Originally Posted by
Billy Dat
To the original poster, duke96, I agree that the board can be maddening at time with other posters only commenting to criticize, but, as in life, I'd say to try and listen to the criticism without emotion and see if there is any truth in it. Or, simply ignore it all together if you don't agree. Message board culture tends to be really negative, but this board is at least moderated to be civil, and the population tends to be fairly demanding when it comes to precision of thought and logic of reasoning. Don't get discouraged, your original post, after all, has sparked an interesting discussion.
I think there are three ways to approach answering the original, slightly ambiguous question.
-Who had the best Duke career?
-Who had the most accomplished overall basketball career?
-Who, regardless of the first two categories, was the most talented basketball player (combining raw athletic ability and basketball IQ/ability to execute on the court)?
I only add the third category to make a case for Jason Williams. Would he have been as good a pro as Grant? It is really impossible to say that he wouldn't. Rookie point guards have a steep learning curve. While his rookie year wasn't as smooth as Kyrie's, he was figuring it out. That kid was such an electric talent. I'd have to put Grant at #1 because of his two way play. But, from a pure talent perspective, Williams might be #2 behind Grant.
This list might be Grant>Kyrie>Jason Williams>Boozer/Brand>Deng
Because of the difference in era, I find it hard to properly place Mullins and Marin. Both would rank very high in the second category as both were 10,000+ point NBA scorers with multiple All Star game appearances. It's just hard to evaluate how well they'd play in a modern game against modern athletes. The next guys on my list were some order of Redick, Laettner, Maggette, Dawkins, GMan, Battier, Dunleavy, Ferry, etc.
As for Jabari, he certainly has the potential to crack the very top of that list.