The Eight Foot Two Schlub

[David Sklansky]

Its almost beneath me to get this lazy and exploitive of previous threads, that are bringing some others close to blows, but with the Bellagio tournament going on I'm going to broach the obvious follow up question to the 8.3 sprinter.

A slightly above average guy, athletically speaking, 30 years old, wakes up one morning 35% bigger in all directions. Eight foot two inches, 200 kilos. He maintains his medicocre athletic ability (which breaks the laws of physics, I know, but don't go there). He can easily dunk on his tiptoes but his vertical leap still probably makes his outstretched hands only slightly higher than the best NBA players. Does he start?

[WelshMackem]

No.
Based on the fact that he would not be fit enough, in terms of both anaerobic, short burst activities or in terms of having the stamina/endurance to last a full game. Neither would he have more than a rudimentary grasp of the other key skills involved in basketball - dribbling, passing etc....

Also, although I assume this was not what you were getting at, he may not know the rules of the game and is unlikely to be familiar with game tactics/strategy.

In short, the one positive characteristic - being very tall, would almost definately not compensate for the negatives in every other area.

[Breauxdel]

aside from the fact that he isnt actually a basketball player.........EDIT: i cant read

[David Sklansky]

Not true. All people this tall are well below average athletically for both physics and medical reasons.

[Yeti]

Breaux,

Er, the tallest man alive right now is < 7'9.

[Brocktoon]

He'd be a superstar. Not only would he start but he'd be the most dominant player in the league and could probably take a last place team to the NBA Finals.

The parameters specified pretty much describe Shaq plus a foot! This guy would be way better than Shaq after a little practice and conditioning. He'd be just about unstoppable by any defender in the league on post plays.

[pete fabrizio]

[ QUOTE ]
He'd be a superstar. Not only would he start but he'd be the most dominant player in the league and could probably take a last place team to the NBA Finals.

The parameters specified pretty much describe Shaq plus a foot! This guy would be way better than Shaq after a little practice and conditioning. He'd be just about unstoppable by any defender in the league on post plays.

[/ QUOTE ]

Man you are so underestimating Shaq's skills.

[pete fabrizio]

[ QUOTE ]
Its almost beneath me to get this lazy and exploitive of previous threads, that are bringing some others close to blows, but with the Bellagio tournament going on I'm going to broach the obvious follow up question to the 8.3 sprinter.

A slightly above average guy, athletically speaking, 30 years old, wakes up one morning 35% bigger in all directions. Eight foot two inches, 200 kilos. He maintains his medicocre athletic ability (which breaks the laws of physics, I know, but don't go there). He can easily dunk on his tiptoes but his vertical leap still probably makes his outstretched hands only slightly higher than the best NBA players. Does he start?

[/ QUOTE ]

Can he shoot free throws?

[Brocktoon]

[ QUOTE ]
Man you are so underestimating Shaq's skills.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're probably overestimating them. His biggest skill is that he's HUGE. From a purely athletic standpoint he's probably no more athletic than I was in College, just look at his FT %.

Many really big 7+ footers in the league are well below average in athleticism. Think of guys like Muresan, Bradley, and Bol. These guys were all starters at one point and they are all horrible athletes. Simply running up and down the court was a Herculian struggle for most of them.

Any 7 footer with actual decent athletic skills is a superstar. I'd say a guy like Mutumbo was no better than "average" if we're comparing him to a regular 6 foot guy who's in good shape. If you give a guy an extra FOOT on everyone else in the league AND he actually maintains reasonable athleticism he'd be an absolute monster. Just imagine how many rebounds he'd get plus you could just lob the ball to him in the paint everytime and let him try a short shot. Even if he misses he should get his own offensive rebound the majority of the time. Also, Imagine how open the other guys on the team would be when they inevitably triple teamed this guy when he's posting up.

You really need to think good and hard about what an EIGHT FOOT TWO 500 LB GUY could actually do with any sort of athletic skills.

[pete fabrizio]

[ QUOTE ]
I think you're probably overestimating them. His biggest skill is that he's HUGE. From a purely athletic standpoint he's probably no more athletic than I was in College, just look at his FT %.

[/ QUOTE ]

Shaq's inability to shoot free throws has little to do with his athleticism.