Players of Illusion

[50first]

richard jefferson
the people that surrounded him made a big impact on his game. now with kittles and martin out of the picture and kidd possibly not returning as well. how much of an impact without these guys will he have? david copperfield..poof and he dissappears.

[j.23]

did hakeem have the versatility to lockdown 4 positions equally effective? pip shut down the whole indiana pacer offense, in another shut down glenn rice, then being total pain in the ass to the whole jazz team. pippen should have several DPOY on his belt if there wasn't this bias for giving the award to big men

couldn't agree with you more on that.. i thought he should've won defensive player of the year or even mvp the year mike was gone.. he led the league in steals with a 2.94 average and pulled a 5 x 5 (led his team in 5 major statistical categories)

[Fresh8]

RANDOM: DOES ANYONE KNOW THAT ANDREW GAZE WON A RING IN 99 BY BEING A RESERVE?!

[J@3]

No he didn't. He wasn't in the NBA in 1999. That was Andrew Gaze.

[Fresh8]

I know- i changed it... i was thinking about heal in the other thread... my bad!

[Matt]

Overatted
Tayshaun Prince [I'm sorry, his defense is good, but way overatted by so many people]



Chauncey and Rip have now rised in their position rankings in some people's minds now because of this too, Chauncey is suddenly one of the best PG's, and Rip is a top 5 SG . They aren't "role players" though.

Gotta agree on Prince. Clearly he's an above average defender but ppl gave him too much credit. He biggest weakness on defense is other players best strength on offense. What do Kobe, T-Mac, Vince have in common? driving to the hoop, that's what Prince sucks at on defense. Look at what Jefferson did to Prince when he drove to the hole. You can't shoot over Prince, but you can drive on him. Kobe didn't drive on him enough and I guess that's where the Overrated came from.

I always thought that Billups was a top 10 PG (since arriving to Detroit). Top 5 is a bit high, however note that Billups knows how to step it up, he beat Kidd in their matchup in the playoffs. He played adequate D, he made things happen on offense even though Kidd is such a good defender.

As for Hamilton, I'm not sure if he qualifies for top 10 SG's. However, he's the perfect guy. He's not a player that you would build a franchise around, but then again Joe D doesn't have a franchise player. I think the playoffs have done nothing but good things for him. He consistently brought his A game, made all the right shots, played good D, hit the big shots, carried the scoring load etc. He clearly was not the same RIP of the reg. season. Stars are made in the Playoffs.