First, once deviant, now the defender template
In the 2000–01 season, Iverson averaged 31.1 points, 3.8 boards, 4.6 assists and 2.7 steals per game.
MVP, the second scoring champion of his career, the league's first team.
More importantly, he led the 76ers to 56 wins and 26 losses, the first place in the East, and also reached the finals.
At that time, he was 1.83 meters tall (actually shorter) and played as a shooting guard.
The 76ers' master is the robust Eric Snow, and at the request of head coach Larry Brown, the team's most common routines are:
Snow held the ball high, Iverson went around the layers of cover like a mad rabbit, received the ball and then began to perform the world's matchless personal attack.
Yes, you heard it right.
Four-time scoring champion, the most exciting attacker of the era, the 76ers' history of the best superstar, in their peak years,
In fact, it does not control the ball of the team.
In front of the traditional serious old Brown, the AI must also run like a traditional shooting guard, go around the cover, enter the attack zone, catch the ball, and then show his ability to reach the sky.
Iverson was never a playmaker, even though he averaged 6.2 assists per game in his career, but in that era of clear position and clear responsibility on the court.
People habitually think that at 1.83 meters, he should be like an organizational defender, passing, tandem, using his breakthrough and speed to serve his teammates, like Kevin Johnson and Isaiah Thomas.
Iverson's Crossover, his emergency stop mid-range, his three-pointers, were all outlandish in those days.
Meanwhile in his MVP season (00-01), he was on the 76ers as one of the worst teams in the league, averaging 3.2 three-pointers from 9.8 shots per game, the league's second-to-last.
His guard partner Snow shot just five three-pointers throughout the year, and starting big-forward Tyrone Hill made one shot from outside the three-point line throughout the regular season.
With the exception of Iverson, the rest of the 76ers have made just 164 three-pointers in a season.
That year's 76ers, in fact, other people desperately defended and grabbed rebounds, and then watched the AI catch the ball again and again, single-handedly.
Use his thin body to go into the box, face opponents who are much thicker than him, and put the ball into the basket.
Last season, the league's top scorer also happened to be embiid of the 76ers, averaging 30.6 points per game, and the league averaged 111 points per game.
Twenty years ago, AI was also the top scorer with 31.1 points per game, when the league only scored 95 points per game.
What would it be like to put his AI in today's NBA?
Even the strictest coach will not restrict him from holding the ball, and he does not need a traditional point guard partner like Snow to unleash his firepower.
His style of play of scoring and assisting will no longer be considered deviant, but the trend of this era.
Westbrook, Trae Young, Harden, and Doncic, who changed from his forward position when he entered the industry, are now in this routine.
Surrounded by a group of three-pointers to open up space, no longer facing one defensive wall after another like when he played, and the "inside lumberjacks" who were ready to knock him to the ground.
He would be the most offensive ball-handling creator of the era. Instead of "ignoring the madman of his teammates".
Time also fate,
If born in this era, AI will be the template of "playing correctly", the model of "the little man picking up the whole league", and his rap songs and hip-hop costumes will become the super idols of young people.
Instead of being treated by the mainstream NBA as a "troublemaker challenging authority," as it was two decades ago.
Second, Marbury, an inexplicably withered genius defender
The best point guard to look at the "Golden Generation of '96" now is definitely two-time MVP, offensive master Steve Nash.
But when their talent first entered the league, the title belonged to Stephen Marbury.
Recently, the American media Legacy Hoops has done statistics, among all retired NBA players, only one person with career statistics has averaged 19 points + 7 assists + 1 three-pointer per game, and he is Stephen Marbury.
Long before entering the NBA, he was the overlord of New York Street, and his delicate handwork, gorgeous dribbling and talented organizational talent made him famous very early.
As well as more negative in line with the NBA's lightning breakthrough and physical fitness.
In 2010, Adi had a test for Derek Ross, and in the moment of breaking through the first step, he was able to reach 980kg on his feet, breaking the test record at that time.
The previous record holder was Marbury.
Although AI was elected in 1996, the 76ers struggled for a long time between him and Marbury and finally made up their minds because Marbury was recognized as the "better organizer" at the time.
After being selected by the Timberwolves, he formed a "future combination" with the same young Garnett that gave people unlimited reverie, and was once considered a new generation of "Payton & Kemp" or "Utah Double Brake".
They made the playoffs for two straight years, an era when Marbury was a talented attacker who combined the strengths of a traditional point guard and was able to score points on his own, especially with a tough three-pointer.
But when he parted ways with the Timberwolves on a contract in 1999 and went to the Nets, his NBA career changed.
There he grew into a super defender who averaged 20+7 per game for four consecutive years, but he was getting less and less rated.
He is not a teammate-first organizer like Kidd and Nash, and the passing and shooting are more about their own mood.
He prefers the last pass that gets an assist +1, and if his teammates can't convert into points, he'd rather stick the ball in his hand.
This self-centered style of play not only made Marbury very criticized, but the team's record also plummeted, and people began to call him "lone wolf".
Especially in the offseason of 2001, the swap transaction with Kidd confirmed the evaluation of him by the outside world.
After that trade, the Nets, who won Kidd, soared from 26 wins the previous year to 52 wins in the East, before reaching the Finals for two consecutive years.
Marbury's Sun slipped from 51 to 36, not even making the playoffs.
So people can shout "Kidd is the real point guard, playing the right basketball".
And Marbury is also a cancer that is obsessed with his own data and cannot drive the whole team.
In fact, he is still very good at playing, and the next year he will bring the Suns back to the playoffs, while feeding Xiao Si, who has just entered the league, the best rookie.
In the first round against the Spurs, who later won the championship, they persevered until game six, and Marbury also completed a stunning three-point kill.
At that time, the impression of him was solidified, and no one felt that he was a point guard who played reasonably and could lead the team.
Marbury was sent to the smoky Nix, which was not a place to play at all. Scandals such as drug knocks have made him infamous, and the conflict with management has made him the biggest thorn in the league.
When the contract ended in 2009, no team was willing to give him another chance.
Marbury was not yet 32 years old when he came to China, younger than Harden is today.
But in fact, his playing style now seems to be incomparably correct,
Efficient breakout and scoring, able to skillfully "block and dismantle the duo" with the inside line (playing with Garnett, Jr. and Martin)
His tandem whole team attack is not a strong point, but he is a top player in the local one-hit one and two-hit two, and it is even more easy to play small and big after changing defenses.
What's more, there is also a three-pointer that is necessary for today's defenders to "kill people and travel at home".
Like Iverson, if you play in the NBA today, it may become a template for young people to learn.
Antoine Walker — I don't shoot three-pointers because I don't have four-pointers
In three consecutive seasons from 2000 to 03, Celtics's "fat head" Antoine Walker averaged 7.3, 8.0 and 7.5 three-point shots per game, ranking first in the league for three consecutive years.
In an era when big forwards were still mainly grabbing food under the basket, Walker's behavior was bizarre.
A reporter once asked him why he was obsessed with three-point shooting.
His answer is still classic to this day:
"Because there's no four-point line."
He does have great capital,
He is 2.03 meters tall, but he is a real big forward.
As a member of the 96 Golden Generation, the Sixth show debuted, and in the second year of his career, he averaged 22.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game and was selected as an All-Star.
He averaged 20.2 points per game in his eight years with the Celtics, scoring 20+ points in six seasons and becoming an Eastern Conference All-Star three times.
Along with Paul Pierce, he was called the "Celtic Gemini" at the time.
He's both inside and out, and defensively, and in 2005 the Heat sent All-Star guard Eddie Jones just to get him to assist O'Neal and young Wade.
He became the heat's best sixth man of the season and the core five who finally stood on the court. Because he can both defend on the inside and stand outside the three-point line on the offensive end to open up space, without delaying the Sharks' activities on the inside and Wade's breakthrough.
Even in the 2006 Finals, he averaged 13.8 points per game, the second-largest scorer in the team after Wade and higher than the Sharks, who had already passed their peak.
If Walker could play in the NBA today, it is estimated that he will be happy.
In the current league, which forward doesn't make a three-pointer?
A space-oriented talent like Walker who can open up space outside the three-point line, but also has a good single-handed and back-up kung fu, and does not lose money defensively.
For teams with a super ball-holding core like James, Harden, and Doncic, it's the perfect second (three) boss and sub-attacker.
Walker himself doesn't have to be criticized for his "beloved" three-pointer, as he did then.
Now he will become the most scarce "space talent" in the league.