Kevin Johnson or Isiah Thomas?

[colts18]

Who do you think is the better player?

[theonlyclutch]

Two penetrating PGs known for their quickness, While most would agree that 84-85 is Isiah's best year, when the team was not at its best, an apt comparison to KJ might be his 96-97 season, when he was arguably at his best as an individual player
Per 100:
KJ: 27.3/12.7/4.9, 63.1% TS, 124 ORTG, 22.9 PER
IT: 25.5/16.6/5.3, 52.9% TS, 115 ORTG, 22.2 PER

Straightaway, KJ is way more efficient offensively (by 10.2% TS and +9 ORTG), PER arguably penalizes for taking KJ for playing less on-ball duty (understandable with 33 games of Jason Kidd on the team), but it still points to a slight advantage to KJ. This was evident in team record impact as well, as the team record was 39-31 with KJ, 1-11 w/o KJ.

In terms of top team offenses, KJ led:
+5.3, +5.0, +4.7, +3.9, +2.6 offenses in 89,90,91,92 and 97 seasons respectively (Healthy seasons w/o Barkley)

Isiah lead:
+0.7, +3.9, +1.7, +1.8, +0.9, +2.5, +3.0, +1.8 offenses from 83-90, again, advantage to KJ here.

Team SRS above +5.00
KJ: 5 (4 of those seasons w/o Charles Barkley)
IT: 3
Advantage to KJ here

Just looking at the above, there's a substantial pile of evidence supporting Kevin Johnson as the better player here.

[Quotatious]

Better player to me is KJ, just far more efficient (for example Magic Johnson is the only other guy who averaged at least 20 points, 10 assists and shot 60% TS in a season), and able to lead better offenses, like theonlyclutch mentioned. Isiah had better longevity, but I'm not sure how much it really matters, considering that I'd take KJ for peak and prime.

Here's my old thread about this exact topic.

viewtopic.php?t=1304112