Is Karl Malone underrated?

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Karl Malone never came up big in the postseason. The Jazz should have been in the finals much earlier and he kept coming up short. He don't belong in this conversation.
The first part is true. The second not so much.

Question was is Karl Malone under rated. Despite his playoff failures he for sure is.
 

mastermind

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The first part is true. The second not so much.

Question was is Karl Malone under rated. Despite his playoff failures he for sure is.
The best power forward of all time was outplayed by Shawn Kemp in the 1996 WCF.

The Jazz pushed the ‘88 Lakers to 7 games in the western semifinals. They were the team If the future. The next year they got swept out of the first round by Golden State, with home court.
 

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If Bird is top 10 so is Malone.

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Damn I should have read further... this dude doesn't even have Magic Johnson in his top 10? But Malone and KD? Elite trolling :russ:
 

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The best power forward of all time was outplayed by Shawn Kemp in the 1996 WCF.

The Jazz pushed the ‘88 Lakers to 7 games in the western semifinals. They were the team If the future. The next year they got swept out of the first round by Golden State, with home court.
What's that have to do with Karl Malone being under rated?
 

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This is some of the dumbest "rings" talk I've seen. Malone played the large majority of his career with a stacked team:

1. HOF coach
2. HOF point guard, one of the all-time top-5 (some say top-2)
3. A top-5 shooting guard (Jeff Malone and then Jeff Hornacek)
4. HOF power forward, all-time top-2
5. For the first 5-6 years, a four-time DPOY and one-time All-Star center

And on top of that, he had some of the best team/coach stability in basketball history, with the same fukking teammates building chemistry together over the years.

But why didn't he win any rings? Was he getting stopped by some all time team in those 18 years? Hell no. Until the Chicago losses, it was mostly also-rans that beat them.

Let's start in 1986, when Malone was 22, Stockton was 23, Mark Eaton was 29 and reigning DPOY, and pretty decent players Ricky Green and Thurl Bailey were also on the team.

'86: Lost in 1st round to Mavs
'87: Lost in 1st round to Warriors
'88: Lost in WCSF to Lakers
'89: Lost in 1st round to Warriors
'90: Lost in 1st round to Suns.

Let me stop there for a second. In 1990 Karl Malone was nearly 27yo and in his prime, 1st-team All-NBA. Stockton was 27yo, in his prime, 2nd-team All-NBA. Mark Eaton was 33yo, coming off an All-star appearance and DPOY season the year before. Thurl Bailey was a decent 14 and 5 guy. Their core together had been together 5 years and had great chemistry. And they were just a 5-seed who lost in the 1st round to the Suns whose #1 option was Tom fukking Chambers.

Maybe you can say the Suns were a nice squad - Chambers, KJ, Hornacek, Majerle. But those aren't all-timers, those aren't guys who are ever put on the level of Stockton and Malone. If Stockton and Malone are really the best ever at their position, then how they teamed together in their prime losing in the 1st round to a squad that won't even make it out of the WC?

So they level up by adding Jeff Malone, a 2-time All-Star guard who had averaged 24ppg on 59% shooting the year before.

'91: Lost in WCSF to Blazers
'92: Lost in WCF to Blazers
'93: Lost in 1st round to Sonics

So in '94 they switch out Jeff Malone for a 30yo Jeff Hornacek (a borderline 20ppg scorer who had been an All Star in '92) and 34yo Chambers (last all-star game in '91 but still a double-digit scorer). Matching them with two 1st-team All-NBA guys in Malone and Stockton in the middle of their prime, during the expansion era when most teams had shytty depth and only 1 great player at the top. And still couldn't break through.

'94: Lost in WCF to Rockets
'95: Lost in 1st round to Rockets
'96: Lost in WCF to Sonics
'97: Lost in Finals to Bulls
'98: Lost in Finals to Bulls
'99: Lost in WCSF to Blazers
'00: Lost in WCSF to Blazers
'01: Lost in 1st round to Mavs
'02: Lost in 1st round to Kings
'03: Lost in 1st round to Kings


This ain't no, "ah, he just never got a squad." Malone HAD a squad, a better one than Hakeem had. And he not only didn't break through, he had a train ran on him by damn near every team in the Western Conference.
You right breh...Malone had a gang of Help....if Shaq or Tim Duncan played with all the help Malone had they would've.....











































































Been ringless just like he is :stopitslime::camby:
 

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I think Malone is ranked just about right. Like most players it could be argued he should be a few spots higher or a few spots lower. Here is what I don't think though, that Malone has any case for top 5 of all time. I swear if it was left up to some folks that would just look at the top 5 players with the most nba points scored and that would be their top 5 list. It would be a bad list imo but that is how a lot of folks think.

First of all total career points is obviously heavily influenced by longevity. I personally don't give as much weight to longevity as most folks. Why does playing 22 years make you better than someone who played say 14 years? It doesn't. I like at averages way before I would look at totals. Let's use Kobe and Jordan as examples. Anyone who watched know MJ was a far, far superior scorer than Kobe. Yet Kobe actually scored more career points. Why? Kobe played longer. But their averages tell the true story. MJ average 30 ppg on 50% while Kobe averaged 25 ppg on 45%, that's just a monumental difference.

Look at Magic Johnson, his career totals aren't going to be super high because he only played 13 years but Magic has a case as the GOAT. The man made the finals 9 times in his first 12 season. I don't really count his last season when he came back after being gone 5 years. Anyone that watch Magic play knew he was a special, special players regardless of what his career totals were.

So that brings me to Karl Malone. It's not that Malone wasn't a great player. I'm not saying that, 25 ppg on 52% shooting and 10 boards per game is great for anybody. But if he had those exact numbers, with no championships and two finals losses where he came up small and played 5 or 6 years less would anybody think he is top 10 let alone top 5. Probably not. The folks looking to bump Malone alone are doing it almost entirely on longevity imo.

If you were going to put Malone in the top 10 but on the ESPN list who would you take out? Considering all those guys won multiple championships and 8 of the ESPN list won multiple MVPs why would you place Malone over them. Also Malone was never considered the best player in the game. And it wasn't just because of Jordan. Even if you take Jordan away Malone still only has two seasons where is considered the best in the game despite playing 19 years. Compare that to Jordan who played many years less but was considered the best every year of the 1990s. Magic and Bird played even fewer years than Jordan but was considered the best in the league at least three years apiece and top 2 or three pretty much every year of their career. You can't say that for Malone. Malone was a great player who accumulated even greater stats because of longevity. In many years he is like Kobe without the rings of course.

Hakeem Olajuwon may not have been as productive in the regular season as Malone over the course of his entire career but I think most folks, probably 80% think Olajuwon was better. If Hakeem didn't make the top 10 then most would argue Malone shouldn't of been top 10 either. I mean we all saw Hakeem dominate like 8 or 9 playoff series in a row. Something Malone never came close to doing.

Playoff performance matters and Hakeem dominate playoff performance are always the first thoughts that come to mind when thinking of Hakeen. Fair or unfair playoff failures are what many folks think of when thinking of Malone such as getting bounced in the second round in 1999 the year are the Bulls broke up. After just missing the chip the previous two years that was suppose to be the Jazz title and they didn't even come close.
 
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You right breh...Malone had a gang of Help....if Shaq or Tim Duncan played with all the help Malone had they would've.....

been ringless just like he is :stopitslime::camby:
You just trolling. :mjlol:

Imagine Duncan and Jason Kidd coming into the league on the SAME team (only closer in age) and that team already has peak Ben Wallace on it too as well as a couple double-digit scoring role players. They would be better than the Spurs teams that won in 1999/2003. That team wins titles.

And then say around 2003, they add Michael Finley too. They'd be better than the 2005 Spurs that won. That team wins titles.

Then in 2007 when Finley starts getting old, they manage to pick up Ginobli and Peja.

Prime Jason Kidd
Prime Ginobli
Old but useful Peja
Prime Duncan

All under a HOF coach.

That team would win more titles. :dead:



You gotta just be pandemic trolling at this point.
 
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