How Hunter measures up to other great centers
I know it's early in his career, but for fun, I thought I'd compare Hunter Dickinson's YTD freshman numbers with some other notable college centers' freshman seasons. I didn't go all the way back to Alcindor, Russell, etc. because their numbers are stupid and clearly indicative of a different era. Unsurprisingly, Hunter is off to a pretty good start.
January 14th, 2021 at 12:38 PM ^
Brakes.
Pump them.
January 14th, 2021 at 4:39 PM ^
No need to do this with anti-lock braking systems.
January 14th, 2021 at 12:40 PM ^
Great analysis!
January 14th, 2021 at 12:44 PM ^
The most shocking thing on here is that Shaq's FG% was only 57%
In all honesty though, if Hunter was playing 20-30 years ago, he would be a top 5 draft pick
January 14th, 2021 at 12:47 PM ^
He was too busy peddling pizza.
January 14th, 2021 at 12:53 PM ^
And I love how his FT% didn't improve from college to pros. Might have even gotten worse.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:00 PM ^
If he played 20 years ago, those centers would have dominated baby Hunter Dickinson.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:26 PM ^
Are you under the impression that freshman in college Shaq was the same player as NBA Shaq?
Edit: Lol, I get it now. Although I think baby Dickinson could have put up a fight against Shaq. He is that good
January 14th, 2021 at 2:01 PM ^
People forget on how freak of an athlete Shaq was at LSU. He was skinnier and can really run.
January 14th, 2021 at 3:57 PM ^
" Are you under the impression that freshman in college Shaq was the same player as NBA Shaq? "
He only played two years in college, and was 7'1" and 294lbs when he was drafted...and was younger when he was drafted than Dickinson is as a college freshman.
I love Dickinson - but Shaq would have eaten him alive.
January 14th, 2021 at 5:05 PM ^
Shaq played 3 years at LSU and Dickinson is having arguably a better season than Shaq did his freshman year. Shaq blew up his sophomore and Junior year. At this point in their career, Dickinson is a better offensive player than Shaq and Shaq was a better defensive player.
Also, Shaq was 285 pounds coming into college and 325 pounds in the NBA, which was my whole point.
January 14th, 2021 at 9:45 PM ^
Don’t forget that LSU also had another 7 footer already on the team when Shaq arrived. Stanley Roberts was a high school all American. So Shaq didn’t play the number of minutes that Hunter is right now.
January 14th, 2021 at 4:40 PM ^
He was a big baby.
January 14th, 2021 at 2:35 PM ^
Shaq played most of his freshman year as a 17 year old!
January 14th, 2021 at 12:45 PM ^
By height
January 14th, 2021 at 2:29 PM ^
What is, "How do you measure yourself against other golfers"?
January 14th, 2021 at 7:30 PM ^
so i'm still bad at golf?
January 14th, 2021 at 12:48 PM ^
+1 informative and fun to look at historical comparisons with some true big man legends.
The logical conclusion: let's just save some time and effort and streamline Hunter's acceptance into the NBA Hall of Fame.
January 14th, 2021 at 12:48 PM ^
This is great! The people acting like Hunter D is not an NBA caliber player are out of their minds. I am all about being a homer but this guy will play in the NBA and unfortunately for our program, it will be sooner rather than later. This team is so fun to watch right now so I am just going to enjoy the moment and then worry about next year, NEXT YEAR! Go Blue!
January 14th, 2021 at 12:51 PM ^
Absolutely. Enjoy the moment!
We spend way too much time worrying about when basketball dudes will go pro around here.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:06 PM ^
For good reason though. Under Beilein we got guys who should have played 3-4 years and they kept going pro after 2. ...and those were often the guys who you expected to be around for 4.
Champagne problems...
January 14th, 2021 at 1:26 PM ^
Champagne problems for sure. The next year's team is almost always fun and good anyway!
I haven't been above the early entry speculation or lament. Reflecting on my own experience it's just more fun to enjoy, say, Iggy, than to enjoy his play but also worry if he's being too successful.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:33 PM ^
The NBA disagrees. Luka Garza says hello.
January 14th, 2021 at 2:25 PM ^
The problem is your assumption here hasn't been tested. Garza could perhaps be in the league this year if he wanted to be - we don't know where/if he would be drafted, if he'd make a team, etc.
The there's no place in the NBA for traditional bigs position ignores all of the traditional bigs who are in the NBA.
January 14th, 2021 at 3:27 PM ^
Like who? And where were they drafted? I think we can probably safely assume Garza would not have come back if he was a lottery pick. I'm not suggesting Hunter won't make a team, I'm suggesting his draft status will not warrant him leaving after this year. He of course could do so anyway.
January 14th, 2021 at 6:01 PM ^
For sure Garza wouldn't be a lottery pick. I was extrapolating your post to say neither guy is an NBA player - understand you better now.
What draft status warrants leaving? To me, that's a personal question for players moreso than something fans have a true north on (outside of the guys who can be reasonably expected to go at the top or not make the league, of course).
January 14th, 2021 at 3:46 PM ^
The there's no place in the NBA for traditional bigs position ignores all of the traditional bigs who are in the NBA
Ok, then please enlighten us about the traditional bigs similar to Hunter currently in the NBA, where they were drafted, and how they're currently performing. I'll wait...
January 14th, 2021 at 5:53 PM ^
You can click through team rosters if you feel like it. I didn't say anything about draft position or role, just that they're in the league.
Traditional centers aren't drafted as highly, their roles are reduced and they don't play as much as they used to. There are still plenty who are rich and in the NBA.
January 14th, 2021 at 6:02 PM ^
You're the one making the argument that there are plenty of traditional centers in the NBA, maybe you should click through team rosters. I, in fact, did and there are less than one per team, most of them are scrubs, and overwhelmingly those guys have been in the league for a decade plus.
January 14th, 2021 at 6:36 PM ^
A decade long NBA career sounds great! I think you're skipping a bunch if you found 1/team but we could have varying definitions of center or traditional. I'm still too lazy to go team by team but sort this by position and there are a lot of traditional type bigs.
The game has absolutely changed, roles are reduced, but if you're seven feet tall with some skill you've still got a damn good shot at an NBA career even if that skill isn't shooting.
January 14th, 2021 at 7:08 PM ^
I'm not saying a 10 year career wouldn't be great, I'm saying the chances of that happening now is pretty low. As evidenced by the majority of traditional centers being in their 30s.
January 14th, 2021 at 2:19 PM ^
Dickenson is an NBA caliber player but he just doesn't fit into the modern NBA game. It's absolutely not a knock on his talent and rather just the reality of how the game is played in the pros these days.
January 14th, 2021 at 6:46 PM ^
January 14th, 2021 at 3:45 PM ^
The people acting like Hunter D is not an NBA caliber player are out of their minds
I mean he could be an NBA caliber player, but the NBA hasn't cared about centers like him for the past 10 years
January 14th, 2021 at 12:49 PM ^
The turnovers column seems off? If it’s rate I don’t see dudes at 1%, if it’s raw numbers Ewing and Sampson seem absurd.
January 14th, 2021 at 12:51 PM ^
I was thinking the same thing. It is listed as "Turnovers Per Game". Ewing and Sampson were either huge liabilities (hard to believe) or the statistics got screwed up somewhere along the way.
EDIT: CORRECTED CHART POSTED BELOW
January 14th, 2021 at 12:53 PM ^
Both well before my time but definitely hard to believe those two were historically huge liabilities as freshmen and everyone forgot about it.
January 14th, 2021 at 12:49 PM ^
Eh this was back when coaches barely let freshmen shoot. This came after the a time when freshmen weren't even allowed to play.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:07 PM ^
Also the general level of sophistication at your high end high school sports programs like DeMatha is SO much higher than it was 30 or 40 years ago.
January 14th, 2021 at 12:53 PM ^
Hunter also compares favorably to more recent guys like Anthony Davis, KAT, Okafor and Sullinger. Those guys and an upperclassmen Kaminsky are probably the best college centers of the modern era and his stats next to theirs are impressive.
January 14th, 2021 at 12:59 PM ^
He's doing great so far, just 11 games in though.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:05 PM ^
One item to note... Shaq and Tim Duncan were young 18 year olds, Ewing and Olajuwon both 18 most of freshman season, Hunter will play the majority of his "freshman" season as a 20 year old.
I do think in terms of a big's maturity and coming into his body, age has a significant factor.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:07 PM ^
The craziest part to me is his defense and conditioning. He’s a much different defender than Teske and certainly less agile laterally, but his rim protection to lack of fouling ratio is so absurd that it allows him to be a difference maker for 30 minutes per game, which is completely insane for a freshman big from the foul perspective described above and from a conditioning one.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:29 PM ^
These different eras are tough to compare.
A huge chunk of guys that would be Juniors/Seniors right now are in the NBA already, opening spots for freshman that weren't available back then.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:29 PM ^
How does Sampson average 11 OREB and less than 1 DREB ?
January 14th, 2021 at 1:34 PM ^
Yeah, the rebounding columns seem like they might need some work. Both the issue you mentioned and the TRB column, if I understand correctly what it's supposed to mean.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:35 PM ^
Considering the OREB and DREB data seem to be missing for a few of the older guys, and skews heavily in the same direction for Olajuwon and Ewing too, I'd take it with a grain of salt.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:39 PM ^
Just noticed some columns were different for different players. Also fixes the turnover discussion up above. Here is the corrected version...makes more sense. My bad.
January 14th, 2021 at 3:45 PM ^
People forget just how dominant Ralph Sampson was in college - 11 rebounds and 4.6 blocks a game as a freshman - whoa.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:44 PM ^
Very cool to see, thanks for posting - OP is the total rebound column off?