Kevin McHale over 176 games from '86 playoffs to '88 playoffs: 24.6/9.03/2.6/0.5/1.9 bpg on 65.5% TS

[FrodoBaggins]

Peak Kevin McHale was an absolute beast. Described by Don Nelson as "the best inside player in the league" and "as close to unstoppable as you can get" in 1987. He was also one of the best defenders in the entire league. Voted by the coaches as the NBA's best defender in 1987, he could defend any frontcourt player in the league. Nobody guarded Dominique as well as Kevin did.

How many other players in NBA history have an argument for being both the best paint scorer and overall defender at the same time? Giannis and LeBron? Shaq and Chuck don't have the defense, although O'Neal did finish 3rd in the 2000 DPOY.

The sample size doesn't include the '87 playoffs because McHale was playing on a broken foot. He still put up 21.1 ppg on 62.8% TS for what it's worth. I don't know many other players who can play through injury so well. This is the same injury that destroyed Bill Walton's career, kept Michael Jordan out for nearly the entire '85-'86 season, and sidelined Joel Embiid early on.

- 176 game sample ('86 playoffs, '87 regular season, '88 regular season, '88 playoffs)
- 24.625 ppg, 9.03 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.5 spg, 1.9 bpg, 2.4 topg
- 60.14% FG, 81.8% FT, 65.5% TS

[tsherkin]

McHale was nasty. I don't think he was the guy you wanted to build a whole team around, but inside of Boston's offensive context, he was an absolute NIGHTMARE. Tall, long arms, quality jumper, great reads on the block, couple of REALLY nice counters, phenomenal finishing touch... He was just a monster below the foul line. You basically couldn't defend him in a way where he didn't have a good option, apart from trying to deny him the ball. And then, especially when Bird was on the floor and you had some spacing plus Bird's passing... good Lord. 87 and 88, he was about as scary as it got when he caught the ball down low.

[1993Playoffs]

Extremely effective post scorer. Bit of a black hole though.

[hauntedcomputer]

Dude could not only fix your pipes, he could do your taxes after the game. Old school.

[Homer38]

One of the most underrated star in NBA history

[tdot_steel]

Peak Kevin McHale was an absolute beast. Described by Don Nelson as "the best inside player in the league" and "as close to unstoppable as you can get" in 1987. He was also one of the best defenders in the entire league. Voted by the coaches as the NBA's best defender in 1987, he could defend any frontcourt player in the league. Nobody guarded Dominique as well as Kevin did.

How many other players in NBA history have an argument for being both the best paint scorer and overall defender at the same time? Giannis and LeBron? Shaq and Chuck don't have the defense, although O'Neal did finish 3rd in the 2000 DPOY.

The sample size doesn't include the '87 playoffs because McHale was playing on a broken foot. He still put up 21.1 ppg on 62.8% TS for what it's worth. I don't know many other players who can play through injury so well. This is the same injury that destroyed Bill Walton's career, kept Michael Jordan out for nearly the entire '85-'86 season, and sidelined Joel Embiid early on.

- 176 game sample ('86 playoffs, '87 regular season, '88 regular season, '88 playoffs)
- 24.625 ppg, 9.03 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.5 spg, 1.9 bpg, 2.4 topg
- 60.14% FG, 81.8% FT, 65.5% TS

Peak Hakeem was unstoppable in the low post or on the block and 2x DPOY. Plus Hakeem did not play with 2 HOF at C and SF in Parish and Bird.

But McHale was a MONSTER no doubt.

[BladeDaywalker]

The greatest Post player in NBA history as far as I am concerned.

Only Hakeem can argue that he was equal to McHale in term of Post moves.

Here are two videos showcasing McHale's Post moves

The quality isn't good on some of these highlights but you get a sense of why he was so difficult to defend.

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

;t=27s

[Bornstellar]

But I was told that post play was inefficient? How can this be???

[maverick_41]

Could you please provide the links for the games you find most interesting and illustrating the main points?

Sorry, I was born after ‘87 playoffs right before ‘88 preseason.

[FrodoBaggins]

Peak Kevin McHale was an absolute beast. Described by Don Nelson as "the best inside player in the league" and "as close to unstoppable as you can get" in 1987. He was also one of the best defenders in the entire league. Voted by the coaches as the NBA's best defender in 1987, he could defend any frontcourt player in the league. Nobody guarded Dominique as well as Kevin did.

How many other players in NBA history have an argument for being both the best paint scorer and overall defender at the same time? Giannis and LeBron? Shaq and Chuck don't have the defense, although O'Neal did finish 3rd in the 2000 DPOY.

The sample size doesn't include the '87 playoffs because McHale was playing on a broken foot. He still put up 21.1 ppg on 62.8% TS for what it's worth. I don't know many other players who can play through injury so well. This is the same injury that destroyed Bill Walton's career, kept Michael Jordan out for nearly the entire '85-'86 season, and sidelined Joel Embiid early on.

- 176 game sample ('86 playoffs, '87 regular season, '88 regular season, '88 playoffs)
- 24.625 ppg, 9.03 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.5 spg, 1.9 bpg, 2.4 topg
- 60.14% FG, 81.8% FT, 65.5% TS

Peak Hakeem was unstoppable in the low post or on the block and 2x DPOY. Plus Hakeem did not play with 2 HOF at C and SF in Parish and Bird.

But McHale was a MONSTER no doubt.

I wasn't sure because Shaq was in the league at that time. Was Hakeem more dominant than Shaq in the paint? It's hard to say because Hakeem's post-up game included a lot of fadeaway jumpers just outside the paint.

[cupcakesnake]

How many other players in NBA history have an argument for being both the best paint scorer and overall defender at the same time? Giannis and LeBron? Shaq and Chuck don't have the defense, although O'Neal did finish 3rd in the 2000 DPOY.

Definitely Hakeem. Tim Duncan should be mentioned. Giannis. Embiid is close. Maybe peak Bill Walton. Wilt was probably never considered the best defender in the league when Bill was there, and Wilt wasn't an elite scorer by the time Bill retired Lebron was never considered the best overall defender in the league (but he did finish 2nd in DPOY voting in 2013). MJ won a DPOY.

I'm not sure McHale was ever considered the best overall defender in the league. He made 5 all-defensive teams (3x first team from '86-'88). People were really into Alvin Robertson and Michael Cooper back then. There was also Mark Eaton, Dennis Rodman, Sidney Moncrief, and Dennis Johnson. Then MJ and Hakeem entered the league.

But I get what you mean. Even having an argument at that is pretty cool.

[cupcakesnake]

Peak Kevin McHale was an absolute beast. Described by Don Nelson as "the best inside player in the league" and "as close to unstoppable as you can get" in 1987. He was also one of the best defenders in the entire league. Voted by the coaches as the NBA's best defender in 1987, he could defend any frontcourt player in the league. Nobody guarded Dominique as well as Kevin did.

How many other players in NBA history have an argument for being both the best paint scorer and overall defender at the same time? Giannis and LeBron? Shaq and Chuck don't have the defense, although O'Neal did finish 3rd in the 2000 DPOY.

The sample size doesn't include the '87 playoffs because McHale was playing on a broken foot. He still put up 21.1 ppg on 62.8% TS for what it's worth. I don't know many other players who can play through injury so well. This is the same injury that destroyed Bill Walton's career, kept Michael Jordan out for nearly the entire '85-'86 season, and sidelined Joel Embiid early on.

Peak Hakeem was unstoppable in the low post or on the block and 2x DPOY. Plus Hakeem did not play with 2 HOF at C and SF in Parish and Bird.

But McHale was a MONSTER no doubt.

I wasn't sure because Shaq was in the league at that time. Was Hakeem more dominant than Shaq in the paint? It's hard to say because Hakeem's post-up game included a lot of fadeaway jumpers just outside the paint.

Even if it was Shaq, he was draft 7 years after Hakeem. He won his first DPOY in Shaq's rookie year but was all-defense basically every year. Prime Hakeem was a better interior scorer than rookie Shaq but I think it's a legit argument as quick as Shaq's second year.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

McHale was nasty. I don't think he was the guy you wanted to build a whole team around, but inside of Boston's offensive context, he was an absolute NIGHTMARE. Tall, long arms, quality jumper, great reads on the block, couple of REALLY nice counters, phenomenal finishing touch... He was just a monster below the foul line. You basically couldn't defend him in a way where he didn't have a good option, apart from trying to deny him the ball. And then, especially when Bird was on the floor and you had some spacing plus Bird's passing... good Lord. 87 and 88, he was about as scary as it got when he caught the ball down low.

You could have built a team around McHale but the Celtics did not do that because they did not have to. McHale could beat double teams. McHale had difficulty passing and finding the open man.

McHale had great defensive footwork and arms that went on forever which allowed McHale who had slow feet to defend people like Dr J and Dominique Wilkins who had quick feet. The hand is father than the foot and you can run past McHales’s foot but McHale’s hand is still in your face. Bird McHale and Parish would not work so well together if McHale could not guard the small forwards. Bird was a power forward defensively and you would be asking Bird to play out of position for Bird to guard small forwards. Bird had faster feet than McHale’s slow feet but McHale really knew hard to guard faster people with perfect footwork and freakishly long arms.

I am not sure that McHale was one of the 5 best defenders any year but he was definitely one of the 10 best defenders some years.

If I cherry pick a half decade as an era; McHale might be the best defender of the 1984 to 1989 era. Hakeem got a bit disinterested in the late 1980s Jordan and Pippen were too young in the mid 1980s. Moncreif I don’t think so. Hakeem was to old. Ac Green no.

If I based my decision on defensive players of the year and all defensive teams it looks like Mark Eaton wins best defensive player of the 1984 to 1989 era with McHale and a few others competing for 2nd place. Competition Cooper, Alvin Robertson,Jordan, Moncrief, Paul Pressey, Hakeem and Eaton.

[Yoshun]

The Celtics were just loaded in the 80s.

[tsherkin]

You could have built a team around McHale but the Celtics did not do that because they did not have to. McHale could beat double teams. McHale had difficulty passing and finding the open man.

I have my doubts about him as an offensive centerpiece. I think he was too much of a finisher than a shot generator to really be the keystone of an offense, personally. YMMV, of course.

[hauntedcomputer]

A 66 TS % on volume, why would you ever need to pass?

As soon as someone can move like this and hit a sky hook, the game will change again. It's easy to see how he could dump off to a guy at the 3-pt line in today's game.

[Fencer reregistered]

Extremely effective post scorer. Bit of a black hole though.

At his efficiency in that era he was right to be.

He actually has some nice passes on highlight videos, but they're commonly touch passes or almost that quickly released. The fast break ones were common enough to look familar to me from back in the day.

He didn't do much outlet passing either, but Bird and Parish were both tremendous at that.

[Fencer reregistered]

A 66 TS % on volume, why would you ever need to pass?

As soon as someone can move like this and hit a sky hook, the game will change again. It's easy to see how he could dump off to a guy at the 3-pt line in today's game.

Yeah. It would be a skill he'd learn in this era; it doesn't feel inconsistent with the skills he showed when he did play. He had no special passing vision, but he wasn't selfish, and there's nothing about the mechanics of kickout passes he couldn't have handled.

[GSWFan1994]

Could you please provide the links for the games you find most interesting and illustrating the main points?

Sorry, I was born after ‘87 playoffs right before ‘88 preseason.

In the mid-00's, the NBA a series of DVD box sets with the most celebrated teams in the history of the league.

This series was called "NBA Dynasty Series", there are 5 sets: Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and LA Lakers.

The Boston one has multiple games in which McHale appears.

[WillyJakkz]

Peak Kevin McHale was an absolute beast. Described by Don Nelson as "the best inside player in the league" and "as close to unstoppable as you can get" in 1987. He was also one of the best defenders in the entire league. Voted by the coaches as the NBA's best defender in 1987, he could defend any frontcourt player in the league. Nobody guarded Dominique as well as Kevin did.

How many other players in NBA history have an argument for being both the best paint scorer and overall defender at the same time? Giannis and LeBron? Shaq and Chuck don't have the defense, although O'Neal did finish 3rd in the 2000 DPOY.

The sample size doesn't include the '87 playoffs because McHale was playing on a broken foot. He still put up 21.1 ppg on 62.8% TS for what it's worth. I don't know many other players who can play through injury so well. This is the same injury that destroyed Bill Walton's career, kept Michael Jordan out for nearly the entire '85-'86 season, and sidelined Joel Embiid early on.

- 176 game sample ('86 playoffs, '87 regular season, '88 regular season, '88 playoffs)
- 24.625 ppg, 9.03 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.5 spg, 1.9 bpg, 2.4 topg
- 60.14% FG, 81.8% FT, 65.5% TS

And keep in mind, this is back when the paint was filled with about 6 or 7 guys because only a hand few said "You know if we shoot behind this line it counts as 3?"

(Rest of the players looks at guy): "Nah, we'd rather lay it in or dunk!"

Numbas!!!