All time wasted NBA talents ?

[Miggs]

Jazz weren't a 3pt shooting team before Quin. Millsap always had a 3pt shot but never really attempted much with the Jazz.

And he may not have been a gym rat or had the same work ethic as greats but you don't become as good as Kirilenko without some work. And even if he shof %34-35 as a PF, he would be very effective on close-outs or would punish when oppenents sagged.

Listen, we can agree to disagree. AK wasn’t born to play basketball. He was born to play The Tinman in a revival of The Wizard of Oz.

 

[Hekate]

Listen, we can agree to disagree. AK wasn’t born to play basketball. He was born to play The Tinman in a revival of The Wizard of Oz.

There is nothing to disagree. New focus on 3pt shooting would force him to play 4, his more natural position and his mechanics weren't great but wasn't broken either. There was room for improvement there that could be realized.

He played high level basketball in the best league in the world and had records so that's quite the accomplishment for someone who wasn't "born to play basketball"

 

[Miggs]

There is nothing to disagree. New focus on 3pt shooting would force him to play 4, his more natural position and his mechanics weren't great but wasn't broken either. There was room for improvement there that could be realized.

He played high level basketball in the best league in the world and had records so that's quite the accomplishment for someone who wasn't "born to play basketball"

He played some four and that did nothing to help his ****** shooting.

 

[Thee Jazz Fan]

He played some four and that did nothing to help his ****** shooting.

IMO had AK come up in this era, he probably would’ve been a better 3pt shooter.

during his career he teetered between 23%-37% at around 1.1 to 2.5 three attempts per game. Had he come up in this era I could’ve seen him around 32% to 37% on maybe 4 attempts imo.

 

[Miggs]

IMO had AK come up in this era, he probably would’ve been a better 3pt shooter.

during his career he teetered between 23%-37% at around 1.1 to 2.5 three attempts per game. Had he come up in this era I could’ve seen him around 32% to 37% on maybe 4 attempts imo.

who knows. maybe. but he’d still be the tin man and more concerned about himself than the team and for that reason, I wouldn’t what him here.

 

[Deleted member 365]

There’s not one problem with AK47, but multiple.

he had issues with:

Staying healthy
Mental toughness
Actually improving/developing skills
Poor attitude/Making his teammates better

He was essentially the anti-Joe Ingles.

So even if AK had put the WOW long enough to develop a shot that would consistently go down, we would’ve had to still deal with his injury issues, selfish attitude, and softness.

 

[MVP]

People claiming that AK47 was as good or better than Gobert at defense make me wonder if they ever actually watched the Jazz in that era or if they just saw an AK47 highlight video once on YouTube? .

AK may have not been better overall then Rudy but he was more versatile -guarding the best opponent players on every night no matter what position they played. Rudy was never asked to defend shooting guards or point guards down the stretch and Sloan would put AK on anybody who was having hot hand and usually was doing very good job ( before two major injuries). Maybe you do not remember the game vs Lakers when he shut down Kobe in second half completely limiting him to zero FG's made. Even Phil Jackson was praising him after that game for amazing defense he played on Kobe.

 

[Deleted member 365]

AK may have not been better overall then Rudy but he was more versatile -guarding the best opponent players on every night no matter what position they played. Rudy was never asked to defend shooting guards or point guards down the stretch and Sloan would put AK on anybody who was having hot hand and usually was doing very good job ( before two major injuries). Maybe you do not remember the game vs Lakers when he shut down Kobe in second half completely limiting him to zero FG's made. Even Phil Jackson was praising him after that game for amazing defense he played on Kobe.

Rudy defends guards on a regular basis. Honestly, his ability to defend the P&R in space is greater than his ability to muscle up and defend in the post. His agility for his size is just off the charts.

LOL @ “the one time AK shut down Kobe for a half.” That’s not a serious argument. And if that’s the best you got, then this debate is long over.

 

[infection]

AK may have not been better overall then Rudy but he was more versatile -guarding the best opponent players on every night no matter what position they played. Rudy was never asked to defend shooting guards or point guards down the stretch and Sloan would put AK on anybody who was having hot hand and usually was doing very good job ( before two major injuries). Maybe you do not remember the game vs Lakers when he shut down Kobe in second half completely limiting him to zero FG's made. Even Phil Jackson was praising him after that game for amazing defense he played on Kobe.

Yes, I remember the game. But honestly, it's like Exum's Harden game. Everyone points to it as evidence of how good he was, but it literally never happened again. Not even close. Kobe torched him the rest of his career.

 

[JazzBird]

Stats wise: 2003-2004 - 1.9 steals, 2.8 blocks; 2004-2005 -- 1.6 steals, 3.3 blocks; 2005-2006 - 1.5 steals, 3.2 blocks. And remember he was playing the forward position so you don't get as many opportunities for blocks as a center. Can you name any other small forwards, even power forwards who led the league in blocks? AK was a supreme shot blocker. But like one poster suggested, just imagine putting AK in his prime on this team with Rudy. Definitely would be challenging for the finals. He was also one of the most adept at picking the pocket of a dribbler if you might recall. His one flaw was he depended too much on his athleticism rather than positioning when defending, which used to drive Jerry nuts. But that was something he could've corrected.

If he had just concentrated on defending instead of worrying about his touches, he could've been the greatest defensive player since Bill Russell -- who was without question the greatest defensive player in NBA history.

Of course, the bias on this site for how AK ended up clouds their vision of what he was like during his best years and before his injuries. Remember he was All-Defense First Team multiple times, and I think one year, runner-up, when he probably should've won it.

Jerry misused AK, Jerrys was PG centric where the ball was always brought up by the PG and the PG initiated the offense, AK would have been better in a snyder offense where he could be a creator and initiate the offense much like ingles does. All jerry had him do on offense is run down the court and camp on the baseline 3. AK was s great passer, good at driving to the hoop and also had a post game, his mid game was erratic and his 3 pt shot was about ave. He would have fit in well in this era where guys atent allowed to hand check and push offensive players off their spot. On defense he could rebound block shots and steal but as mentioned previously could sometimes get out of position. AK was one of my favorite players still is, i think he gets a bad rap because he signed a max deal then the following year jerry decides to not use him at all on offense, also because he reportedly didnt stay after practice.how many of you with families stay after work when not required to??? Were talkin bout practice man...then they dont like AK because he cried after a playoff loss to the rockets after barely touching the ball all game, people conveniently forgot that the next game he was the jazz leading scorer and hit the game winner. AK can be on my team any day of the week and twice on sunday, especially in this era.

 

[MVP]

Rudy defends guards on a regular basis. Honestly, his ability to defend the P&R in space is greater than his ability to muscle up and defend in the post. His agility for his size is just off the charts.

I disagree. One of the reasons we got blown by GSW and lost 4-1 twice vs Houston was how their guards abused Rudy on switches. Rudy had the worst +/- during both Houston series from any Jazz player and we did better with Favors than him on the floor.



I agree that this season he looks much improved in perimeter defense so lets see how he will do during playoffs.

 

[MVP]

LOL @ “the one time AK shut down Kobe for a half.” That’s not a serious argument. And if that’s the best you got, then this debate is long over.

Thats just one example. I have seen him taking out of their games other leading scorers from other teams like Glen Robinson, Paul Pierce, Lamar Odom, Hedo Turkoglu, Stojakovic, Carmelo and so on. He was given duty to defend best scorer on the other team every night - there was a reason for that.