Karl Malone vs. Giannis Antetokounmpo

[Jim Naismith]

Who is better?

peak Karl vs. current Giannis

Vote above.

[Statlanta]

Karl Malone.

I really want people to back off making threads like these and just wait till the season is over, lest the positive sentiment of his play be tarnished on this forum.

Giannis is my favorite current NBA player(and the guy who gave me the most And-1s) btw.

[NotReady]

The problem with these kind of things is when the "current" gets to be such a small sample size, things get really weird. Willie Burton's "peak" might be higher than, say, Chris Bosh's if you argue that Bosh never had an individual game as good as Burton's 53/8/3.

Obviously my example is more extreme, but when it comes to something like what you're asking, you're basically asking has Malone ever had a four game stretch as good as Giannis has had so far this season. That's all.

[Cappy_Smurf]

Peak Karl.

In order for Giannis to have a case here, he needs to maintain numbers for an entire season, and then you can compare that to Karl's best season. Still, Malone had one of the best careers the NBA has ever seen. IMO he's one of the most underrated former players on Realgm. Kids that never got to watch him play just don't have a true appreciation for how good he was.

We had comments saying he wouldn't be a top 5 player today, which is laughable. LeBron is the only current player that would be ahead of Malone IMO.

[Franco]

Too soon son

[Jim Naismith]

Still, Malone had one of the best careers the NBA has ever seen.

Not direct relevant when considering Karl's peak.

[EireannX]

Why do peak?

In Karl's fifth season he averaged 31 points per game over 82 games. That's well before winning MVPs .
He also had made all rookie 1st as opposed to giannis 2nd, an extra all star appearance and an extra all nba 1st appearance on Giannis. And you can find 4 game sample sizes in that year better than Giannis' current run.

[trex_8063]

Don't know about everyone else, but I'd kinda like to see more than four games before drawing any broad conclusions about current Giannis.

[mischievous]

Wow. At least wait until we see 60 games or so.

[Jim Naismith]

After witnessing the last few games, I would be mildly disappointed if Giannis's season did not match a typical prime season from Karl Malone.

After all, Giannis is considered to be (slightly) better than Pippen, and Karl Malone is one tier higher than Pippen.

[Jiminy Glick]

Giannis easily. If they were matched up with each other I think it would be a nightmare for Malone.

[Jim Naismith]

bump

[AdagioPace]

Giannis has regressed from that hot start but I still pick him(I voted Giannis in october)
I simply find his defense and playmaking a more valuable set of skills

[Woodsanity]

Too small of a sample size to pick Giannis here.

[homecourtloss]

In today’s game? Giannis with zero hesitation.

[Pg81]

Karl Malone gave us almost 2 decades of excellence. Giannis has a long way to go before I will consider any comparisons seriously.

[letskissbro]

Long as Giannis doesn't go the Malone route and develop into a perennial postseason choker, this is an easy question. Dude is playing at a ridiculous level especially for his age. Like easily one of the three or four best 23 year old seasons ever so far alongside LeBron, Michael Jordan, and Chris Paul.

[eminence]

Long as Giannis doesn't go the Malone route and develop into a perennial postseason choker, this is an easy question. Dude is playing at a ridiculous level especially for his age. Like easily one of the three or four best 23 year old seasons ever so far alongside LeBron, Michael Jordan, and Chris Paul.

Say what.

[Ballerhogger]

It’s Karl overall it’s not too close right now .

[ardee]

Well this season isn't even a third of the way in so if we're using 2017 as Giannis' peak it's Karl and not close.

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