Is Zach Randolph a Hall of Famer?
The Return of Rudy Gay
Before we discuss Randolph and his Hall of Fame chances let’s take some time and talk about the game on Wednesday night against the Rudy Gay Toronto Raptors. It was a mixed review of cheers and boos for Gay after 6 and half years with the Grizzlies, and this was his first visit back to Memphis. Gay played really well scoring 23 points, hitting 4 threes; he also had 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals, and 2 blocks. Too bad the Grizzlies did not get up for this game as much as Gay and the other Raptor players. For starters the first quarter was another slow start; actually the Grizzlies are 29th in the league in first quarter scoring at 20 points. However, the starting lineup has stayed the same for all 8 games. I was under the impression the start of the season was a time to tinker with the lineups and that included the starting lineup. Joerger is going to have to figure out the lineups sooner rather than later or it is going to get bad quickly. However, the first quarter was not the worst part of the game as the Grizzlies only scored 16 points in the 4th quarter sealing their fate with a loss to the Raptors at home. This feels like the low point of the season, it will be interesting to see how the team handles it from here.
Zach Randolph a Hall of Famer?
Is Zach Randolph worthy of the Hall of Fame?(NBA.com photo)
Over the past couple of weeks I have been pondering Zach Randolph’s achievements and statistics, as he is forgotten as one of the great power forwards in the game today. He is currently in his 13th year as a professional after playing one year at Michigan State and helping them reach the Final Four. He started his career a little slow; however, in his 3rd year with the Trailblazer he averaged a double-double with 20.1 points per game and 10.5 rebounds. He won Most Improved player that year, because the year before he averaged 8 points and 4 rebounds. From this season on his has averaged 20 and 10 in 4 other seasons and when he had a “down year” he averaged above 17 points and 8 rebounds until 2011 when he was injured for most of the year. Now at the age of 32, he will be 33 in January, he is still putting up strong numbers, including 15 points and 11 rebounds per game last year as he lead the Grizzlies to the Western Conference Finals.
For some perspective on Randolph and his numbers let’s look at some Hall of Famers and future inductees. First Randolph is currently at for his career 17.1 points and 9.3 rebounds, these numbers could move a little bit if he continues to play for another 2-3 years, but you get the idea. Furthermore, Randolph had a career year in the 06-07 year when he averaged 23.6 points and 10.1 rebounds. First Hall of Famer is James Worthy, he played with all those great Laker teams, and he averaged 17.6 points and 5.1 rebounds for his career. Worthy’s greatest year he averaged 21.4 points and 6.4 rebounds. Second Hall of Famer is Kevin McHale who was one of the big three with Bird and Parrish, McHale averaged 18.2 points and 4.1 rebounds for his career. McHale did have a huge year where he averaged 26.5 points and 5.9 rebounds. Now with both Worthy and McHale they did play at a different time and both of them did win multiple championships while playing alongside other Hall of Famers, so it is hard to compare directly, but Randolph’s numbers are similar and even better in some areas. Lastly if you look at the future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett, his numbers for his career are 19 points and 10.4 rebounds. Now Garnett did win the MVP in 2004 and his best year of numbers were 24.2 points and 13.9 rebounds, furthermore, Garnett has many other awards that Randolph does not. However, if you simply look at numbers they are very similar to Garnett, who is considered to be a sure fire Hall of Famer.
Now I am not sure if Randolph will get into the Hall of Fame, however, I do believe that his numbers give him a good chance. The real key will come down to these next few years for him, if he can help the Grizzlies take it to the next level and get to the Finals it will only help his chances even more.
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