Rolando Blackman vs Michael Finley as a Maverick

[durantbird]

Who do you rank higher for his Dallas career?

[penbeast0]

Blackman started as a Mav, played there longer, and relative to his peers, probably peaked higher (4 all-star selections to 2 fwiw) though that's more subjective. I have to go with the Panamanian Sensation.

[Texas Chuck]

I would go with Ro as well. But its hard. Ro came into an expansion franchise and was a major part of their first rise to relevance. If Derek Harper realizes they are tied instead of thinking they were up a point, they might even have toppled Showtime and had a shot at a title. Or if Tarpley could stay clean. Little known fact about Ro is that he was considered one of the best Michael Jordan defenders while in Dallas. He is thought of primarily as an offensive guy, but for whatever reason held up okay against Mike.

Fin was the "prize" in the Kidd trade and was asked to do everything for just a brutally bad franchise. Leading the league in minutes 2 or 3 years in a row playing all 82, then as that team became good, he was forced into a role behind Dirk and Nash and ultimately he gets amnestied right as Dirk ascends into one of the best players on the planet and takes the Mavs to their highest heights to date.

I think Ro should edge out Fin, but Mavs fans tended not to respect what we got out of Filthy and that's a shame. That guy put in the work and represented the franchise very well.

Both first class humans too. Glad to have had them play roles in Dallas even after they moved on in their careers.

[ronnymac2]

Underrated comparison here. I recently went through bball-ref and looked through how the Dallas Mavericks did in the 1980s. Blackman was a 20 PPG All-Star player on a team that was consistently elite on offense for the era. It's about 550 games, so strong sample size here. He and Mark Aguirre worked well together. Going through the boxscores in the playoffs, I was more impressed with Blackman's consistency than I was with Aguirre's.

Blackman was a moderate USG% wing with solid TOV% and scoring efficiency who could work well with others. 1988 Mavs were stacked and Blackman still flourished. He actually led the playoffs in scoring in 1984 (granted, 4-game sample).

Finley was a beast, but his playoff resume with Dallas leaves a bit to be desired vs. Blackman's resume, so I'd go with Blackman. Respect to Finley though. Also a moderate USG% wing with low turnovers and lesser scoring efficiency but adds spacing and maybe a bit more playmaking than Blackman. Finley was an iron-man who led the league in the most important stat - minutes - for multiple years and allowed Dirk and Nash to develop without ego.