Watch about 3 of this 14 minutes then answer a question about Michael Finley.

[Kblaze8855]

https://youtu.be/RPkHlUJLqBE






Middleton
Cj Mcculloum
Derozan(Raptors version)
Lavine
Klay




Where would you rank him among those players? Just want a general idea of how highly you regard him.

[Overdrive]

I honestly wouldn't know where to put him in this era. I would put him above DeRozan, but I don't know if he could match Middleton's production in Giannis' absence these playoffs, albeit being more versatile.

CJ had a good stretch where he looked like a star in the making. Glimpse of higher potential than Finley.
Lavine back in the early 00s I doubt he'd be as productive.

I don't know where to put Klay in a vacuum.

So I would only make a case putting him above DeRozan, not knowing what to make of the rest.

[ArbitraryWater]

is that really how you spell mccollum lol


anyway cant seriously entertain middleton comp

at best he gets the nod on derozan.

mccollum probably 1 step too far.

cant be far off.

[Im so nba'd out]

Better than lavine
Better than CJ (cause he's taller and height makes the game much easier)
about = to middleton
worse than the other 2


Yeah, the defrozan playoff jokes are funny and all but dont forget that Demar was the 2nd best sg in the entire league the year he carried the Raptors to the #1 seed. He was every bit as good as even James some nights....i didnt forget

[fsvr54]

One of my all time favorite players, I'd take him over any of those other guys.

[HBK_Kliq_2]

He's not the ball handler, passer, closer and all around player that Middleton is I would say.

His main problem was defense and he was plugged with Steve Nash, so that didn't help his case. 2003 mavs were the #1 SRS team and Dirk got injured in the west finals, so bad luck as well.

Then he was a role player with spurs but his defense weaknesses stuck out a lot less there.

I would take Middleton over him, lavine is mainly potential at this point, klay is close but I see Finley benefiting from draymond defense.

So middleton would be the only one on this list that is clearly better I think. Giannis is better then Dirk though, so who knows what happens if you plug him on bucks. I will give Middleton the benefit of the doubt due to his all around game and closing ability.

[Smoke117]

Don't really care to compare players from such different eras. Having said that, Finley clearly was a good 2 tiers below the best of the sg's and sf's from his era. He was pretty much the epitome of a high volume shooter who didn't do much else of note at any significant level. You see how much better Dirk was than him starting in 2001 when he's averaging 21.8 to finley's 21.5 despite taking 3.7 less shots. (15.2 shot attempts to 18.9) A similar situation like this was playing out on the Bucks where Glenn Robinson was chucking away despite Ray Allen being significantly better. That's a good comparison for him in general as those guys were basically at the same level while guys like Kobe, Tmac, Allen, Carter, and Pierce were all much better players.

[Loco 50]

Middleton
Cj Mcculloum
Derozan(Raptors version)
Lavine
Klay




Where would you rank him among those players? Just want a general idea of how highly you regard him.

Klay - Best player on this list by far. I see Klay as around a top 30 player. Maybe 25.

Finley - Never had to worry about whether or not Finley was going to show up for a game. Dude was fearless and attacked the rim like it spit on his mama. Range out to 3, could carry the team's offense for stretches at a time with efficient scoring. Would aggressively punish weak defenders in the post. Just abuse them. Only drawback I recall was he could be turnover prone when asked to do to much and his handle wasn't the best for a swing, even in those days. Sometimes his emotions got the better of him and he could be tech prone, but I'd rather have a player care too much than too little.

Middleton - Great player. Perhaps my bias gets in the way so may be better than Finley. In a one on one matchup, I'm going Finley. He eats him up.

Lavine/McCollum - players of a different 3 pt jacking/no defense playing era reaping the rewards so I'm hesitant to take their production too seriously. Good players for this era, just not comparable. Finley put up numbers when forearm checking was still being phased out and Bowen was lurking the league.

DeRozan - wishes he had a fraction of Finley's testicular fortitude. Curls up in the fetal position just thinking about some of the clutch situations Finley pulled his teams through. No range. Head issues. Doesn't belong on this list.

[Smoke117]

Klay - Best player on this list by far. I see Klay as around a top 30 player. Maybe 25.

Finley - Never had to worry about whether or not Finley was going to show up for a game. . Dude was fearless and attacked the rim like it spit on his mama Range out to 3, could carry the team's offense for stretches at a time with efficient scoring. Would aggressively punish weak defenders in the post. Just abuse them. Only drawback I recall was he could be turnover prone when asked to do to much and his handle wasn't the best for a swing, even in those days. Sometimes his emotions got the better of him and he could be tech prone, but I'd rather have a player care too much than too little.

Middleton - Great player. Perhaps my bias gets in the way so may be better than Finley. In a one on one matchup, I'm going Finley. He eats him up.

Lavine/McCollum - players of a different 3 pt jacking/no defense playing era reaping the rewards so I'm hesitant to take their production too seriously. Good players for this era, just not comparable. Finley put up numbers when forearm checking was still being phased out and Bowen was lurking the league.

DeRozan - wishes he had a fraction of Finley's testicular fortitude. Curls up in the fetal position just thinking about some of the clutch situations Finley pulled his teams through. No range. Head issues. Doesn't belong on this list.

lol What are you talking about? His percentage of shots between 0-3 feet was very low throughout his career. He was never attacking the rim all that much. He also was never efficient so I don't know what you are talking about there.

[iamgine]

Middleton
Cj Mcculloum
Derozan(Raptors version)
Lavine
Klay

Where would you rank him among those players? Just want a general idea of how highly you regard him.

I'd rank him below Lavine. Around Klay/Derozan level. Above Mccollum/Middleton.

[Loco 50]

lol What are you talking about? His percentage of shots between 0-3 feet was very low throughout his career. He was never attacking the rim all that much. He also was never efficient so I don't know what you are talking about there.

"could carry the team's offense for stretches at a time...." pertinent, but I agree with your overall statement in that he was not a number 1 guy, but I don't think anyone else on this list, aside from Klay is either.

Finley and the team struggled when they solely depended on him, but when his role was limited he was great. As you mentioned, Dirk was a much better scorer so it was to everyone's benefit that he took a back seat. Fortunately for them he was a good enough teammate to accept that without blowing up the team. He was efficient for stretches, but I feel like a coach had to a pretty tight reign on him or things could get out of control.

I'd have to see the numbers your referencing with regards to the "0-3 feet" comment. My off the cuff guess would be he tried to dunk anything and everything when he was younger so missed quite a bit. I'm not mad at that type of aggression though, tbh.

He ate up smaller guards in the low post with a hook shot and a nice up and under move and in the high post with a fade pretty consistently in his Spurs days. Maybe those were late additions to his game.