How good was Adrian Dantley?

[Ryoga Hibiki]

I'll be honest, the only game I've seen about him is the Boston marathon, so I can't go much deeper than watching his numbers, accolades and what I might have read over the years.
I don't really know how much those All NBA teams are deserved, but being considered for such a long time the top player at his position, before having the career killed by injuries, should mean HOF for the way HOF nominations are given, once you consider the good PO results achieved.
I'd put him after DJ (who has rings with different teams and a Finals MVP), above Mullin and Dantley, who had less team results or individual accolades.
I really don't like who makes it just by the numbers.

Btw, Hakeem and Ewing don't belong to this discussion, i think this is the first year they're eligible.

[Luv those Knicks]

Dantley is one of those guys that is much, much better on paper than he is on the court. I think penbeast0 makes good points about his offensive strength...and brings up a lot of the negatives. Maybe not enough of the negatives. Dantley had a tendency to hurt teams. He was great at what he did but, literally, did want to do anything else. That made him a selfish player and unpleasant teammate. He was, for all intents and purposes, uncoachable. Teams and coaches tired of him quickly. And when he was in a situation to win a title, and all he had to do was adjust his game (slightly), he simply could not do it. He was traded for a player of a more or less similar level--Mark Aguirre--who was okay with taking 20% fewer shots. Aguirre has two rings as a result. The fact that it took 20 years for Dantley to get his number retired in Utah should tell you something, given his amazing individual numbers. Or maybe it shouldn't. In Dantley's seven years there, the Jazz never got over 45 wins, had only two winning seasons, and won less than 30 games four times. Of the players penbeast0 lists--Aguirre, English, King, Wilkins--I'd rate Dantley last or, maybe, next to last.

Best player not in the HOF? On paper, maybe. I'd take Jack Sikma six days a week and twice on Sunday over Adrian Dantley.

Artis Gilmore too. (never mind, about 7 posters beat me to this point).


but I think Dantley should be in the hall.


as I recall, from that Pistons team, one of the keys to their chemistry was bringing Rodman into the starting lineup and having that scoring punch off the bench. I don't think Dantley was willing to take a bench role.

[TrueLAfan]

Yeah, Dantley didn't want to take a bench role...even though it meant he would have been able to handle the ball more (i.e. at his normal clip). He kind of sulked in Detroit; since he didn't get as many touches, he didn't play as hard on offense. His shooting efficiency took a substantial hit. He was still productive, but he wasn't happy, and he made that clear. To be fair, Dantley was also getting to the end of the line as a player. He'd had a couple of (major) injuries and played over 30,000 regular season minutes by the time the championship season started. And his style of play was not conducive to aging. His defense got worse, and his offensive efficiency dropped. You put up with a guy like Dantley when his defense is marginal to below average and he's a crappy teammate because of his scoring output and efficiency. Once those things start to go, his value drops fast...which is what happened.

Which is kind of too bad. Had he been able to make more of an effort on D and be willing to be an effective bench player and more gracious teammate, Dantley might have had a second career something like McAdoo's. Didn't happen.

About Sikma--and I beat on this drum because he's so underrated--he was very good for a very long time. Six times in MVP voting over a seven year period, including three top 11 finishes. Sikma had a 10 year run where he played 80 games a season, and averaged 17-11-3.5 with terrific D. He was a little better than Cummings, IMO...and I think Terry Cummings was a terrific player.

Gilmore is a no-brainer for best player not in the HOF, and DJ should definitely be in there too...but his 1979 championship teammate Sikma is better than plenty of people in Hall as well.

[Myth_Breaker]

[quote="Luv those Knicks"][/quote]

As far as I remember, not quite: Aguirre in Bad Boys was a starter like Dantley and only in the beginning of the 1989/90 season Chuck Daly replaced him with Rodman for some games to energize the lineup.