Is Gerald Green the most athletic player in Suns history?

[sunsfan88]

A lot of you have watched the Suns play longer than I have...do you think Gerald Green is the most athletic player the Suns have ever had?

If not, who do you think is? And where does Green rank among the most athletic players that the Suns have ever had?

 

[Phrazbit]

No. Not remotely close. Marion, Amare pre-injury, Kevin Johnson and especially:

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[Drop D]

No. Not remotely close. Marion, Amare pre-injury, Kevin Johnson and especially:

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I love that picture...especially the guy getting frisky with the giant woman in the crowd and the photographer that was staring with his mouth open instead of taking a picture.

 

[slinslin]

That is totally irrational.

Green is easily the most athletic when it comes to jumping and dunking, by a wide margin.

It is not even close to be honest. You will have trouble finding a better jumper/dunker in the history of the league.

Larry Nance would be hard pressed to make the top 5 for the Suns.

 

[Phrazbit]

That is totally irrational.

Green is easily the most athletic when it comes to jumping and dunking, by a wide margin.

It is not even close to be honest. You will have trouble finding a better jumper/dunker in the history of the league.

Larry Nance would be hard pressed to make the top 5 for the Suns.

And in pops slinslin reminding everyone of his gross ignorance to anything prior to HDTV.

 

[slinslin]

Larry Nance is not even in the top 3 among forwards for the Suns.

Amare, McDyess, Marion were all more athletic than him.


You claiming that Gerald Green is not remotely close to the most athletic Suns player when its comes to jumping and dunking that is the definition of IRRATIONAL.
Then posting an image from an angle that is way below Nance making it seem like he jumped higher than he actually did.

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[CardsSunsDbacks]

Green is probably the best leaper/dunker in Suns history, but in terms off all around athleticism (speed, quickness, agility, acceleration, jumping) I would certainly put Marion ahead of Green for overall atheticism. KJ would have to be pretty high up there as well.

 

[Absolute Zero]

Richard Dumas should be in the conversation.

 

[JCSunsfan]

No. Not remotely close. Marion, Amare pre-injury, Kevin Johnson and especially:

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Of course it's close. Green is one if the most athletic players in the history of the league.

 

[slinslin]

Richard Dumas should be in the conversation.

Bledsoe, Finley among others as well.

 

[PDXChris]

Green is probably the best leaper/dunker in Suns history, but in terms off all around athleticism (speed, quickness, agility, acceleration, jumping) I would certainly put Marion ahead of Green for overall atheticism. KJ would have to be pretty high up there as well.

As an outsider, I agree.

Also, the best leaper/dunker does not mean a lot, just ask this guy. Thankfully Green can actually play basketball too.

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[desertdawg]

We had a basehead on the team a while back (Dumas) that could out dunk and jump Green, but he liked the crack rock too much and ruined his career.

 

[Catlover]

I only saw him as a Globetrotter on Wide World of Sports but I think Connie Hawkins deserves a mention for athleticism too. He'd lost some of that by the time he was finally allowed to play in the NBA (what a screw job, denied a chance to play during his prime for no justifiable reason). But all the other names notwithstanding, I have no problem with someone touting Gerald as the most athletic player in Suns history. He deserves to be in the conversation. Amar'e had a quicker jump, Marion had a quicker second jump, Rex Chapman had quicker hands and was perhaps the most dexterous former Sun and KJ had a quicker first step etc. but Green is a phenomenal athlete.

 

[slinslin]

Eddie Robinson was not nearly as good a leaper or dunker as Green and neither was Richard Dumas. Dumas was athletic sure but not very athletic, by no means among the top athletes in the NBA. He was more along the lines or Earl Clark kind of athletic.

Jason Richardson could be in the conversation at least, his first year with the Suns he was still athletic.

Gerald Green shows a leaping ability that pretty much has not been seen in the NBA before. He is getting his nose above the rim.

 

[Mainstreet]

I only saw him as a Globetrotter on Wide World of Sports but I think Connie Hawkins deserves a mention for athleticism too. He'd lost some of that by the time he was finally allowed to play in the NBA (what a screw job, denied a chance to play during his prime for no justifiable reason). But all the other names notwithstanding, I have no problem with someone touting Gerald as the most athletic player in Suns history. He deserves to be in the conversation. Amar'e had a quicker jump, Marion had a quicker second jump, Rex Chapman had quicker hands and was perhaps the most dexterous former Sun and KJ had a quicker first step etc. but Green is a phenomenal athlete.

I didn't see Connie Hawkins play in his prime but I agree he has to be right there. Gerald Green is also an awesome athlete that has the complete package.

Kevin Johnson is my sentimental favorite especially since he was the quite the baseball player and might have had a major league career if he had gone that direction.

 

[slinslin]

1:33 is my favorite

 

[Mainstreet]

1:33 is my favorite

Now let's give praise to Luis Scola who brought him here.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Eddie Robinson was not nearly as good a leaper or dunker as Green and neither was Richard Dumas. Dumas was athletic sure but not very athletic, by no means among the top athletes in the NBA. He was more along the lines or Earl Clark kind of athletic.

Richard Dumas was not very athletic just like Magic Johnson wasn't a point guard.

keep talking about things you never actually watched Slin. That dude used to explode.

 

[slinslin]

yeah yeah the great cheesebeef again, go back and watch Dumas. You act like he was Shawn Kemp kind of athletic but he was not.
He rarely if ever got his head close to the rim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU1aUj1qqqE

not nearly as athletic as a dunker/leaper as Gerald Green, there are like 3 universes between them. Those dunks are Markieff Morris style, sorry.

Richard Dumas was not very athletic.

And it seems you still don't understand that Magic Johnson despite leading their team in assists practically started at SF most of his career while the Lakers started a traditional small guard at PG (Scott for instance), all that while Magic only guarded PGs when he was forced to. By the same logic people should see Lebron James as a PG.
What was Magic's big rival and matchup? Larry Bird surprisingly played and started at SF as well, oh.. Yeah but nice story about Magic the PG, it's a cop-out to get him and Bird both in the best of all time lineups.
If Magic was in todays league people would see him as a SF and he would most certainly start at forward just like Lebron.

 

[Catlover]

Dumas was a well-rounded athlete but he wasn't the leaper that Green is. Richard had a physical strength to go along with his athleticism that really helped his game, much like Pippen. I know he's often been compared with Scottie and that does Pippen an injustice if you try to equate them across the board but they both had that entire package (physically). If you define athleticism solely by leaping ability neither Pippen nor Dumas were in Green's class. But there is much more to athleticism than measuring where the head is when the ball is dunked.

 

[JustWinBaby]

How much fun would it be to have these five on the floor for us.

Amare
Marion
Green
Bledsoe
Dragic

Of course that would be 04/05 versions of Amare and Marion.

It would be a totally Phoenix Suns highlight show every night on ESPN.

I would also sub Kevin Johnson for Dragic. Sorry Goran.

 

[Catlover]

yeah yeah the great cheesebeef again, go back and watch Dumas. You act like he was Shawn Kemp kind of athletic but he was not.
He rarely if ever got his head close to the rim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU1aUj1qqqE

not nearly as athletic as a dunker/leaper as Gerald Green, there are like 3 universes between them. Those dunks are Markieff Morris style, sorry.

Richard Dumas was not very athletic.

And it seems you still don't understand that Magic Johnson despite leading their team in assists practically started at SF most of his career while the Lakers started a traditional small guard at PG (Scott for instance), all that while Magic only guarded PGs when he was forced to. By the same logic people should see Lebron James as a PG.
What was Magic's big rival and matchup? Larry Bird surprisingly played and started at SF as well, oh.. Yeah but nice story about Magic the PG, it's a cop-out to get him and Bird both in the best of all time lineups.
If Magic was in todays league people would see him as a SF and he would most certainly start at forward just like Lebron.

If there is one argument you ought to just walk away from it's this one. Magic might not have been the prototypical point guard but it would take someone that never watched him play to make the claim you keep making. He was a point guard. Byron Scott was NOT a point guard, at least not in comparison to Magic. He could handle the ball and he could distribute but even in college he was almost always the off guard.

 

[Cheesebeef]

yeah yeah the great cheesebeef again, go back and watch Dumas. You act like he was Shawn Kemp kind of athletic but he was not.
He rarely if ever got his head close to the rim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU1aUj1qqqE

not nearly as athletic as a dunker/leaper as Gerald Green, there are like 3 universes between them. Those dunks are Markieff Morris style, sorry.

I never said he was as athletic as Green, I just think it's ridiculous that you think he wasn't very athletic. And Markief Morris...holy ****...you're insane. Dumas had Markieff Morris athleticism?! You literally have no clue what you're talking about.

Richard Dumas was not very athletic.

And it seems you still don't understand that Magic Johnson despite leading their team in assists practically started at SF most of his career while the Lakers started a traditional small guard at PG (Scott for instance), all that while Magic only guarded PGs when he was forced to. By the same logic people should see Lebron James as a PG.
What was Magic's big rival and matchup? Larry Bird surprisingly played and started at SF as well, oh.. Yeah but nice story about Magic the PG, it's a cop-out to get him and Bird both in the best of all time lineups.
If Magic was in todays league people would see him as a SF and he would most certainly start at forward just like Lebron.

lol...okay...I still don't understand that Magic was a SF. You keep telling yourself that the rest of the entire NBA watching public is wrong and you're right on this one...despite having never watched Magic play.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Dumas was a well-rounded athlete but he wasn't the leaper that Green is. Richard had a physical strength to go along with his athleticism that really helped his game, much like Pippen. I know he's often been compared with Scottie and that does Pippen an injustice if you try to equate them across the board but they both had that entire package (physically). If you define athleticism solely by leaping ability neither Pippen nor Dumas were in Green's class. But there is much more to athleticism than measuring where the head is when the ball is dunked.

bingo.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I only saw him as a Globetrotter on Wide World of Sports but I think Connie Hawkins deserves a mention for athleticism too. He'd lost some of that by the time he was finally allowed to play in the NBA (what a screw job, denied a chance to play during his prime for no justifiable reason). But all the other names notwithstanding, I have no problem with someone touting Gerald as the most athletic player in Suns history. .

Each player had different attributes. KJ was speed. Amare a combo of speed but more of an explosiveness. Green is a leaper. Marion had that second leap pogo stick (but don't forget how fast he could get down the floor. He would rebound, make an outlet pass, and then beat Steve to the other end for the layup). I do not think Dumas is in the same class with these guys.

Now Connie Hawkins is a different story. It was a different era so he did not TRY to use his athleticism as much as Green does. The think I remember about the Hawk was his huge hands. I have never seen anyone palm the ball the way he did. He would fake one-handed passes. He also moved so smoothly and effortlessly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp3UXNVqR9E
I love the pass at the 1:55 mark.

There is this one too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlxsi80tTWs

It is not just palming, but holding the ball while changing direction with it. It takes such hand size and strength. I do not know of any player that does this today.