Higher All-Time: Bill Walton or Anthony Davis

[tanibanana]

Walton is comfortably the better player but AD already has the better career.

Overall I'd give it to AD

This.

[ImKobe]

Yea, I forgot to point that out. "took a lottery Lakers team to a championship the following year so he's achieved what Walton did".

All you can do is roll your eyes when you read that statement. Not to mention Walton went up against a loaded Sixers team in the Finals and still came out on top. What Walton did that year is one of the biggest carry jobs ever.

That Sixers team had 3 All-star level players in their prime, and a bunch of quality role players, one of those role players went on to average 30 points a game immediately after he left the Sixers.

Kareem had 0 all-star teammates and his 2nd option was out for the first 2 games of the WCF.. '77 was Dr J's first season in the NBA and the Sixers only won 50 games, you're acting as if they were the 2017 Warriors lmao. You should go and look up some of these games.. Lionel Hollins in that Lakers series had a game with 31 pts 9 ast 8 steals and Herm Gilliam had 28 off the bench on 12/18 shooting in that same game (Game 2).. Maurice Lucas averaged 23/12/4/2 in that series as well. He had great teammates and the Blazers were still a 45-win team without him in '79 (and lost a close series against the Suns which was a BO3 at the time, the Suns would play the Sonics to a Game 7 in the WCF that year). Walton got injured Game 2 of the Seattle series in '78 and they still took them to 6 games (and could have gone 7 if they won that close one where Hollins dropped 35) without him playing just 15 minutes in one of the two wins, that's a B2B Finals team that won it all in '79 and his team was good enough to still make it competitive without him.

[Axe]

Some people voted for walton only because of his finals mvp count.

[SouBeachTalents]

Kareem had 0 all-star teammates and his 2nd option was out for the first 2 games of the WCF.. '77 was Dr J's first season in the NBA and the Sixers only won 50 games, you're acting as if they were the 2017 Warriors lmao. You should go and look up some of these games.. Lionel Hollins in that Lakers series had a game with 31 pts 9 ast 8 steals and Herm Gilliam had 28 off the bench on 12/18 shooting in that same game (Game 2).. Maurice Lucas averaged 23/12/4/2 in that series as well. He had great teammates and the Blazers were still a 45-win team without him in '79 (and lost a close series against the Suns which was a BO3 at the time, the Suns would play the Sonics to a Game 7 in the WCF that year). Walton got injured Game 2 of the Seattle series in '78 and they still took them to 6 games (and could have gone 7 if they won that close one where Hollins dropped 35) without him playing just 15 minutes in one of the two wins, that's a B2B Finals team that won it all in '79 and his team was good enough to still make it competitive without him.

The Blazers were 92-31 when Walton played in '77 & '78, 15-26 without him. That is colossal impact.

And here is an example where you show zero consistency. You hype up the Blazers winning 45 games and losing in the first round without Walton, yet you consistently downplay the Bulls winning 55 games and nearly making the conference finals without Jordan.

[ImKobe]

The Blazers were 92-31 when Walton played in '77 & '78, 15-26 without him. That is colossal impact.

And here is an example where you show zero consistency. You hype up the Blazers winning 45 games and losing in the first round without Walton, yet you consistently downplay the Bulls winning 55 games and nearly making the conference finals without Jordan.

I'm not downplaying shit. The Bulls won a dozen close games that year and had three All-Stars. When MJ retired, the Bulls added Kukoc & Kerr. They were a significantly worse team on offense & in SRS overall but managed to win games with their defense and Kukoc was insanely clutch that year. The Bulls were a dynasty that won 6 rings so I'm not that surprised that the team was able to still win a bunch of games with peak Pippen and a solid supporting cast with PJ at the helm. Difference here is that MJ had a good supporting cast but also carried them in scoring in ways that no player ever has on a dynasty.

The Blazers were 10 - 14 without Walton his MVP season and won 2 Playoff games without him against a Finals team so they were not that bad. The poster I quoted acted as if Walton had no help and that it was one of the biggest carry jobs ever when that's not really the case because he wasn't an elite scorer and didn't carry a big scoring load compared to someone like Kareem, who also did everything for his team but at a higher level overall.

If you want to talk about one of the GOAT one-man carry jobs in that era, Kareem in the '77 Playoffs averaged 35/18/4/2/4 on 64.6%TS and that's after leading a team with no stars to the best record in the league.

[1987_Lakers]

I'm not downplaying shit. The Bulls won a dozen close games that year and had three All-Stars. When MJ retired, the Bulls added Kukoc & Kerr. They were a significantly worse team on offense & in SRS overall but managed to win games with their defense and Kukoc was insanely clutch that year. The Bulls were a dynasty that won 6 rings so I'm not that surprised that the team was able to still win a bunch of games with peak Pippen and a solid supporting cast with PJ at the helm. Difference here is that MJ had a good supporting cast but also carried them in scoring in ways that no player ever has on a dynasty.

The Blazers were 10 - 14 without Walton his MVP season and won 2 Playoff games without him against a Finals team so they were not that bad. The poster I quoted acted as if Walton had no help and that it was one of the biggest carry jobs ever when that's not really the case because he wasn't an elite scorer and didn't carry a big scoring load compared to someone like Kareem, who also did everything for his team but at a higher level overall.

If you want to talk about one of the GOAT one-man carry jobs in that era, Kareem in the '77 Playoffs averaged 35/18/4/2/4 on 64.6%TS and that's after leading a team with no stars to the best record in the league.

So you gloss over the fact that the Sixers had 3 All-stars, but use the 3 All-star argument for the Bulls.

You also say Bulls added Kukoc and Kerr when MJ retired and that the Blazers still had a winning record without Walton in '79 with no mention how they added Mychal Thompson & Ron Brewer that year, two players who made All-Rookie 1st Team that year. lol

[dankok8]

The truth as usual is somewhere in the middle. Walton didn't carry a bunch of bums to a championship but he also wasn't replaceable by any stretch of imagination. He made that team a whole lot better. They were at best decent without him and amazing with him.

In terms of a peak comparison I'd go with Walton over AD. AD is a much better scorer but Walton is a better rebounder, a GOAT-level passer and had amazing intangibles. Even on the 2020 Lakers I think if you take out AD and replace him with Walton they get better. Still 1.5 years of Walton is just way too few. I mean Walton gets your team one title with a decent cast but that's also your cap. In the aforementioned Lakers example, Lebron and Walton get one title and then Walton breaks down and their title window closes.

[RogueBorg]

The truth as usual is somewhere in the middle. Walton didn't carry a bunch of bums to a championship but he also wasn't replaceable by any stretch of imagination. He made that team a whole lot better. They were at best decent without him and amazing with him.

In terms of a peak comparison I'd go with Walton over AD. AD is a much better scorer but Walton is a better rebounder, a GOAT-level passer and had amazing intangibles. Even on the 2020 Lakers I think if you take out AD and replace him with Walton they get better. Still 1.5 years of Walton is just way too few. I mean Walton gets your team one title with a decent cast but that's also your cap. In the aforementioned Lakers example, Lebron and Walton get one title and then Walton breaks down and their title window closes.

Walton's 6th man contributions to the '85-'86 Celtics needs mentioning as well. He was an important piece to that team's success.

[Micku]

The truth as usual is somewhere in the middle. Walton didn't carry a bunch of bums to a championship but he also wasn't replaceable by any stretch of imagination. He made that team a whole lot better. They were at best decent without him and amazing with him.

In terms of a peak comparison I'd go with Walton over AD. AD is a much better scorer but Walton is a better rebounder, a GOAT-level passer and had amazing intangibles. Even on the 2020 Lakers I think if you take out AD and replace him with Walton they get better. Still 1.5 years of Walton is just way too few. I mean Walton gets your team one title with a decent cast but that's also your cap. In the aforementioned Lakers example, Lebron and Walton get one title and then Walton breaks down and their title window closes.

I agree.

I think in this case, it just depends on career vs peak type of thing. While Walton didn't play as long, I would say his peak was better due to everything you said. It's really tough to say. But I suppose you can argue that Walton proved that he could lead a decent team to a title while AD hasn't proved that yet. Plus Walton is an mvp. And as you said, Walton had that short window of opportunity. At least as the guy.

But AD's career isn't over yet, so even if he isn't higher than AD all time with some ppl, he still got time to prove it. As long as he stays healthy lol.