Wallace, Bosh, Pierce and Webber walked so the modern NBA could run
- Co-author, Pro Basketball Prospectus series
- Formerly a consultant with the Indiana Pacers
- Developed WARP rating and SCHOENE system
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will welcome four NBA All-Stars from the modern era Saturday: 11-time All-Star Chris Bosh, 2008 Finals MVP Paul Pierce, four-time Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace and four-time All-NBA pick Chris Webber.
Although it has been four years since any of them played in the NBA (Pierce was the most recent to retire in 2017), their impact on the league during the 2000s and 2010s continues to be felt. All four players, who debuted between 1993 (Webber) and 2003 (Bosh), were contributors to the NBA’s shift from the isolation-heavy and post-heavy basketball of the 1990s and 2000s to the modern game of passing, shooting and clashes at the rim.
In two skilled big men, one player who was seemingly too small for his role and a big, playmaking wing in Pierce, the four Hall of Famers paved the way for superstars who are dominating the league now.
Ahead of their Hall of Fame induction, let’s take a look at some modern analogues for each of the four Hall of Famers and a deeper look at how their unique skill sets live on in the NBA.
Chris Bosh: The stretch-5
Because our strongest memories of Bosh are from his four trips to the NBA Finals with the Miami Heat, it’s easy to forget now that he wasn’t a prolific 3-point shooter early in his career. Over his seven seasons with the Toronto Raptors and his first two in Miami, Bosh never made more than 12 triples in a season.
That changed during the 2012 playoffs.
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