Kenny Smith recently joined Rasheed Wallace and Bonzi Wells’ “Let’s Get Technical” podcast. In comparing their era vs. today’s NBA, he contemplated how great they would be in 2021.
Regardless of whether basketball is played in the future, or even who plays, there’s one aspect of the game that we can be assured will survive the test of time: the comparing players and eras. In a recent appearance on Let’s Get Technical, Kenny “The Jet” Smith joined Rasheed Wallace and Bonzi Wells, and offered an interesting take on the former Portland Trail Blazers players.
"“I’m not taking anything from today’s players, but if you two guys played in today’s era — I’m going to steal Charles’ (Barkley) line — you would be driving to games in a spaceship. Y’all would be making so much money.”“Scoring came easy for y’all. That was the easiest part of the game. So imagine, no hand-check, shoot threes out of memory. This dude was shooting left-handed threes. The ability to just take shots at a premium when you’re a scorer. I couldn’t even imagine y’all in this era.”"
Smith’s take is a riveting one, especially given his major role on those mid-1990s Houston Rockets teams that pioneered where the game was soon to be heading — a superstar with gravitational pull and a bevy of long range snipers who forced defenses to pay if they attempted to double. He has a point, especially in how offensively-aided today’s game is, as well as the pace.
Rasheed Wallace has long been considered the “perfect” player in the modern NBA, a stretch-five with the defensive moxie needed to be an All-Star caliber player. Smith appears to imply that both would be stars in today’s league based on that quote. In considering Wells, it’s certainly not an everyday discussion.
Wells’ numbers don’t read as that of a star; the best years of his career came when he aided Portland’s world-class second unit, using brute strength in post play, and the perimeter shooting chops to boot. He was also an exceptionally talented rebounder for a 6-foot-5 guard.
Out of sheer curiosity and interest in Smith’s take, here’s how Wallace and Wells’ numbers line up, per 100 possessions. For reference, the average NBA game in 2019-20 uses 100.3 possessions per game. In 2001-02, the best individual seasons for Wallace and Wells together, the average game used just 90.7 possessions. Why run-and-gun when Dale Davis and Shawn Kemp post-ups are an option? Regardless, here’s how the numbers play out.
Portland Trail Blazers: Wallace and Wells’ stats, adjusted to 2019-20’s pace:
Bonzi Wells:
— 26.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 2.7 steals per game on 47.4 percent from the field, 34.4 percent from 3-point range, and 70.5 percent from the free throw line.
Rasheed Wallace:
— 25.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.9 blocks per game on 49.7 percent from the field, 33.9 percent from 3-point range (on 3.1 attempts), and 71.3 percent from the free throw line.
Of course, this is purely hypothetical. To suggest that an NBA team would allow Wells to shoot 22.1 shots per game, a number only three players leaguewide surpassed is, in a way, laughable. This also doesn’t take into account emotions. Those who watched Rasheed Wallace knew that he was more comfortable scoring 16 points, and allowing teammates to shine, than getting 25 points.
But, it is an entertaining take to ponder over with no Portland Trail Blazers games in the foreseeable future. There’s something to the theory that they certainly would have more success in a less-tougher era. Unfortunately, though, we’ll never quite be sure if that spaceship declaration will ever come to fruition.