QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ May 13 2008, 03:28 PM)
Gooden is a guy who can get you a double-double every night with consistent starting minutes. He was doing great until the injury. He's solid but he is no KG or Amare or anything.
The problem I see is that people want things that there aren't too many of in the league. People insist we need a "true PG." Well, Steve Nash, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, and Jason Kidd are about the only ones out there and they ain't going anywhere. People want legit low post scorers. How many legit low post scorers are there in the league? Guys who are 6'10 and taller, who score most of their points posting up? Shaq, Duncan, Boozer? MAYBE Bogut? Thats about all I can think of.
Back to the basket skills are more the main tool to get there than the desired result. Basically we're looking for a guy that gets easy baskets mostly in the painted area and draws a fair number of fouls. Generally that's from post play and/or driving ability, though short jumpers play a role as well and many post-ups end in those anyways.
Either way you didn't think too hard, there are more legit big men out there than you think. For the purposes of this argument, I'm defining it as a guy that regularly plays inside on offense and defense, averages more than 14 points a game (at least fairly regularly), and regularly shoots better than 47% from the field. I'll also include shoots 5 or more free throws, though if they fit the other three they'll still be listed (exceptions include a *). These aren't in order of preference or anything, mostly in order of point scored and a few additions that may not have qualified this year due to games played.
Amare Stoudemire
Dirk Nowitzki (more of a mid-range guy, but still has the desired effect)
Chris Bosh
Carlos Boozer
Al Jefferson* (4.8 FT this year)
Dwight Howard
David West* (heavy mid-range, 4.6 FT)
Tim Duncan
Kevin Garnett* (heavy mid-range, 4.7 FT this year, down significantly from prime)
LaMarcus Aldridge* (heavy mid-range, 3.9 FT)
Zydrunas Ilgauskas* (3.3 FT, 4.6 career)
Emeka Okafor* (4.6 FT)
Yao Ming
Elton Brand
Pau Gasol
Borderline
Al Horford (will join this list in the near future)
Greg Oden (should as well, but one never knows)
Andrew Bynum (Just starting to come into his own, obviously assumes he gets over injury)
Zach Randolph (a tad short on the FG%)
Jermaine O'Neal (gets the points and FT's, but too many jumpers and appears to be on the decline)
Chris Kaman (first year as a major scoring threat)
Mehemet Okur (45.6% career, more of a floater outside though usually gets it done)
Andrew Bogut (only one 14 point season so far, not many FT's)
Chris Wilcox (gets about 13 a game at 50%, but not a lot of FT's)
Rasheed Wallace (still can get it done at times, but too many jumpers now, never really a foul-drawing machine)
Brad Miller (has hit points and FG% somewhat regularly but starting to decline a bit)
Drew Gooden (just to play devil's advocate, if he puts forth the effort more consistently he can be on there, unfortunately he doesn't. Generally good for about 12 and 8, but with a great deal of variance)
Debateable between SF and PF
Shawn Marion*
Lamar Odom*
Gerald Wallace
That gives you 15 bonafide guys that accomplish those goals fairly well (with the bulk of them being well over 14 a game), 3 combo forwards that do a decent job, 3 more pretty safe bets to accomplish it in the near future, and 9 more that are in and out, without projecting a whole lot from projects from the last few drafts or this upcoming draft. At worst you're looking at one for every other team, at best it's almost 1:1, so it's not quite chasing the white whale.