1st choice: Alonzo Mourning
2nd choice: James HardenAs a 2 Time DPOY winner, Alonzo Mourning is an elite defensive anchor. And we still have a few left who I'll give shout outs to in Mutombo, Wallace, Eaton & Thurmond.
The difference between Mourning & those guys is he really separates himself from them at the offensive end and I don't know if we recognize Mourning for the offensive impact he had.
Mourning was a 6 time 20 PPG scorer who shot between 56-59% TS in those years. His turnover efficiency isn't terrible either at a 15% rate. Mutombo hit the 15 PPG mark just once on worse efficiency than any of Mourning's 20 PPG years, Thurmond creates an offensive drag with his TS%'s - he only hit 50% once in his whole career despite the relatively high volume, & Eaton/Wallace are like playing 4 on 5 offensively.
In this
video, Mourning displays a strong ability to move up & down the court along with some competent post moves. He's not Olajuwon down there, but he's not Dwight either.
He has a clear impact on winning that's displayed in his whole career.
'93 - In Charlotte, the Hornets accelerate from 31 wins to 44 wins in his 1st year (note, Larry Johnson's development is probably worth at least a couple of those) as Mourning hits the close-out shot to eliminate Boston. Mourning is a 24-10 player in the playoffs to go with over 3 blocks.
'94 - Charlotte is 35-25 with Mourning in the lineup, just 6-16 without him. Larry Johnson's prime abruptly ends with injuries.
'95 - Mourning is the leading scorer on a team that becomes Top 10 in offensive efficiency and the team improves defensively. They make the playoffs. Mourning plays well in the series to Chicago, averaging 23 & 13; the Bulls don't have an answer for him.
'96 - Miami's roster has significant turnover so it's hard to attribute too much to one guy, but Mourning was brought in for Glen Rice among others & the Heat still improve by 10 wins. They jump defensively from +1.6 to -3.8.
'97 - Mourning anchors the #1 defense in the league as the Heat win 61 games. Miami makes the ECF.
'98 - Potentially a black mark if I'm being honest. The WOWY impact isn't great - 39-19 with, 16-8 without. Not a huge impact there. The Heat are upset in round 1 by the Ewing-less Knicks. This is the year where Johnson & Mourning get in a fight & JVG is clinging to Mourning's leg like an animal. Just a very strange series. It is noteworthy that Miami loses the game Mourning is suspended for in the series vs. NY.
'99 - Mourning leads the Heat to the #1 seed and finishes 2nd in the MVP voting. From a Mourning advocate perspective, you wish you could erase what happened in the playoffs
and you also wish he would've more thoroughly dominated Ewing but Ewing always played him tough. Still, Mourning had a great year as the defensive anchor on a team that had the best record in the East & was the lead scorer for a team that finished 2nd in offensive efficiency for the 2nd straight year.
'00 - Miami starts to get old. Mourning drags them to the Atlantic title again, finishing 3rd in the MVP Voting.They still can't get over the Knicks hump & Ewing is inexplicably still effective against Mourning.
The the kidney thing happens - but he still comes back after that as a highly valuable defensive role player & is critical in the FInals win over Dallas in '06. Even post-kidney disease, you still see him battling strong.
But the defensive impact - it never goes away.
There's a couple black marks in there - he gets slowed by post-prime Ewing in those Heat/Knicks series more than he should. In some of the Heat years, the WOWY impact is iffy and the assist numbers are pretty brutal.
But look - we're still talking a guy who was regarded as a Top 5 player multiple years, elite defensive anchor, good (not elite but good) offensive player who led winning teams all the way through and showed a tremendous amount of courage in battling back from kidney disease and exhibited outstanding intangibles - for whatever you value that. Anyone who is brought up is going to have some black marks - & if one of Mourning's biggest black marks is he got slowed by a mentor more than he should in the playoffs? I can live with that more than the warts of others. Even the longevity is better than you might think - 8 very strong years ('93-'00) another strong year ('02), 3 post-prime years as an excellent back-up center; others have better but given the kidney disease, it's better than you might think.
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I have limited time so I'll keep it brief on Harden. I think everyone knows the arguments for - this is a recent player so unless you're not paying attention to current basketball, you understand the case for. I'll tackle the case against instead.
Longevity - he has 7 high impact years; so there's a solid base there and I value what he's done in those 7 years over what McGrady has done.
Defense - the full impact of that is already showing up in the team performance - and what he did last year is one of the most impressive carry jobs we've ever seen.
Playoff performance - I get him all time time about his game 6 v Spurs & the '12 Finals. Let's look at those runs in fuller context:
Last year he averaged 29-9-6 58% TS in the playoffs. The 5 TO per game is a bit alarming - but still - pretty strong.
Let's look at '12:
16-5-3 on 61% TS. And as bad as he was in the Finals, I think he was their 2nd best player against the Spurs in the WCF that year.
When we take into consideration the massive peak, and that he has a few years on the same order of magnitude - just not as high - I'm comfortable putting him in here.
