Thursday, July 14, 2011

Top 100 NBA Players: #81


Mark Aguirre

(BBR: #158)

Mark Aguirre was one of the top scorers of the 1980's, finishing in the top 8 five times and taking second place in 1984, behind only Adrian Dantley, who he was traded for several years later. While he is remembered as a great scorer, he was actually pretty good all-around. In that 1984 season, he was not even voted to an All-NBA Team, despite having stats that compared favorably with the two stars of that season, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

Bird - 24.2 pts, 10.1 reb, 6.6 ast, .492 FG%, .888 FT%
Aguirre - 29.5 pts, 5.9 reb, 4.5 ast, .524 FG%, .749 FT%
Johnson - 17.6 pts, 7.3 reb, 13.1 ast, .565 FG%, .810 FT%

It's tough to argue that he was better than either of the stars, but his huge advantage in scoring over Magic has to at least put him in the conversation. He didn't rebound or pass as well as either of them, but he wasn't any slouch. In fact, that year he led the Mavericks to the first playoff appearance in franchise history.

Aguirre worked throughout the 80's to make the Mavericks a championship team, guiding them into the playoffs five times, culminating in an appearance in the Western Conference Finals in 1988. Halfway through the following season, he was traded to the Detroit Pistons, where he became a role player on a team that won two straight championships. While he made a contribution to those titles, he wasn't nearly the player that he had been, and he definitely wasn't the star of the team. Still, he made it at least to the Conference Finals in 4 straight seasons, and he was a decent contributor in three of those years.


Aguirre and Mullin had very similar career paths, peaking early then dropping off after about 7 seasons. The biggest differences are that Aguirre had a higher peak than Mullin and contributed to two championships, something Mullin never got that close to doing. Still, for some unknown reason, probably for the exposure of being on the Dream Team, Mullin has been elected to the Hall of Fame, while Aguirre is still waiting for his selection.

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