I am fine saying Dirk is not in top 25, though he's very very close. KG is definitely in. But all that is bit meaningless.
You seem to think that i mean to say it is impossible to win without a top 25 player of all-time. I am not saying that. I am saying it is very very unlikely. The line in the sand at #25 is pretty randomly chosen, but it provides a good place to start. In ALMOST EVERY CASE, the NBA title team had a historically great player. Whether its 33 out of 34 or 32 out of 34 (because Dirk would be, what, #27? #29? its complete hairsplitting), it hardly matters. Its MASSIVELY STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT.
Its completely logical to follow from that that you need a superstar to win.
Someone on the board says "you need 12 players to win a title", and that's completely 100% wrong. It just couldn't be more wrong.
In a previous post you stated that you had been careful to not say that you can't win an NBA title without an all-time great, but saying that you need one to win a title comes awfully close to sounding like you are saying that you can't win a title without one.
The other point to bring up here is that currently there is only one player in the NBA who is still in his prime who appears on anybody's list of top twenty-five (or even top fifty players) of all time.
In that case, following your logic, the only reasonable and legitimate hope for winning an NBA title is to acquire Lebron James. Short of that, there isn't even any point in trying to compete.
Personally, I would disagree with that philosophy.
he means for the most part, you almost always need 1. And no, because there are players today that will likely crack that list of top 30, like Kevin Durant. some will come close, like dwight howard.
Personally, I think that when all is said and done Rajon Rondo has a good chance of being higher on any consensus all time list than Dwight Howard.
Rondo is 27. Dwight is also 27.
As of right now, Dwight Howard has had an incredibly more dominant career than Rondo. He has been the premier and best center for almost a decade and has multiple DPOYs and 1st All-NBA team selections.
Stats and awards are what people will be looking at when it is all said and done.
Rondo would need to have multiple MVP-caliber seasons in the future and Howard would need to fade into obscurity for Rondo to surpass Howard's legacy.
And it just so happens that Dwight is on a potential contender this season - a ring could completely elevate his all-time list status. Where's Rondo?
Sure, Howard would be ahead if their respective careers ended right now.
If Rondo can lead the new Celtics on multiple deep playoff runs, he'll have a good shot of surpassing Howard, though.
It's not like Rondo has accomplished nothing:
4 consecutive All star games.
4 consecutive All defensive teams.
2 time top ten in MVP voting.
2 time assist per game leader.
1 time NBA champion.
2 time Eastern conference champion.
3 time Eastern conference finalist.
Top 10 playoff performer over the course of the last five years.
It's not just Rondo leading the Celtics deep in the playoffs - he
needs MVP caliber numbers to be even considered around Howard's level. I'm talking 21-5-11, 25-5-9, 18-6-12 - crazy elite numbers for a point guard. 13-11 is not going to cut it. Even with that, Howard has a better chance of having MVP caliber numbers than Rondo.
Howard's been an All-star almost every year since he's been in the league. Howard has more all-defense team selections, and could be argued as a top 5 player for almost a decade. Rondo doesn't play to his potential in the regular season - that's what the stat people will look at. Saying a player that has never averaged more than 14 ppg is going to beat a player who had multiple 22-14-2.9 seasons is preposterous.
Sure, there can come a time where Rondo is better than Howard for one year (though that is incredibly impossible, as Howard is a defensive center and defensive centers that are capable of averaging 20 ppg are elite game changers), but that doesn't change the fact that Howard is utterly dominant whenever he's on the court.
It's like a race and Howard has lapped Rondo multiple times. If Rondo can even get at the same rate as Howard (20-12-2...), and Howard stays completely still, he can surpass him a few years from now. The thing is - Howard isn't going to stay still. Some project that he'll be back to his Orlando form in Houston.
EDIT: Also - There is speculation that Houston is a contender this season, while there's also speculation that the Celtics are tanking this season. Who's more likely to have that deep playoff run?
