I understand Green is a great defender but I also have to acknowledge in regards to Green forcing a TO 14% of his defensive post possessions that no one in this day and age has an elite post game. I get that you're talking about '87 Kareem but he still averaged 17.5 ppg on 56.4% shooting that year and upped his scoring in the postseason to 19.2 on 53%. He also averaged 31.3 mpg which means he wasn't some washed up old timer, he was still an effective player playing crucial minutes.
You don't think that Kareem who stood 7-2 would see a 6-7 Draymond on him and not demand the ball and have the ability to read the defense and know where to kick the ball to if a double team comes? Or when to attack aggressively, decisively, and quickly at that point in his career? You don't think by that time he would have not seen every defense there was you could throw at him?
What I'm trying to say is that it's okay to praise Draymond's defensive prowess but don't take away from an all time great center I mean an all time great player in doing so. Kareem was still effective and efficient in '87 and I believe that you might be trying to crown Draymond prematurely especially when he doesn't have to guard in the post the quality of centers from years past. I know he can only guard who is playing now, well then don't say or cosign that Draymond could guard TRUE CENTERS from an era where the big men ruled the NBA.
Lots of people have an elite post game in todays league. I just think its harder for them to find breathing room than back in the day b/c of how dramatically the game has changed. Its hard to build around a post up center now, lot more so than it was back then. Those averages for Kareem are a far cry from his peak days. Yeah he was still great, and I've acknowledged that he would still play very well, but I'm saying that he's not gonna dominate them to some insane degree.
Sure he could, Kareem was a great passer and a very smart player. But the Lakers back then didn't have good perimeter shooting and the Warriors are great at recovering back to their man so I don't think it would really kill them per say. Of course this is the problem with using a time machine to compare players across eras.
Not taking away from Cap at all. He can still average 20ppg, just not gonna hit 35-50 like people were
seriously suggesting in the thread where I posted this initially. People were saying that Cap would do this and that b/c the Warriors are small (which isn't even true they have two seven footers), not realizing that they have a great defense regardless and the tools to defend anyone. And again, when I say guard I'm not saying shut down. Thats not even the object of defense. Just to make them work, which Green can do especially with help from his teammates.
All of this was but a subset of my actual point about the Lakers not having their way with the LA small ball lineup b/c of how they'd make them work on the other end of the court. Didn't just out of the blue say "hey Draymond can shut down Cap", but there was a thread talking about how Magic's Lakers would destroy the current Warriors and I just laid out the possibilities.
