Kevin McHale or Karl Malone...WHO Was a Better Player?

[QUOTE=Thorpesaurous]In terms of historical achievement, it's obviously Malone.

But as someone who saw both guys, if it were my team I'd take McHale in a heartbeat. McHale is one of the most unique ability vs. numbers guys ever because of how much he bent himself for the good of the team.

[B]Malone to me was maybe the best player ever at getting and making the easy shots. [/B] Weather it was using his physicality to get way deep in the post to make an easy shot. Outrunning his opponent, which he's really underrated at. And obviously just finding space in that pick and roll. [B]But his game lacked much in the way of counters. If those handful of things were taken away, he didn't adjust well. [/B]

[B]McHale's post game could serve as an offensive foundation[/B]. It would've been nice had he been a better passer, but that to me is a smaller sin. And defensively the gap is enormous. McHale has a great rep as a rim protector, but is underrated as a perimeter guy before he destroyed his ankle playing through the playoffs on a broken foot.

[/QUOTE]
All due to respect to one of the better posters on this site, but...

Are you trying to tell me that Malone was not an offensive foundation? The man that averaged no less than 23ppg for FOURTEEN straight seasons, as his team's unquestioned best player, was not an offensive foundation? Not to mention that those teams, where he was the best player and CLEAR #1 option, were in the playoffs for everyone single one of those 14 seasons.

And honestly, who cares if the points were easy or difficult. He had continued success. If the opposing team can't consistently stop him from getting his easy points... well, those baskets still count towards the final score.

I can't speak on McHale's level of play, as I never saw him... but are some people seriously considering McHale's 3-4 years of really awesome play as testament that he was better than Malone? WTF?

Malone clearly.

McHale always had Bird to take off the pressure. He didn't have to carry the burden of being "the man" and that should never be overlooked. It's so much harder to be great when you are the focal point of the D. And Malone's longevity is amazing. If it wasn't for a guy named Jordan, Malone probably has a ring or two and this isn't even a discussion. That late 90's Jazz team was pretty darn good and were somewhat competitive with the Bulls in both finals.

[QUOTE=robert de niro]KM for sure[/QUOTE]

:lol
:roll:

Stat wise Karl Malone is a beast. You can take his top 12 years as an average and it will be better in production as the other top PF's best year. And his playoff numbers were 25/11 over a very large 190 games played, his career numbers were 25/10. His best eight years he's 28 and 11, in both seasons, thats over 700 games where he maintained that high level. Of the post 70's great PFs (Dirk, KG, Duncan, McHale) only Barkley got to 27ppg (and Barkley had one other year where he got to 28ppg). So if somebody wanted 20 years of steady high production, without missing games, he's the best of the lot. If you wanted super high production for 10 years he's got a significant hand on the comp as well.

With that said I definitely could fit McHale, easily the least productive of the bunch, on some teams before Karl. Depends on how you would tweak a team.

If Malone never joined the Lakers, then Malone.
But he did.

dat 1986 McHale was something else but aside from that Malone was consistently better.

[QUOTE=Pointguard]Stat wise Karl Malone is a beast. You can take his top 12 years as an average and it will be better in production as the other top PF's best year. [/QUOTE]

Bob Pettit for 11 seasons: 26.4/16.2/3

The amount of disrespect Malone gets on this site is ridiculous. He put up elite production for over 15 years, averaged 25/10/3 on 50% for a decade straight, and if he didn't play in the Jordan era, would have had a resume that looked like this

15 All-NBA Teams, 11 first (tied with Kobe for most all time) 2 MVP's, 2 Finals MVP's, and the second most points in NBA history

That's a top 10 resume right there. McHale was an excellent player and had a great peak, but this thread is just an insult to Malone. He's got to be the most disrespected top 20 player of all time on ISH. LeBron, Kobe, and Wilt get a lot of shit, but at least people defend them. Ain't nobody on here stands up for Malone, he's always mentioned in a negative light

I don't even think McHale was better than Pau Gasol, let alone Malone. And I only have Malone 4th as an all-time PF.

Easily the Mailman.

McHale had Bird and Parish. Bird a top 10 ATG sure helps alot to have.
And if it werent for Jordans Bulls, Malone would have 2 rings for sure.

McHale

[B]I love McHale's game but c'mon now...

Peak McHale was a great, very valuable player... Top2 GOAT post-game in terms of overall skill, major soft-touch around the rim, very good scorer, close to unstoppable with single coverage on the low-block, had a jumper, pretty good FT shooter, very good rebounder, great overall defender, smart player, not a bad passer... but he just wasn't as good or as impactful as Karl Malone.

Kevin played alongside a top5/10 GOAT who took the most attention on the perimeter for that team and got everyone countless easy buckets.
He was a great defensive player but not what you'd call a defensive anchor, couldn't impact it like that, better than Karl, I'd say, but by very little.
He wasn't an inept passer but turned into a blackhole many times and has more TO's than assists for his career, Malone was EASILY a better passer/playmaker.
He couldn't rebound as well as Karl.
He never was top5 in PPG while Malone was top3 8 times, only topped 26 once while Malone did it 9 times and, yea, McHale always had terrific FG% but Karl's was great as it was while scoring more...

Peak McHale was EXTREMELY hard to guard on that low-block with tremendous skill, long arms, good mobility, numerous counters, could hit jumpers... but Karl was just a better, more versatile scorer.

McHale couldn't impose his way in like Malone, had more skill on the block but not as strong/powerful as Malone, couldn't run the break like Malone, Karl had that pick-n-roll/pop game that McHale didn't, he could do it from the triple-threat while Kevin not so much, McHale's a better FT shooter but Malone got there more often.

And while Kevin was no Robert Parish, as in what you had before was what you were going to get in the most important moments most times, but also wasn't as clutch as a Dennis Johnson.

Karl's a 2 time MVP while Kevin not even at his very best cracked the top3.
Malone was out there playing lots of minutes, leading his team, just better, more impactful than McHale.

And if you wanna factor in longevity, forget about it...
McHale was only coming into his own by 1985, moved into the starting5 by 1986, had his peak in 1987 and was never the same after that same season, due to playing with a broken foot throughout the Playoffs.
Malone has GOAT-level longevity.

McHale has a top5 peak for a PF, although in terms of overall career considering everything, I got Duncan, Malone, KG, Barkley, Dirk, Pettit and Hayes above McHale... That's #8.
[/B]

kevin mchale was one of the greatest post players in nba history, period. he said that even he didn't know what he was going to do in the post before he did it. it was all pure reaction time and instinct.

that said, malone was a two time mvp, the second highest scorer in nba history, and lead his team alongside stockton to two finals appearances. only knock on malone i could think of was the fact that he just couldn't make his free throws in the post-season and that used to always come around to bite the jazz.

I always forget Karl Malone is a 2x MVP, 90s MVPs really seem irrelevant to me.

[QUOTE=SouBeachTalents]The amount of disrespect Malone gets on this site is ridiculous. He put up elite production for over 15 years, averaged 25/10/3 on 50% for a decade straight, and if he didn't play in the Jordan era, would have had a resume that looked like this[B]

15 All-NBA Teams, 11 first (tied with Kobe for most all time) 2 MVP's, 2 Finals MVP's, and the second most points in NBA history[/B]

That's a top 10 resume right there. McHale was an excellent player and had a great peak, but this thread is just an insult to Malone. He's got to be the most disrespected top 20 player of all time on ISH. LeBron, Kobe, and Wilt get a lot of shit, but at least people defend them. Ain't nobody on here stands up for Malone, he's always mentioned in a negative light[/QUOTE]

GTFO with this the only reason Malone won MVP over MJ in 1996 is because the press was beyond sick of giving the MVP to the same person every year and the turds at BSPN wrote a love piece on Karl Malone.