Would Bill Russell's game even make it to the NBA in todays game.

[Da Stars.]

Stars, are you high, or drunk

On a serious note,. With today's game changes the old Bill would be lost in space. Bill would make most teams, not all. Bill would have learned how to ball handle. Have further range, maybe 3 point shooting. He would have evolved. Just like Bobby Orr, Micheal Jordan. Babe Ruth.

[PhutureDynasty]

For his time Bill was not a bad ball handler.

He'd occasionally bring the ball up the court.

[Bush4Ever.]

Top-tier rebounding and interior/help defense will always be valuable and are (along with pure outside shooting ability) some of the most transportable skills in the game. There's no reason that I can see that he wouldn't be a top rebounder and shot-blocker/interior/help defensive player in 2024 even if you were unfair and simply teleported him into 2024 basketball.

Now, "teleported straight into 2024", his personal scoring would strictly be garbage baskets/offensive rebounds/open lobs, etc...but his passing would be quite reasonable. Ball-handling I'd like to examine more closely, but I suspect it would be "serviceable" at the very least.

He certainly wouldn't have the magnitude of impact he had in the 60s, but that's pretty par for the course for giants of sport that were giants early in a sports tenure. Babe Ruth wouldn't be hitting more homers than entire teams, Jim Thorpe wouldn't be professional level in 25 different sports, etc...

[Havlicekstealsit]

Depends on who you ask, but I'm sure he'd be fine today. Elite players of their respective eras stood out for a reason. Can't assume someone of his or Wilt's or Nate Thurmond's caliber would simply be too stupid to know how to adjust their games for today. At the very least, Bam Adebayo with more of a winning impact in crunch time.

[zombiesonics]

Funny how Russell is known as a “rebounder and defender” yet Wilt was a way better rebounder than him.

[Bush4Ever.]

Funny how Russell is known as a “rebounder and defender” yet Wilt was a way better rebounder than him.

"Equivalent" is a much fairer term.

Wilt averaged 18 rebounds/36 minutes and Russell averaged 19.1/36 minutes.

The same degree of difference existed in the playoffs as well.

As is, he only averaged 0.4 more rebounds a game than Russell in the RS, despite playing 3.4 more minutes a game. In the playoffs, Russell averaged 0.4 more rebounds a game outright in fewer minutes/game, and played in the same number of games as Wilt.

For prime rebounding in the playoffs, Wilt from 1960 to 1969 averaged 26.3 rebounds a game in 47.4 minutes. Russell 26.1 a game in 45.5 minutes from 57 through 66.

Nevertheless, that is what the backpicks project on Wilt illustrated pretty clearly: that he WAS a major needle mover worthy of a spot somewhere in the back end of the top 10 all-time. Its just that the *composition* of his contribution (i.e.--he moved the needle largely with defense/rebounding compared to personal scoring) was somewhat different than most casual narratives suggest.

[PhutureDynasty]

Funny how Russell is known as a “rebounder and defender” yet Wilt was a way better rebounder than him.

Facts.

[Robceltsfan]

Anyone saying Wilt was a better rebounder is a moron.

[PhutureDynasty]

Russell Stanz throw "11 RANGZ" like crazy but hate when Wilt leads Bill in a separate category.

Wilt was absolutely a better rebounder because he had more in his career.

[PhutureDynasty]

Russell fans...

"Bill Russell was a better scorer than Wilt!!!"

[thedangerouskitchen]

Hmmm, let's see. Bull Russell had no handles, no outside shot, and he never had to defend the perimeter in his day soooo, according to many on this board he wouldn't even make the G League today.

[zombiesonics]

Anyone saying Wilt was a better rebounder is a moron.

[Havlicekstealsit]

Bill & Wilt are the only two guys in history with career RPG marks over 20 (which will never happen again. Most teams these days barely can get 50) and just 0.44 separate them but we're bitching about one being better than the other c'mon now. Wilt's teams and Bill's were routinely at the top of the league in RPG.

[zombiesonics]

Funny how Russell is known as a “rebounder and defender” yet Wilt was a way better rebounder than him.

"Equivalent" is a much fairer term.

Wilt averaged 18 rebounds/36 minutes and Russell averaged 19.1/36 minutes.

The same degree of difference existed in the playoffs as well.

As is, he only averaged 0.4 more rebounds a game than Russell in the RS, despite playing 3.4 more minutes a game. In the playoffs, Russell averaged 0.4 more rebounds a game outright in fewer minutes/game, and played in the same number of games as Wilt.

For prime rebounding in the playoffs, Wilt from 1960 to 1969 averaged 26.3 rebounds a game in 47.4 minutes. Russell 26.1 a game in 45.5 minutes from 57 through 66.

Nevertheless, that is what the backpicks project on Wilt illustrated pretty clearly: that he WAS a major needle mover worthy of a spot somewhere in the back end of the top 10 all-time. Its just that the *composition* of his contribution (i.e.--he moved the needle largely with defense/rebounding compared to personal scoring) was somewhat different than most casual narratives suggest.

Wilt holds every meaningful rebounding record there is. Most rebounds, highest RPG, most rebounding titles ever (Wilt has 11 to Russell’s 5). The 7 highest rebounding seasons belong to Wilt.

Russell has a slightly higher PER 36 than Wilt.

I guess Boban is also better than Tim Duncan, PER 36 and all.

[thedangerouskitchen]

Was Russell over-rated as a Rebounder?

I could be wrong although I rarely am, so I'm only guessing that if we looked at his individual Rebound Average per year as a percentage of Boston's total Team Rebounds, his ratio wouldn't be any better (maybe even worse) than guys like Rodman, Moses, Lucas, Thurmond, Wilt, Drummond, and prolly a lot more guys I'm forgetting.

Great Rebounder, sure... like dozens of guys throughout history. The best, or even Top 2 all-time?

Hmmm...

Anyone got the numbers so we can see the facts?

[Robceltsfan]

Bush already gave y’all the stats. Wilt played more minutes….thats all. I’ll agree with anyone that says Wilt is the GOAT of playing time. That’s undisputed.

[PhutureDynasty]

Bush already gave y’all the stats. Wilt played more minutes….thats all. I’ll agree with anyone that says Wilt is the GOAT of playing time. That’s undisputed.

He is the all time rebounding leader.

Sure, he played another season but that is not a penalty to Wilt.

Does longevity not matter here? Because it sure seems like it does when one argues for LeBron.

[thedangerouskitchen]

LeBron fans cherry-pick criteria / made-up stats based on who the players are in question... this lack of consistency across-the-board is why they can't be taken seriously.

[Bush4Ever.]

Wilt holds every meaningful rebounding record there is. Most rebounds, highest RPG, most rebounding titles ever (Wilt has 11 to Russell’s 5). The 7 highest rebounding seasons belong to Wilt.

Russell has a slightly higher PER 36 than Wilt.

I guess Boban is also better than Tim Duncan, PER 36 and all.

All that is a function of playing more minutes per game/total games than Russell. Having more rebounding titles doesn't mean you are extremely distanced from your closest peer. Someone running a 4.50 vs. someone else's 4.52 40 yard dash 10x in a row doesn't imply an extreme difference, even though he would "win" 10 times in a row.

When you compare like-to-like they are pretty equivalent.

Wilt's advantages:

+0.4 a game regular season
-0.4 a game playoffs
-1.1/36 minutes regular season
-1.1/36 minutes playoffs
+0.1 a game NBA Finals
+0.9 a game regular season between first and last MVP
-0.7 /36 minutes regular season between first and last MVP
+0.2 a game playoffs between first and last MVP
-0.8 /36 minutes playoffs between first and last MVP

Wilt had an advantage H2H (even considering the confounding of Russell having to play old against Wilt but not vice versa), but Russell was better versus the rest of the league.

Where's all this great advantage coming from? Wilt made a few more widgets, but he needed 20 minutes of overtime to make them. Russell made slightly fewer widgets, but was more productive during work hours.

In any case it certainly isn't a difference that leads to some grand sweeping difference in narrative between how they would translate to rebounding in 2024. Suffice it to say they would both be at or extremely close to the top.

[Robceltsfan]

Bush already gave y’all the stats. Wilt played more minutes….thats all. I’ll agree with anyone that says Wilt is the GOAT of playing time. That’s undisputed.

He is the all time rebounding leader.

Sure, he played another season but that is not a penalty to Wilt.

Does longevity not matter here? Because it sure seems like it does when one argues for LeBron.

Lebron is not the greatest scorer.
Stockton is not the greatest passer.
Pete Rose is not the greatest hitter.
Emmitt Smith is not the greatest rusher.
Wilt is not the greatest rebounder.