I think MJ is underrated defensively on this board...

[fpliii]

From watching live and going back to look at tape, the guy never slacked off, and didn't really try to save energy by giving less than 100% effort. We're getting more and more data from the 90s, and the on/off numbers seem to paint him as a legitimately dominant player on that end.

A lot of star players are named to all-defensive teams on the basis of reputation, but Jordan's selections were pretty well-deserved. At the time (started watching during the last year of the first threepeat) I'd always thought Scottie was better defensively, but going back now I'm not sure that's the case. During the second threepeat it's pretty close, but from watching more and more of peak MJ, I think he was the superior man and help defender in his prime.

Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but I just wanted to give the dude his due.

[toneloc103]

Dude, nothing MJ did is under-rated on this board..

[T_L_P]

Agreed. The best defenders can't coast: it's just in their nature to always try on that end.

Perimeter defense gets overrated when people start trying to compare it to interior defense though. The two aren't comparable.

[3ball]

Agreed. It's too bad his prime was wasted in a weak era of wing players. Today? He'd unquestionable be the best offensive and defensive wing player by a wide margin. he'd give stars today a lot of trouble.

Weak wing players??.. The lists below show that SG's and SF's from 1990 (just that season alone) match the cast of 2014 SG's and SF's player-for-player.



SG's and SF's With At Least a 15 PER - one season (2014) versus one season (1990)


[COLOR="White"]..[/COLOR]2014 SG's[COLOR="White"]...............................[/COLOR]1990 SG's

James Harden*.................... Michael Jordan*
Dwayne Wade*.................... Clyde Drexler*
Manu Ginobili*..................... Mitch Richmond*
Joe Johnson......................... Joe Dumars*
Demar Derozan.................... Reggie Miller*
Klay Thompson.................... Ron Harper
Jamal Crawford.................... Fat Lever
Aaron Afflalo........................ Alvin Robertson
Nick Young.......................... Dale Ellis
JJ Redick..............................Ricky Pierce
Kevin Martin........................ Hersey Hawkins
Wesley Matthews................. Jeff Hornacek
Gerald Green....................... Ronaldo Blackmon



[COLOR="White"]..[/COLOR]2014 SF's[COLOR="White"]..............................[/COLOR]1990 SF's

Lebron James*...................... Larry Bird*
Kevin Durant*....................... Dominique Wilkins*
Carmelo Anthony*................. Scottie Pippen*
Paul George.......................... James Worthy*
Gordon Hayward................... Chris Mullin*
Kawhi Leonard...................... Bernard King*
Trevor Ariza.......................... Alex English*
Andre Iguodala..................... Adrian Dantley*
Nicholas Batum..................... Derrick McKey
Luol Deng............................. Reggie Lewis
Josh Smith........................... Orlando Woolridge
Chandler Parsons.................. Mark Aguirre
Rudy Gay............................. Jerome Kersey

HOF (*)


As you can see, the 2014 lists are comprised of more role players and play-finishers, as opposed to the list for the 1990 season that had more play-creating, All-NBA players and Hall-of-Famers.

[G0ATbe]

Dude, nothing MJ did is under-rated on this board..

This. Whats up with all these "MJ is underrated" threads? MJ's been skull-****ing them too hard it seems.

[imdaman99]

I think MJ's best defense was burning his defenders out when they had to cover him. His unstoppable offense wore the defender out, and that meant they had less energy and stamina to do a lot on offense themselves. It's a great concept. Which is not to say he didn't lock anyone up that didn't even cover him, because he did.

I loved young Kobe because of this. He took on the challenges because he clearly had the energy to do it.

[ArbitraryWater]

MJ was the superior defender during the first three-peat, now maybe I didn't quite understand you about 1996-1998, but Pippen was QUITE EASILY the better defender during the second three-peat.

[juju151111]

From watching live and going back to look at tape, the guy never slacked off, and didn't really try to save energy by giving less than 100% effort. We're getting more and more data from the 90s, and the on/off numbers seem to paint him as a legitimately dominant player on that end.

A lot of star players are named to all-defensive teams on the basis of reputation, but Jordan's selections were pretty well-deserved. At the time (started watching during the last year of the first threepeat) I'd always thought Scottie was better defensively, but going back now I'm not sure that's the case. During the second threepeat it's pretty close, but from watching more and more of peak MJ, I think he was the superior man and help defender in his prime.

Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but I just wanted to give the dude his due.

I been tellin g people Mj was considered superior till 93. He was voted by coaches has the best defender in 93. People forget Mj is like 2nd all-time in stls and he miss many prime years.

[3ball]

Wasn't MJ a quicker perimeter defender than Scottie in his prime?... Jordan always had elite quickness, but his quickness was goat-level pre-baseball.

If Jordan is the quicker perimeter defender in his prime than Scottie, than it would make sense that he could be the better defender overall - they are both wings and do most of their damage defensively on the perimeter.

Although in his prime, Jordan probably had more blocks than Pippen too, in addition to being the quicker perimeter guy.

[Sarcastic]

Agreed 100%. Underrated AF.

[MP.Trey]

Could be the GOAT offensive perimeter player as well as the GOAT perimeter defender.

[Rose'sACL]

MJ is not underrated as a defender at all. Lebron backs down PG and Kawhi whenever they are 1-on-1 in the post but several people here think that he wouldn't be able to back down MJ in the post. This just proves that if anything at least ppl here overrate his defense. He was a great defender on guards but he couldn't guard magic....how will he guard lebron?

[Marchesk]

But can he guard all 5 positions?

[Sarcastic]

MJ is not underrated as a defender at all. Lebron backs down PG and Kawhi whenever they are 1-on-1 in the post but several people here think that he wouldn't be able to back down MJ in the post. This just proves that if anything at least ppl here overrate his defense. He was a great defender on guards but he couldn't guard magic....how will he guard lebron?

Lebron couldn't back down JJ Barea

[Rose'sACL]

Lebron couldn't back down JJ Barea

Still stuck in 2011?