I'm not sure I'd trade this #1 pick for a guy like Love, assuming Embiid is healthy. Given the choice between a franchise center and a guy that plays no defense and is, at best, the second-best player on a legitimate contender, I'm taking the franchise center. Love is in the James Harden category for me.
I hate that my first two posts in this thread are attacking Love and defending Griffin, again, but his shooting percentage from 10-16 feet has gone from under 30% as a rookie to almost exactly 40% now, and from 16 feet out to 3 it's gone from 33.5% to 37.2% this year. He actually made 27% of his 3s this season, up a full 10% from last year. He's more skilled than people think IMO
LeBron Durant Westbrook Griffin Paul Parker George Curry Love Drummond Cousins Harden Howard Lillard Aldridge Davis Wall Irving Noah May be a few more I'm not thinking of.
FT shooting has improved too. He actually has a post move or two. He's most certainly more valuable than a number one pick. As is Westbrook.
What makes answering this question so difficult (and interesting, sorry IP) is the fact that it depends on a lot of other hypotheticals. Is Embiid healthy? Can Rose still be the same guy (or close to it)? Could a different coach than Brooks potentially convince Westbrook to play smarter? How quick/athletic is Jabari Parker when he's actually in shape? If Embiid is healthy, I think my list is KidB's first five plus maybe Rose. Without knowing any more about his knees, Rose would be right on the line. If Tellem won't share Embiid's medical records with me, my list expands to include probably everyone on KidB's list plus Rose and Paul George. George is probably Wiggins' best comp anyway.
He's definitely overrated. I feel like people also doubled down on Kobe after The Decision because it was an easy way to hate on LeBron. "Even if LeBron's on a great team now, Kobe has 5 rings, so Kobe's better," etc.
Interesting list. I disagree with a few, but can't expound at the present moment. Kinda gotta run, but will elaborate at a later time. Teaser: Howard? You sure his best days aren't a diminishing speck in the rearview? Cousins? You sure you wanna a lunatic over Embiid, who could end up being better, and is much less crazy? Parker? I love Tony Parker...but how many more years is he gonna be at his best? Drummond.....interesting pick. Hadn't really thought of him. More to come.
I did think about it. Part of the reason I left him off was because I thought he was older than he is. He'd be on my second list with George, etc. but I wouldn't take him over a healthy Embiid. I did read what Simmons said about Embiid, and agree with that second paragraph, despite Simmons' very very questionable scouting history.
Kobe has never at any point in his career been inarguably the best player in the league. There isn't even one season you can point to and say "yeah, Kobe was definitely the best player in the league that year." If you don't believe me, try it out. It's an interesting way of thinking about things, and the question, when posed to a dude who likes Kobe a little bit too much, will result in a stuttered backtracking response.
Yeah, I put the Simmons quote because I thought what he said about his movement and lack of any apparent effects from the injury were interesting. Whether a good scout or a terrible scout, I trust his assessment that Embiid appeared to be completely injury free.
The 5 rings part is the worst, and is the best example of the limitations in using team accomplishments as a barometer for judging individual players. You want to argue Federer is the best tennis player ever? Mention his 17 slams. It's fair game. You want to argue that Kobe is the best basketball player ever? Convince me of how much worse his teams would have been without him. And good luck with that.
