NBA 10 Best Players Who Entered the League After 84-85

[Say Hey Kid]

In no order:

LeBron
The Mailman is top 3 in Regular Season PPG, Playoffs PPG, Playoffs RPG, and top 5 in Regular Season RPG during this period.
Duncan
Dirk
Garnett
Shaq
CP3
Robinson
Miller
Kobe

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[KoozNetsOff 92]

Durant has to be up there, pretty easily over everyone else listed besides the obvious 5 (LeBron, Kobe, Duncan, Shaq, Malone). Curry and Wade pretty easily over Pierce, Miller, Paul and Payton.

Not in order:

LeBron
Durant
Kobe
Duncan
Shaq
Malone
Robinson
Curry
Wade
Dirk
Garnett
Harden

HM: Iverson, Nash, Paul

 

[JackSlater]

In loose order:

James
O'Neal
Durant
Duncan
Garnett
Bryant
Malone
Leonard
Harden
Robinson
Paul
Nowitzki

 

[Deficient Mode]

Lebron
Shaq
Curry
Giannis
Garnett
Duncan
Bryant
Robinson
Durant
Wade
Nowitzki
Nash

Strongly emphasized peak level and left Malone off for Giannis. By career value this would look different.

 

[Voight]

LeBron
Malone
Duncan
Dirk
Garnett
Shaq
Paul
Robinson
Miller
Kobe
Pierce
Payton

HM: Allen, Gasol

Paul Pierce?!

 

[Voight]

Literally every player on that list is better than Pierce.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Sorting by career win shares is simply not a very effective way to determine career value. Pierce had a nice long career as an all-NBA player but that undersells how much more championship probability guys with shorter careers but much higher peaks (e.g. Wade and Durant so far) brought. Malone also has no argument for 2nd best NBA player over that stretch as well given his much lower peak and diminished playoff effectiveness compared to some players.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Points per game is a much worse stat to measure a player's entire value by than Win Shares but keep going.

Malone's true shooting dropped from 57.7% in the regular season to 52.8% in the postseason. Massive drop. He became a significantly less efficient scorer. His defensive ability was way behind all of the other bigs mentioned here except for Shaq and Dirk, who were much better offensively. Rebounding should be weighed pretty lightly.

 

[Deficient Mode]

ESPN ranked Karl Malone the 17th best ever today. He was ranked higher than Moses, Dirk, and Garnett. Deficient Mode indeed.

Do you always agree with ESPN? Or just when you can't think of an argument of your own? Malone was a slightly better scorer than Garnett but significantly worse at every other aspect of basketball that matters. The defensive gap in particular was huge. He had a better career than Dirk but worse peak. Not sure what Moses has to do with anything but I don't rate him ahead of Karl anyway.

 

[Voight]

Sorting by career win shares is simply not a very effective way to determine career value. Pierce had a nice long career as an all-NBA player but that undersells how much more championship probability guys with shorter careers but much higher peaks (e.g. Wade and Durant so far) brought. Malone also has no argument for 2nd best NBA player over that stretch as well given his much lower peak and diminished playoff effectiveness compared to some players.

Even then, he was All-NBA four times, never on the first team, and three of the four times it was the 3rd team.