Quote:
Originally Posted by Assani Fisher
A debate??? Of course I'm up for it!
Barkley >> McHale on offense imo.
Let me hear it...
Obv I think Barkley is the best offensive bigman besides Shaq/McHale and he is def close to McHale, but McHale is better imo.
McHale is very hard to evaluate using just stats. He came off the bench, and wasn't used nearly as much during his early years.
McHale didn't start til either the 84-85 or 85-86 can't remember which and i'm pretty sure he only started for like half the season, maybe even less.
He also only had about 1.5 years of his statistical dominance because in the 86-87 playoffs he messed up his ankle and continued to play on it against doctors orders. He messed up the rest of his career because of that decision.
But during that 1 year, he put up ridiculous numbers, especially in efficency. He shot .604 from the field in both years, scored 26.1 pts. He also shot .836 from the line and only became an even better ft shooter as his career went on (ankle injuries dont effect ft shooting much at all.)
Even though McHale only had 1.5 years of true statistical domiance, his best season in 86-87 is better than ANY of Barkley's years except for 1989-1990 and 1990-1991. If McHale had played more early in his career (not been a 6th man), and had not suffered an ankle injury and played on it against doctors orders, he would have put up many more years of domiance which should have been better than Barkley's overall since McHale only did it in 1 season due to circumstances he couldn't control (well aside from the ankle but we will make sure that doesn't happen in this league).
They also made a rule against Barkley called the 5 second rule, because Barkley would just sit in the post and not make a move until sometimes 15 seconds after. This rule ended up hurting Barkley and i'm pretty sure it was immplimented after Barkley's 2 better year's, and Barkley saw a drastic decrease in stats after this.