Ring with less talented teammates

[Iceman#44]

Who won a ring as the alpha dog with less talented teammates?


I go with Hakeem Olajuwon 1993-1994:


Hakeem RS Stats: 27.3 ppg, 11.9 reb, 3.7 blk, .528 FG%

Hakeem PL Stats: 28.9 ppg, 11.0 reb, 4.0 blk, .519 FG%


His teammates?

During RS, Otis Thorpe was the 2nd scorer with 14.0 ppg (+10.6 reb), 3rd was Vernon Maxwell with 13.6 ppg. Also Kenny Smith (11.6) and Chris Jent (10.3) goes in double figure.

During Post season, behind Dream, Mad Max was the 2nd scorer with 13.8 ppg, than Horry (11.7), Thorpe (11.3) and K.Smith with 10.8 x game.

:applause: :applause:

[goldcrow]

Dirk Nowitzki in 2011. Jason Terry as his 2nd option, no other all-stars on his team.

[BoutPractice]

Tim Duncan in 2003: The second leading scorer was 20 year old Tony Parker (far from an All-Star at the time) at 15 ppg, followed by Stephen Jackson at 12 ppg.

Dirk Nowitzki in 2011: The second leading scorer was Jason Terry (was never an All-Star) at 16 ppg.

Rick Barry in 1975: The second leading scorer was Jamaal Wilkes (not an All-Star that year) with 14 ppg.

Those three got it done with no star second option on offense. Though I will argue that Rick Barry's run was slightly less impressive because he only faced Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld in his path to the championship, whereas Dirk for instance faced Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Duncan faced Kobe, Shaq, Dirk, Nash and Jason Kidd.

[fiddy]

Dirk Nowitzki in 2011. Jason Terry as his 2nd option, no other all-stars on his team.


http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DAL/2011.html

2011 Mavs dont look that bad.

[BoutPractice]

I did not say they were a bad team. In fact they're my favourite team of all time. I was simply stating the fact that the second option was not an all-star, and there was quite a big gap in ppg between first and second option, meaning this was one of the few cases of a championship team relying mostly on one player to carry their offense.

[j3lademaster]

Dirk Nowitzki in 2011. Jason Terry as his 2nd option, no other all-stars on his team.:no: Dirk cheated Lebron out of fmvp for the Mavs that finals.

[rmt]

Tim Duncan in 2003: The second leading scorer was 20 year old Tony Parker (far from an All-Star at the time) at 15 ppg, followed by Stephen Jackson at 12 ppg.

Dirk Nowitzki in 2011: The second leading scorer was Jason Terry (was never an All-Star) at 16 ppg.

Rick Barry in 1975: The second leading scorer was Jamaal Wilkes (not an All-Star that year) with 14 ppg.

Those three got it done with no star second option on offense. Though I will argue that Rick Barry's run was slightly less impressive because he only faced Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld in his path to the championship, whereas Dirk for instance faced Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Duncan faced Kobe, Shaq, Dirk, Nash and Jason Kidd.

Hakeem, of course.

Dirk was surrounded by veterans and Terry averaged 17.5 pts (47.8%FG) in the playoffs.

Spurs and GSW were young and inexperienced teams. What's noticeable is that Wilkes (15 pts 44.6%FG in playoffs) was a ROOKIE and 3rd option (Charles Johnson) was a 3rd year player. Parker was a 2nd year player and averaged 14.7 pts (40.3%FG). SJax was also a 2nd year player and Manu was a rookie.

[BoutPractice]

The reason I didn't mention Hakeem was because he had already been mentioned in the thread when I started my post, but obviously he's either top of the list or damn close.

[Fresh Kid]

Where's Lebron??:lol :oldlol: :roll:

[Wavves]

Where's Lebron??:lol :oldlol: :roll:
Where's Melo??:lol :oldlol: :roll:

[Trollsmasher]

LeBron in 2013:

2nd option Wade in PO: 15,9 ppg on 49,8% TS and no defense
3rd option Bosh in PO: 12,1 ppg on 52,4% TS, 7rpg for a center and the 2nd greatest G7 stinker in the history

[AussieG]

You guys seem to equate ppg with talent. You completely forget about defense, and tempo. Defense wins championships, teamwork wins championships. Not ppg. If it were that simple, you'd bring in those players with empty stats that stuff the stat sheets but are always on losing teams. Shane Battier and Bruce Bowen types win championships.

[ralph_i_el]

everyone is posting ppg stats like it even matters

[Fresh Kid]

Where's Melo??:lol :oldlol: :roll:
where's Aldridge???:roll:

[MP.Trey]

everyone is posting ppg stats like it even matters
C'mon man, "most talented" clearly means "highest scoring" and vice versa. :hammerhead:

[ripthekik]

Definitely Hakeem and then Dirk.

[BoutPractice]

C'mon man, "most talented" clearly means "highest scoring" and vice versa. :hammerhead:
It doesn't, but the OP clearly oriented the discussion on scoring from the start.
That said if we're going to be literal and just focus on the title I will argue that it's not particularly interesting to know who had more talented teammates. Talent is useless - it's your actual contribution on the court that counts. But that productivity extends beyond scoring.
For example, Tyson Chandler, Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd were all major contributors in Dirk's 2011 title, even though they scored relatively little.

[NumberSix]

Mikan

[Owl]

Mikan
with Mikkelsen, Pollard and Martin?
If you're going for an early champ the Nats and Schayes would be the most obvious choice.

Most of the suggestions are reasonably sensible. Though it should be clear what the criteria is. Is it the worst 2nd best teammate? Are we discussing playoff performance, regular season performance, both or player reputation? And as others have said it's not just ppg.

The Rockets for example weren't overloaded with scorers (though pre-Hakeem, Thorpe had been a 20ppg scorer, Kenny Smith had scored 17.7ppg on the Rockets and Cassell would hover around 20ppg through his prime). But it did have a lot of very good defenders (almost everyone) and a lot of shooters (Smith, Elie, Bullard, Brooks, Horry possibly Maxwell and Cassell though you might argue otherwise looking at their percentages) including floor spacing bigs.

Bill Simmons conjectured that what Hakeem needed was good role players (that his clock consuming post game didn't fit well with other stars, was the rationale) and if true, whilst not filled with conventional stars, Houston's team was tailor made for optimising Olajuwon. It offered defense and the space he needed.

[Mr Exlax]

I'm gonna say Hakeem. There was no legit second option. The other players weren't scrubs per say, but none consistenly created their own shots when Hakeem wasn't on the court. They all needed him.

[D.J.]

It's between Hakeem in 1994 and Duncan in 2003. Hakeem in 1994 had Kenny Smith, Vernon Maxwell, Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, and Otis Thorpe. But Otis Thorpe at least was a good-very good rebounder and was an efficient scorer.

Duncan in '03 had 2nd year Tony Parker, rookie Manu Ginobili, Stephen Jackson, Speedy Claxton, and David Robinson on his last legs.

[millwad]

Olajuwon.

In '94 he had Maxwell as his 2nd best scorer on the team and Maxwell averaged 13.6 points per game while making 38% of his FGA..

[TheMarkMadsen]

Hold on let me go to basketball reference and look at FG%

[Owl]

Olajuwon.

In '94 he had Maxwell as his 2nd best scorer on the team and Maxwell averaged 13.6 points per game while making 38% of his FGA..
Are we doing this solely on 2nd player on ppg?

And Maxwell's fg% is hugely misleading because he was taking so many threes. His ts% was .483 (in what was a down year). That's on the low side, but not miles from the likes of Drexler or Starks.

Finally he didn't shoot 38% whilst scoring 13.6ppg he shot 38.9% from the field. And .9, actually rounds up if you're only going to do it to two significant figures.