Was Hakeem Olajuwon's post-up game a little overrated?

[QUOTE=tontoz;15021481]Jumping around to different eras is lame. Barkley and Hakeem were drafted the same year so we dont need any era adjustments.

Barkley was a true beast in the low post. He was a back to the basket player and this thread is about post play.


Kyrie? Are you trying to say Kyrie is a post player? [B]Or are you just rambling incoherently?[/B]

Hakeem has a reputation as a post player but the reality is that he was more of a midrange jump shooter that sometimes played in the post. He had great highlights in the post but day in day out his post game wasnt as big a factor as his reputation would suggest.

Barkley led the league in 2pt% 5 straight years. 4 of those years were over 63%. Hakeem never shot 54% on 2s in his career.[/QUOTE]

First of all, why the insult? lol

Secondly, I'm not rambling, I'm merely drawing comparisons based on a criteria. I never said anything about Kyrie having a post-up game. I merely drew an analogy based on what I thought was your underlying argument.

Perhaps I mis-read your original intent. I think you're saying Barkley had a better post up game. You might be right, but I don't have any data to objectively make that call.

We can assume based on raw percentages that this is the case, but Hakeem had a good mix of face up, post up, spot up, slashing, etc. Yea, it might be safe to assume Barkley had the better post up game, but we can't definitively prove that.

Barkley was better on offense period. Basic stats and advanced stats both tell the same story.

Barkley didn't age well but was a monster when young.

Per Djoker/dankok's tracking:

[B]1995 NBA Finals[/B]

Hakeem defended by Shaq: 70 points, 44.0 %TS (30/73 FG, 9/15 FT), 10 fouls drawn, 3 turnovers, 0.85 PPP
Shaq defended by Hakeem: 78 points, 59.3 %TS (34/60 FG, 10/13 FT), 13 fouls drawn, 8 turnovers, 1.06 PPP

[QUOTE=tontoz;15021829]Barkley was better on offense period. Basic stats and advanced stats both tell the same story.

Barkley didn't age well but was a monster when young.[/QUOTE]

I don't think the debate is that simple. Yea, we can focus solely on the regular season, but what about the postseason?

PS Hakeem: [B]26 PPG | 53% FG% | 57% TS%[/B]
PS Barkley: 23 PPG | 51% FG% | 58% TS%

I don't fault you for placing Barkley > Hakeem offensively, but I don't think they're worlds apart as you're making it seem.

[QUOTE=tontoz;15021829]Barkley was better on offense period. Basic stats and advanced stats both tell the same story.

Barkley didn't age well but was a monster when young.[/QUOTE]

Yea, if we are talking offense, I'm probably taking Barkley. Could score in more ways and more efficient, also a better playmaker than Hakeem. Only downside to Barkley's offense was all those 3's he took.

FWIW, [URL="https://squared2020.com/2025/01/26/historical-rapm-1985-1996/"]Squared2020's 85-96 RAPM sample[/URL] has Hakeem & Barkley at:

4. Hakeem Olajuwon +4.57 RAPM (+2.88 ORAPM; +1.70 DRAPM) [113 games]
14. Charles Barkley +3.21 RAPM (+5.32 ORAPM; -2.10 DRAPM) [171 games]

Only MJ (+7.31) and Magic (+6.67) have a higher ORAPM than Chuck. And that's with Barkley taking those low-percentage threes.