Haberstroh: Blazers Had One Of The Best Big Threes In NBA History

Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com digs into the advanced stats to produce this interesting look at the best "Big 3" combinations of players in NBA history.

The Portland Trail Blazers' combination of Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter and Jerome Kersey ranks eighth on his list of the top 10 since 1974.

For this study, I considered every potential star trio in the NBA since 1974. Why 1974? That's the first season that the NBA officially tracked turnovers. Using that as a starting point allows us to measure each player using the same rubric. Turnovers are a pretty big deal.

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Don't think of this Blazers trio as a Big Three? Think again. Clyde Drexler and two-time All-Star Terry Porter made up one of the best backcourts of the Jordan era, and Jerome Kersey was no slouch either. Most youngsters these days remember Kersey as the washed-up vet on the 1999 Spurs championship squad, but Kersey was a big-time rebounder and defender at small forward for the Blazers and helped push them to two Finals appearances.

If the rise of this Blazers' core hadn't run parallel with the "Bad Boy" Pistons and Jordan's Bulls, we probably would think of them much differently.

The top three overall on the list...

1) Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish (Boston Celtics)

2) Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant (Chicago Bulls)

3) Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili (San Antonio Spurs)

Hat tip: Casey Holdahl, Blazers.com

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter