Cedric Maxwell Underrated?

[Sir Charles]

Key Player in the 1981 and 1984 Boston Celtics Championships. Lived Under the Shadow of Larry Bird and Kevin McHale but was one of the Best Most Efficient SF/PF Scorers of All Time. Not to Mention a Great 1 on 1 Defender and a Good Rebounder.

A Type of Player with Fundamentals the NBA Needs Today :confusedshrug:

[Lebron23]

He'll be a max player in today's NBA. One of the best role players of all time. He won an NBA Finals MVP over Prime Larry Bird.

[ClipperRevival]

He'll be a max player in today's NBA. One of the best role players of all time. He won an NBA Finals MVP over Prime Larry Bird.

Bird wasn't prime in 1981 though. That was only his 2nd year. He was prime 1984-1986, when he won 3 straight mvps.

[Rolando]

I remember him having a very distinct style of playing in the post. He'd be able to quickly shoot the ball with two hands, straight up over his head...Parish did it too.

Anyway. Great player. He would do well in today's game for sure.

[SHAQisGOAT]

He'll be a max player in today's NBA. One of the best role players of all time. He won an NBA Finals MVP over Prime Larry Bird.

:rolleyes:

Probably never even seen more than 1min footage from Cornbread, yet says that type of stuff to downgrade Bird - because of LeBron...
Oh, and I wouldn't call sophomore Larry prime Larry.

No, he wouldn't be a max player today or yesterday lmfao(well maybe now that everyone's gettin paid but max will change with the cap), and he had a really good peak but he's not one of the VERY best role players of all time.

Max was a pretty good, very efficient scorer in his prime, could really work in the post, great touch around the rim, great jump-hook, great finishing skills, pump-faked you to death beneath the rim, won fouls, was long, slick and strong, moved quickly, a very good offensive (and even overall) rebounder.
Also was a pretty good m2m defender, especially when he wasn't so focused on offense later on.
He had a solid jumper but not much range, didn't shoot much from outside the paint, and wasn't doing it off the dribble. He also wasn't much of a passer at all.
Very clutch plenty of times (with tenacity and trash-talking too) but the type of player who went through the motions in "not important" games, to say the least, you'd only see him really giving full effort when it was big games/moments. Somewhat lazy too at some points, like when recovering from injury in the mid 80's, that's one of the reasons he was gone from Boston, and had poor longevity too.

Larry also had beef with him, because you know how LB had crazy work ethic and played under the toughest conditions, and while Bird worked very hard and played the best he could with an injured elbow and hand for the '85 Playoffs, Cedric coming off of injury couldn't care less, was out there trying very little and playing like shit. Bird was pissed because they needed Cornbread the most there, much more than what he showed.

He benefited a lot and got better by playing alongside Bird though, who got him a lot of open looks and took the pressure from the inside... Max wasn't built to be anything close to a 1st option, let alone on a conteder. He was also never an all-star, no all-nba teams or MVP votes, and that FMVP should've gone to Bird, tbh.
Still, not denying he was a pretty good player in his prime, contributed plenty to 2 championship teams... Probably would've been underrated by now, had he not won FMVP.

[Taller than CP3]

Rockets never would have won their first ring without him. One of the greatest clutch 3 point shooters of our time. Maxwell is vastly underrated, no one even mentions him anymore.

[SHAQisGOAT]

Rockets never would have won their first ring without him. One of the greatest clutch 3 point shooters of our time. Maxwell is vastly underrated, no one even mentions him anymore.

Cedric, not Vernon.

[JohnnySic]

:rolleyes:



Larry also had beef with him, because you know how LB had crazy work ethic and played under the toughest conditions, and while Bird worked very hard and played the best he could with an injured elbow and hand for the '85 Playoffs, Cedric coming off of injury couldn't care less, was out there trying very little and playing like shit. Bird was pissed because they needed Cornbread the most there, much more than what he showed.



Yeah its too bad he did that. Had he shown up for the '85 playoffs they'd have had a really good chance to win it.

[SHAQisGOAT]

Yeah its too bad he did that. Had he shown up for the '85 playoffs they'd have had a really good chance to win it.

Considerably better chances, I tell you at least that.

Larry went into the Playoffs with an injured right elbow, then injured his shooting hand in a bar fight, just couldn't be at the same prime level he was for the 1984, 1986 or 1987 post-seasons... But some of his teammates were better/playing better than in the '84 ps (when Bird was carrying the team), Maxwell being one of the exceptions, he played terribly and couldn't care less to get into shape after injury.

They still took the Lakers to 6, with an injured Bird, Kareem having one of the GOAT Finals and Cornbread not showing up, plus DJ and Ainge bricking shot after shot.

[JohnnySic]

Considerably better chances, I tell you at least that.

Larry went into the Playoffs with an injured right elbow, then injured his shooting hand in a bar fight, just couldn't be at the same prime level he was for the 1984, 1986 or 1987 post-seasons... But some of his teammates were better/playing better than in the '84 ps (when Bird was carrying the team), Maxwell being one of the exceptions, he played terribly and couldn't care less to get into shape after injury.

They still took the Lakers to 6, with an injured Bird, Kareem having one of the GOAT Finals and Cornbread not showing up, plus DJ and Ainge bricking shot after shot.
They really missed Gerald Henderson too. Ray Williams was brought in to replace him but it didn't work out.

[bizil]

At best, Max was a good solid role player. I don't think he's underrated at all. Even though I was surprised to learn he had a 19PPG-10RPG season early in his career. But his era was the greatest SF era of all time! And he had the GOAT SF on his team! So when compared to Bird, Doc, King, Nique, English, Dantley, Aguirre, Marques, Kiki, etc., he pales in comparison.

Somebody like a Draymond Green in today's game is a great role player. Other than scoring, Dray is very good to great at EVERYTHING for a combo forward. Plus he's versatile as hell too! So to qualify for a great role player, u have to be DOMINANT in at least one facet of the game. So in that sense, even defensive specialists like a Rodman, Bobby Jones, Cooper, etc. could qualify as great role players too.

[lilandywiggins]

I enjoyed him, but not good enough that he frequently pops in my mind.

[SHAQisGOAT]

They really missed Gerald Henderson too. Ray Williams was brought in to replace him but it didn't work out.

True, forgot about him... Henderson was more impactful for the C's in 1984 than Ray Williams in 1985, even if pretty much nobody would've guessed judging from their previous years. At both their best, Gerald couldn't really touch Williams but Ray was just done at that point.
DJ and Henderson made a very good defensive backcourt for Boston in '84.
Ainge was coming into his own though - with a starting job - but not quite at his best there.