Post by Rog on Apr 25, 2018 22:41:24 GMT
The 118th nominee, and first from a loaded but not big 2029 class is Sergey Karasev. Karasev came into the league after three seasons overseas in Russia and absolutely balled out. He was a destructive scorer, great defender, and just did a lot of things. Were those things good enough overall to be a Hall of Famer? Lets take a look.
Career Stats
36.6 MPG, 25.4 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 2.2 SPG, 0.2 BPG, 1.8 TOPG on 46.9% from the field, 90.3% from the line, and 43% from three
Best Season
Warriors(2016) - 30.7 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 4.1 APG, 2.4 SPG, 1.9 TOPG on 47.3% from the field, 88.6% from the line, and 43.7% from three
Career Highs
Points: 56
Rebounds: 15
Assists: 14
Steals: 9
Blocks: 2
Achievements
Championships: 0
Player of the Game: 138
Player of the Week: 2
Player of the Month: 0
Double Doubles: 69
Triple Doubles: 0
Career Leaderboard Rankings
Points - 25th
Steals - 15th
3 Pointers- 16th
Awards
2016 - 3-Point Shootout Champion
2016 - All-Star Game Participant
2016 - All-League Second Team
2017 - All-Star Game Participant
2018 - All-Star Game Participant
2018 - All-League Third Team
2018 - All-Defensive Team
2019 - All-Star Game Participant
2020 - All-League Third Team
2022 - All-Star Game Participant
2022 - All-League Second Team
2023 - All-Star Game Participant
2023 - All-League Third Team
Arguments For Induction
- Karasev won a 3-Point Shootout proving how elite he was shooting from deep. Karasev played in All-Star Games and was named to a All-Defensive First team, two All-League Second teams and three All-League Third teams.
- Karasev was an absolutely elite scorer, one of the best in league history. In 15 of 16 seasons in the league he averaged over 20 points per game. In seven of those seasons he averaged over 26 points per game, an elite benchmark. Not only could he do it in bulk, and he did as he was 25th in points, he was absolutely elite in how well he could put the ball in the hole. In 10 of 16 seasons he shot over 47% from the field, while taking over 20 shots a game, which is absolutely incredible. He shot 43.5% or better from three in 8 of those 16 seasons, again an absolute incredible number considering his volume. Add that to consistently over 93% from the line in his prime.
- Like Fox, Karasev was just as good defensively as he was offensively. He regularly appeared on the Best Defenders lists when they were posted, proving he was an elite perimeter defender. Not only that, he was named to an All-Defensive First team as well. And unlike Fox, Karasev was actually proficient at generating steals, averaging over 2 for most of his career. In fact he only had 3 seasons in his entire career where he was under 2 steals, two of those seasons being 1.9. He averaged 2.2 for his career and was 15th all time in steals. Just a fantastic defender.
- Bringing more depth to his offensive game, Karasev was an adept distributor at the 2. He averaged 4 assists per game for his career, which is an elite number for a shooting guard. All of this volume he did and he only averaged 2.2 turnovers for his career, only getting over 2.5 once in his career. He even had seasons where he was averaging more than 5 assists per game. In fact he averaged 4.5 or more assists in his career five times.
- Overall, he was just an incredible player. He has solid All-Time counting stats, was statistically dominant in his prime, and had the under the hood ratings to prove he was an elite player. The awards are there and you just can't deny his impact on the teams he played for, almost all of them elite. The only real mark on his resume is a lack of a title but considering how close his teams came, that can't be held on just him. He is a Hall of Fame, without a doubt.
Arguments Against Induction
- He is just a little short on accolades, someone so elite you'd expect so more awards, especially when it comes to weekly awards(only two) and monthly(none). Plus with no title, you have to wonder how good he actually was.
- Weak rebounder. Averaged only 5 a game for his career, which isn't detrimental but a star player you want to help out in all elements and he was below average on the boards.
- Overall, its impossible to mount much of a case against but the couple of things, including being somewhat turnover prone, do puncture his case a bit. Overall its your choice to decide whether those issues are big enough to really vote agianst him or if they are just small things in an otherwise elite career.
Vote carefully, and remember to throw out arguments regardless of which side you're on. This should be a discussion that eventually gets the league to the proper decision on him. Your vote can also be retracted after it's been cast if you feel like switching to the other side based on the arguments that have been made. To be inducted, a player needs 70% and to be considered in a later class they need 50%. Vote carefully.
***BONUS - Don't forget that everyone who votes gets $25 and the person that makes the best argument or contributes to the discussion the best will be awarded an extra $25***
. Dude was a star.
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