The amount to which you use him and the version of Wilt you have will determine this. When a player in his early 20s enters the game and takes 25 shots, he is most likely hitting.600. That’s 30 points plus fouls. Assuming he fouls six times a game, that is 12 tries, 6 of which he makes, for a total of 36 points. He’s taking 12 shots, making 9, for a total of 18 points if he’s playing selective defense, relying on ORBs and trying to pass. Add in four fouls, for a total of four points, or 22 points.
It’s conservative to say this. Wilt benefits from modern travel regulations. Wilt benefits from modern defensive policies that forbid harsh play and handchecks. Wilt gains from modern strategies and spacing. Wilt is aided by the lack of excellent defensive centers. Really, he would get you anything you asked him to.
Wilt was routinely double- and triple-teamed, hand-checked, and mugged during his heyday, when he was also scoring and grabbing rebounds at rates never before seen in a basketball player.
It wouldn’t be feasible to put as many defenders on Wilt if he played for a team that had good outside shooters today.
The hand-checking rules favored defenders when Wilt was on the field. The rules these days favor the attack. What would Wilt do now if no one could stop him from getting hand-checked, mugged, and double- and triple-teamed?
Wilt had a higher vertical and was larger, heavier, and more powerful than Giannis. Photographs exist showing Wilt holding his hands toward the top of the backboard. Compared to Giannis, Wilt was a more proficient mid-range shooter. He had a fadeaway bank shot that was impossible to stop. It seems sense, then, that Wilt is superior to Giannis.
Despite being double- and triple-teamed, Wilt was pulling down 25–27 rebounds every game. If one smaller man were defending him today, how many rebounds would he grab?
Based on over 100 box scores with block records, Wilt blocked 8.8 shots per game. In the current game, he would have won defensive player of the year several times.
Wilt would make contemporary centers blush, as the legendary Jerry West said in his LOGO.
Finally, I believe that Wilt would be even more dominant in the modern era—a taller, heavier, stronger, more athletic, and jump higher—with a superior mid-range jump shot.
