Today’s NBA: Karl Malone vs Dirk Nowitzki

[penbeast0]

Malone would be Guerschon Yabusele in today’s NBA.

And Dirk would be Patrick Baldwin, Jr.

Seriously, these are both great players with great physical abilities, skill sets, and work ethics. Both are going to be able to translate to at least the Julius Randle level of ability and probably both would be significantly better.

[EmpireFalls]

Malone would be Guerschon Yabusele in today’s NBA.

And Dirk would be Patrick Baldwin, Jr.

Seriously, these are both great players with great physical abilities, skill sets, and work ethics. Both are going to be able to translate to at least the Julius Randle level of ability and probably both would be significantly better.

Dirk is more of a Mike Muscala imo.

[tsherkin]

Karl Malone was not a defensive anchor but was very good defensively.
Karl Malone was significantly better than Dirk defensively.

With you so far.

I am not aware of any 1990s year when there were 5 starting forwards better at defense than Karl Malone.

You're probably right, I just... don't know if it matters. The pressure he exerted as a defender wasn't that hot, and was primarily based on post defense, and far less so about defending in space. So that utility was strong enough in-era, but less so forward in time.

Just because the league chucks 3s like crazy now does not mean that the league needs 3 point shooting more than it needed 3 point shooting in the 1990s. If fact it is the opposite; when 3 point shooters were more scarce 3 point shooter were more valuable in the 1990s. 1980s are different because the few good 3 point shooters the league had in the 1980s might only shoot 1 3 per game. 1980s players and coaches did not understand the value of the 3 and did not understand that normal players should be capable of hitting 3s.

Not sure where you're going with this. Dirk wasn't a high-volume 3pt shooter and that aspect isn't really prominent in my argument. He drew fouls, he was a slasher, he was a mid-range scorer, a post scorer AND he had range. He was a 3-level scorer and much more proficient at that skill in the postseason than was Malone. That's more the point. And now you couple that to truly elite defense and playmaking, which overcomes both of Dirk's meaningful weaknesses.

The fact that we are a 3 points shooting league now is not an advantage for Dirk in a comparison to Malone. Karl Malone would benefit from the smalls being better at shooting 3s now more than Dirk would benefit from the improved 3 point shooting of the smalls.

Yes, Malone would benefit from the spacing. But he's still be kinda meh at isolation scoring, still wouldn't be a hot face-up slasher, would still be heavily dependent on a jumper which was less proficient than Dirk's (even inside the arc) and be generally a weaker postseason performer.

[tsherkin]

Nah; Jazz were not actually that close to the Bulls. Bulls had another gear if they needed it.

No, no they didn't. In 98, they were spent-as, and if Utah had any kind of supporting offense, they would have won. Hornacek was a 50.1% TS waste who couldn't overcome his physical limitations. Stockton was a 9.7 ppg guy on 53.9% TS who couldn't hit a three because he had microfracture surgery on his knee earlier in the year, was old and wasn't generally capable of elevating his scoring. And after that, they had Shandon Anderson and Bryon Russell. So now you have Malone, who wasn't a particularly strong scorer against high-end defenses, and Dirk, who was considerably more capable as a 3-level scorer. It's a consequential difference. Chicago itself was rough against them. Pippen was trash as a scorer. Kukoc was okay but spacing poorly. And no one else scored more than 5.3 ppg. Jordan himself was limited to 51.6% TS, which was worse than playoff league average, despite his volume. He did great in his low-turnover performance but it was ugly stuff. Ugly, smash-mouth ball at under 83 possessions per game. That's where individual efficiency is even MORE important. Malone was actually decent in that series, but not dominant.

Malone was more physical and nasty than Dirk. Malone was willing to hurt people. Malone wore down opponents more than Dirk did.

This isn't actually relevant to any meaningful degree.

But now let's circle back to my original remark, which was about 97.

That was a 6-game series where the only game won by more than 5 points was game 3, which Utah won by 11. And that's the series where Malone folded up his own behind and looked like a 6'9 waste of skin. You swap him with Dirk and they win that series no problem.