Author Topic: Since 1980 (36 years) Which Celtics Bigs Were "Better" Then Horford?  (Read 10161 times)

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Offline colincb

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Basketball-Reference.com comparison

http://bkref.com/tiny/8guUy

1 Bird
2 KG
3 McHale
4 Walton
5 Parish
6 Horford

Bird started at PF for 5 years and played thereafter too when McHale sat. Someone mentioned Maxwell, but he was a SF. I had Walker in the comparison because i knew Bird would come out first, but Walker's numbers were far worse than anyone else. I will cherrypick in the case of Parish whose numbers were clearly better than Horford's until he hit age 41-43. Parish's extraordinary longevity hurts his stats, but looking at comparable periods Horford's not close offensively or defensively. Parish was a HOF lock for a reason, Horford's got zero shot of getting in.

Offline SHAQATTACK

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Cowans is one of my all time favorite Celtics .

Under sized  but nobody had more heart

Offline OHCeltic

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Russell

Offline Bobshot

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Hopefully, Horford's performance will be in the same ballpark as Parish, McHale, Bird, Walton, KG and Pierce.  I won't include Shaq, because he never really played in Boston. Jefferson didn't play long enough here. I would prefer to forget the Gaston era--the worst in Celtics history.

It won't be that easy for Al, because he doesn't have the same quality of bigs around him as the others. We'll see how much of a help Johnson is.  I'm not big on the rest. 

Offline slamtheking

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Name all the Celtics bigs since 1980 (36 years) who you believe were/are better NBA players than Al Horford. "Better" is very subjective, which hopefully make this an interesting question.


Mk's List
  • Kevin Garnett
  • Kevin McHale
  • Robert Parish

Horford is forth on my list. With a really special 4 year run, there is a chance he moves past Parish on my list.

Honorable Mentions
  • There is a case for Bill Walton. He won 2 rings, a league MVP, 6th man award (in 86 with the Cs), and a Finals MVP. The majority of his best years were not with the Cs. He only had one good  year as a Celtic. His career was much too short, only a 2 time All Star.
  • Cedric Maxwell feels like a Al Horford-light to me.
  • White Mamba!!! Just kidding of course.
  • Al Jefferson's case is mainly built on great stats from losing teams, MIN & UTA.
  • EDIT: Dino Radja had a productive 4 year run with the 90s Cs. Like a light version of Big Al, Dino was good stats on a bad team. Dino's 4 years with the Cs were his only in the NBA.
  • EDIT: I am legit embarrassed on omitting one of my favorite all-time Celtics Antoine Walker. Antoine was born a NBA generation too early. His hybrid/stretch-4 abilities were not appreciated during his time. If he could reign in his volume shooting ways, he would be the prototypical forward in today's game.
Did I miss anyone?

This says a little about both how exceptionally good Horford is and the dearth of talented Celtics big men (outside of KG) over the past 3 player generations (25 years since McHale and Parrish wore the green)

Mk
if Max is a big (and he was at least as good as Horford if not better) then Bird was also a big since Bird could switch between the 3 and 4 spot like Max.

I'd go with Bird, Mchale, Parish, KG while wearing the green.

if just talented at any time they played, not just with the C's, I'd include Walton, Shaq, Jermaine Oneal (Indy days primarily), Artis Gilmore (in his prime, absolutely better), Sheed.  probably missed a few (Dominique and Xavier Mcdaniel if considered bigs).

Offline BostonClamCrowdah

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Considering the amount of titles won without KM and KG, I would say Horford being high on the list is more of a result of having very few good bigs, other than those two obviously

Offline LilRip

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If it's Walker vs Horford, I'm fairly convinced Horford is a better player based on shooting %, shot selection, and defense.

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Offline mr. dee

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Brian Scalabrine, Greg Kite and Mikki Moore.

Offline Moranis

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Funny jambr380 the thing I remember about those C's teams is that only when Antoine stepped back and let Pierce become the leader and focal point did things really come together. Just different perspectives on the same events.

If you look at production and number Pierce was absolutely the engine behind the C's. He kept the offense afloat almost solo. Antoine's biggest contribution was opening up the floor for Pierce's attacks. I don't think that made up for his overall inefficiency but there is a case to be made if you wanted to there.

Antoine was 8th on the team in WS/48. He certainly was top 2 in role and scoring but I'm skeptical about his overall contributions. The more I think about the Turner comparisons the more I think they are apt.
Toine was always the emotional leader of those teams.  Pierce was the best player, but Toine was the guy that drove that train. 
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