Melo's pretty good when he feels like it, in a 1 on 1 Melo would win because he can post up Hill and just score, sooner or later Hill will miss on a contested J and Melo will overwhelm him afterwards. Too bad the NBA isn't 1 on 1, I'd take Hill making the max over Melo at half price anyday.
When looking at the mid to late 90's, the only players that I can say who were better than Hill were Jordan and Malone. From there Hill is definitely up for debate starting as soon as #3. Players who around that time would be in the discussion would be (in no particular order): Anfernee Hardaway Glen Rice David Robinson Hakeem Olajuwon Shaquille O'Neal Allen Iverson John Stockton Scottie Pippen Reggie Miller Mitch Richmond Latrell Sprewell
Great response from DocRock. I agree about Melo's ability to score. His defense makes me cringe, funny thing is that he is a great rebounder when he wants to.
Some of these guys had clearly higher peaks, imo, including during the mid-late 90s. But I agree that Grant Hill was top 3 for certain periods of time. 1997 especially, that's the year when Shaq, Penny, Robinson were injured and several stars were starting to feel age, but Duncan/Kobe/Garnett etc hadn't arrived yet. I think Grant Hill was top 3 in MVP voting that year too. PS: On your list, I'd replace Reggie, Richmond, Sprewell and Rice with Payton, Alonzo, Kidd and Duncan.
We agree with the first part, but the discussion has morphed into Grant being a way better basketball player and Melo being a sorry sack on 5 on 5. Open thread!
Evidently Clutch members are big fans of Hill. Are you guys closet Nuggets fans? Despite the drama Melo brought from Denver into NY, he's one of game's most prolific scorers even if his stats are not as efficient as Hill's pre 2000. I'd say Melo through gritted teeth.
Forgot about Glove. He was definitely one of the best players in the game during this timeframe. However, guys like Kidd and Duncan didn't hit there peaks until the early 2000's or post Hill injuries. Zo is an interesting option. I kept him out because I felt the other bigs I listed were better than him back than but there is definitely a conversation there to be had. As for the guys you wanted to take out. Mitch and Rice were flat out ballers back than. They were some of the best scorers the game had at that time. Mitch was also a solid defender and Rice was one of the best shooters. Reggie was just special. I may be wrong, but I believe his Pacers were the only team to take Jordan's Bulls to a game 7 during the Bulls championship years. And as for Spree. He was stuck on some bad Golden State teams before the Knicks stole him for Starks (of course the PJ incident had something to do with that), but he absolutey killed it individually. He was a great scorer who was great at attacking the basket. He was also a pretty good defender mainly due to his quickness.
I think people forgot how athletic hill was in his short prime. Melo would not destroy hill or vice versa. If they played multiple times they would probably split a few games
I'm more high on Melo than most of this board but based on the comments I don't think some of you watched a prime Grant Hill. Prime Grant Hill would destroy Melo in any basketball competition.
One on one, Melo is a better player. He's a load one single covered. Melo hasn't been 235 since he was 19 years old. For all practical purposes, Melo is a PF just like Lebron. From a team basketball standpoint, Grant Hill is the man. Great overall player, and plays well with others.
