Top 100 NBA Players: #92

Tom Chambers

(Simmons: #96, BBR: #96)

Tom Chambers was one of the great scorers in the NBA in the late 1980's, leading his team in scoring 5 different times and averaging at least 20 points per game 5 times. His scoring average peaked in 1990, his second season as a Phoenix Sun, when he put up 27.2 points per game, but this may not have been his best season. I believe that he was slightly better the year before, and here are the stats to prove my point.

1989 - 25.7 pts, 8.4 reb, 2.9 ast
1990 - 27.2 pts, 7.0 reb, 2.3 ast

He may have increased his scoring average in 1990, but other areas of his game slipped slightly. In fact, the numbers he put up in 1989 still stand as his career highs in rebounds, steals, and blocks, and it was his second best season in scoring and assists. The difference between his playoff numbers from the same two seasons, both of which included trips to the Western Conference Finals, were even farther apart.

1989 - 26.0 pts, 10.9 reb, 3.8 ast
1990 - 22.2 pts, 6.7 reb, 1.9 ast

It was at that point that Chambers' run as the star of the team ended, although he continued to be an important player for Phoenix and Utah for a number of years afterward. Even though he played for 17 seasons, it was those two seasons with Phoenix, as well as the 1986-87 season in Seattle, that put him on this list. If he had never played another game, he would still be here on the strength of those seasons alone. He was a top 10 player for those two seasons, and threw in decent playoff runs at his peak to go with his regular season numbers. There is nothing that will move you up this list faster than playoff success at your peak.

This chart makes it relatively easy to see that Chambers was a better overall player than Terry Porter. Porter may have been slightly better early on in his career, but when Porter started to decline, that's when Chambers hit his peak, meaning that his useful years lasted a full two seasons longer than Porter's. Porter keeps it close with his two NBA Finals appearances, both of which he was a major contributor to, but Chambers took 3 teams to the Western Conference Finals in his 3 best seasons, so he was no playoff slouch. This one comes down to star power, and Porter was never the star of his team like Chambers was, which puts Phoenix's star just ahead of the Trail Blazer in my top 100.