Okay, opening thoughts:
Of the new class I see 5 guys who I think will be locks, though the class is super weak, so maybe this will change:
Gary Payton - King of the Class I think, though frankly I tend to think he's overrated
Alonzo Mourning - outstanding 2-way player with intensity, someone who can operate as a franchise player if you don't have an MVP guy
Rasheed Wallace - extraordinary talent who actually basically lived up to it, he just wasn't a super-volume scorer and has personality prone to mope. But in Portland his impact was that of a B-list superstar (Top 10 at least), and his transition to Detroit was legendary.
Dikembe Mutombo - premier defensive player of his generation, ever in demand throughout his long career.
Allen Iverson - feels like he should be in to me. He was super-overrated, but that didn't mean he wasn't often contributing a good deal of value, and he got his team to the finals and took a game off the GOAT playoff champs ('01 Lakers). You add all that up and you absolutely do not have a Pistol Pete situation where the guy is just fundamentally not playing in a way that adds value at the NBA level, which means that I feel comfortable talking about the cultural significance of the player.
Now one guy in his own category:
Anfernee Hardaway - I see him as a higher peak than any of the guys above but it didn't last. Where to place?
Other new guys I've put thought into:
Kings - Chris Webber & Vlade Divac - I see Divac as the more effective basketball player with a remarkable portability across teams, on the other hand Webber carried a heavier load in their mutual career highlight. In the end, at this point I tend to think their not-yet-eligible teammate Peja Stojakovic is the most Hall worthy. He did play the lead role on Sacramento and was the guy who best possessed the skill set that was driving the Kings to greatness - that team wins titles if they crank up the 3-point shooting a lot more, and if they do that Stojakovic would clearly be the focal point of the team.
I don't know if I'll vote for Stojakovic when he's eligible, of the two eligible at this point I'd be inclined to side with Divac.
I'll also mention Doug Christie who was a perfect fit for those Kings' teams but seems like an average team couldn't expect at all comparable impact.
Hawks - Mookie Blaylock & Steve Smith (& Dikembe Mutombo)
Mookie is the MVP of that team in the mid-90s, and is also the lead 3-point shooters with Smith taking some but less. But when the 3-point line goes back to big boy land, Mookie's shot seems to disappear whereas Smith continues to thrive and becomes the 3rd best player on that could've-been-champion Blazers (Sheed, Pippen).
I find myself feeling like Smith is the more worthy player for the Hall, but not himself noteworthy enough to make the 10 (I see Divac as a bit stronger).
Mutombo is a big impact guy on that team, thriving next to the 3-point shooters, and of course would go on to more success later. He's the clear choice among the 3.
Sonics - Shawn Kemp?
So if we look at +/-, the two most impressive players on those Sonics are Nate McMillan and Gary Payton. There are too many obvious issues for me to champion McMillan over Kemp, but the thing is that guys like Detlef Schrempf and Hersey Hawkins seem arguably stronger than Kemp too.
In the end, Kemp is my 2nd Sonic candidate in part because he can clearly stand up to playoff level competition - his body is 1st class against any of his contemporaries - but I don't think he ever really figured out the savvy of the game he needed to to be that true superstar.
Eddie Jones - Jones, like Divac, are former Lakers who did great things wherever they went. My feeling is that Divac is just a smidge ahead of him.
Alright, I'm going to end with something kind of dumb. If I take all the eligible guys and wort them by career Win Shares, I get this:
1. Gary Payton 145.5
2. Walt Bellamy 130.1
3. Buck Williams 120.1
4. Dikembe Mutombo 117.0
5. Terry Porter 110.4
Payton's at the top and Mutombo I'm guessing will be a lock for people. What about those other 3.
I'm not going to champion Bellamy, but I'll acknowledge that his cumulative offensive accomplishments are really noteworthy for his era, and he did it with great efficiency. While I've been very critical of volume scoring bigs, to be real, I don't actually think that letting Bellamy volume score was a problem. His defense is the problem. How big of a problem is it? That's the question.
It's enough of a problem that, say, Mutombo is quite clearly a better candidate than Bellamy, but is it enough that even in this weak class Bellamy isn't Top 10? Honestly, I'm starting to doubt it.
From that era I've been picking Wilkens over Bellamy the entire time, and I haven't necessarily changed my mind on that, but some of the guys I'm looking at here just don't seem like they belong above Bellamy. (I mean, Steve Smith, really?)
Alright, that leaves 2 Blazers:
Buck Williams & Terry Porter
I think it goes without saying that it's not crazy to have Porter ahead of Buck, as most probably do who come at this from a Blazer lens. As I've said, I think Buck's role getting that team actually "figure it out" is absolutely huge and Porter was one of the guy who got in line behind Buck. Add in that Buck's prime was more on the Nets than the Blazers, and totals like the ones I've posted above favor Buck, and I think we've got a clear choice.
I wanted y'all to see that Bucks was 3rd on that WS list. WS' are what they are - not the end all, be all - but I want folks to realize that Buck was accumulating bits of box score-recognized value quite prolifically. Picking Buck here is not throwing out all the data and just saying "Buck was the MAN!!!", it's about recognizing that if you feel the box score was underrating Buck's impact (and I certainly do), consider what that means when he's still so high on something like WS.
Image from the time.
This was the image in a nutshell of why the Bucks were a terrifying team, and there was no question about who to put front and center? Clyde "I'll be okay if I never win a championship" Drexler? Hell no.
It's Buck who defines that team's fierceness, and so it's Buck who is front and center here.