Hakeem in today's NBA
I think he'd be fairly dominant. Maybe not 30 and 15, but 26 and 10 sounds reasonable. Prime Hakeem was a great athlete, plus possibly the best post moves ever.
He dominated David Robinson who was one of the most athletic seven footers of all time.
I think his stats would be very comparable to what he did 20 years ago. He had years of 25/14/4.6, 27/11/3, 26/13/4, I think he could easily match that production if he were in a hypothetical situation where he was playing the bigs of today. He might average more potins, the NBA really does have some massive guys right now, but Hakeem's agility and speed would reak havok on the Marc Gasol's, Gortats, Hibberts and Cousins of today's NBA.
Yep. Dominant inside scorer who could post, face up or play the ball screen game while also being the best post passer in the game. He'd be the best rebounder in the game and he'd be a game changing interior defender who shuts down the paint. I think that'd be good enough for being the best player in the game today.
I agree Hakeem, but it's closer than that. The stat that jumps out is the blocks, he dominated in the paint.
Hakeem Olajuwon averaged 21.8 pts, 11.1 reb, 1.8 steals, 3.1 blocks per game during his career.
Kevin Garnett has averaged 20.2 pts, 11.1 reb, 1.4 steals, 1.6 blocks per game during his career.
There's no doubt they're two of the best big men to ever play. The difference for me isnt in the stats, but the fact that Hakeem was the guy the rockets went through to win two chips. KG balled when they won it, but it wasn't the same role
I agree Hakeem, but it's closer than that. The stat that jumps out is the blocks, he dominated in the paint.
Hakeem Olajuwon averaged 21.8 pts, 11.1 reb, 1.8 steals, 3.1 blocks per game during his career.
Kevin Garnett has averaged 20.2 pts, 11.1 reb, 1.4 steals, 1.6 blocks per game during his career.
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Career stats are a little skewed though because they include the last three years of Hakeem's career when he was putting up about 10 PPG and 6 RPG. KG hasn't gone through the same period in his career yet.
Also the numbers I can find for KG are 19.3 PPG, 10.6 RPG and 1.3 SPG and 1.5 BPG, still pretty close to Hakeem's numbers but lower across the board (although KG is the superior passer and his career APG of 4 is better than the Dream's).
KG is 36 this season, so if we cut out Hakeem's last three years when he was 37, 38 and 39 years old these become his career numbers:
23.6 PPG, 11.8 RPG, 1.8 SPG and 3.3 BPG in 1073 games
I was thinking of averages around 30-13-4-2-4 ,DPOY of course but more importantly a FG% around 58-60% just because of his unique combination of size,agility,speed in the open court,strength and leaping ability for example he could "beat" DH12 with his skillset , Tyson Chandler with his combination of strength,size and leaping ability , guys like Andrew Bynum , Andrew Bogut, DMC ,Marc with his agility and explosion while not taking back anything on D...Could've won 3-4 MVP's and give LeBron a run for his money every year..plus 3-4 championships granted that he had an at least adequate supporting cast like he originally had..
He would take Dwight Howard's lunch and eat it too. You could not resort to fouling because he can actually make a free throw. He would be head and shoulders above any other player at the position. Kevin Love is my favorite player but let's be honest who is getting the rebound on a missed shot? My money is on Hakeem. I think he would lead the league in rebounding, blks and potentially scoring and FG%.
Hakeem would be dominant in today's NBA, he mixed it with Shaq, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Lonzo, Kemp etc and so I don't see maybe apart from Dwight today's big men giving him too much difficulty. The interesting thing about Hakeem is that his peak scoring years were when he was 30 to 33 years old. So I could see him being a 26 to 27ppg, 12rpg, 3bpg type player if we put say a 28 to 30 year old Hakeem in today's NBA. He'd be a huge force at both ends of the court and would be level or even ahead of LeBron as the best all round player in the game.
No. Hakeem was never a 7'er. He was just listed as that through the majority of his career. Towards the end of his career he was listed at his correct height which was 6'10.
If Hakeem was 7' then so is Dwight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NmzOG7r_Mg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_Olajuwon
http://inkstarzz.com/sports/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/hakeem.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyohV1xoDzs
In the Youtube video, if Amare stood up straight because he always has a hutch looks like they would be the same height.
We often try to measure the impact Dwight Howard , arguably the best center in the L right now , might have had in the 90s with alla these great centers..but how about going reverse? How would a prime Hakeem Olajuwon fare in today's NBA? Stats,impact,championships?