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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Yet his numbers were better than Hakeems...
I don't disagree that Olajuwon was a better defender. He was - but as you said, Shaq was a very good defensive player in his own right. It wasn't merely with blocks, but simply having his presence in the paint could neutralize guys, especially in the big man era he played in where they were still looking to try to bang guys in down low.
Olajuwon was undeniably a craftier, more skilled defender, especially as a help defender given his reach and mobility. But strictly as a man defender, I think Shaq was Hakeem's equal. And his impact on the defense was significant, if not as obvious as Hakeems.
Offensively Shaq was simply a more efficient player. He scored more PPG on fewer shot attempts. He was Olajuwon's equal as a passer and was slightly more effective as a defensive rebounder given his tendency to be posted up nearer the basket than Hakeem would've been on shot attempts.
Now Hakeem was at/near his peak for longer than Shaq was because Shaq simply didn't take care of his body as well as he should've. But the Orlando/LA version of Shaq was a step beyond anything Olajuwon did. And to say "well he wasn't THAT much better than Olajuwon offensively -- he only scored 29/gm 3 times..." is a tad disingenuous when making direct comparisons.
Let's put it on more apples to apples terms. The best scoring season of Olajuwon's career would've been the 6th best of Shaqs career. His 2nd best would've been the 8th best of Shaq's career. And it just kind continues down the list.
Literally every single rank-order of their career (best vs. best, 2nd vs. 2nd, etc...) give a decided advantage to Shaq. All by more than a opint, most by more than two and many by 3-4.
And again, all of this was done on fewer shots per game. Shaq was definitely a better offensive player than Olajuwon and likely by enough to make up for Hakeem's edge on defense, IMO.
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Hakeem was on 9 All-NBA defensive teams. Shaq was on 3 (all of them second teams). Hakeem was also a 2x defensive player of the year. There's no comparing them defensively. It's not close.
Shaq was comparatively better offensively, though he had little to no skills besides dunking and doing a baby hook shot from two feet away. He had no game facing the basket. Of course, the counter-argument is he didn't need to develop skills since he could just back defenders down.
That said, I rank them both #10 to #15 all-time. So not a big difference. I just get surprised when most rank Shaq higher. I watched both of their primes and Hakeem was a more important player to his team. A better two-way player. The Lakers/Magic/Heat aren't winning titles without Shaq, but they're not a lottery team either.