Wilt Chamberlains (who's hands spready "only" 11.5 inches)

Check out this video of Wayne, who had to see a recent player Noah Vonleh who got drafted who reportedly had hands bigger than his which sparked his curiosity. http://youtu.be/Ilc5ULVdhso?t=13s

Wayne in his playing days against Wilt


The ball almost disappears in his hands.

[ralph_i_el]

Ralph_i_el made some great points. He's the most unbiased of the poster's in this thread.

Having said that, I don't think he would disagree that past great centers would still dominate, just not as much. Rules changes are pretty much acknowledged as changing the game by pretty much everyone who is not a stan, or arguing in favor of a past idol/god.

However, if a young KAJ was in the 2015 Draft, hell yeah, I'm taking him number 1. Imagine the possibilities of building a modern team with him.

Wow

I wouldn't disagree at all.

[swagga]

So Al Jefferson can average 21.9ppg and 10.7rpg in today's NBA but you don't think Shaq, Hakeem, Kareem etc would dominate?

Strong argument right there.

with todays big man crop, prime shaq would avg 30/15/5/3

[DaRkJaWs]

with todays big man crop, prime shaq would avg 30/15/5/3

Lets keep it in the realm of believability here....Shaquille highest season average for rebounds was in his rookie year, at 13.9, when one could argue the crop of centers was at its strongest. As those centers got older shaqs rebounding did not get any better.

[j3lademaster]

Having said that, I don't think he would disagree that past great centers would still dominate, just not as much. Rules changes are pretty much acknowledged as changing the game by pretty much everyone who is not a stan, or arguing in favor of a past idol/god.

/Thread

[swagga]

Lets keep it in the realm of believability here....Shaquille highest season average for rebounds was in his rookie year, at 13.9, when one could argue the crop of centers was at its strongest. As those centers got older shaqs rebounding did not get any better.

in his prime shaq averaged >12 rebounds in a league with ewing/karl malone/olajuwon/zo/mutombo/duncan/garnett/drob/grant/oakley/ben wallace/rodman .. with a peak 13.9 rebounds per game.

Don't you think the drastic difference in competition almost guarantees 15 rpg ? (even with his lazy self .. we're not talking about a motivated shaq's whose rebounding rate is in the rodman/chamberlain/russell league)