Top 100 NBA Players: #97 - Mark Aguirre

Mark Aguirre

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, whom he was traded for several years later. While he is remembered as a great scorer, he was actually a pretty good all-around player. 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. Even as the team became more successful, Aguirre's relationship with most of his teammates grew strained, and halfway through the following season, he was traded to the Detroit Pistons.

In Detroit 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.

From 1982-1988, Aguirre had 6 straight seasons of at least 22.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, but he finally started making deep playoff runs once his scoring dipped below 20.0 per game, so like a couple of the players below him, his own personal success did not coincide with his team's success, and that is why he ended up down at #97 despite a career scoring average of 20.0 per game.

Top 100 NBA Players: #80

Bob Lanier

(Simmons: #92, BBR: #57)

During the 1970's, Bob Lanier was one of the premier players in the entire league, yet he was never voted to an All-NBA Team. He was the #1 pick in the draft, yet he never won a championship. He put together 8 of the most solid seasons in history, but he was traded away for almost nothing. Lanier's career was a string of almosts, but he still ended up making the Hall of Fame.

From 1971 to 1979, Lanier starred for the Detroit Pistons, but was never able to move them past the second round of the playoffs. He finished in the top 10 in scoring six times and rebounding four times in that decade. His overall numbers for those eight seasons are very impressive:

Lanier - 23.9 pts, 12.5 reb, 3.5 ast, 2.0 blk, .512 FG%, .780 FT%

Despite those incredibly regular season numbers, his Piston teams regularly lost early in the playoffs. In fact, the only time in his entire career that he made it as far as the Conference Finals was 1984, his final season as a player, and a season in which he was not anything more than a role player for the Milwaukee Bucks. It's impossible to make a list like this without including him somewhere, but it's also impossible to move him any higher when he was so playoff-challenged.

Lanier gets the nod over Aguirre thanks to his long, steady peak in the early years of his career, which coincides perfectly with a valley in Aguirre's best years. Both moved on to better teams later in their careers, and although Aguirre was able to win some championships late in his career, he wasn't a major player on those teams, so it wasn't quite enough to push him past Lanier on the list of great players who couldn't quite get it done in the playoffs during their peak years.

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.