Karl Malone vs Dirk Nowtizki

[magicmanfan]

Nowitzki was a better shooter and clutch player

Karl Malone was better than him at everything else, including scoring.

Dirk on recently became clutch ... and he's no Jerry West... he can
shoot extremely well for a 7'... but he lousy on D

The Mailman is HOF first team IMO at the PF.

This is not a good nor fair comparison.

[creepingdeath]

Dirk on recently became clutch ... and he's no Jerry West... he can
shoot extremely well for a 7'... but he lousy on D

The Mailman is HOF first team IMO at the PF.

This is not a good nor fair comparison.

Only recently became clutch? Tempted to neg.

[dyna]

Malone

[rodman91]

Dirk on recently became clutch ... and he's no Jerry West... he can
shoot extremely well for a 7'... but he lousy on D

The Mailman is HOF first team IMO at the PF.

This is not a good nor fair comparison.

Dirk has a career of being clutch.He just recently won championship.

[brisbaneman]

Yeap, only took 13 years

good point man, because there have been other teams besides the spurs and lakers to make it out of the west since 2000. apparently every other superstar is a failure in that case.

[lakerfreak]

Two men with completely different playing styles. I look at this question as "who would you rather build your team around".

I will have to say Dirk. Dirk has played with different point guards throughout his career but still continued to demonstrate to the world that he was the guy that teams focused on. With Nash, Mavs were a contender. Devin harris, top contender. Jason Kidd, still a top contender.

Malone did score a lot of points in his career. A great accomplishment to be second all time on the NBA scoring list. The question is, would Karl have the same success without John Stockton? Noone knows.

Thats why, seeing that Dirk has had to adjust many times, and still has a championship under his belt, I will take Dirk over Malone.

[RRR3]

good point man, because there have been other teams besides the spurs and lakers to make it out of the west since 2000. apparently every other superstar is a failure in that case.

Yeah, it's not like Malone went up against a team that won 72 games and had the GOAT on it.

[Round Mound]

Malone was better and more complete as a player (comming from a Sir Charles fan)

[97 bulls]

Could not disagree more. Its harder to build around Malone because Malone simply can't consistently carry a team late in games in the playoffs. Not to mention so much of Malone's production came off easy baskets created by Stockton that simply aren't there when the defense locks in late.

Its a legit comparison, but in those inevitable close playoff games with 5 minutes left....Dirk is hands down the player you want. So you need to find a great late game player for Malone. Thats harder to find in my opinion than a guy like tyson chandler or jet terry or an aging marion/kidd/peja...

Its hilarious how you say Dirk is hard to build around. 11 straight 50 win seasons. 2 finals appearances. 1 title. Did that in the era of shaq/kobe and duncan in his conference....with all of them playing with better help and better coaching. LOL at hard to build around....Dirk and his teams have consistently performed very well with high turnover. New coaches and players and one thing stays the same...Dirk getting you 50 or more wins and dirk putting up 26/10/3 in the playoffs on one of the best overall efficiency in playoff history.

I've never seen a poster be more one-sided.

First, as usual, you center your whole argument around 5 minutes of a game that last 48 minutes. You gotta get there first.

Second, you bring up the teams/player/ coaches nowitzki had to go through. But what about malone? Didn't malone have to go through the showtime lakers with magic (player) riley (the coach)? Or the houston rockets? With olajuwan and tomjonovich? Or the bulls? With jordan and jackson? Even duncan and the spurs with popovich. The teams malone had to go through would cream the teams dirk had to go through.

And my god please stop trying to act like nowitzki has had these terrible teams over the coarse of his career. Cuban has maintained one of the highest payrolls in the nba during dirks tenure with the mavs. And dirk has had plenty of talented teammates playing alongside of him.

And you fail to bring up the defensive side of the ball. As usual, all your povs come from one side. Have you noticed how the pro malone crowd acknowledged dirks strengths before siding with malone?

Come on dmavs

[Droid101]

Come on dmavs

You're pleading with him to NOT be a Dirk homer?

Good luck.

[eliteballer]

I think its Malone no question. He was way better defensively and Dirk was never a force like Malone was in his MVP years. His jumper was also one of the best midrange shots in the league at its peak. Better on the boards, better at getting to the line. Malone's MVP years were actually "this guy is one of the 2 or 3 most dominant players in the game", not Nash or Dirk like MVP's.

[knickswin]

Dirk on recently became clutch ... and he's no Jerry West... he can
shoot extremely well for a 7'... but he lousy on D

The Mailman is HOF first team IMO at the PF.

This is not a good nor fair comparison.

Dirk is a great shooter for anyone, not just a 7 footer (but he's probably the best shooting 7 footer of all time). His 90% ft% shows this, and he's absolutely money from three land.

[BEAST Griffin]

Well, Kobe would have zero rings if he played in Michael Jordan's era.

Can't really fault Karl Malone for not having a ring.

[G-train]

Well, Kobe would have zero rings if he played in Michael Jordan's era.

Can't really fault Karl Malone for not having a ring.

Jazz probably would have defeated the Bulls at least once if Malone had of not settled for jumpers so much in the NBA finals. And I'm a Malone supporter.

[Carbine]

Before last year, I'd say they were both equals....but after witnessing the transformation of Dirk (yes, I believe he has gotten better in his 13th year or whatever he was in) in the playoffs specifically, I think he's the better player.

He is, IMO, a much tougher matchup than Malone. I don't think anyone can defend Dirk. Put a small guy on him and he gets high quality looks or he makes the defense scramble. Put bigger guys on him and he's too quick, too skilled and shoots the ball too well. I honestly believe he's one of the 3 biggest mismatches I have ever seen on offense.

....and while Dirks defense isn't great, Malone didn't have a decisive enough of an advantage there for it to matter - Malone wasn't an anchor down low like the great big men were (Howards, Duncans, Shaqs, Hakeems, etc)

I never truly thought Malone had a go-to move when the situation got big and it called for him to make it. A reliable one anyway. I just didn't feel confident that he could do it consistently. Kind of like how I feel about LeBron right now, he doesn't have a go-to move that he can rely upon in tough situations consistently.