Top 100 NBA Players: #84 - Rod Strickland

Rod Strickland

Teams

New York Knicks - 1988-90

San Antonio Spurs - 1990-92

Portland Trail Blazers - 1992-96, 2001

Washington Bullets/Wizards - 1996-01

Miami Heat - 2001-02

Minnesota Timberwolves - 2002-03

Orlando Magic - 2003-04

Toronto Raptors - 2004

Houston Rockets - 2005

Playoffs

Appearances - 11 (1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,2001,2003)

Conference Finals - 0

NBA Finals - 0

Championships - 0

Awards and Honors

All-NBA Second Team - 1 (1994,1998)

*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)

All-Time Ranks

Total Assists - #13

Assists Per Game - #25

Total Steals - #34

Steals Per Game - #89

League Leads

Assists Per Game (#1-1998, #2-1999, #4-1995,1996, #5-1992,1997)

Total Assists (#1-1998, #3-1997, #4-1999, #5-1994,1996)

Rod Strickland was an All-American point guard for DePaul University for 3 seasons, averaging 20 points and 7.8 assists as a senior, which led to him being drafted #19 overall by his hometown New York Knicks in 1988, despite the fact that they had drafted Mark Jackson, the reigning Rookie of the Year who happened to play the same position, just a year earlier.

The Knicks used both point guards in Strickland's rookie season, and he averaged 8.9 points, good enough to make the All-Rookie Second Team, but by the next year New York realized that they couldn't keep both, so they traded Strickland to San Antonio, where he became a starter and saw his number nearly double right away.

He spent two full seasons as the Spurs' starting point guard, maintaining the same level of production he had after the trade, but only when he was on the court. He missed 24 games one season with hand and ankle injuries, then 25 more the next year in a contract dispute. After just over 2 seasons as a Spur, he was allowed to leave as a free agent, and he signed with the Portland Trail Blazers. 

In his second season with the Blazers, his production climbed to another level. He had been among the league assist leaders for the past several years, but he raised his scoring to 17.2 per game in 1994, then again to 18.9 the next year, a year when he should have made an All-NBA team but was overlooked despite his production.

After 4 seasons with Portland, he was traded to Washington, where he helped lead the franchise to its first playoff appearance in years. Even though it was the 9th straight playoff appearance for Strickland, his team bowed out in the first round for the 7th consecutive season, which was a major theme in his career.

In 1997-98, Strickland led the league in assists, averaging 10.5 per game to go along with his 17.8 points, and he was finally able to earn a spot on the All-NBA Second Team, though it came in a season where the Wizards missed the playoffs, so it was a bit bittersweet. By 2001, with the team still failing to reach the postseason, they decided to part ways.

Strickland played for 6 teams over the next 5 years, usually in a reserve role, but was never able to earn an NBA Championship, let alone a trip to the Conference Finals. Even though playoff success never came to him, he was a very solid point guard for over a decade, ranking in the top 5 in assists 6 times during the 1990s, and he still ranks #13 all-time today in assists, and that high level of play over that length of time was enough to earn him a spot among the greatest players of all time.

Top 100 NBA Players: #93

Terry Porter

(BBR: #145)

Today's entry in the all-time list is another member of the Portland Trail Blazers teams that made it to two NBA Finals in the early 1990's. For six seasons Terry Porter and Jerome Kersey started alongside each other in Portland, both hitting their peaks together during that time, then both lost their starting jobs in 1993-94 to younger players, Clifford Robinson and Rod Strickland, neither of whom ever measured up to their predecessors.

While Clyde Drexler was definitely the star and best player on those great Trail Blazer teams, without Porter and Kersey those teams would never have made it as far as they did. In both 1990 and 1992, when they advanced to the NBA Finals, Porter raised his scoring average above his regular season average by at least 3 points per game, from 17.6 to 20.6 in 1990 and from 18.1 to 21.4 in 1992. In both of those seasons he also led all playoff participants in 3-point field goals made.

Like Kersey, Porter became a championship chaser after leaving Portland, moving from team to team hoping to get that elusive ring. Kersey finally got his ring with the 1999 Spurs, and Porter joined him there the following season, but a repeat did not happen. Porter retired in 2002, just one year before San Antonio finally did get its second championship.

Now, on to the part about putting Porter ahead of Fat Lever. There are actually a lot of similarities between the two. Both were 6-3 and less than 200 pounds. Both were pretty good scorers and passers. Both had peaks that ended suddenly after their 8th season in the league. Lever was a much better rebounder, but Porter was able to hang around the league for longer. The thing that really puts Porter ahead of Lever is that he enjoyed a bit of playoff success, making it to 3 straight Western Conference Finals and 2 NBA Finals, while Lever only played in one Western Conference Final series in his career, and that was long before his peak years. Porter was never the statistical giant Lever became in the late 1980's, but Porter knew how to turn it on when it counted, which moves him just ahead of his contemporary on this list.