HeartBreakKid wrote:VanWest82 wrote:Horace Grant being in anyone's top 100 list is absolutely nuts. When you play with MJ and Shaq, you're going to have good plus/minus.
I love how you're arguing about +/- even though Grant didn't have any.
You've got a point about his fixation on +/- when people aren't talking about that, but it's not true we don't have any Grant data.
The first year we have +/- data for the league is '93-94, so we know Grant from then onward.
So, we know, for example that Grant led the Bulls in raw +/- that year, we know he was 3rd on the Magic the next year behind Penny & Shaq, and we know that the next year he had a higher raw +/- than Shaq and a higher On +/- rate than Penny.
After that it's '96-97 and we have more and better data, but of course Grant by that point is also 31 and on a team that's beginning to fall apart.
Regarding his place in the Top 100, it's certainly understandable people find it surprising. There are bigger stars not on the list. I wouldn't want to die on the hill saying Grant has to be there, but I do think 2 things need to be front of mind when trying to understand why he's on the list:
1. Grant had a long career. He was one of the core 5 players on the 2001 Laker GOAT-candidate playoff run at age 35. That alone wouldn't make him make the list of course, but it must be remember that the Top 100 is about Career not Peak.
2. When comparing Grant to others, who would you rather have if you were trying to build a dynasty? You obviously don't want Grant to try to lead you to a dynasty, but NBA history is full of alphas whose game is basically incompatible with truly top-tier NBA team basketball because you need a better alpha than them to do it and they don't know how to gamma.