The depths of the NBA offseason are fertile ground for counterfactual analysis given the paucity of news available for fan consumption, and it is not just blog boys doing the speculation. In a recent episode of his “Gil’s Arena” podcast, former NBAer Gilbert Arenas ignited a debate on his show by suggesting that Boston Celtics Hall of Fame big man Kevin Garnett could have surpassed fellow HoFer Tim Duncan in renown if he had been drafted by the San Antonio Spurs (h/t ColdWire’s Brandon Marcus).
“What I am saying is if you switch them, you’ve got one who is coming on a team that is already dominant,” said Arenas, referring to putting KG on Duncan’s Spurs, who bounced back in a big way with 56 wins the season after they drafted Old Man Riverwalk. “And he’s just a fill-in piece … versus KG coming onto a bad team and having to work himself up and build that,” added Agent Zero (as Arenas was sometimes called).
Buy Celtics Tickets“99% of No. 1 picks are going to bottom-feeding teams where you have to build that legacy yourself,” he added. “Then there’s these ‘greats,’ they’re considered top-10 players of this game that when you look at where they got drafted, they got drafted that came out the gates winning 60 games.”
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“50 wins every year,” continued Arenas, referring to San Antonio’s bad season after star David Robinson broke his foot. “They just had that one bad year … what if they tanked it where they got LeBron (James) to that team?”
“Do you see what (expletive) happens? … Now his whole legacy is different because he’s winning six or seven championships.”
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