ElGee wrote:I guess since we're doing concurrent debating in the same thread (?), I'm going to expound on the nomination:
Karl Malone, by all accounts, should have this spot. In many ways, I could say "easily," but I suppose that depends on one's opinion of Karl Malone.
To me, this is a guy who at his peak is comparable to players like Barkley, Bryant, Wade and Jerry West. So the question becomes, how many years does Malone give you the impact? It's certainly not 14 years -- the number of times he was top-10 in MVP voting -- as his game certainly evolved and he had legitimate playoff struggles at times.
But there are two key aspects of Malone's career that are strongly overlooked:
(1) The Allen Iverson Solo Act: Judging players when they are the lone scoring star on their team is a bit tricky, because in the playoffs, against better defenses, teams will load up on the star. Just about every single player sees his shooting numbers decline...but arguably none more than Malone.
Only if you actually examine those games, Malone is doing ALL of the heavy lifting for Utah. He isn't some co-threat in pick and roll with John Stockton (as Amare Stoudemire was with Steve Nash), and he didn't have a viable wing player on his team for many years to create offense. I often hear people say, "sometimes, I want my star to take more shots when the going gets tough and there are no other options." That's EXACTLY what Karl Malone did.
And the results? Well, he increased his scoring a tad but all of his other numbers -- particularly accuracy -- plummeted. But it wasn't a consistent pattern. Some years his shooting was horrible, and in some it wasn't at all.
The Playoffs(a) he helped (an outmanned) Utah team to the brink of upsetting the 88 Lakers (champions). Malone scored 18 of his 29 in the 2nd half to "stun" LA in G2 in the Forum, then against elimination predicted a win and delivered with 27-11 (10-20, 7-7). In G7, Malone had 31 pts (14-21, 3-9) and 15 rebounds. (Ironically, that may have been Stockton's best game ever: 29 pts 20 ast 5 steals.)
Karl Malone was actually very good against elimination.After the series, Riley said "I don't think we're going to play a better basketball team."
(b) He was good again in 89. Hard to fault his 1991.
Certainly 1992, in which he again bordered on spectacular in finally losing to Portland in the WCF. The key in the series was an OT loss in G5, but Malone made a bunch of key plays down the stretch of regulation to keep Utah in it. He did this with John Stockton injured (IIRC) and basically running everything through him. Finished with 38 and 14 in that game (16-30, 6-6). Portland had the 3rd ranked D that year and with Malone being flanked by Jeff Malone and Ty Corbin dropped a 125.3 ORtg in that game. That's a legendary performance if Malone is on a slightly better team that leads to a championship narrative.
(c) 1993 was a down year. 1994 is an interesting year -- shooting is down but I'm not sure it's a down year. One of his best PS by WS/48. Malone had the flu during the middle of the Houston series. Utah just lost to a better team in Houston, and Malone averaged 26-13-5 in the series (just 51% TS), but his "worst" shooting game (flu) was 8-22/6-9 in a game 3 win (22-16-5).
Of course, Malone was often defended by some guy named Hakeem Olajuwon. (According to a report from G5, Malone scored just 4 of his 25 pts when guarded by Hakeem.)
(d) 1995. Upset by Houston. What to make of Malone's G5? From the NYT:
New York Times wrote:On the other hand, their two-on-two opponents -- Malone and John Stockton -- were fading. In that final 5:40, they barely got up close and personal with the ball. Instead, David Benoit missed three consecutive 3-pointers, and they fell behind, 85-82, until Malone (35 points) dropped in a jump hook.
After Olajuwon's 10th point in the final five minutes made it 87-84, Rockets -- with a minute left -- the Jazz fouled Chucky Brown and Mario Elie intentionally. But they made all four free throws, and a last-gasp Malone 3-pointer meant little.
Still, overall, hard to see how that's not a really good year from Malone -- another top-5 year.
(e) Then we hit Malone's late peak, in which he was the 2nd-best payer in the league to MJ IMO. (I'm big on late peaks.) By this point in time, Malone was established as a really solid post defensive (strip move, size, rebounding). Obviously not in the echelon of Duncan or KG, but without a doubt a positive on that end and someone who throughout his career could be paired nicely with a defensively oriented center. His post passing had also evolved at this point -- just a tremendous interior passer, bar none.
What's interesting to me is that he has 3 subpar TS%/ORtg playoff runs here. But that's not really reflective of how well he played in those postseasons.
1996: As usual, Utah defeats San Antonio. (I always felt Malone gave David Robinson fits. And elbows.) His G7 against Seattle might be his worst elimination game to that point, but the two games prior to get there were monsters (30.5 pts, 12.5 reb, 4.5 ast, 3.0 stls 1.0 TOV 24-44, 13-22)
1997: Malone's MVP year, in which he just absolutely barbecued the Lakers in the second round. That I'm the only one who remembers this is amusing -- maybe it's because I was rooting for LA -- but my word. After a horrible 2-20 G3 -- murders the averages, but isn't much different than 2-50 -- he swings back the other way with 42-9 (12-27, 18-18) and 32-20 (9-21, 14-18) to close. His Finals, however, were a little LeBron Jamesy.
1998: But in 98, Malone seems to bring that experience with him and has another excellent PS. This time, his G5 against Houston is monstrous (31 and 15, 12-22, 7-9 2 TOV). He struggles against the twin towers of San Antonio, but who didn't? The defense, passing, and load was still there. And then again, he just eviscerated the Lakers, posting 29-12-6 on 55.6 TS% (1.5 TOV) in the 2 Forum games.
And whatever we want to say about those first 4 games of the Finals, his last two were close to epic.
(f) He still gives you another MVP and 3 more all-nba seasons from 99-01.
(2) Michael Jordan and Losing BiasHow different would Malone look with two titles? Hakeem was changed forever. Dirk this year. And yet if Michael Jordan isn't around in 97 and 98, that's basically how we view Malone. He was awesome leading up to the Finals in 1998. (Note, Utah lost two VERY close series as well.) He then faces a fantastic defensive teams making all the key players on the other side (What if Stockton's 3 goes down at the end of game 6?)
So let's put this all in perspective. Malone at his peak was scoring at an historically good rate. He could carry a team. He was well above average defensively. He was a great passer. And he gives you valuable play, without ever missing games, basically forever...
I'm having a hard time making a case for anyone else here. (Erving and Garnett had better peaks, but how much do they give up in longevity?)
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