Higher on your All Time List: Karl Malone or David Robinson

[mdonnelly1989]

Let’s see ti

[One_and_Done]

Malone all-time, D.Rob easily for peak.

[70sFan]

Malone for career value quite easily.

[OldSchoolNoBull]

Well, I suppose they are similar scorers in volume and efficiency and have similar issues with offensive dropoff in the playoffs, except that DRob didn't have a Stockton feeding him all the time.

But DRob is a far greater defensive player, and his impact signals are pretty staggering from when he first joined the Spurs and when he was out in 1996-97.

If you want to lean on Malone's longevity for a career value thing, you can, but to me there's little question that prime for prime, DRob was the more valuable player.

I would also note that DRob ranked higher on our last Top 100.

[migya]

Well, I suppose they are similar scorers in volume and efficiency and have similar issues with offensive dropoff in the playoffs, except that DRob didn't have a Stockton feeding him all the time.

But DRob is a far greater defensive player, and his impact signals are pretty staggering from when he first joined the Spurs and when he was out in 1996-97.

If you want to lean on Malone's longevity for a career value thing, you can, but to me there's little question that prime for prime, DRob was the more valuable player.

I would also note that DRob ranked higher on our last Top 100.

Can you give reasons with facts to back up that Malone is a big dropper in the playoffs? We'll make comparisons with some others after that.

[OldSchoolNoBull]

Well, I suppose they are similar scorers in volume and efficiency and have similar issues with offensive dropoff in the playoffs, except that DRob didn't have a Stockton feeding him all the time.

But DRob is a far greater defensive player, and his impact signals are pretty staggering from when he first joined the Spurs and when he was out in 1996-97.

If you want to lean on Malone's longevity for a career value thing, you can, but to me there's little question that prime for prime, DRob was the more valuable player.

I would also note that DRob ranked higher on our last Top 100.

Can you give reasons with facts to back up that Malone is a big dropper in the playoffs? We'll make comparisons with some others after that.

What I said was "offensive dropoff". What I mean specifically is efficiency. His volume does not drop off in a meaningful way in the playoffs, but his scoring efficiency drops a lot.

For career averages, his RS TS is 57.7%, and his PO TS is 52.6%.

The two years the Jazz went to the Finals, he scored on 60% and 59.7% TS in the regular seasons, and 50.1% and 53.4% TS in the playoffs.

I guess many star players have some degree of efficiency drop in the playoffs, but this is a pretty pronounced drop.

[migya]

Well, I suppose they are similar scorers in volume and efficiency and have similar issues with offensive dropoff in the playoffs, except that DRob didn't have a Stockton feeding him all the time.

But DRob is a far greater defensive player, and his impact signals are pretty staggering from when he first joined the Spurs and when he was out in 1996-97.

If you want to lean on Malone's longevity for a career value thing, you can, but to me there's little question that prime for prime, DRob was the more valuable player.

I would also note that DRob ranked higher on our last Top 100.

Can you give reasons with facts to back up that Malone is a big dropper in the playoffs? We'll make comparisons with some others after that.

What I said was "offensive dropoff". What I mean specifically is efficiency. His volume does not drop off in a meaningful way in the playoffs, but his scoring efficiency drops a lot.

For career averages, his RS TS is 57.7%, and his PO TS is 52.6%.

The two years the Jazz went to the Finals, he scored on 60% and 59.7% TS in the regular seasons, and 50.1% and 53.4% TS in the playoffs.

I guess many star players have some degree of efficiency drop in the playoffs, but this is a pretty pronounced drop.

Garnett dropped from about 54.5ts% to 52.5ts% from rs to ps, not great to start with either.

Most star players do drop but not all carry the scoring load like Malone did.

[70sFan]

Can you give reasons with facts to back up that Malone is a big dropper in the playoffs? We'll make comparisons with some others after that.

What I said was "offensive dropoff". What I mean specifically is efficiency. His volume does not drop off in a meaningful way in the playoffs, but his scoring efficiency drops a lot.

For career averages, his RS TS is 57.7%, and his PO TS is 52.6%.

The two years the Jazz went to the Finals, he scored on 60% and 59.7% TS in the regular seasons, and 50.1% and 53.4% TS in the playoffs.

I guess many star players have some degree of efficiency drop in the playoffs, but this is a pretty pronounced drop.

Garnett dropped from about 54.5ts% to 52.5ts% from rs to ps, not great to start with either.

Most star players do drop but not all carry the scoring load like Malone did.

Some carry the heavier load and don't have similar drop though, that's the point.

In the case of this comparison, I don't think it really matters because both players struggled to sustain their RS scoring performances. Malone was a better offensive player than Robinson overall in my opinion, but not by that much and mostly because of his on-ball skills.

[FuShengTHEGreat]

Well, I suppose they are similar scorers in volume and efficiency and have similar issues with offensive dropoff in the playoffs, except that DRob didn't have a Stockton feeding him all the time.

But DRob is a far greater defensive player, and his impact signals are pretty staggering from when he first joined the Spurs and when he was out in 1996-97.

If you want to lean on Malone's longevity for a career value thing, you can, but to me there's little question that prime for prime, DRob was the more valuable player.

I would also note that DRob ranked higher on our last Top 100.

Can you give reasons with facts to back up that Malone is a big dropper in the playoffs? We'll make comparisons with some others after that.

What I said was "offensive dropoff". What I mean specifically is efficiency. His volume does not drop off in a meaningful way in the playoffs, but his scoring efficiency drops a lot.

For career averages, his RS TS is 57.7%, and his PO TS is 52.6%.

The two years the Jazz went to the Finals, he scored on 60% and 59.7% TS in the regular seasons, and 50.1% and 53.4% TS in the playoffs.

I guess many star players have some degree of efficiency drop in the playoffs, but this is a pretty pronounced drop.

This is true but to Malones defense who was he going against those years?

In 1998 alone Utah went against teams whose star players from won ALL 13 Finals MVPs from 1991-2003 during that in those four series. He outperformed a much younger and more athletic Duncan and Shaq in b2b series, those were the guys that'd go on to win the next 5 Finals MVPs.

Whereas in Robinsons case even in his MVP 95 season he wasn't efficient against 2nd tier teams in the playoffs vs Denver and LA before that fateful WCF vs Houston.

[eminence]

Malone slightly for peak/prime, rather easily for career.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1994-nba-western-conference-first-round-jazz-vs-spurs.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1996-nba-western-conference-semifinals-jazz-vs-spurs.html

Nobody who's watched those series thinks 'Wow David Robinson peak/prime is easily better than Karl Malone.'

One of the dumbest results in the last top 100.

[jdzimme3]

As someone who prioritizes prime over longevity, I have robinson clearly ahead of Malone. He was more efficient on 9ffense and significantly better on d. I dont think a 10 game head to head sample size is a great point of comparison, especially when ignoring the huge difference in their supporting casts.

[FuShengTHEGreat]

Malone slightly for peak/prime, rather easily for career.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1994-nba-western-conference-first-round-jazz-vs-spurs.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1996-nba-western-conference-semifinals-jazz-vs-spurs.html

Nobody who's watched those series thinks 'Wow David Robinson peak/prime is easily better than Karl Malone.'

One of the dumbest results in the last top 100.

The 94 series for Utah was a even worse performance Robinsons resume imho than the 95 WCF vs Hakeem.

He went all out to drop 71 to win the scoring title over Shaq then the following week he averages 20 ppg and 40% FG for the entire series. One would expect that type of bad shooting performance from a perimeter player....not a Center.

I really liked Robinson and felt bad for much of the load he had to carry pre-TD but for all his flaws Karl Malone was a more durable and reliable individual playoff performer than Robinson was even when he was healthy.

[Cavsfansince84]

I have them in a similar tier and not far apart at all. I can see good arguments for having either over the other but probably have Karl like a spot or two above.

[f4p]

Well, I suppose they are similar scorers in volume and efficiency and have similar issues with offensive dropoff in the playoffs, except that DRob didn't have a Stockton feeding him all the time.

But DRob is a far greater defensive player, and his impact signals are pretty staggering from when he first joined the Spurs and when he was out in 1996-97.

If you want to lean on Malone's longevity for a career value thing, you can, but to me there's little question that prime for prime, DRob was the more valuable player.

I would also note that DRob ranked higher on our last Top 100.

Can you give reasons with facts to back up that Malone is a big dropper in the playoffs? We'll make comparisons with some others after that.

In terms of things like the box score (PER, WS48, BPM) and TS%, in terms of people with a complete career (so no Embiid), Malone is basically alone at the bottom of the list. Like 50% more dropoff than Harden and Giannis in the next spots. Robinson is quite bad also but only about half the drop as Malone.

All data is age 22 to 35.

[falcolombardi]

I hate this but is karl malone

Much longer career and less of a playoff dropperb

[falcolombardi]

I hate this but is karl malone

Much longer career and less of a playoff dropper as his not scoring game retained a lot of value (robinson offense and defense seem to both drop in effectiveness come playoffs time)

[Ol Roy]

Put them in each other's situations and what happens?

Robinson for me.

[eminence]

Put them in each other's situations and what happens?

Robinson for me.

Unfortunately a copperhead gets little David (age 4) whilst wandering unattended on the family farm.

[GeorgeMarcus]

D Rob

[tsherkin]

Interesting question. I voted Robinson because he's pretty similar in terms of peak, accolades and prime relevance, with comparable issues in the playoffs. Malone's got longevity on him, but I don't know that I care too much about that in this context. We're talking about 5 extra seasons, one of which was in LA, and the Utah seasons showing withering scoring efficiency but still supported the whole way by Stockton and Sloan. It just doesn't mean too much extra to mean in an all-time context.

But I don't think it's a large gap; I find them to be very much in a similar tier all-time, even if I think Robinson was a considerably better player because he was so much more valuable on D.