Tag: Mitch Richmond

All-Time Sacramento Kings vs. All-Time Denver Nuggets

Our next match features two teams that would be really fun to watch. The battle between the All-Time Sacramento Kings vs. All-Time Denver Nuggets should be highly competitive, with an abundance of scoring and fast-paced action. Who would come out on top? Each team has several key advantages.

Sacramento’s Advantages

Dominant guard play: The Kings will be led by their guard play, with five Hall-of-Famers in their backcourt. Oscar Robertson and Tiny Archibald will dictate the pace for their starting unit, and Bob Davies, Bobby Wanzer, and Mitch Richmond will lead the bench unit. Expect them to experiment with three guard lineups, which will be particularly effective when Richmond is paired with two of the three lead guards, to help space the floor. Denver does have solid backcourt defenders in Fat Lever and Chauncey Billups, and the Kings do not have a good defensive counter for David Thompson. Despite this, Sacramento has a deeper backcourt.

Battle of the boards: Sacramento has one of the great rebounders in NBA history, Jerry Lucas, alongside double-double machine Chris Webber and Oscar Robertson, who can also dominate the glass. While Denver’s Fat Lever should be able to cancel out Robertson, Bobby Jones and Dan Issel will have a lot of trouble with the other two. Expect Dikembe Mutombo, Denver’s best rebounder and defender, to get heavy minutes in this series.

Three-point shooting: The Kings’ playmaking guards will have a field day when Richmond and Peja Stojakovic are on the floor. This team can experiment with modern NBA basketball for periods of each game, with Peja as a stretch four.

Denver’s Advantages

Defensive versatility: Normally, the Nuggets aren’t associated with defense, but they have several stoppers who will loom large in this series. Bobby Jones is the one of the great defenders ever, and will see time against Jack Twyman, Jerry Lucas, and Chris Webber. Dikembe Mutombo and Marcus Camby were excellent rim protectors who will each be needed to slow down the penetrating Archibald and the other Kings scorers at the rim.

Wing scoring: Sacramento doesn’t have the personnel to stop David Thompson, Alex English, Carmelo Anthony, and Kiki Vandeweghe. Denver can experiment with lineups where three of these individuals play together, which could be an excellent counter to Sacramento’s small ball lineups.

X-Factor

Sacramento’s defense: Can the Kings get any stops with a lineup that doesn’t include any all-NBA defenders? None of the Kings from the modern era were known for their work on the defensive side of the ball, so they may be forced to outscore the Nuggets to have a chance to win the series.

Results

Run-and-gun. This series goes back and forth, with many high scoring encounters. Sacramento struggles defensively, as expected, with Thompson, Issel, and English repeatedly burning them. In the deciding game, Oscar Robertson controls the action, and the Kings outrebound Denver in a close affair.

Sacramento wins, four games to three.

Next Round

Sacramento faces the All-Time Spurs.

All-Time Sacramento Kings Team

All-Time Sacramento Kings Team Infographic 2

Our next franchise has been in existence for 67 seasons. They experienced their greatest success early on, winning the NBA Finals in their third year. They’re very well-traveled, going from Rochester, to Cincinnati, to Kansas City, to Sacramento, then almost to Seattle, but ultimately staying in Sacramento for the foreseeable future. In recent seasons, they’ve been defined by bad ownership; first, by a family who desperately tried to move them yet again, and currently, by a man who seems to have been planted by their competitors in an effort to ruin the franchise. When you’ve been in existence for so long, however, you’re likely to have employed several memorable players, which is certainly the case here. The 13th seed in our tournament, the All-Time Sacramento Kings team has a nice mix of stars from throughout their long history.

The starting backcourt consists of Hall-of-Famers Tiny Archibald and Oscar Robertson. Tiny famously led the league in both scoring and assists in 1973, averaging a mind-blowing 34.0 PPG and 11.4 APG. A master at driving and drawing fouls, he was one of the great playmakers of his era. Oscar was one of the great playmakers of any era; in addition to averaging a triple-double in his second season in the league, he cumulatively averaged a triple-double over his first five seasons (30.3 PPG, 10.4 RPG, 10.6 APG). He made the All-NBA first team in his first nine seasons, and won the only MVP award in franchise history. While both were primary ball handlers, they have a nice mix of quickness (Tiny) and strength (Oscar), and should fit together to form one of the most talented backcourts in this tournament. Off the bench, Bob Davies was one of the first playmakers in league history, and was one of 10 players selected to the league’s 25th anniversary team. His former backcourt mate, Bobby Wanzer, was a nominee for that team, and, like Davies, was elected to the Hall of Fame. They’re joined by fellow Hall-of-Famer Mitch Richmond, who was one of the best shooters of his era, and the high-scoring Otis Birdsong, who ranks in the top-10 in NBA history in field goal percentage for a guard.

The starting small forward, Hall-of-Famer Jack Twyman, was a dynamic scorer who, along with Wilt Chamberlain in 1960, became the first player in league history to average over 30 points per game in a season. Twyman’s career is often defined by his beautiful alliance with Maurice Stokes, but he was also a great player, who adds more firepower for this explosive unit. He’s joined by fellow Hall-of-Famer Jerry Lucas, who’s fourth in league history in rebounds per game. Lucas’s famous jumper will help space the floor for this starting unit. They’re joined in the starting lineup by Chris Webber, one of the most talented big men of his era who was a uniquely gifted passer, in addition to his scoring and rebounding prowess. Off the bench, Peja Stojakovic is the one of the greatest shooters ever, currently ranking 10th on the all-time list for made three point field goals. He’s joined by Hall-of-Famer Arnie Risen, one of the first great big men in league history, who helped lead the team to their only title, and all-star Wayne Embry, who will spend minutes at both center and power forward.

One of the tricky parts of a tournament like this is determining how to compare players from different eras. Risen, Davies, and Wanzer played a completely different game from Webber and Stojakovic. The 6’9” Risen earned the nickname ‘Stilts’ due to his tremendous height, but he was built like a modern-day small forward. He and Embry had more than enough size for their eras, but are physically outmatched by the modern-day athletes they will surely encounter in this tournament. I’ll do my best to contextualize these match ups, and not discount the league’s pioneers. This team has great potential, considering the relative dominance of many of its stars.

Coach: Les Harrison

All-Time Franchise Winning Percentage (through 2014-15): .460