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Re: 20 greatest players
Deke, you replaced:
David Robinson, Moses Malone, Bob Pettit, Charles Barkely, and Jerry West
with
Patrick Ewing, Wes Unseld, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton, and Isiah Thomas
Not an improvement. Robinson was clearly better than Ewing according to all contemporary observers (All-NBA teams, etc) both defensively and offensively. Much as I love Wes, he was an undersized banger with no offensive game and doesn't compare to Moses Malone.
Pettit and Barkley are both bigs, v. the smalls you replaced them with. Pettit was 1st team All-NBA every year he was in the league except his final one, MVP, beat the Russell Celtics, was the 3rd greatest rebounder per game in NBA history, averaged about 25 ppg for his career, and got to the line more than Michael Jordan. Barkley is shakier with his bad defense and party hardy attitude but still one of the greatest and most efficient scorers in NBA history and a great rebounder as well.
Payton may make it due to his defense though his offense isn't up to the above players or Jerry West who is in Payton's league defensively as well, Isiah is over his head in this company, he was never MVP or close, while he led a balanced championship team to two titles, he didn't carry it like Pettit did the Hawks, and he isn't a great scorer (good volume, average efficiency) or defender (again, good, but Dumars was the stopper). As for Kobe, he is approaching this level if he gets a ring as the main option or plays enough more years to start appearing at the top of all-time career stats, I'd say he is probably in the 18-25 range now with a good chance of moving up.
As for your three guard choices v. Jerry West, West was comparable defensively with Payton and Kobe and better than Isiah, close to Payton and Isiah as a playmaker maybe better than Payton when you take the much lower assist percentages into account (Kobe plays wing, West was mainly a PG so not completely fair) and West had a great clutch reputation, led his team to numerous finals (not winning until Russell retires)and was a monster playoff performer. Still a step up from Kobe, Isiah, and Payton.
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