OFFICIAL G.O.A.T Peak Rankings - #12

[KnicksorBust]

Generally when discussing the GOAT player it is important that you look at their career. MVPs / Rings / All-NBA Teams / etc. But this ranking throws all that out the window. 1 game. At their absolute best. Who you taking?

#1.) Michael Jordan
#2.) LeBron James
#3.) Shaquille O'Neal
#4.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#5.) Wilt Chamberlain
#6.) Larry Bird
#7.) Hakeem Olajuwon
#8.) Magic Johnson
#9.) Tim Duncan
#10.) Moses Malone
#11.) Bill Russell
#12.)
#13.)
#14.)
#15.)
#16.)
#17.)
#18.)
#19.)
#20.)
#21.)
#22.)
#23.)
#24.)
#25.)

[KnicksorBust]

Wings:
Kobe = resume
Curry = captain of the greatest regular season team
Durant = Finals dominator
Kawhi = best 2 player / finals mvp
Giannis = best "stats" regular season player.

I'm torn on the wings. How do you guys rank them?

I can't vote for Giannis but the other 4 are all deserving here. I almost feel like because Russell went at #11 that Bill Walton should go at #12.

Plus when do the gaggle of PF (KG/Dirk/Barkley/Malone) all go and do they go as a package deal or is there separation in between them? Thoughts?

Then you have Big O / West / Baylor that dominated their eras and Big O and West could shoot so I'm not really that concerned about if their games would translate. Soooo... I've narrowed it down to those 12 guys. lmao

[Saddletramp]

This is for one game, right? Not sure how you can’t go with “Finals Dominator” Durant.

[ewing]

KL in ahead of Kobe and Dirk for me


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[Chronz]

This is for one game, right? Not sure how you can’t go with “Finals Dominator” Durant.

Because hes not gonna have Curry to attract all the attention and in a situation where he must win or be the go to playmaker consistently, he crumbles. Its why when both were on the same team, only 1 player made the monumental difference. KD sits, team plays winning/efficient basketball, Curry sits, team falls off a cliff. Thats been the consistent trend.

In their last year together, when KD got tired of running the free flowing and highjacked it to get his own more often, the team suffered. KD gets hurt, the team goes back to running the team offense with an old Iggy as his replacement and they finish off the Rockets/Blazers with ease to make it back to the Finals and even steal 2 games once there.

If Curry were the one who had gotten hurt, we might've seen the Rockets or Blazers in the Finals and they definitely get swept vs the Raps.

[Chronz]

Wrote out a long response on KG-DROB-Malone. Got lost in the internet

So we all know KG's offensive game dwindles come playoffs, we know that about D-Rob too except D-Rob seemed to crush weaker teams just fine whereas KG literally never looked to take over a game in the same way, hes always been more of an ultimate team glue guy who can happen to get hot for stretches.

D-Rob had some notable losses vs other bigs. Im not just talking about the Hakeem meeting at his absolute apex but there were like 3 or 4 battles where he was favored vs the Jazz where Malone would regularly defend him and uproot him, outplay him on the other end. Outright embarassments too, way worse than getting school by Hakeem. I remember 1 game where lil John Stockton absolutely man handled D-Rob dropping him to the floor. Im rewatch those series right now but it seems to me people dont view the Mail Man as this peak monster because he didn't dominate the regular season but when matched up in a playoff series, would regularly outplay the opposing teams bigman. Hell I remember him guarding and eliminating Shaq, hes an underrated M2M defender, he had the quickness to keep up with rangy bigs like D-Rob AND the man strength to D up the likes of Shaq. Even in his sole Lakers post season he helped shutdown Yao (when Shaq was struggling) and Duncan.


Whats the argument for KG over Malone? Are we building around the best player or building your idealized team?

[Chronz]

I didn't respond in the other thread but why would 01 be Kobes peak when he was a way worse player?

03 Tmac ***** on 01 Kobe.

Kobes is 2010 pretty easily

[Allphakenny1]

This is for one game, right? Not sure how you can’t go with “Finals Dominator” Durant.

Peak absolutely does not mean one game. If that were the case then Wilt would be the consensus #1. He scored 100pts in one game. I would say peak should mean at least one season. Hell, didn't Booker score over 70 in a game, so if we went by one game, he would already be gone by now.

[Chronz]

Case against D-Rob, pre-peak he lost to the lower seeded Warriors in R.1, he put up really good numbers but many questioned his desire. He went ghost for key stretches and didn't take over when he had a huge mismatch against the undersized Warriors, Tom Tolbert was a primary matchup in the 4th quarter of a close game they lost. Legendary coach Larry Brown was annoyed with what they got out of the post, offended by the amount of turnaround jumpers (a common complaint of guys like KG too come post season) when they had the size advantage.

At the start and finish of his peak/prime run he was regularly Malowned.

1994 - Loses with HCA in R.1 just barely averaging 20-10 on 41% shooting (including a 2-14 stinker). Malone averages 29-12

1996- Loses with HCA in R.1, averaging 19-9 and watching Malone go for 25-9-5.

1998 - Loses in R.2 averaging 18-12 shooting 39% and watching Malone drop 25-10-4 draining jumper after jumper over both he and Duncan on the interior. Yes, this was the year D-Rob co captained the offense with Duncan, who was arguably already the superior player. He lost in 5 games

In a secondary role, he might be better than Malone given his portability but as a peak player, what does he got on Malone? When D-Rob won his 1st ring, it was actually one of the better defensive performances we've ever seen in the playoffs and his overall efficiency was good given the competition.

Charles Barkley is better than Malone, therefore D-Rob has no shot.

[NYKalltheway]

Should be a question between Baylor, Erving, Walton, Tmac and Barkley... Yet everyone focuses on the past 5 seasons lol

[KnicksorBust]

This is for one game, right? Not sure how you can’t go with “Finals Dominator” Durant.

Yes it is for one game. Watching Durant go from an assassin scorer to an all-around superstar has been pretty fun. I never expected his passing and defense to improve like they have from his rookie season to now.

[KnicksorBust]

KL in ahead of Kobe and Dirk for me


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The more I think about Kawhi Leonard the more I want to pick him. Here is a DPOY wing who can score, rebound, pass, and has shooting splits of 51%/44%/87% from fg/3pt/ft for a complete season. There are no holes in his game.

[KnicksorBust]

Peak absolutely does not mean one game. If that were the case then Wilt would be the consensus #1. He scored 100pts in one game. I would say peak should mean at least one season. Hell, didn't Booker score over 70 in a game, so if we went by one game, he would already be gone by now.

In this thread, yes the purpose is to pretend you are drafting a team to play one game. Career accolades and injury concerns should be thrown out the window. At their absolute best which player would you want to draft based on their skills. You don't get to magically give Booker a 70 point game when he is going to be playing in an all-time game with legends. He wouldn't be able to do that against elite competition and that's why no one would even consider him here. It's not who had the best box score, it is who is the best player.

[KnicksorBust]

Should be a question between Baylor, Erving, Walton, Tmac and Barkley... Yet everyone focuses on the past 5 seasons lol

I'm confused why you would include Baylor and T-Mac over Oscar?

[KnicksorBust]

Because hes not gonna have Curry to attract all the attention and in a situation where he must win or be the go to playmaker consistently, he crumbles. Its why when both were on the same team, only 1 player made the monumental difference. KD sits, team plays winning/efficient basketball, Curry sits, team falls off a cliff. Thats been the consistent trend.

In their last year together, when KD got tired of running the free flowing and highjacked it to get his own more often, the team suffered. KD gets hurt, the team goes back to running the team offense with an old Iggy as his replacement and they finish off the Rockets/Blazers with ease to make it back to the Finals and even steal 2 games once there.

If Curry were the one who had gotten hurt, we might've seen the Rockets or Blazers in the Finals and they definitely get swept vs the Raps.

So you voting Curry?

Wrote out a long response on KG-DROB-Malone. Got lost in the internet

So we all know KG's offensive game dwindles come playoffs, we know that about D-Rob too except D-Rob seemed to crush weaker teams just fine whereas KG literally never looked to take over a game in the same way, hes always been more of an ultimate team glue guy who can happen to get hot for stretches.

D-Rob had some notable losses vs other bigs. Im not just talking about the Hakeem meeting at his absolute apex but there were like 3 or 4 battles where he was favored vs the Jazz where Malone would regularly defend him and uproot him, outplay him on the other end. Outright embarassments too, way worse than getting school by Hakeem. I remember 1 game where lil John Stockton absolutely man handled D-Rob dropping him to the floor. Im rewatch those series right now but it seems to me people dont view the Mail Man as this peak monster because he didn't dominate the regular season but when matched up in a playoff series, would regularly outplay the opposing teams bigman. Hell I remember him guarding and eliminating Shaq, hes an underrated M2M defender, he had the quickness to keep up with rangy bigs like D-Rob AND the man strength to D up the likes of Shaq. Even in his sole Lakers post season he helped shutdown Yao (when Shaq was struggling) and Duncan.


Whats the argument for KG over Malone? Are we building around the best player or building your idealized team?

Oh my bad. So you're voting Malone?

I didn't respond in the other thread but why would 01 be Kobes peak when he was a way worse player?

03 Tmac ***** on 01 Kobe.

Kobes is 2010 pretty easily

Gotcha! T-mac it is!

Case against D-Rob, pre-peak he lost to the lower seeded Warriors in R.1, he put up really good numbers but many questioned his desire. He went ghost for key stretches and didn't take over when he had a huge mismatch against the undersized Warriors, Tom Tolbert was a primary matchup in the 4th quarter of a close game they lost. Legendary coach Larry Brown was annoyed with what they got out of the post, offended by the amount of turnaround jumpers (a common complaint of guys like KG too come post season) when they had the size advantage.

At the start and finish of his peak/prime run he was regularly Malowned.

1994 - Loses with HCA in R.1 just barely averaging 20-10 on 41% shooting (including a 2-14 stinker). Malone averages 29-12

1996- Loses with HCA in R.1, averaging 19-9 and watching Malone go for 25-9-5.

1998 - Loses in R.2 averaging 18-12 shooting 39% and watching Malone drop 25-10-4 draining jumper after jumper over both he and Duncan on the interior. Yes, this was the year D-Rob co captained the offense with Duncan, who was arguably already the superior player. He lost in 5 games

In a secondary role, he might be better than Malone given his portability but as a peak player, what does he got on Malone? When D-Rob won his 1st ring, it was actually one of the better defensive performances we've ever seen in the playoffs and his overall efficiency was good given the competition.

Charles Barkley is better than Malone, therefore D-Rob has no shot.

Now it's Barkley?!!?? Make up your mind!!