Better overall player - Adrian Dantley or Paul George

[migya]

Overall but comment on offense and defense. Primes make most sense to compare.

[penbeast0]

For the modern game or in their own era?

[migya]

For the modern game or in their own era?

Just for what they've done

[1993Playoffs]

I mean how is this not PG?

[Stan]

This is clearly PG to me. The difference on the defensive end doesn't even make this a debate.

[70sFan]

Dantley is much more fun to watch, so it has to be him

[penbeast0]

Not sure it's that clearcut.

George is my choice when he's on the court with good teammates but Dantley has played 200 more games and scored nearly 10,000 more points (with significantly more efficiency both in an absolute sense and relative to era). And remember the OP is saying based on accomplishments that each actually accomplished. If I need a dominant 1st option scorer, I'd take Dantley.

[falcolombardi]

Dantley is so odd to me

A guy who is a goat tier scorer but the actual results of his career dont seem to scream an actual superstar. I need to watch some footage of him

I wish we had some sort of plus-minus numbers (why cannot every old player have played on the sixers smh)

[tsherkin]

Dantley is so odd to me

A guy who is a goat tier scorer but the actual results of his career dont seem to scream an actual superstar. I need to watch some footage of him

I wish we had some sort of plus-minus numbers (why cannot every old player have played on the sixers smh)

He was a slow, methodical iso scorer who disrupted ball movement, so it makes sense that there isn't a huge correlation between his scoring and team offensive excellence, except for the couple years he was with the late-70s Lakers. Utah wasn't very good offensively with him outside of 84 (though 82 is understandable due to his health). Didn't move the needle when he went to Detroit (their improvement in 88 was more about Dumars than Dantley). I think the narrative around Detroit is a little off, though, because they didn't suddenly get a lot better on O in 89 after the trade, things just clicked more smoothly for them with Aguirre than with Dantley. I think they ripped off like 30-6 after the trade? They were a 110.8 ORTG team in the RS (whole year, not splitting pre/post trade). 109 vs Boston, 119.7 vs the Bucks (murdered them on the offensive boards and then both Laimbeer and Salley were super effective in small volume, 5 non-Isiah double-digit scorers). 107.9 vs Chicago and 120.6 vs the Lakers en route to the title. Aguirre didn't shoot as well from the line as Dantley and he took a couple 3s per game and blew chunks at it, but he was comparable at finishing beneath the arc, which helped.

Dantley was very good at individual scoring, but not so good at facilitating team offense.

[70sFan]

Dantley is so odd to me

A guy who is a goat tier scorer but the actual results of his career dont seem to scream an actual superstar. I need to watch some footage of him

I wish we had some sort of plus-minus numbers (why cannot every old player have played on the sixers smh)

I can provide as much Jazz footage as I could for you, whenever you decide to watch some Dantley games.

[falcolombardi]

Dantley is so odd to me

A guy who is a goat tier scorer but the actual results of his career dont seem to scream an actual superstar. I need to watch some footage of him

I wish we had some sort of plus-minus numbers (why cannot every old player have played on the sixers smh)

I can provide as much Jazz footage as I could for you, whenever you decide to watch some Dantley games.

That would be pretty awesome, i remember watching some of your dantley scoring compilation

Dp you have full games ?

[prolific passer]

Dantley is so odd to me

A guy who is a goat tier scorer but the actual results of his career dont seem to scream an actual superstar. I need to watch some footage of him

I wish we had some sort of plus-minus numbers (why cannot every old player have played on the sixers smh)

I can provide as much Jazz footage as I could for you, whenever you decide to watch some Dantley games.

Do you think the jazz tore the Dantley, Malone, Stockton trio up too soon?

[70sFan]

Dantley is so odd to me

A guy who is a goat tier scorer but the actual results of his career dont seem to scream an actual superstar. I need to watch some footage of him

I wish we had some sort of plus-minus numbers (why cannot every old player have played on the sixers smh)

I can provide as much Jazz footage as I could for you, whenever you decide to watch some Dantley games.

That would be pretty awesome, i remember watching some of your dantley scoring compilation

Dp you have full games ?

I do, this is the list of all Dantley Jazz games that I have in my collection:

26.12.1980 vs Warriors

05.04.1984 vs Lakers
06.05.1984 vs Suns
10.05.1984 vs Suns

28.11.1984 vs Lakers
24.04.1985 vs Rockets
26.04.1985 vs Rockets
28.04.1985 vs Rockets

25.10.1985 vs Rockets
20.11.1985 vs Celtics
29.11.1985 vs Nuggets
04.12.1985 vs Lakers
14.12.1985 vs Rockets
20.12.1985 vs Sixers
28.12.1985 vs Celtics
18.01.1986 vs Clippers
25.01.1986 vs Clippers
14.03.1986 vs Spurs
17.03.1986 vs Pistons
05.04.1986 vs Blazers
10.04.1986 vs Kings

As a huge Dantley fan, I did everything to get as many games as possible, I think that's enough to get a good view on him as a player. I don't love the fact that most of these games are from 1985/86 and so few are from his peak season, but it's better than nothing.

[70sFan]

Dantley is so odd to me

A guy who is a goat tier scorer but the actual results of his career dont seem to scream an actual superstar. I need to watch some footage of him

I wish we had some sort of plus-minus numbers (why cannot every old player have played on the sixers smh)

I can provide as much Jazz footage as I could for you, whenever you decide to watch some Dantley games.

Do you think the jazz tore the Dantley, Malone, Stockton trio up too soon?

I think they could have done a bit more up to 1988 with Dantley in their roster. I don't love the fit of young Malone and AD, but his fit with Stockton would be fantastic. They could have challenged the Lakers in the playoffs.

[falcolombardi]

I can provide as much Jazz footage as I could for you, whenever you decide to watch some Dantley games.

That would be pretty awesome, i remember watching some of your dantley scoring compilation

Dp you have full games ?

I do, this is the list of all Dantley Jazz games that I have in my collection:

26.12.1980 vs Warriors

05.04.1984 vs Lakers
06.05.1984 vs Suns
10.05.1984 vs Suns

28.11.1984 vs Lakers
24.04.1985 vs Rockets
26.04.1985 vs Rockets
28.04.1985 vs Rockets

25.10.1985 vs Rockets
20.11.1985 vs Celtics
29.11.1985 vs Nuggets
04.12.1985 vs Lakers
14.12.1985 vs Rockets
20.12.1985 vs Sixers
28.12.1985 vs Celtics
18.01.1986 vs Clippers
25.01.1986 vs Clippers
14.03.1986 vs Spurs
17.03.1986 vs Pistons
05.04.1986 vs Blazers
10.04.1986 vs Kings

As a huge Dantley fan, I did everything to get as many games as possible, I think that's enough to get a good view on him as a player. I don't love the fact that most of these games are from 1985/86 and so few are from his peak season, but it's better than nothing.

His peak season would be 1984?

[prolific passer]

I can provide as much Jazz footage as I could for you, whenever you decide to watch some Dantley games.

Do you think the jazz tore the Dantley, Malone, Stockton trio up too soon?

I think they could have done a bit more up to 1988 with Dantley in their roster. I don't love the fit of young Malone and AD, but his fit with Stockton would be fantastic. They could have challenged the Lakers in the playoffs.

Malone being #2 scoring option to Dantley for a few years would have been interesting.

[70sFan]

That would be pretty awesome, i remember watching some of your dantley scoring compilation

Dp you have full games ?

I do, this is the list of all Dantley Jazz games that I have in my collection:

26.12.1980 vs Warriors

05.04.1984 vs Lakers
06.05.1984 vs Suns
10.05.1984 vs Suns

28.11.1984 vs Lakers
24.04.1985 vs Rockets
26.04.1985 vs Rockets
28.04.1985 vs Rockets

25.10.1985 vs Rockets
20.11.1985 vs Celtics
29.11.1985 vs Nuggets
04.12.1985 vs Lakers
14.12.1985 vs Rockets
20.12.1985 vs Sixers
28.12.1985 vs Celtics
18.01.1986 vs Clippers
25.01.1986 vs Clippers
14.03.1986 vs Spurs
17.03.1986 vs Pistons
05.04.1986 vs Blazers
10.04.1986 vs Kings

As a huge Dantley fan, I did everything to get as many games as possible, I think that's enough to get a good view on him as a player. I don't love the fact that most of these games are from 1985/86 and so few are from his peak season, but it's better than nothing.

His peak season would be 1984?

Yeah, most likely.

[penbeast0]

He was a slow, methodical iso scorer who disrupted ball movement....

Now go watch games of him at Utah. I hear this and then watch Dantley play and it's not true. He wasn't particularly slow or methodical, not compared to similar scorers like Dwyane Wade or Charles Barkley who used fakes to facilitate interior scoring. I'd say from watching them that Barkley was considerably more prone to slowing an offense than Dantley with his backdown moves.

Nissalke's offense was slow (last in the league in pace in 80 and 81), but then Layden took over and Utah's pace went from last to 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, and 2nd in the league in Dantley centered offenses. So it's a lot more believable that it was Tom Nissalke who was slowing down the offense there. He does a bit more slowing the flow in Detroit where he spend more time in the post since Laimbeer worked outside, but of his 30 ppg years, all of them were on fast paced offenses. For what it's worth, his assist totals were higher every single year than wing partner Darrell Griffith, the second leading scorer on those Utah teams during his prime.

Most of the criticism of Dantley came from Layden (who has since apologized fwiw), when you might better have blamed the lack of competent big men there. You aren't going to win much in the era of post offenses when your interior rotation was the likes of Ben Poquette, Jeff Wilkens and James Hardy. The year Dantley played only 22 games, the offense dropped from 12th to 20th then rebounded to 9th in the league when he returned.

The defensive issues were real; like many superstar scorers on bad teams, it didn't seem like Dantley put much defensive effort in during his Utah years though Chuck Daly praised his defense and work ethic in Detroit where he had a smaller offensive load.

[Cavsfansince84]

Not sure it's that clearcut.

George is my choice when he's on the court with good teammates but Dantley has played 200 more games and scored nearly 10,000 more points (with significantly more efficiency both in an absolute sense and relative to era). And remember the OP is saying based on accomplishments that each actually accomplished. If I need a dominant 1st option scorer, I'd take Dantley.

I took the op to mean better as in at their best, not career wise. I'd agree that Dantley is comfortably ahead in that regard but that George is better as an all around player.

[penbeast0]

For the modern game or in their own era?

Just for what they've done

I take that as career value.