Jason Thompson?

[mcsluggo]

back on topic...

i am perfectly happy giving a young, energetic, big, fairly coordinated, scrappy guy a little more time to screw his head on better and develop with the rest of this young team.

I'd like to see JT starting next year and return Landry to his sparkplug off the bench/immediate offense role. It would be nice to have a new bjax (so to speak) to cheer for--- i know there is talk of landry feeling dissed if this happens, but i LOVE that sparkplug player when it is well done.

 

[hammystyle]

I composed a list of all the good to great centers that Wilt played against at some point in his career.

Zelmo Beaty
Kareem Abdul Jabbar - HOF
Walt Bellamy - HOF
Wayne Embry
Darrall Imoff
Dan Issell
Sam Lacey
Bob Lanier - HOF
Clyde Lovellette - HOF
Willis Reed - HOF
Bill Russell - HOF
Nate Thurmand - HOF
Wes Unseld - HOF
Artis Gilmore

I think we can safely say that he had plenty of competition

Average height of those guys is 6'10" (all heights from basketball reference). Those are the best 13 guys he ever had to face. How big were the guards and forwards doubling down on him?

Take the Celtics, who owned him. In that 61-62 year they had Russell to match up with him at 6'10 220, then their next biggest players were Tommy Heinsohn as 6'7 218 and Tom Sanders at 6'6' 210. Part of the reason those 6'9 and 6'10 guys are in the HOF as centers is because they hardly had to face anyone even as big as them.

 

[Tetsujin]

Average height of those guys is 6'10" (all heights from basketball reference). Those are the best 13 guys he ever had to face. How big were the guards and forwards doubling down on him?

Take the Celtics, who owned him. In that 61-62 year they had Russell to match up with him at 6'10 220, then their next biggest players were Tommy Heinsohn as 6'7 218 and Tom Sanders at 6'6' 210. Part of the reason those 6'9 and 6'10 guys are in the HOF as centers is because they hardly had to face anyone even as big as them.

I think you're seriously underselling Bill Russell. The dude is quite simply the greatest defensive big of all time.

 

[fnordius]

So how does the Kings' pursuit of size affect our young PF? I honestly don't think he has shown to be our option as the starting PF, and I would assume that most would agree, so what exactly does his role become??

His size has nothing to do with anything, as far as I can see. His competition is Landry, who is 6'7.75" barefoot. I don't consider either one to be the ideal starting PF, but they can compete for the starting spot this year. A year from now, Dalembert and Landry will be at the ends of their contracts, and things will change. Maybe Whiteside will ne ready for significant minutes by then, or maybe not. But right now I see no reason to believe that JT's role will be much different than it was in March.

 

[Superman]

I think you're seriously underselling Bill Russell. The dude is quite simply the greatest defensive big of all time.

Didn't Bill Russell regularly own Wilt Chamberlain?

Edit: I guess that's not a fair characterization, but Russell's Celtics certainly owned Wilt's Sixers, and later Wilt's Lakers. I'm looking through the books right now, and the individual matchups were outrageous between these two. 142 games, tons of points and rebounds. Wow. I need a time machine.

 

[hammystyle]

I think you're seriously underselling Bill Russell. The dude is quite simply the greatest defensive big of all time.

I'm saying that Wilt Chamberlain was 7'0 275lb pounds and the best frontline he faced had a 6'10 220lb legend backed by two guys who are about the size of our PG.

Russell wouldn't be the best defensive big in the leaugue today if he only weighed 220 lbs.

 

[Chupacabra]

I'm saying that Wilt Chamberlain was 7'0 275lb pounds and the best frontline he faced had a 6'10 220lb legend backed by two guys who are about the size of our PG.

Russell wouldn't be the best defensive big in the leaugue today if he only weighed 220 lbs.

WHAT?! No way Wilt was 275lbs.

 

[fnordius]

WHAT?! No way Wilt was 275lbs.

That was his listed weight for years.

 

[Bricklayer]

WHAT?! No way Wilt was 275lbs.

Started out at about 240, but he was one of the biggest, and by biggest I mean most massive, centers of all time by the second half of his career. Which is why the numbnuts kids who occasionally try to say he couldn't play today are so amusing. He wouldn't average 50-20, but he would be one of the biggest strongest guys in the game here today. He'd have bounced Spencer around the court like a soggy...er...wuss.

Russel is another question. He was a skinny PF by today's standards. That's one of those classic era based anachronisms.

 

[bajaden]

WHAT?! No way Wilt was 275lbs.

Later in his career Wilt weighed a little over 300 pounds. As for this nonsense about matchups. No, Russell didn't own Wilt. Russell was the one that made Wilt work the hardest. Wilt also made life pretty miserable for Russell. The Celtics were just a better team at that time. It wasn't until Wilt went to the Lakers that he had a team around him that was good enough to win a championship. And all those centers that were dismissed because they didn't have to face anyone their own size, well, they had to face each other. Is anyone seriously telling me that Moses Malone wasn't a load to handle. Was Kareem chump change? Give me a break. As for Russell. He had the best defensive instincts of any big I've ever seen, and Wilt was pretty good.

 

[Sparky6string]

Average height of those guys is 6'10" (all heights from basketball reference). Those are the best 13 guys he ever had to face. How big were the guards and forwards doubling down on him?

Take the Celtics, who owned him. In that 61-62 year they had Russell to match up with him at 6'10 220, then their next biggest players were Tommy Heinsohn as 6'7 218 and Tom Sanders at 6'6' 210. Part of the reason those 6'9 and 6'10 guys are in the HOF as centers is because they hardly had to face anyone even as big as them.

It's not height that gets you into the HOF. You sure took a wrong turn when you looked at that list. That list has some of the best big men to ever play the game. That list shows Wilt started out against smaller weaker opposition but by the end was facing much larger and different opposition yet performed as well.