SF Comparison: 2014 vs. 1990

[3ball]

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Starting SF's with Minimum 15.0 PER:


[COLOR="White"]..[/COLOR]2014[COLOR="White"].................................[/COLOR]1990

Lebron James*...................... Larry Bird*
Kevin Durant*....................... Dominique Wilkins*
Carmelo Anthony*................. Scottie Pippen*
Kawhi Leonard...................... James Worthy*
Gordon Hayward................... Chris Mullin*
Paul Pierce*......................... Bernard King*
Trevor Ariza......................... Alex English*
Andre Iguodala..................... Adrian Dantley*
Nicholas Batum..................... Derrick McKey
Luol Deng............................ Reggie Lewis
Josh Smith........................... Orlando Woolridge
Chandler Parsons.................. Mark Aguirre
Rudy Gay............................ Jerome Kersey or DPOY SF Dennis Rodman

HOF (*)
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[dubeta]

Wow, sensational thread but LeBron >> Jordan so your argument is invalid

[HylianNightmare]

Where's lebron? Jr Smith? ?

[3ball]

Where's lebron? Jr Smith? ?

I went by positional listings in bballref.

Lebron and Melo started at PF most of the year, so they were listed as PF's..

If we were going to do a comparison of bigs instead, we'd see that the 2014 bigs match up reasonably well depth-wise, but have a clear deficit to the 1990 bigs in offensive skill and scoring production - today's game produces a lot of non-shot-creating bigs whose only job is to dunk/finish plays and move their feet well defensively, so the 2014 bigs need the extra boost from Lebron and Melo tbh.
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[3ball]

I'm surprised the SG Comparison thread has more comments, because even though the 1990 advantage at SG is significant, it's the SF's where 1990 has an absolutely mammoth advantage - 8 HOF'ers in their prime or very close to it.

[3ball]

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Starting SF's with Minimum 15.0 PER (positions based on bballref):


(lists not ranked in any kind of order - only loosely matched up player-to-player for easier comparison)


[COLOR="White"]..[/COLOR]2014[COLOR="White"].................................[/COLOR]1990

Kevin Durant.................... Larry Bird*
Paul George..................... Dominique Wilkins*
Kawhi Leonard................. James Worthy*
Nicholas Batum................ Scottie Pippen*
Gordon Hayward.............. Chris Mullin*
Rudy Gay........................ Bernard King*
Trevor Ariza.................... Alex English*
Andre Iguodala................ Adrian Dantley*
JR Smith......................... Derrick McKey
Luol Deng....................... Reggie Lewis
Josh Smith...................... Orlando Woolridge
Chandler Parsons............. Mark Aguirre
Shawn Marion.................. Jerome Kersey


The first eight SF's listed in the 1990 column are HOF (*).
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Honestly, I don't see one guy from 2014 that I'd take over 1990.

[yungtyrekeevans]

Honestly, I don't see one guy from 2014 that I'd take over 1990.

dats cuz u setting the match ups. aint nobody consider bron a damn PF.

bron>bird
durant>nique
george>worthy

[oarabbus]

Honestly, I don't see one guy from 2014 that I'd take over 1990.

It's disingenuous to not include Carmelo and Lebron honestly. And I'd take LeBron and KD over pretty much everyone in 1990, and Carmelo over most.

May not be popular around here but I think KD is so much better than Pippen it isn't remotely close. Sure Pippen may be the "greater" player due to rings and accolades, but he dreams he could have ever been close to the player KD is. Let's be real LeBron and KD would win too many rings playing with the GOAT.

Bird is the only 1990s guy I take over Bron and KD.

[yungtyrekeevans]

It's disingenuous to not include Carmelo and Lebron honestly. And I'd take LeBron and KD over pretty much everyone in 1990, and Carmelo over most.

May not be popular around here but I think KD is so much better than Pippen and it isn't remotely close. Bird is the only 1990s guy I take over Bron and KD.

1990 bird ain't no joke, but he aint touchin bron or kd last year.

[navy]

It's disingenuous

As is everything this guy post.

Par for the course.

[3ball]

dats cuz u setting the match ups. aint nobody consider bron a damn PF.

bron>bird
durant>nique
george>worthy

Okay, so Lebron started at PF all year, but now when it suits a lebron fan, he is no longer a PF..

If we are giving positions to anyone we want, I'll make Barkely a SF... or Kemp a SF..

Both eras can play those kinds of games... But the positions are based on the position that player played throughout the year according to bballref...

[yungtyrekeevans]

Okay, so Lebron started at PF all year, but now when it suits a lebron fan, he is no longer a PF..

If we are giving positions to anyone we want, I'll make Barkely a SF... or Kemp a SF..

Both eras can play those kinds of games... But the positions are based on the position that player played throughout the year according to bballref...

u tell ppl dat brons a pf and they gonna tell u dat u lost ya damn mind.

carmelo a pf too? u aint all there in da head bruh.

[3ball]

It's disingenuous to not include Carmelo and Lebron honestly. And I'd take LeBron and KD over pretty much everyone in 1990, and Carmelo over most.

Bird is the only 1990s guy I take over Bron and KD.

It's not disingenuous - that is the position he played all year... these lists are based on the positions listed in bballref... you want me to break the rules just for Lebron???... Why am I not surprised?

It's disingenuous for you to want Lebron to be a PF when it suits you, and then have him be a SF when it doesn't.

I could arbitrarily move Barkely and Malone to SF too, but that isn't where they played... And the 1990 PF's would be fine without them too.

[3ball]

u tell ppl dat brons a pf and they gonna tell u dat u lost ya damn mind.

carmelo a pf too? u aint all there in da head bruh.

this is the position they played all year!!!!...

it's based on bballref's positions.

everyone knows that the league has gotten smaller and these guys play PF now... it's just the way it is... weak.. ahem.. SMALL ball you guys call it i believe.

[oarabbus]

It's not disingenuous - that is the position he played all year... these lists are based on the positions listed in bballref... you want me to break the rules just for Lebron???... Why am I not surprised?

It's disingenuous for you to want Lebron to be a PF when it suits you, and then have him be a SF when it doesn't.

I could arbitrarily move Barkely and Malone to SF too, but that isn't where they played... And the 1990 PF's would be fine without them too.

Take a look at how Barkley and Malone played, then how LeBron and Durant play. I also call Duncan a C, rather than a PF, even though he's listed according to Bball ref as a PF.

Because he plays like a C, even when he's listed as PF next to Splitter.