Which Of These Shooting Guards Was Manu Ginobili Better Than, All-Time?

[MiamiBulls]

Manu Ginobili is either compared to absolute Tier 1 Guards of Bryant & Wade or is treated like a supercharged Jamal Crawford.

Looking to gauge where he stands, which of these Guards do you think he's better than, in Career/Peak-wise?

Problem with career is that you're just not getting nearly as many minutes from Ginobili as the other guys but he's so good per-minute that he's still competitive.

Peak is close between 2005 Manu and 2003 McGrady. Again, minutes are an issue but on a per-minute basis I think Manu was the better player.

Assuming no knowledge of the rest of my roster:

Career
1. Carter
2. Allen
3. Ginobili
4. McGrady
5. Iverson

Peak
1. McGrady
2. Ginobili
3. Carter
4. Allen
5. Iverson

IMO, That's a close approximation of Manu.

Peak-wise/Prime, he was better than every SG except for Mcgrady 2000-2003 stretch. Specifically 2003 Season. Mcgrady & Manu are the only 2 of this bunch that were legitimate MVP or fringe-MVP Caliber impact players.

Career wise, Manu was better than every SG mentioned except for Ray Allen who was at minimum an All-Star caliber player for 13 years from 1998/99 through 2010/11. Whereas Ginobili was All-Star caliber for 7 years from 2004/05 through 2010/11. Carter's career longevity is grossly exaggerated, he stopped playing at an All-Star Level after his 10th Year in the NBA & was repetitively injured in 2002, 2003, & 2004.

[MiamiBulls]

there were times he was better basketball player than kobe - that's how good he was. but what makes manu hard to compare is that due to coming off the bench, he never played huge minutes (and played with two or three other greats) and therefore his stats were never elite. he was an elite player without elite stats.

anyway, for the poll, i think you have to take both Kobe and McGrady over him, but he's better than carter, iverson and allen. top 30 player all time.

Manu Ginobili is Top 30 All-Time?

Do you have Tracy Mcgrady Top 30 All-Time too?

[a8bil]

Hmmm...Manu was clutch, great energy off the bench and had the winner's attitude. To compare him to these others though is a bit tough. Player's coming off the bench typically have a distinct, significant advantage over starters, not in terms of overall stats, but in terms of ability to impact the game.

[KayDee35]

Small sample size, but none of the other guys are going to have a better solo on/off than Timmy.



Takes care of pests better than those other guys as well.

Read on Twitter

Manu with the EZ-dub.

Doesn’t a 6th man have an advantage when it comes to +/- as he’s going up against bench players?

We can look at Durant and Harden in 2012:

Durant: +1.9
Harden: +8.0

And in the playoffs:

Durant: -0.3
Harden: +18.1

Ginobili's data across several postseasons are still a small sample size which doesn't help my argument. I do think that Pop took advantage of Ginobili being a matchup problem for benches but he also kept him in for large part of the 4th quarter where he'd be going against starters.

While I do think Harden did well in the role that season, the sample size is even smaller and the OKC team was very young. Manu doing it pretty consistently across multiple deep postseason runs with an established team is impressive.

I have respect for the other dudes, but I geniunely like Ginobili as an impact guy when it comes to winning, over the others.

[ImmortalD24]

Of the 12 people who voted AI, I wonder how many even watched him play. He warped defenses in a way Manu never could. And if you didn't scheme your defense around stopping him then he'd single handedly beat you. Manu didn't have to face that kind of attention.

I watched AI play. I also watched the 2004 Olympics, where Ginobili beat Team USA as the #1 option and put up 29 points on 69/67/88 shooting splits.

Prime Iverson was more entertaining, both on and off the court, but he missed way more shots than he ever made and he lost way more playoff games than he ever won.

You're not wrong but come on man, have some respect for the Answer. Also that Olympics blunder should take Duncan out of the top 10 conversation.

[NZB2323]

Of the 12 people who voted AI, I wonder how many even watched him play. He warped defenses in a way Manu never could. And if you didn't scheme your defense around stopping him then he'd single handedly beat you. Manu didn't have to face that kind of attention.

I watched AI play. I also watched the 2004 Olympics, where Ginobili beat Team USA as the #1 option and put up 29 points on 69/67/88 shooting splits.

Prime Iverson was more entertaining, both on and off the court, but he missed way more shots than he ever made and he lost way more playoff games than he ever won.

You're not wrong but come on man, have some respect for the Answer. Also that Olympics blunder should take Duncan out of the top 10 conversation.

I don’t have that much respect for the Answer. He made the finals shooting 34% against the Bucks.