PG Magic Johnson--Gets the nod over Isiah Thomas
SG Michael Jordan
SF Larry Bird--Over Alex English and Dominique Wilkins
PF Charles Barkley--Close call between him and Kevin McHale
C Moses Malone--Edges out Hakeem Olajuwon, Robert Parish and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
You have to put McHale over Charles. Won 3 titles and Charles didn't peak until the early 90s. You could even make an argument that Sampson was over Charles in the 80s, even if he was only relevant for a few years.
ReplyDeleteBarkley had pretty much peaked by the late eighties, actually. As for the 'rings,' remember that McHale did not start on those first two championship clubs in 1981 and 1984.
DeleteThat said, McHale actually played defense (and great defense at that), whereas Barkley basically took that part of the game off.
Barkley peaked at the end of the 1980s and was much more dominant than McHale, especially in terms of rebounding. McHale never averaged ten boards per game in any season, while Barkley averaged 12 per game during the 80s and led the league in offensive boards three years in a row. Charles can't touch those rings, though.
ReplyDeleteMcHale was the perfect complement to any team. He will adjust to any game you know. In this team, the rebounds will be the task of Moses. You have pretty good rebounders, even Magic. You need Mchale IQ and scoring ability.
ReplyDelete1980's: c-malone, f-bird, f-erving, g-gervin, g-johnson
ReplyDeleteNot even a mention of Adrian Dantley. He averaged 30 points per game in 4 consecutive seasons. He has the same career ppg of 24.3 as Larry Bird but shot 54% to Bird's 49.6%. He has the fifth highest true shooting percentage of all time and the highest of anyone averaging at least 17.5 ppg. He had a career true shooting percentage of 61.7. Compare that to Bird 56.4, Jordan 56.9, Kobe 55.5, and Lebron 57.1. He is an all time efficent scorer and the game logs for his prime are unbelievable. He was an automatic 25 points on 50% shooting every night. I am just saying he was worthy of mention.
ReplyDeleteAs far as a "real team" is concerned, you need McHale to cover Bird's defensive liabilities. With Barkley, you don't receive that cover and instead become defensively disastrous.
ReplyDeleteJames Worthy is worthy of a citation; the guy was sick and makes someone like Carmelo Anthony nowadays seem like a chump.