Send in the Clones! (of the best players ever)

I was all set with today’s post and then I read Prof. Berri’s piece for the day (see here).

The piece poses the question:

“Who would win, five prime Dennis Rodmans vs. five prime Kobe Bryants?”

Dave answered:

“As for Rodman vs. Kobe… people often argue that a team of Rodmans (or a team of just Ben Wallace, or a team of Bieidrins) wouldn’t be very good since no one can score. That might be true, but a team a team of just Kobe or just Iverson wouldn’t be too good either. After all, Kobe can’t guard a center and he can’t rebound as well either. As for a team of Kobe vs. a team of Rodman… well, Rodman can’t bring the ball up the court. So that is a problem. He also isn’t much of a scorer. But he would tend to dominate the boards, which might be good since he would miss a lot of shots. On the other hand, Kobe could bring the ball up the court and get his shot off. But he better make it, since he won’t get many second shots. Put it all together…. I think I take Kobe. Rodman is going to lose too many possessions before he ever takes a shot.”

This is a well reasoned response and it inspired a lively discussion on who the best clone team ever would be.

Some chose Magic and this would be good. Some chose Gasol or Odom (which would either break the flop-o-meter or finally provide Bruce Jenner with enough son-in laws). Garnett, Bird,Barkley and Jordan were also thrown in. This naturally hit my wheelhouse like a runaway train.

So we now interrupt you’re regularly scheduled blog post for my response.

If I were building a team and I only got to choose one player to clone over and over, who would I choose? He’d have to be able to play multiple positions. He would need to score efficiently and handle the ball. He would have to be an insane producer of wins. There are a few names that pop to mind and I could hazard a guess but we don’t roll like that here. We’re going to try science.

The Best Players of all Time

I’ve been saving this table for a rainy day. This is my ultimate ranking of the best 30 players in the NBA since the merger (sorry Kareem,Wilt,Russell etc…). I use Wins Produced, Wins over Replacement Player and the per 48 equivalents (see here for explanations) and rank players accordingly. This awesome table looks like this:





So the top five is a bit surprising as Jordan is left out (he’s probably out golfing or playing baseball ;-)). The top five is the natural place to chose our modern day Jango Fett. Magic seems the obvious choice except for the fact that he played no defense. Given my criteria (flexibility, size, shooting, all around game), Team Clone is going with the college center from Auburn who was by all accounts the best player on the 1992 Dream Team.

Barkley can do all five positions offensively and defensively, dominate the boards and score. The help defense would be good, the poker and the golf fivesomes will be legendary.

Shut up and Jam (do yourself a favor and click here)

and here

Chaos Dunk, bitches.