2015 Anger General Greatest post-merger Players of All Time #35

[dwcmwa]

Also a name that hasn't been brought up at all I don't believe: Adrian Dantley

He's due pretty soon, Artis Gilmore as well.

[Y2K]

Big freaking deal. PER matters on the offensive side of the ball, but doesn't mean much on the defensive end as you know.

That team suffocated you defensively and the unquestioned leader of that defense was Ben.

Not debating the defensive part. Ben definitely did that. Billups was a damn good defensive player in his own right while Ben was just a huge liability his entire career offensively.

Chauncey was very replaceable on that team. Ben wasn't. He anchored what made them successful - defense.

And inability to score and create a shot doesn't necessarily make you a complete offensive liability. Ben certainly was not. His offensive boarding and huge number of tapouts that led to additional offensive possessions was very important. He was also an extremely intelligent and effective screen setter, another skill that gets consistently overlooked.

Haven't even bothered to check, but I'm guessing his offensive rating during his peak years is probably considerably better than you would guess. And since the offensive rating stat is based on 100 possessions, that won't even give him credit for the significant number of additional possessions he created. Poor Ben!!

Ben Wallace had one of the all-time 5 year defensive peaks for sure. Now at simple glance, after Ben left, there was no significant dropoff defensely for the Pistons. It wasn't until 2008-09 that they finally imploded. Two whole seasons went by that they finished in the top 5 defensively without Ben.