Michael Cooper vs Bobby Jones

[Point forward]

Two of my absolute favorite 1980s role players. Both rail thin, both SFs, and both UTTERLY deadly on D.

COOPER was the guy who went down in history as "the Larry Bird stopper". 8x All-D team, 1x DPOY and a loyal sidekick to guys like Magic, Worthy or Scott. Career avg 9/3/4. Coop was also a quite a good 3pt shooter, think Bruce Bowen, and also quite a clutch shooter.(He was also on the receiving end of Dr. J's GOAT dunk, but the actual culprit was James Worthy who turned over the ball.)

JONES was one of the guys who were both ABA and NBA stars. Fondly remembered by Nuggets and Sixers, and lethal playing against AND with Dr. J. 11x All-D in ABA and NBA. Career avg 15/9/6. Was a legit starter, but then was 6th man and won the 6MOY award. Also notorious for his extremely religious lifestyle... no smoking, drinking or swearing (!) Jones was around.

Who would you take? As a big Bobby Jones fan, I take him, but it kills me to snub Coop and his "Bird killing power".

[shawngoat23]

Bobby Jones on defense.

Bobby Jones by a lot on offense--he's a capable, super-efficient scorer.

[penbeast0]

Shawn said it. To cover a guard, I'd take Cooper, overall B. Jones EASILY.

Man up, Bobby Jones could cover 4 positions, well enough to make 1st team All-Defense as a starter at C (for the Nuggets), PF, SF, and SMOY and 1st team All-D playing SG/SF on the Sixer teams that featured Moses, Barkley, and Erving up front.

Help defense, Bobby Jones was not only a better ball thief than Cooper but a terrific shotblocker as well, one of the few guys to average 2st/2bl for a season.

Offensively, not even close. Cooper was good for 8 ppg in a Bruce Bowen spot up role though he could throw down a nice alley oop with his athleticism on the fast break. Bobby Jones was good for 16 ppg on tremendously high FG% (led the league a couple of times) mainly off running bank shots and could finish the fast break pretty well too.

[TrueLAfan]

I agree that it's Jones--but let's not get too down on Coop as an offensive player. He wasn't as efficient as Jones...but pretty much nobody in NBA/ABA history is. Jones is #11 in career TS%.

What people overlook with Coop is that he was a really good ballhandler and passer. Once Nixon was traded, that really became apparent. Very good assist numbvers; great assist turnover ratios. And he could score a little...even adjusted for pace, Coop probably scored 25% more than Bowen. He's behind Jones on O, but he's still pretty good on that side.

[penbeast0]

True, Jones wasn't a ballhandler or creator; Cooper was capable of playing PG, just wasn't a scorer.