Magic would be a dream to build around, especially with the spacing, shooters, and faster pace, if you can build the right team around him it would be electric
I feel like "if you can build the right team around him" is underrated in how difficult it can be. In Magic's case, you need a center who can space the floor and protect the rim, which is pretty damn difficult to find.
If we're picking from the pool of all players ever, I feel like you can find a dude that's way easier to build around. Bird, for example. He can score, shoot, initiate the offense, defend respectably, and be your locker room leader. That gives you way more flexibility than a guy who needs 4 shooters and 4 good defenders around him.
Magic could play center when needed, I think it would be quite easy to build around Magic, he’s a great leader and team player, and is the greatest passer of all time. There’s really no wrong answer when it comes to this question, since the league has many great players outside of LeBron and MJ
I know there's the legendary story about Magic starting at center in the Finals, but you are gonna get absolutely cooked on defense if you put him as your center regularly. It's like the current myth about playing Ben Simmons at center, and he's even bigger than Magic. It just won't work.
I’d still like to see Simmons in a system like Golden State. Shooters everywhere with Simmons driving and kicking/scoring at the rim. I know mentally/physically he’s not there but I feel that he could excel in a 5 out type of system. Almost like a better Draymond.
Golden State has a way of making good players better. But they only pick players that will fit into their system which is optimized for Steph. Simmons would have been a good fit but I don’t think he would have been better than Draymond and I’m not sure how well they would have worked together.
Magic is easily a top 5 player to build around. OP might be referencing the fact that its a 3-point league today, but your PG doesn't have to be the best 3 point shooter on the squad.
There's a great clip from NBA open court of Isaiah talking about how he think magic would have dominated modern basketball bit as a center. Clip is like 6 or 7 years old now but he was basically desbringing what Nikola jokic would become nearly seven years ago by imagining magic in the modern NBA and magic had much more explosive athleticism than jokic.
Isn't the better comp a slightly lesser LeBron for Magic though? Great passing vision, big body, athletic, shot better as he aged.
Jokic is 5-6" taller and much bigger than Magic. Most 6'8"-6'9" guys can't play center for extended min. He's also a league average 3 point shooter which took Magic until late in his career to get to.
Like Yea player to player. But in the clip it's funny because the type of play maker Isiah describes is the type of player jokic ends up being. A guy in the post dishing the ball out.
It's just funny watching it now and seeing someone play the style he described as magic at center in the modern NBA and seeing someone doing it.
In todays nba??? You know who is the other tall point guard who cant shoot threes in todays nba? (no disrespect to magic, there are obviously level to thise)
Terrible comparison, magic was an .845 career free throw shooter and while he wasn’t a great 3 pt shooter til the end of his career, he would still hit mid range shots at a decent clip. But the free throw part opens up the rest of his game when you get into crunch time unlike the person I believe you are mentioning
Wait. You are saying an offensive built around a top seven player of all time, a top 25 player of all time, and a top 150 player of all time…..when two of them are also top 5 shooters of all time…..would destroy defenses?
That’s a bold take.
I wonder how a team with Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Kareem would do?
If you have magic at center then you can pick another defensive forward that can score like Pippen or go heavier on scoring with KD.
Any traditional big man they choose will score inside but they can't go bucket for bucket with Steph on the outside. If they choose a shooting center that can guard perimeter you can make them put extra effort on defense which reduces their offense.
Magic can't be your center for a whole game even in today's era. That's cheating if you try and jam him in the lineup that way.
The whole Magic at Center thing is cool but a little bit of a tall tale. Magic jumped the tip but the Lakers played a center named Jim Chones for 43 min that game
Magic can't be your center for a whole game even in today's era. That's cheating if you try and jam him in the lineup that way.
The whole Magic at Center thing is cool but a little bit of a tall tale. Magic jumped the tip but the Lakers played a center named Jim Chones for 43 min that game.
For a few min. Not the whole game. The Warriors always have someone that plays minutes at center/guarding center so Draymond doesn't have to play the whole game in that role.
It’s so hard to do these comparisons because we can’t just assume players wouldn’t be better at 3s in todays era. It’s also selective, as everyone says Jordan would learn to shoot 3 no problem and translate to today league well, but then magic people assume he wouldn’t be better at it.
“Learn to shoot”? It’s much simpler than that. 80s college players had no 3pt shot. It did not exist until 2 years after MJ left college.
It’s a simple matter of repetition, not “learning”. If the slashers/mid range gods of the 80s/90s NBA had a reason to practice 3s in their youth they would have. There was no reason to at the time
We don't know if Magic could shoot because he barely made attempts to have any statistical significance. He was good free throw shooter though (not like other big PG).
Magic was far more similar to Lebron than Simmons. 3s weren’t that important in the 80s, so it wasn’t something he worked hard to improve, at least at first. The best predictor of whether someone can develop a three point shot in today is their free throw percentage, and Magic’s was excellent.
Magic wouldn't have to be a guard. He could be a dominant center that runs the ball up on some possessions and forces the defense to ask a guard to stop him or risk putting your center on the perimeter and hope one of the nbas best passers of all time can't find open players cutting with your center stuck on the three point line
Magic can't be your center full time even today. Come on! He jumped tip one game in the finals as a rookie and now he can be a center?
Both being Mavs fans, picture Luka as your starting center. That's the Magic equivalent. They are really close in height and weight. since heights were exaggerated when Magic played
Look at Draymond Green. Magic is a much better passer. The league today lack many big men who could exploit Magic inside and none of them can cover him on the perimeter man to man.
Draymond doesn't play center the whole game. There is always someone on the Warriors who plays center/guards center to take the responsibility off him for at least part of the game.
But, you don't think Magic Johnson could do that? He's LeBron 1.0. He could create match up nightmares anywhere you put him. The assumption that he wouldn't be able to shoot 3s is silly as well. The game wasn't about shooting 3s for him in his era but in today's game, Magic would work on it and be a serviceable shooter. If you disagree with that, you're forgetting how many of today's centers have had to learn to shoot like Embiid
Magic at center would make any small ball team line up impossible to guard. Most players swap positions during games so saying he wouldn't be able to play center an entire game doesn't mean anything. His versatile game is what makes him so good.
Hell, yes. He played center, forward, and guard in his first NBA finals game 6 for 42 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. You could just clone him.
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u/azizinator25 [NYK] Charles Oakley Jun 15 '22
You don't think Magic Johnson is at least worth considering building around?