In today's game: Jayson Tatum vs Karl Malone

[tsherkin]

Idk man have you seen that scottie barnes guy

Why is Barnes in this discussion at all? He looks like neither player in terms of style/results.

In another discussion someone claimed Barnes is better than Tatum

Oh.

I'd argue Tatum is still better, and a lot of it is that he can support higher scoring volume or better efficiency. Not A LOT better this year, but still. It's an interesting discussion, I guess. Based entirely on like 2 dozen games, though.

Why is Barnes in this discussion at all? He looks like neither player in terms of style/results.

In another discussion someone claimed Barnes is better than Tatum

Statistically--which he is.

Mmm? Based on what? You've got an OBPM angle to work with Barnes, sure, but O-EPM has Tatum better. D-EPM has Barnes' D being better for this stretch of his career, but Tatum is still a good defender and they're fairly similar in stuff like VORP and WS/48 and what-not. There isn't really a clear picture of Barnes being better over this relatively short sample of play.

[flaco]

Karl Malone would have been perfectly suited for the modern game. He's arguably the best roll man in NBA history (imo, second best behind only KG). PnR is hands down the most efficient team move in the modern game. Tatum is a terrific player, but Malone would have been absolutely unguardable if paired with a decent PnR ball handler.

Btw, I think he would have been playing at Center.

[tsherkin]

Karl Malone would have been perfectly suited for the modern game. He's arguably the best roll man in NBA history (imo, second best behind only KG).

Not sure why you'd look at KG as in Malone's class as a roll man, he was never a good enough scorer to come anywhere near to Karl in that regard. Certainly a very good player in the PnR as the screener, though, but that's not quite the same thing. I'd take Malone rolling over KG any day of the week.

[flaco]

Karl Malone would have been perfectly suited for the modern game. He's arguably the best roll man in NBA history (imo, second best behind only KG).

Not sure why you'd look at KG as in Malone's class as a roll man, he was never a good enough scorer to come anywhere near to Karl in that regard. Certainly a very good player in the PnR as the screener, though, but that's not quite the same thing. I'd take Malone rolling over KG any day of the week.

Malone is stronger. KG is more explosive. I value mobility over strength on both ends of the floor. After all, the modern game is about pace (=speed, explosiveness, mobility) and space. PnR bigs rely heavily on explosiveness. They blow by stronger bigs who cannot defend in space. Don't get me wrong, Malone was very mobile in his own right, but he wasn't on KG's level.

[tsherkin]

Malone is stronger. KG is more explosive. I value mobility over strength on both ends of the floor. After all, the modern game is about pace (=speed, explosiveness, mobility) and space. PnR bigs rely heavily on explosiveness. They blow by stronger bigs who cannot defend in space. Don't get me wrong, Malone was very mobile in his own right, but he wasn't on KG's level.

Yeah but that mobility came with also shooting a ton of Js and not exploiting his speed to generate better shots, so it's somewhat irrelevant.

[One_and_Done]

Who would you rather have as your main guy, in today's NBA?

Tatum is the more valuable player type in today's game, but the Mailman is the better player. I'll take Malone, he would eat in today's league no problem.