All-time NBA Players #15 - #11. The KD Tier

all-time greats with slightly odd careers

Eric Apricot says: This is an original series written by a friend of DubNationHQ.com. This analyzes and ranks the Top 75ish NBA players of all time. Some of you will be angered, some will think you can do better, but hopefully everyone can find something to enjoy in this journey appreciating the great historical achievements by past and present players.

• The Top 75ish NBA Players series index with full details on the ranking process

We intend for the series pieces to come out each week, covering approximately 10 players per piece.

15 Dr J (381 BEAST points)

Honors

• NBA Champion (25)

• 3x NBA runner up (15)

• 2x ABA Champion (40)

• ABA Runner up (3)

• NBA MVP (20)

• NBA MVP runner up points (4)

• 3x ABA MVPs (60)

• threepeat ABA MVP (20)

• 2x ABA playoffs MVP (30)

• 3x ABA scoring champion (15)

• 7x All NBA (5x First Team) (19)

• 5x All ABA (5)

• All Star NBA (11)

• All ABA defense (1)

Individual career stats

• top ten points (20)

• top 15 steals (10)

• top 30 blocks (3)

• top 30 points per game regular season (1)

• top 30 points per game playoffs (2)

• top 20 points per game Finals (3)

• top 20 steals per game regular season (2)

• top 5 steals per game Finals (6)

• top 10 blocks per game Finals (5)

• top 30 points in Finals (3)

• Top 10 blocks Finals (10)

• top 20 total steals in Finals (5)

• top 20 TS% Finals (10)

• top 20 Win Shares regular season (5)

• top 10 Win Shares playoffs (25)

Bonus points

• Third best playoff record (12-1 almost fo’fo’fo’) (3)

Did you know that Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette a.k.a David Diggs in the first half of Hamilton was sometimes known as “The Hero of the Two Worlds” for his role in not one, but two revolutions? Well that’s basically Dr J in my head. The face of the ABA, bringing style and panache to basketball at a time when the NBA was teetering, then saving the NBA by bringing that style and panache to basketball over there.

Not really sure what to say other than this fly man could fly, man. Rings and MVPs in both leagues, plenty of all time stats, and a wee bonus for almost going undefeated in the NBA playoffs. ABA achievements score slightly lower than NBA ones in our beast metric simply because there were fewer teams and talent was more diluted across two leagues (so it’s treated more akin to the early NBA era). But it still counts for quite a lot and if there were any doubt he was one of the faces of the NBA as soon as he stepped foot in the league, unlike some of the other ABA stars.

Without further ado here’s a great documentary that does more than could ever be done in a few paras to capture one of the all time GOATs.

For most lists people talk about the top 10 being the cut-off. But in our Beast metric the real cut-off feels like it’s here - quite a big distance from 15 to 16, whereas as you will see it’s pretty bunched up around the top ten mark. So we’re going go long on this piece and try to make it up to the top 5.

14 Scottie Pippen (427 BEAST points)

Honors

• 6x Champion (150)

• 2x threepeats (60)

• MVP runner up points (4)

• 7x All NBA (3x First Team)

• 10x All Defense (20)

• All Star (7)

• Steals season leader (2)

• 2x Olympic Golds (6)

Individual career stats

• top 30 total assists (3)

• top 10 in steals (15)

• top 20 steals per game regular season (2)

• top 20 steals per game playoffs (3)

• top ten steals per game Finals (5)

• top 30 points in Finals (3)

• top ten assists Finals (10)

• Top 5 steals in finals (15)

• top 10 blocks Finals (10)

• top 20 rebounds in Finals (5)

• top 20 threes Finals (5)

• Bonus for all 6 Finals categories (50)

• top 50 Win Shares regular season (2)

• top 20 Win Shares playoffs (20)

Bonus points

• Second best regular season record 72 wins + ring (10)

• Third best regular season record 69-13 (3)

Should Pippen be this high up when he’s generally viewed as the best sidekick of all time? Well, Beast views basketball as a team game because… well it is. So it really matters if you’re a great teammate. It’s not a list of who would win a one-on-one game in the park.

I’d argue Pip gets short-changed in the traditional narratives. Jordan never won anything without him and together they were such a devastating combo. Pippen was one of the all-time perimeter defenders, and remember Beast loves defense because it’s half the game.

Pippen is in the Finals leader charts for every single statistical category, and the top 20 for playoff Win Shares showing when it counted he could absolutely be counted on. He was a excellent playmaker for others too.

On his own he did have a very good season just after Jordan retired the first time, taking the Bulls pretty close again. By the time he left Chicago on Jordan’s second retirement he was ageing out of his prime though his Blazers almost took down the Lakers.

The all-time what-if of whether they could have won a fourth consecutive ring, and 7th overall, if the Bulls ownership hadn’t broken the team up does rely on the assumption Pippen’s body would have held up. He did play every game in his lone year in Houston, and other than his scoring the rest of his statistical impact was pretty much the same. So yeah, Bulls fans probably were jobbed on that one.

13 Hakeem Olajuwon (459 BEAST points)

Honors

• 2x Champion (60)

• Repeat (15)

• Runner up (5)

• 2x Finals MVP (40)

• MVP (25)

• MVP runner-up points (9)

• 12 x All NBA (6x First Team) (30)

• All Star (12)

• 2x DPOYs (10)

• MVP + DPOY bonus (25)

• 9x All Defense (18)

• 2x rebounding season leader (4)

• 3x blocks season leader (6)

• Olympic Gold (3)

• NCAA Final Four MVP (1)

Individual career stats

• top 20 total points (15)

• top 15 total rebounds (5)

• top total blocks (25)

• top 10 total steals (15)

• Bonus for for 4 categories (25)

• Top 5 blocks Finals (15)

• top 20 total steals in Finals (5)

• top 30 rebounds per game regular season (1)

• top 20 rebounds per game Finals (3)

• top 20 points per game playoffs (3)

• top 10 points per game Finals (5)

• top 5 blocks per game regular season (5)

• Top blocks per game playoffs (15)

• Top blocks per game Finals (15)

• top 10 steals per game Finals (5)

• top 50 TS% playoffs (3)

• top 30 TS% Finals (5)

• top 30 Win Shares regular season (3)

• top 20 Win Shares playoffs (20)

Bonus points

• top playoff single game blocks (5)

• Quadruple Double (3)

Hakeem wasn’t just the leader of the “in-between” Jordan retirements champs. He was one of the all-time great big men, and those two rings proved that he was the best of his era which included David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, and a young Shaq, all of whom he took down as the lone star on his team. As covered earlier he kind of tormented Chuck too, for which I think he should get a bonus but beast does not.

Here’s a fun game to play. Who was the second best player on the 1994 Rockets? Vernon Maxwell, prime hater of Utah? Otis Thorpe?? Kenny Smith?? Rookie Sam Cassell? Big Shot Bob? Hm, maybe he should get double ring points actually for that one. In truth his biggest helper might have been Game 7 John Starks.

Anyway, yeah, no doubt Hakeem was the king of H-Town. As for Beast he’s gathering his points for those rings, being one of the select few who’s managed a MVP and DPOY double, and by stuffing multiple stats categories including being the all-time leader for blocks (which he does get a little help for by the fact they were only counted from the end of Bill Russell’s career). Also he has his own all-time move, the Dream Shake, which was totally great and made everyone else look stooopid.

*12 - Kevin Durant (479 BEAST points)

Honors

• 2x Champion (60)

• Repeat (15)

• 2x runner up (10)

• 2x Finals MVPs (40)

• 3x consecutive Finals (5)

• MVP (25)

• MVP runner up points (17)

• 11x All NBA (6x First Team) (28)

• All Star (15)

• 4x scoring champion (20)

• 4x Olympic Golds (12)

• Olympics MVP (5)

• Olympics All Tournament First Team (3)

• FIBA World Cup Gold (1)

• FIBA World Cup MVP (1)

• FIBA World Cup All Tournament Team (1)

• Rookie of the Year (1)

• consensus NCAA player of the year (2)

Individual career stats

• top 10 total points (20)

• top 15 total threes (10)

• top 10 threes Finals (10)

• top 20 blocks Finals (5)

• top 10 points per game regular season (3)

• top 5 points per game playoffs (10)

• top 5 in points per game Finals (10)

• top 30 threes per game regular season (1)

• top 30 threes per game playoffs (2)

• top 5 threes per game Finals (10)

• top 20 blocks per game Finals (3)

• top 10 TS% regular season (10)

• top 10 TS% playoffs (15)

• top TS% Finals (25)

• top 20 Win Shares playoffs (20)

• top 20 Win Shares regular season (5)

• top 20 RAPM (10)

Bonus points

• Best playoff record 16-1 (10)

• most Olympic Golds (5)

• top scorer US national team (5)

• most points in Olympic Final pro era (3)

• 50-40-90 club at 25ppg+ (15)

• 50-40-90 club at 25ppg+ (under 60 games) (10)

• 50 point game playoffs (first round) (1)

My favorite nickname for KD remains the Slim Reaper. It just encapsulates the absolute death that this skinny not-7-foot wing with the skills of a guard destroys opponents with. Everyone will have their own opinion on him but for me I just love watching him play, whether it was with the Warriors as a major part of what to me was the most talent ever put on an NBA court together, or the Olympics where he ruled the roost for 4 gold medals, or with some other bizarrely chosen team where you just think, what d’ya go there for (cough *Phoenix* cough)?? He’s the same guy wherever he goes, but also able to adapt to whatever is needed to win when he’s bought in and I love that. If it was a one-on-one game in the park he might have a legit case for number 1.

His MVP year with the Thunder might have been the first time in half a decade where it was actually possible to imagine someone other than Lebron being the best player in the league.

As a Warriors fan I wish he could have gotten past whatever stupid online noise, and then team weirdness, made him want to leave because that was basketball nirvana. But I do get it. At least we got three prime years out of one of the all-time greats on one of the all-time great teams, and at least one of the all-time great Finals series performances.

That terrible Achilles injury robbed him of a threepeat with the Warriors, but his comeback from that was unprecedented. When he finally did make it back on the court it was like he never left. He may well have won that elusive third (and only non-Warrior) ring if his shoe hadn’t clipped the line in that epic face-off with Giannis.

I’m just grateful for his bravery in picking the Warriors in the first place, facing down the loser mentality gripping too much of the NBA fanbase that suggests the temerity of great players using their own power to team up is betrayal whereas if their owners trade them that’s all gravy. As a counterpoint the biggest sport in the world outside the USA, soccer, thrives on superteams and an arms race of competition to gather the most talent.

Anyway our beast loves all his accolades, statistical achievements (advanced and otherwise), contribution to one of the all-time teams, crazy efficiency (the top true-shooting % of all time in the NBA Finals!), and international exploits as the leading US male basketball Olympian.

On that last point, I know some may question the scoring system for international feats. But the Olympics really is the cream of the crop brought together, so at the very least winning a medal as a US Olympian once every four years is equivalent to being an All NBA selection. And when you’re consistently one of, if not the best, player on teams featuring all your peers including Kobe and Lebron, that should count for something.

When you add on a decade-plus of being the leading Team USA player at a time when the international competition is at it’s stiffest I’d argue you deserve a bit of a boost. At least one of those 4 Golds could have gone the way of Lebron and co in 2004 given they had to face down Spain at their best, France, and Serbia over the years as well as plenty of others in the field. That dominance isn’t a given anymore, as we saw this summer especially with some of the advantages international teams tend to have in terms of chemistry built over many years playing together and familiarity with FIBA rules.

And sure, the World Cup doesn’t quite have the same cache and so younger/ less starry NBA players tend to be selected, but also as a result the US is much more likely to get done over there. And prior to winning all those Olympic Golds, KD did lead the US to their first World Cup Gold since 1994, which was a thing.

So all that’s to say winning feats like these should get some form of recognition in trying to determine who are the best basketball players of all time.

One final point - remember this is a cumulative ranking system so one more ring would see him easily in the top 10. Maybe someone should send him this mad online blog ranking system. I hear the Warriors are looking for a true star to put them over the top again.

11 Shaq (516 BEAST points)

Honors

• 4x Champion (120)

• threepeat (30)

• 2x Runner-up (10)

• 3x Finals MVP (60)

• MVP (25)

• MVP runner-up points (20)

• 14x All NBA (8 x First Team) (36)

• 3x All Defense (6)

• All Star (15)

• 2x scoring champion (10)

• Rookie of the Year (1)

• 1x Olympic Gold (3)

• FIBA World Cup (1)

• FIBA World Cup MVP (1)

• FIBA World Cup All-Tournament Team (1)

Individual career stats

• top ten scoring (20)

• top 15 rebounds (10)

• top ten blocks (15)

• top 30 points per game regular season (1)

• top 30 points per game playoffs (2)

• top 5 in points per game Finals (10)

• top ten rebounds per game Finals (5)

• top 20 blocks per game regular season (2)

• top 20 blocks per game playoffs (3)

• top 10 blocks per game Finals (5)

• top 20 points in Finals (5)

• top 10 rebounds Finals (10)

• Top 5 blocks Finals (15)

• top 50 TS% regular season (1)

• top 50 TS% playoffs (3)

• top 10 TS% Finals (15)

• 20 Win Shares regular season (5)

• top 10 Win Shares playoffs (25)

• top 20 RAPM (10)

Bonus points

• 15-1 playoff record (5)

• 60 point game (1)

• 4th and 6th most points per game in a Finals series (9)

Ok this is where things get tricky. List out your top 10 and you start finding there are too many players. In our beast’s case Shaq gets very narrowly squeezed out but it’s so close you’re really looking at a top 11, or 12 accounting for any final additions to KD’s tally.

Anyway Shaq was completely dominant and unstoppable in his prime. He’s scoring beast points across the board - rings, stats, MVPs, advanced stats. Interestingly he does get a little short-changed by having made only 3 all defense teams which did surprise me. But nonetheless the leader of the threepeat Lakers (sorry Kobe), and Florida team champion/ finalist in his old age/ youth, gets his flowers here.

Could he have been higher? This is where I might have some sympathy with Kobe. I kind of feel he didn’t quite make the most of all his otherworldly talent. He was just so dominant if he’d had the consistency and longevity of a Tim Duncan he could definitely had had another ring or two somewhere. But that fun-loving personality, as opposed to boring stick-to-the-dayjob vibe, is what made him so much fun. God knows those Lakers were actually boring enough to watch on the court so at least the Big Aristotle gave us some entertainment.