Your SU 5 player Street Pickup lineup

[Jake]

Pearl
Waiters
Melo
Rick Jackson
Coleman

Fixed. Rick Jackson would be my top choice to reenact Marques Johnson's role in White Men Can't Jump.

 

[Orangezoo]

Not much to add other than copying a few others. However wasn't Ronneil Herron a hell of a street ball player? I know he was a walk on but we are talking street not structured.

I would go Pearl, Dion, Poetry, Melo and DC. Give me Conrad, Devo and Bing along with Mr Herron for a little extra showtime at the end of the bench.

 

[NateW]

Dion
Tyus
Mali
Melo
Wallace

Don’t need a true 5 on the streets

You’re gonna have to guard my 1-5 on the perimeter. So much space for 1-4 to do damage on the dribble. And Wallace will school fools on the blocks.

 

[JrodCuse]

Paul Harris
Paul Harris
Paul Harris
Paul Harris
Paul Harris

Good luck. Not even 5 bill braskys could beat that team.

 

[BludOrange]

Pearl
Dave Johnson
Owens
Coleman
McRae

Flynn
Devo
Melo
Hackett
Hawkins

 

[Trueblue25]

Paul Harris
Paul Harris
Paul Harris
Paul Harris
Paul Harris

Good luck. Not even 5 bill braskys could beat that team.

This lineup made Chuck Norris flinch

 

[billsin01]

Pearl. That is all.

Thank God someone finally mentioned this. I was reading this thread and thinking to myself how old I am b/c how anyone could have a streetball team and not start with Pearl and go from there is lunacy to me.

 

[billsin01]

Pearl
DC
Devo
Melo
Myself

Can I pick myself as the 5th guy. I suck but by the time I got down the court Pearl would have already scored himself, thrown a lob to DC or hit Melo in stride trailing for a tomahawk. Also on defense I would just rely on DC blocking the shot every time my man beat me down. If this is not allowed my 5th player would be:

Dion

It would be embarrassing though when they threw you a pass and it zipped through your hands and hit you in the nose. That's the only downside I guess.

 

[Lucid]

Pearl
Dion
Melo
Hakim
DC

 

[billsin01]

Pearl
Waiters
Carmelo
Owens
Coleman

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Yes. I literally don't even feel there is an argument to be made against this five. Coleman to erase shots at the rim and all five can create offense. Only two things that matter in pickup.

For a second team? That's tougher. I'd go:
Sherm
Thompson
Dave Johnson
Wallace
McRae

My sneaky good team (guys probably not mentioned as much here but would still be tough to stop)
Scoop
Rautins
Pace
Damone Brown
Arinze

 

[OrangeDW]

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Yes. I literally don't even feel there is an argument to be made against this five. Coleman to erase shots at the rim and all five can create offense. Only two things that matter in pickup.

For a second team? That's tougher. I'd go:
Sherm
Thompson
Dave Johnson
Wallace
McRae

My sneaky good team (guys probably not mentioned as much here but would still be tough to stop)
Scoop
Rautins
Pace
Damone Brown
Arinze

I agree, Pace is a good one that’s only been mentioned once or so - his ability to only take shots that he can make translates effectively to any type of b-ball, and his automatic mid range floater is a perfect weapon for pickup ball. In fact, people used to say both Pace and Edelin had “old man at the Y” offensive games based on their smarts and their ability to get in the lane and make those floaters.

Since I listed him and he hasn’t been discussed, I’ve gotta expand on Michael Lloyd. Good, but not great player for us for one year. I do think he was one of the more talented guards we’ve had even if that didn’t fully come out. He did overall a pretty good job at the PG though his shot selection and decision making could get erratic- and we had a senior Moten at the 2 so there was not much opportunity for him to play off the ball.

I think if Lloyd could’ve ran the two on the right team at Cuse, he would’ve been a 20 ppg type scorer. He was strong, quick, explosive, good handles, and could finish at the basket - and a decent shooter too. I think he had a lot of the qualities that Devendorf and Waiters had. I would’ve liked to have seen what he could do in his second year at Cuse playing the two alongside a great distributor like Sims.

 

[721Comstock]

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Yes. I literally don't even feel there is an argument to be made against this five. Coleman to erase shots at the rim and all five can create offense. Only two things that matter in pickup.

For a second team? That's tougher. I'd go:
Sherm
Thompson
Dave Johnson
Wallace
McRae

My sneaky good team (guys probably not mentioned as much here but would still be tough to stop)
Scoop
Rautins
Pace
Damone Brown
Arinze

AO was a fine college player, and an important part of one of our best overall teams - but, he's just not that good a player.
There - I said it.

Dunno why DJ Rony isn't getting much love here in general.
He was an incredibly athletic 5, who left as one of our all-time NCAA Tournament career scorers, and then had a lengthy and very successful NBA career - made more amazing by it being the Era of the Center, where he was going against HOF level Centers almost every night, and holding his own quite well.
He averaged a double-double for his first 6 years in MIA, and nearly so for his overall career:
14.7 & 9.5.

There is no planet in any alternate universe where AO or McNasty is anybody's logical choice over Rony.

As for street-ball PG - there is only one answer: PEARL.
And I'm a massive Sherm fan, and actually liked his game & teams better than Pearl's.
But Pearl is the NYC GOAT of PG's.

 

[ORRange]

Sherm
Pearl
Stevie
Dave Johnson
DC

Run , alley oop, dunk, rinse repeat
Tough to leave Red Bruin off any street team

 

[orangefog]

How can anyone answer this question without knowing what park? We need to know the kind of rims and backboards. The surface. Is it windy? What time of day? Because, I had friends that were great in the early evenings, but if you tried to get them too early, them trying to play hung over was not pretty. That being said, I like Pearl at the point, because he is freaking Pearl. DC, Melo and Billy, because they can all rebound and score, and they are all tough. And then at the 2, I would take Cooney. He plays tough and aggressive defense and he would be open for a ton of outside shots.

 

[Eric15]

How can anyone answer this question without knowing what park?

Fair enough. For consistency purposes we will assume the game is being played on the same court where Steve Urkel and Grandmama teamed up.

 

[billsin01]

AO was a fine college player, and an important part of one of our best overall teams - but, he's just not that good a player.
There - I said it.

Dunno why DJ Rony isn't getting much love here in general.
He was an incredibly athletic 5, who left as one of our all-time NCAA Tournament career scorers, and then had a lengthy and very successful NBA career - made more amazing by it being the Era of the Center, where he was going against HOF level Centers almost every night, and holding his own quite well.
He averaged a double-double for his first 6 years in MIA, and nearly so for his overall career:
14.7 & 9.5.

There is no planet in any alternate universe where AO or McNasty is anybody's logical choice over Rony.

As for street-ball PG - there is only one answer: PEARL.
And I'm a massive Sherm fan, and actually liked his game & teams better than Pearl's.
But Pearl is the NYC GOAT of PG's.

These are all good arguments and valid points. I think I tend to overrate Arinze. I will say that we haven't had many more efficient players in the low post, however. A healthier Arinze was pretty darn tough in 07-08 (13 and 8 on 63% shooting in 30 mpg). The later Arinze wasn't quite as tough on the glass but still -- senior year throwing up 10 and 5 on 67% shooting with just 1 TO a game in 22 mpg for an absolutely filthy team is pretty impressive. I also loved that he knew exactly what he was and what he was not -- just get to the low block, try to get position and if he did that and we got him the ball, it was basically automatic. There's something to be said for that.

But Rony is a fair point. I think my issue with Rony is that I was too young to appreciate just how phenomenal his contributions were. I was too busy being completely enamored with Stevie, Sherm and DC to understand that Rony was a great player and that Matt Roe was a solid contributor for that matter. That's the only explanation I can think of b/c dude waspretty freaking impressive.

 

[Eric15]

I also loved that he knew exactly what he was and what he was not -- just get to the low block, try to get position and if he did that and we got him the ball, it was basically automatic. There's something to be said for that.

Agreed -- AO had a calmness to his game in the low post that I loved, and that we haven't really had since except maybe Rak as a senior.

 

[tbonezone]

street ball to me means finishing with contact. it's not about whether there's a foul it's how many. no calls all balls get to the rim.
used to have some great scrums at Lee Hall Oswego. fancy nancy's played up on the hill at laker. battle and ramel rock lloyd are good picks.

 

[billsin01]

Not much to add other than copying a few others. However wasn't Ronneil Herron a hell of a street ball player? I know he was a walk on but we are talking street not structured.

I would go Pearl, Dion, Poetry, Melo and DC. Give me Conrad, Devo and Bing along with Mr Herron for a little extra showtime at the end of the bench.

I'd throw Tony Scott on the bench too for some fun during mop up situations.

 

[OrangeDW]

These are all good arguments and valid points. I think I tend to overrate Arinze. I will say that we haven't had many more efficient players in the low post, however. A healthier Arinze was pretty darn tough in 07-08 (13 and 8 on 63% shooting in 30 mpg). The later Arinze wasn't quite as tough on the glass but still -- senior year throwing up 10 and 5 on 67% shooting with just 1 TO a game in 22 mpg for an absolutely filthy team is pretty impressive. I also loved that he knew exactly what he was and what he was not -- just get to the low block, try to get position and if he did that and we got him the ball, it was basically automatic. There's something to be said for that.

But Rony is a fair point. I think my issue with Rony is that I was too young to appreciate just how phenomenal his contributions were. I was too busy being completely enamored with Stevie, Sherm and DC to understand that Rony was a great player and that Matt Roe was a solid contributor for that matter. That's the only explanation I can think of b/c dude waspretty freaking impressive.

Yup. I thought Arinze was VERY good. I thought he was vastly underutilized in his soph and junior years which drove me nuts. Those guys just didn’t feed him enough IMO.

Senior year his minutes were limited as he was already having knee(?) problems and we had a great rotation and Jackson was also very good at the C spot, but like you said he was still very effective. AO played some effective 10 day contract stints in the league while being an undersized center with bad wheels in an era where his type of game was being phased out in terms of style of play. If he was 6’11 with good wheels in the 90’s, I think he’s a solid starter/first post off the bench for years in the NBA.

And I have no idea why I skipped over Seikaly. He’s gotta be up there, definitely one of the best big men SU has ever had.

 

[Trueblue25]

Feel like senior year rak is unstoppable in any environment. Street, court, the moon.

 

[OrangeDW]

Not much to add other than copying a few others. However wasn't Ronneil Herron a hell of a street ball player? I know he was a walk on but we are talking street not structured.

I would go Pearl, Dion, Poetry, Melo and DC. Give me Conrad, Devo and Bing along with Mr Herron for a little extra showtime at the end of the bench.

Are you mixing Herron up with Tyrone Albright? I could be wrong, but I feel like you are.

Both were two of our better walkons though, IMO.

 

[MadNY3]

Great topic.

Dion
Pearl
Moten
Melo
Jeremy McNeil

 

[MSOrange]

Yup. I thought Arinze was VERY good. I thought he was vastly underutilized in his soph and junior years which drove me nuts. Those guys just didn’t feed him enough IMO.

Senior year his minutes were limited as he was already having knee(?) problems and we had a great rotation and Jackson was also very good at the C spot, but like you said he was still very effective. AO played some effective 10 day contract stints in the league while being an undersized center with bad wheels in an era where his type of game was being phased out in terms of style of play. If he was 6’11 with good wheels in the 90’s, I think he’s a solid starter/first post off the bench for years in the NBA.

And I have no idea why I skipped over Seikaly. He’s gotta be up there, definitely one of the best big men SU has ever had.

Very much agree that AO was underutilized and it drives me crazy when people just look at the stats to determine how good he was. Yes that was ultimately his production, but he could have been even better if he got the ball more. Absolutely automatic. Plus he's the captain of my "Guys I'll jump behind if a brawl breaks out" team.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Dion-Pearl-Melo-Wallace-DC