Jayhawks in the NBA

[randylahey]

"Skilled" means footwork/post moves, shooting touch/dexterity, ball handling, etc


But in general the average player has much more polished skills in today's NBA than they did in previous eras. Had wilt grown up today I imagine all his skills would be much better/refined

[randylahey]

I've always heard wilt was a really good passer though. Haven't seen a lot of film or highlights on it though. I beleive I recall hearing he was once challenged to be more of a passer instead of scoring so much, and the next season led the league in assists

[randylahey]

One curious thought experiment would be if you take wilts raw talent/ability and have him grow up in this era, focusing and training his basketball skills from an early age like most NBA guys now do. What would he look like

[ousdahl]

One curious thought experiment would be if you take wilts raw talent/ability and have him grow up in this era, focusing and training his basketball skills from an early age like most NBA guys now do. What would he look like

and more importantly, how many hoorz would he bang?

we can only imagine Wilt's dominance in the Tinder era.

[twocoach]

"Skilled". What EXACTLY does that mean?
Ok, I can give you that Wilt wasn't a better outside shooter nor was he a better FT shooter but please tell me what else Wilt was inferior to Joel in regards to.
To me, Wilt was a better inside shooter, a better rebounder, a better passer, and a better defender.
But what the f do I know - that you guys and girls don't. Right?

I have no idea if Wilt was a worse outsode shooter as they didn't have a three and he had no need to shoot from the outside because he was an unstoppable force inside. Considering the fact that he was an elite level athlete, I assume that Wilt had the skill to be an excellent outside shooter if he chose to be.

He led the NBA in assists one season just to prove he could.

[pdub]

“ Considering the fact that he was an elite level athlete, I assume that Wilt had the skill to be an excellent outside shooter if he chose to be.”

Not directly correlated per se.

[Deleted User 863]

Last season Embiid averaged 30pts on less than 20 shots per game. If he doubled his shot attempts to the 39fga per game wilt had in the year he averaged 50 then Embiid would have likely scored close to (or above) 60pts per game.

39 field goal attempts to score 50pts isn't an elite ratio for a guy who takes a lot of shots around the rim. And wilt was a terrible free throw shooter.

[Deleted User 863]

"Skilled". What EXACTLY does that mean?
Ok, I can give you that Wilt wasn't a better outside shooter nor was he a better FT shooter but please tell me what else Wilt was inferior to Joel in regards to.
To me, Wilt was a better inside shooter, a better rebounder, a better passer, and a better defender.
But what the f do I know - that you guys and girls don't. Right?

I have no idea if Wilt was a worse outsode shooter as they didn't have a three and he had no need to shoot from the outside because he was an unstoppable force inside. Considering the fact that he was an elite level athlete, I assume that Wilt had the skill to be an excellent outside shooter if he chose to be.

Wilt was a 51% career free throw shooter.

Stop it.

[NDballer13]

Honest question, because obviously I've never seen Wilt play, but was he actually a better inside shooter? Did he actually have post moves? For a guy who was averaging close to 40 ppg, I would expect higher percentages than hovering around 50%. The year he averaged 50, he shot 40 times per game. How often would he just throw it against the backboard, grab the rebound, and dunk that?

[Deleted User 863]

Honest question, because obviously I've never seen Wilt play, but was he actually a better inside shooter? Did he actually have post moves? For a guy who was averaging close to 40 ppg, I would expect higher percentages than hovering around 50%. The year he averaged 50, he shot 40 times per game. How often would he just throw it against the backboard, grab the rebound, and dunk that?

He definitely got a handful of his own misses per game and put them back in.

Dok used to get an extra rebound or 2 most games doing that even though he rarely missed.

[NDballer13]

Honest question, because obviously I've never seen Wilt play, but was he actually a better inside shooter? Did he actually have post moves? For a guy who was averaging close to 40 ppg, I would expect higher percentages than hovering around 50%. The year he averaged 50, he shot 40 times per game. How often would he just throw it against the backboard, grab the rebound, and dunk that?

He definitely got a handful of his own misses per game and put them back in.

Dok used to get an extra rebound or 2 most games doing that even though he rarely missed.

True, but to my point, one of those guys shot 70% because he was physically superior to his defender. The other shot 50% while also being physically superior to his defender.

[Deleted User 863]

Honest question, because obviously I've never seen Wilt play, but was he actually a better inside shooter? Did he actually have post moves? For a guy who was averaging close to 40 ppg, I would expect higher percentages than hovering around 50%. The year he averaged 50, he shot 40 times per game. How often would he just throw it against the backboard, grab the rebound, and dunk that?

He definitely got a handful of his own misses per game and put them back in.

Dok used to get an extra rebound or 2 most games doing that even though he rarely missed.

True, but to my point, one of those guys shot 70% because he was physically superior to his defender. The other shot 50% while also being physically superior to his defender.

I agree 100%.

How bad were Wilt's teammates early in his career? He didn't win as much as you'd think a dominant player like himself would.

[pdub]

Bad enough to where they’d force 40 shots a game from Wilt. And everyone knew they would.

[Deleted User 863]

Wonder how tall the average center was back in those days?

[Psychhawk]

Wonder how tall the average center was back in those days?

I'm sure 4'2" and all Wilt did was dunk, and only 50% at that. Nobody will convince you of anything different, no sense arguing with you.

[Deleted User 863]

Wonder how tall the average center was back in those days?

I'm sure 4'2" and all Wilt did was dunk, and only 50% at that. Nobody will convince you of anything different, no sense arguing with you.

4 foot 2 inches! Wow. Shorter than I expected!

[randylahey]

Wonder how tall the average center was back in those days?

About the same height as now. Its a common misconception that wilt played against a bunch of shorter white guys

[Deleted User 863]

Wonder how tall the average center was back in those days?

About the same height as now. Its a common misconception that wilt played against a bunch of shorter white guys

Some decent info in here broken down by position and year.

https://www.thehoopsgeek.com/average-nba-height/

"If we take a look at the average height of NBA players during the history of the league we can see that basketball players in 1952 were almost 3 inches smaller than today. After that, players continuously grew taller until the apex was reached in 1987 at 6’7″ tall (201.2cm). Since then we have seen a small decrease in player heights which might be attributed to the recent change in player measurement.

Interestingly, while average player height has stopped growing in 1987, players continued to get heavier until 2011 when they reached the peak of 221 lbs. This correlates with the NBA becoming more athletic, powerful, and muscular."


In 2021/2022 the average NBA Center was 6'10.3" and 246lbs.

In 1961/1962 the average NBA Center was 6'10.1" and 229lbs.

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

Wonder how tall the average center was back in those days?

? what - "tall" means good? You think the guys he played against were chumps? Pffft!
My guess is you don't realize he played against some of these guys and/or you didn't realize some are taller than you thought.
I promise you tall or short - each one of these guys was damn good (most if not all Hall of Famers) and would have been as good if not better than 75% or more of the current NBA Centers.

Kareem 7-2
Gilmore 7-2
Bellamy 6-11
Thurmond 6-11
Russell 6-11
Wesley 6-11
McAdoo 6-10
Reed 6-10
Hayes 6-9
Petit 6-9
Lucas 6-9
Schayes 6-8
Hawkins 6-8
Unseld 6-7

[ousdahl]

yeah, but what’s their wingspan?