Best 1 Year Peak: Dirk/Giannis/Malone/Barkley

[Doranku]

Barkley not getting enough love for his '93 season. Won MVP over peak Jordan, led his team to the finals with some absolutely monster performances including 44/24 in game 7 of the WCF against the Sonics and 43/15/10 in a pivotal game 5 with the series tied at 2-2. Better than anything Malone or Giannis did imo.

I'd go Dirk > Barkley > Giannis >>>> Malone. The top 3 are all very close.

[levon]

Dirks shooting numbers were insane in 2011, midrange was all time in nba history.

What? It wasn't even his all-time best. Are you referring to his 3 pt shooting percentage at 46% with 95% of them assisted on?

The lionization of that playoff run on this forum is propaganda level. We get it, the nice European guy beat the immature cocky guys. Let's not start making **** up now.

[art_tatum]

Dirks shooting numbers were insane in 2011, midrange was all time in nba history.

What? It wasn't even his all-time best. Are you referring to his 3 pt shooting percentage at 46% with 95% of them assisted on?

The lionization of that playoff run on this forum is propaganda level. We get it, the nice European guy beat the immature cocky guys. Let's not start making **** up now.

I was talking about his regular season shooting stats for 10-11 since they OP asked for best year. He shot almost 40%
Yes that was his best year shooting the midrange.
His highest year with .517 fg
10-16 50%
16-22 52.6℅
Highest year with TS at .612

.535 egf highest in his prime. Had two slightly higher years when older.

But those midrange percentages on his volume is elite, and is the best hes done.
Playoffs hes had better % but alot of those were 4-8 games. So i just looked at the regular season.

[levon]

Dirks shooting numbers were insane in 2011, midrange was all time in nba history.

What? It wasn't even his all-time best. Are you referring to his 3 pt shooting percentage at 46% with 95% of them assisted on?

The lionization of that playoff run on this forum is propaganda level. We get it, the nice European guy beat the immature cocky guys. Let's not start making **** up now.

I was talking about his regular season shooting stats for 10-11 since they OP asked for best year. He shot almost 40%
Yes that was his best year shooting the midrange.
His highest year with .517 fg
10-16 50%
16-22 52.6℅
Highest year with TS at .612

.535 egf highest in his prime. Had two slightly higher years when older.

But those midrange percentages on his volume is elite, and is the best hes done.
Playoffs hes had better % but alot of those were 4-8 games. So i just looked at the regular season.

Okay, I guess I was thinking about only the playoffs because I don't consider 2011 Dirk's regular season to be some all-time incredible feat. Players seemingly regularly hit amazing statistical milestones yearly. Focusing on 10-22 feet is somewhat cherrypicking for Dirk. To me his playoffs run is what made that season special because of what he and his team were able to accomplish, so I was thinking solely of that and I thought you were making a case that Dirk's personal stats in those playoffs was some crazy outlier.

As other posters have said, I don't really think that was even Dirk's peak year. By the way, there's a plausible explanation for his uptick in midrange percentage in the regular season that year: his 2p %ast on was highest that year basically in his prime as compared to 06 and 07 when they were lowest. That team complemented him and vice versa. Then that %ast'd on dropped in the playoffs and so did his percentages.

If we're talking regular season and playoffs into account and we care about defense, this is going to Giannis for me between the two just because I didn't witness the other two.

[Jadoogar]

That's not fair. We haven't seen Giannis peak yet. So, the obvious answer at the moment is Dirk.

Yeah he has, most players peak at 24-25, which is when he won his MVPs. He’s still got a long amazing prime ahead of him, but we’re in the post-peak Giannis era now.

ummm what? Using PER (not perfect i know but acceptable for this exercise):
Lebron's best season - age 28
Nowitzki - age 27 (title season was age 33)
Michael Jordan - age 27
Shaq - age 27
Kobe - 27
Duncan - 27


There's too many to include but 24/25 is absolutely not when most players peak.

[Jasen777]

Did Dirk peaked in 2011?
He had a GOAT playoff run, but it wasn't his peak year imo.

Dirk's peak regular season was 2006-2007 when he won MVP. But he lost in the first round. Usually when discussing a superstar's peak the most important part of it is how they did in the playoffs.

There's also a strong case for 2005-6 and he did pretty well in the playoffs that season as well.

[Optms]

dirk's playoff run to the chip goes down as one of the greatest post season runs of all time. giannis has the stats but didn't face the same type of teams.

This.

That Dallas team went up against the back to back champs and the Heatles. Giannis's competition was one of the weakest I've seen in decades. All the elite teams were injured. He didn't face on single top 10 level player in any of those teams either.

Lebron
Curry
Harden
KD
Luka
Giannis
Jokic
Embiid
AD
Lillard
Kawhi
Paul George
Beal
Tatum

Trae and Booker are barely top 15 players. Dirk went up against a prime Kobe, Lebron and Wade, people. All within one playoff run.

[Waider]

People sleeping on Barkley here.

[mumoy]

This is easily Dirk lmao

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[picc]

Clearly Giannis at #1. His defensive edge over Dirk and Barkley is massive, and his offense is close enough. It makes it non-negotiable imo.

Barkley at 2. Offense savant and his rebounding was on a different level from everyone involved. Not a defensive giant, but neither is Dirk.

Dirk at 3. Not as good defensively as Malone, but more comfortably reliable offensively in the playoffs. Malone isnt a defensive anchor so its not enough to push him over.

Malone 4.

All very close though.

[Swish1906]

Dirks shooting numbers were insane in 2011, midrange was all time in nba history.

What? It wasn't even his all-time best. Are you referring to his 3 pt shooting percentage at 46% with 95% of them assisted on?

The lionization of that playoff run on this forum is propaganda level. We get it, the nice European guy beat the immature cocky guys. Let's not start making **** up now.

Nice try. It wasnt just the playoffs. Mavs went 2-7 in january when Dirk was injuried. He kicked ass the entire season but the trash media was still too focused on the choker lable

[Loaded_Hollows]

Dirk and it’s not too close

[Plossum]

Dirk 2011
Giannis 2021
Barkley 1993
Malone 1997

[WRau1]

That's not fair. We haven't seen Giannis peak yet. So, the obvious answer at the moment is Dirk.

Yeah he has, most players peak at 24-25, which is when he won his MVPs. He’s still got a long amazing prime ahead of him, but we’re in the post-peak Giannis era now.

Curious to see what you based this comment on.

[MrPerfect1]

It is kind of laughable that Dirk is winning:

Giannis is the Superior Offensive Player (scores equally as well if not better and that is without even factoring in the massive gulf between the 2 in playmaking and Offensive Rebounding).

The comparison becomes even more absurd when you examine the Chasm between the 2 in Defensive Impact.

[MrPerfect1]

That's not fair. We haven't seen Giannis peak yet. So, the obvious answer at the moment is Dirk.

Yeah he has, most players peak at 24-25, which is when he won his MVPs. He’s still got a long amazing prime ahead of him, but we’re in the post-peak Giannis era now.

ummm what? Using PER (not perfect i know but acceptable for this exercise):
Lebron's best season - age 28
Nowitzki - age 27 (title season was age 33)
Michael Jordan - age 27
Shaq - age 27
Kobe - 27
Duncan - 27


There's too many to include but 24/25 is absolutely not when most players peak.

Actually you are wrong. If you look at when players peak there and graph it the 2 highest peaks are at 24 and 27. Many players peak around 24 and many players peak around 27.

Also, you need to double check Jordan. His highest PER is at 24, not 27.

[ReasonablySober]

I honestly have no idea what they're doing with Dirk in 2011. Is it the year they won the title? Yes. Was it even close to his best season? No. He just finally had an all-world defender in the post and elite roll players. Dirk wasn't even great in the finals.