Chime In - Who Are Your Top 10 NBA Bruins?
by Tydides on May 21, 2011 3:22 PM PDT
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PrintYahoo! Sports contributor Joe Dorish has formulated a top 10 list of what he considers to be the best NBA players to come from UCLA. For those of us that weren't born yet when Coach hung up his whistle for good, the commentary behind each pick was interesting, but ultimately this was a top 10 based on their career PPG average. The list is as follows:
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2. Marques Johnson
4. Gail Goodrich
5. Reggie Miller
7. Jamaal Wilkes
8. Sidney Wicks
9. Baron Davis
10. Willie Naulls
As you can see, the list is skewed heavily toward Wooden Era players, and with good reason considering the success they had. Those championships were won because of Coach but also because of great talent. Keeping in mind that this is a ranking of how these players performed in the NBA, and not while in college makes this a bit more difficult to fairly assess since the Howland era players' careers are still young. Yet it's difficult to envision certain players like the NBA's all time leading scorer (Kareem) or second all time leading three point shooter (Miller) being bumped off the list.
Anyway, with the UCLA sports calendar winding down for the summer and the NBA postseason in full swing, I figured if anyone else wants to give it a shot, all 77 Bruin/NBA alums are listed here.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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My top 10 would probably go like this:
- Kareem
- Gail Goodrich
- Bill Walton
- Reggie Miller
- Kevin Love
- Jamaal Wilkes
- Baron Davis
- Russell Westbrook
- Kiki Vandeweghe
- Marques Johnson
Granted, I’m mostly going by legacies for the majority of them, since I wasn’t alive for most of their careers.
"The true athlete should have character, not be a character."- John Wooden
"Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation."- Michael Jordan
twitter:@firstto100
It's actually a ranking of the top 10 scorers (PPG)
I became suspicious that Walton and Love were missing. Any list of the top 10 players would have to include Walton and probably Love too. I followed the link to Basketball Reference and ordered the Bruin NBA-ers by points per game, and voila it’s the same order you cite above. Kareem leads at 24.6 per game, down to Naulls at #10 with 15.8 per game. 11-15 would be:
11 Kevin Love 15.0
12 Lucius Allen 13.4
13 Bill Walton 13.3
14 Darren Collison 12.8
15 Mahdi Abdul-Rahman (Walt Hazzard) 12.6
by GoldenGate93 on May 19, 2011 9:25 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
For me:
-Arron
-Klove (or)
-Westbrook
-DC
-Walton (holding it down for Portland)
-Kareem
-Baron
-Ariza
-Kiki
-Reggie
"Every day was a good day at UCLA." -Coach John Wooden
Top 10 NBA Bruins
Kevin Love
Russell Westbrook
Arron Afflalo
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
Darren Collison
Trevor Ariza
Baron Davis
Jordan Farmar
Earl Watson
Ryan Hollins
honorable mentions:
Matt Barnes, Dan Gadzuric, Jason Kapono
snarkasm aside
fast forward 5 years, and assume Josh Smith fulfils his potential; then our all-Bruin NBA team of Smith, KL, LRMAM, AA and RW would lead the league in rebounding differential and defense.
by VeniceBruin on May 19, 2011 12:51 PM PDT up reply actions
I'm not so certain I wouldn't take DC as the PG
and put Russell at sixth man :) Then, you could have a bench of Jrue, Russ, Hollins, Aboya, and Farmar!
"Every day was a good day at UCLA." -Coach John Wooden
disagree...
I like DC as the 6th man, as I think he might be a better spot-up-2-guard with his outside shooting than RW, so I like him backing up the 1 and 2 (and it’s tough to keep an all-star RW on the bench). Also gives you the option of changing things up with a fast, harrassing 3-point shooting lineup if you sub in DC at the 2, shift AA to the 3, LRMAM to the 4 and KL to the 5.
I’m fine with bringing Alfred back from Japan, but the other guy you list on the bench didn’t make my top 13…
There's no chance in hell
that DC could guard any two in the league, unless his name was Stephen Curry and he was playing SG for some reason.
RW is far more of a natural fit at the 2 than DC, and could sub into both guard spots. Sometimes it’s worth it to have a better player come of the bench in order to give your later lineups some scoring punch. See: Lakers not starting Odom over Artest, despite him being a massively superior player in all facets of the game.
"Every day was a good day at UCLA." -Coach John Wooden
on the other hand...
DC doesn’t have to guard a 2 on defense, as he would always be paired with either AA or RW; but he can play 2 on offense.
The Odom vs Artest comparison isn’t very apt at all. Prior to Odom starting for a suspended Artest, the Bynum/Gasol/Odom combo had only played something like 10 minutes together all season (at least, that is my recollection of the commentary at the time). They see Odom as a 4, not as a 3, and part of a bigs rotation with Bynum and Gasol in the 4/5. That is why he starts on the bench, behind two better bigs, not as a way of giving them more punch off the bench.
I think the situation you describe is very rare – and was rejected by Howland as well, fwiw, after bringing RW off the bench for a little while when DC got back from injury. But perhaps a better example of what you are saying would be Manu Ginobli coming off the bench a few years ago for the Spurs?
by VeniceBruin on May 20, 2011 11:39 AM PDT up reply actions
If i'm doing a dream pickup game,
for sure RW is starting. I’m simply looking at it from the perspective of 20 minute halves. You are going to need to sub out both DC and AA at some point, and Russell could play starter minutes for both positions, but likely his first sub would be to the two. My point about Odom was not necessarily the position he played, but that he was a superior player to Artest, however he played starter minutes coming off the bench simply because he was more versatile and gave the Lakers second unit a scoring punch they would not have possessed had he started in place of Artest, whether or not he would have in reality. The Lakers were more succesful with him at the four and Pau at the 5 than with Bynum at the 5 and Odom coming off the bench.
"Every day was a good day at UCLA." -Coach John Wooden
by OswegoBruin on May 20, 2011 11:52 AM PDT up reply actions
maybe we disagree on the relative merits of DC and RW?
If we’re playing two 20 min halves and constraining them (for ease of argument) to playing just the 1 and 2, I want RW and AA playing 30 and DC playing 20. I want RW playing point on offense whenever he is on the court, as I want DC/AA on the perimeter as 3 point threats and RW driving to the basket.
Re: Odom – if your argument is that sometimes a 6 man isn’t the 6th best player on a team, that’s fine. You might as well have said, why have Fisher starting over Odom if position doesn’t matter. However, the Lakers keeping their 3rd best big on the bench is not a logical argument for having your 1st best guard on the bench to start a real game. Plus, it’s not like DC et al on the bench would be totally lacking in scoring ability…
Probably not worth further argument, at least until Larry Scott engineers an exhibition game between a UCLA alum team and some East coast team (Duke? UNC?) live on the Pac-12 network during a putative NBA lockout :-)
Not old enough to appreciate the Wooden era players
Collison – Love the fact that he is a true PG and knows how to distribute and score when needed
Afflalo – A well rounded player just like Collison who plays tough D
KLove – Boards his position well, better numbers than Griffin, but ESPN wont tell you that
Westbrook – Gets to the basket faster than anyone I have ever seen. Wonder why Howland didnt give him anymore freedom. He seems like a different player than when we had him
Watson – Its amazing how hard work and dedication can give you an NBA job for much longer than anyone anticipated
Miller – Never saw him play, but he came into the restaurant I worked at a while back and seemed like a nice guy. Obviously one of the best shooters ever.
LRMM – I love the fact that he is knows for being the best perimeter defenders in the league
Jordran Farmar – He needs to get into the right system and he will flourish
Ryan Hollins – Who would have ever thought he would still be in the NBA when Lavin was coaching him?
Davis – I suppose there is not much I like about his game now, maybe i should start watching his movies
A bruin is good forever, a Trojan is only good... ahh eff it, just use tin foil
Unless I'm mistaken
that website indicates that UCLA has had more NBA players than any other university!
All these lists are very well done.
But, I have to get Pooh Richardson in here. Not because he was one of the great ones to play the game, but because he was one of the great serviceable journeymen of the league. He was as constant and dependable as the postman. He played for 9 years and averaged 6.5 assists per game.
Also, I don’t see any love for Jason Kapono (outside VeniceBruin’s honorable mention) while he has not put up eye popping numbers, he has been another dependable journeyman a true shooter. He has averages of .437 3pt percentage and .833 FT percentage. Not bad.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
My list was top 10 greatest all-time Bruins...
now, if it was my favorite 10 NBA Bruins all-time :
Kapono
DC
AA
KLove
Reggie
RW
Ariza
LRMAM
Barnes
Baron
mostly because I’ve actually seen them play
"The true athlete should have character, not be a character."- John Wooden
"Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation."- Michael Jordan
twitter:@firstto100
Back-ups with long careers
How ’bout Swen Nater and Mark Eaton? Both barely played at UCLA and both had ten year careers in the NBA.
Also only three UCLA players had more than 1000 NBA games, Kareem, Reggie and Gail, but Nater and Eaton both played over 700 games — that’s almost full time for ten years.
by Arturo del Mundo on May 21, 2011 8:08 AM PDT reply actions
NBA Top 10 UCLA Team
I will take it slightly different take and make a team out of Bruins. This is based only on what they did in the NBA,
1. Center KAJ
2. PF Curtis Rowe (Solid dependable)
3. SF Jamal Wilkes (won championships with Warriors and Lakers. Was a winner.)
4. SG Reggie Miller
5. PG Lucius Alllen (toughest call, played in a different era so assist total would be much higher today, would likely change this pick on any given day)
Backup Big Bill Walton (he was an MVP with the Blazers and a great 6th Man with the Celtics)
Backup Guard Gail Goodrich (probably should start)
Defense specialist AA (Yeah he is young but I like the way his career is going and he is a good guy to have on a team)
Zone buster Kiki (Kiki didn’t rebound or play D well but boy could he shoot/score)
10th man Baron Davis
Reasons for leaving some out. RW, KL, etc too recent. Sidney Wicks had a bad attitude and was a cancer in the locker room, only Coach could handle him. Naulis I don’t know enough about.
top 10 - that I have watched
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2. Marques Johnson
3. Reggie Miller
4. Baron Davis
5. Bill Walton
6. Kevin Love
7. Russell Westbrook
8. Jamal Wilkes
9. Kiki Vandeweighe
10. Pooh Richardson, Don MacLean, Darren Collison
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