Action781 exhales an hour-long deep sigh of relief...
And with the 2(9) pick the Utah Jazz selects Bill Walton.
I love Bill Walton. I couldn't put him next to Wilt but I was dreaming of Walton next to Bird or KG to begin the draft.
I thought Walton had one of the highest peaks of any player ever. He really should have been a first round pick. He was so dominant and played such a wonderful team-orientated style of play. He is absolutely perfect for this game.
Perhaps the most well rounded center to ever play this game.
Edit: Oh dang. I just realized you have Bird. Bird and Walton. The passing, floor spacing and team offense on that team is going to be incredible.
Walton never played more than 65 games in a season until he was a bench role player. I have a hard time picking someone so highly that just couldn't stay healthy, especially someone who never even averaged 19 ppg in a season. I know a lot of people really love Walton, but if you actually look at his stats and what he actually did, he just doesn't measure up. It is obviously because of health as he has a ton of talent, but health absolutely matters.
Similar boat as Kawhi. 60 game regular season + full postseason.
Sure, but Kawhi's numbers were a lot better than Walton's. That 65 game season Walton averaged 18.6 p, 14.4 r, 3.8 a, 1.0 s, and 3.2 b. In the playoffs, that was 18.2 p, 15.2 r, 5.5 a, 1.1 s, 3.4 b, so a slight improvement generally, but overall those numbers are weak compared to the other great centers. The Blazers did win the title that year and Walton was the Finals MVP, but he was only 2nd Team All NBA to Kareem who won the MVP (Walton was 1st Team All Defense). The following year they gave Walton the MVP, but he only played in 58 games and managed just 2 in the post-season.