Which Of These Shooting Guards Was Manu Ginobili Better Than, All-Time?

[Dr Aki]

This guy was a 1A on a gold medal winning Argentina team.

He's better than all of them

[dantas]

Yeah, they say Manu was never the alpha, but Manu as the main player destroyed an American team with Iverson, Duncan.
Not just any American high school team, like Dennis Schröder did, but some of the biggest stars of the generation.

Manu was better than everyone on the list, but he sacrificed big stats in favor of winning championships.

[JinKaz69]

McGrady and Allen over Ginobili.

I take Ginobili over Iverson (very entertaining but highly overrated) and Carter (debatable, I like VC but I never considered him as a winning player)

[JinKaz69]

All of the guards listed above were below average defenders, something Manu was better at. Offensively, obviously they were better but Manu was the more complete player. And also, a winner, unlike the 4 above.

Ray and T-Mac weren't below average defenders and Iverson when focused could be a good defender.

[Speedlot]

All of the above

[G R E Y]

That's 4-time NBA champion, and Olympic Gold Medalist Manu. Accepted a bench role when he was easily a starter Manu.

If it comes to BBIQ, Manu tops this list, and that alongside relentless drive keeps him there.

[Karate Diop]

When you're saying "better than" what do you really mean?

- Better overall basketball career?
- Better overall NBA career?
- Better peak stretch of basketball?
- Better lead option (this is one of those comparisons that is tough because I don't know that we ever truly saw Manu in this role while we did see the others)

[bovice]

it all depends on who else is on the team and what ur goals are. if u have 4 scrubs and need an sg, mcgrady will get u more wins. if u have an established #1 and good role players around him, a ray Allen or Ginobili will adjust to a 2nd/3rd option role a lot easier.

[Doug_12]

Yeah, they say Manu was never the alpha, but Manu as the main player destroyed an American team with Iverson, Duncan.
Not just any American high school team, like Dennis Schröder did, but some of the biggest stars of the generation.

Manu was better than everyone on the list, but he sacrificed big stats in favor of winning championships.

Yeah, those were not the biggest stars of that generation. Duncan and AI were the only two players on that team, who would've have made it even when everyone is available. This is probably the hypothetical Team USA of that year:
Shaq / Big Ben
Duncan / Jermaine O'Neal
Garnett / Artest / Pierce
Kobe / McGrady / Allen
Kidd / Iverson

[scrabbarista]

For peak, I'd put Manu at the top.

For career, he's well above T-Mac and Carter.

I'd probably go Iverson, Allen, then Ginobili for career, but I think any order among these three might be defensible.

[scrabbarista]

That's 4-time NBA champion, and Olympic Gold Medalist Manu. Accepted a bench role when he was easily a starter Manu.

If it comes to BBIQ, Manu tops this list, and that alongside relentless drive keeps him there.

To call Manu "a starter" is almost an injustice. In his prime, he was clearly an All-NBA level player.

[JinKaz69]

For peak, I'd put Manu at the top.

For career, he's well above T-Mac and Carter.

I'd probably go Iverson, Allen, then Ginobili for career, but I think any order among these three might be defensible.

You put peak Gino over peak T-Mac ?

[scrabbarista]

For peak, I'd put Manu at the top.

For career, he's well above T-Mac and Carter.

I'd probably go Iverson, Allen, then Ginobili for career, but I think any order among these three might be defensible.

You put peak Gino over peak T-Mac ?

Yes, but to be fair, this is based on a formula I used in the past, and that formula weighed the postseason pretty heavily. I'd have zero problems with someone saying 2003 McGrady is the best player here. It's just not how I measure things.

[SelfishPlayer]

Manu came off of the bench and played with guys that are better than him. His legacy is cemented as a Spurs product. If he wanted true individual greatness perhaps he should have demanded being a starter or forced a trade.

[DwayneSchintzus]

I understand why people say all those guys are "better" than Manu.

If I want to win a game, I take Manu over all of them.

[GregOden]

In a playoff series? Over all of them. He'd have more floor impact and every minute he's on the floor his team will outscore the other by a bigger margin when he's on the floor, and when he's off the floor there'd be a bigger deficit as a result.

[f4p]

vote ginobili wherever but people really need to get over beating 2004 Team USA as an accomplishment for manu. Carlos Arroyo and puerto rico worked that team over by 20 points. The lost at least 1 game, and i think 2 games, in group play. and finished 6th in the 2002 world championships even before that. like its almost harder to find a team that didn't beat that team.

[MrGoat]

I have T Mac and AI clearly ahead of him. Vince is an interesting call, as is Ray Allen.

Honestly getting to play with Duncan made him a bit overrated. I'm taking the none of the above option even though some people will get triggered by that

[dhsilv2]

Of the 12 people who voted AI, I wonder how many even watched him play. He warped defenses in a way Manu never could. And if you didn't scheme your defense around stopping him then he'd single handedly beat you. Manu didn't have to face that kind of attention.

AI was one of if not my favorite player once MJ retired. I can't imagine anyone would put AI over Manu. I mean, I can see people are doing it. But Manu was just on another level overall. AI was a volume scorer, a work horse, and easily one of the toughest guys ever. But he's smaller, he's weaker, he's significantly worse on and off ball defensively, he isn't as good a shooter, he doesn't finish at the rim as well, and the gap as a passer is night and day. I'm not sure Manu could have done AI's job. I don't know if he could night in and night out carry a scoring load that large. I'm 100% sure AI couldn't do what Manu did and I'll go further and say the gap would be so massive it would be comical.

[MartyConlonJr]

Amazingly he was 8th in MVP voting in 2010-2011.

That is a higher peak than Ray Allen and Vince Carter.

Personally I can't think of a year where I thought he was a top 8 player in the league, and I did like him.