To me Moses was the clear #1 pick just based on the dearth of great centers available. I mean he is the only top 10 all time center in this, which just isn't true at any other position.
But is the gap between him and the second rung of centres in this draft that great? Sure the centre position is a bit thinner than other positions, but it's not like there aren't any centres who were top 10-15 players during their time available in this draft, and there's another historical giant who might be close to his level (emphasis on might) if you think highly enough of his game.
Yes the gap is that great. You've pretty consistently underrated how good Moses is. Moses was an absolute monster. The best player in the world for several seasons and probably the only guy available in this entire draft that can make that claim for more than 1 year (and that is only if you think Giannis is currently the best player in the world). Impossible to guard and a top of the line rebounder on top of that. And a good enough defender that you will be fine with him on both ends.
Thinking that he was the best player in the world for any season in the late 70s/early 80s when Kareem and Bird existed is probably looking at Moses quite highly, much less a good chunk of that stretch 
. His offence was great but not game-changing (Houston dropped off a bit on that end as soon as their cast wasn't loaded with offensive talent) and his defence was good but not great. What makes his peak notably better than players like Erving, Kobe and Giannis? He was a great player, don't get me wrong, but being a box score monster doesn't make you a sui generis force among other all time greats, those players also had incredible box stats.
We had this same debate last historical draft, and it wasn't just me that was consistently telling you that Moses was that good. Moses was the best player in the world for a 3 or 4 year period. He just was. The MVP awards he won were well earned. His impact to winning was undeniable as the Rockets went from 46 wins to 14 and the Sixers became one of the greatest teams in league history winning 65 games and going 12-1 in the playoffs including sweeping the defending champion Lakers in the Finals. Moses was an incredible scorer and rebounder and he held his own defensively. He consistently outperformed Kareem in their head to head match-ups during that period, both statistically and team record wise, despite Kareem having better teammates (at least while Moses was in Houston).
The Rockets went from 46 to 14 wins because they built their offence around Moses: their defence didn't deteriorate much even with the departure of key cog Robert Reid. The Rockets' offence collapsing is a sign of Moses being an elite offensive player, but the fact that they were slightly above average when Moses was there isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of him being the best of the best on that end of the court, other greats did more with around the same or even less.
As for the Sixers, they were a premier club before Moses even got there, churning out seasons that were title-worthy year after year save '79 when secondary star Doug Collins suffered a major injury after the merger in '77. Anything short of the '83 Sixers running roughshod on the league would have been a massive disappointment, and the Sixers kind of fizzled out after that - they had one more strong year in '85 that resulted in a gentlemen's sweep against the Celtics.
He consistently outperformed Kareem
in the box score, specifically rebounds and maybe points at times when he was in Houston. Those box numbers don't translate into the two-way lift of Kareem even though you consistently underrate Moses' teammates from '79 to '81 (they were very good in '79 and '80 and weren't that poor in '81 - they had a secondary offensive piece in Murphy who could make up for Moses' playmaking deficiencies and had shooters + extra passers in Reid, Rudy T and Barry) - the Rockets had very good to elite offences but cringeworthy defences while Kareem anchored the Lakers on both ends of the court in the late 70s without much help on both ends of the court until Magic came along. His '81 finals run was certainly magical, but it was more of a hot streak than something sustainable: the Rockets had an SRS that was no different from their surrounding seasons.
Was Moses great? Absolutely. Was he markedly better than the others selected at the top of this draft? Evidence would say that it's unlikely, in fact it might lean towards him being a bit worse than those players. Not an indictment on him as a player and certainly not RPGenerate's chances of winning this game, but he's not getting some sort of mythical beast that would give him a massive advantage over other players in this draft (if any at all).
Topic: Celticsstrong 2021 Historical Draft - VOTES ARE IN (Read 221548 times)