No. 39 - John Stockton

John Stockton was a No. 16 pick who worked his way into my top 40 – yet his ranking still seems low.

He checks off a ton of boxes. He played at a high level forever. He was a 10-time All-Star. His teams made the playoffs all 19 of his seasons. He has tons of black ink on his bio – he led the league in assists nine times and steals twice. He was a five-time all-defensive selection. His PER was pretty good. He was above 21.0 in PER every year from 1987-1988 through his last. His win shares were outstanding. He was above 10.0 in win shares in 13 of his 19 years.

What held him from being a top 25 player is a that he never was a champion or got a lot of love from the MVP voters.

For years, Stockton and Karl Malone powered the Utah Jazz to the upper echelon of the NBA, but their Utah Jazz were perennial disappointments in the playoffs, robbing Stockton of valuable playoff winning percentage points. It wasn’t until Jeff Hornacek joined Utah in 1993-1994 that they had a true third option. With Hornacek, the Jazz would make the Western Conference Finals in 1995-1996 and the NBA Finals in 1996-1997 and 1997-1998. The two years the Jazz made the Finals were the two best for Stockton in my system.

Also, MVP voters took his greatness for granted. Stockton received MVP votes in 12 seasons, but the most he received was 47 out of 1,050 total in 1994-1995. He was always seen as Robin to Malone’s Batman and that kept him from having more than just one season above 300 in my system.  

John Stocton bio info
Career	1984-2003
Games	1,504
Points	13.1
Rebounds	2.7
Assists	10.5
FG Pct.	51.5%
All-Star games	10
NBA MVPs	0
NBA Titles	0
Playoff seasons	19
Playoff games	182
Points	13.4
Rebounds	3.3
Assists	10.1
FG Pct.	47.3%
Hall of Fame	2009

Top 100 rankings
	Points	Top 100 ranking
1-year	304.57	80th
5-year	1,394.32	61st
10-year	2,677.20	33rd
Career	4,546.79	11th

               

John Stockton at his peak
1996-1997	Stockton	Top 5	Points
PER	22.1	26.45
Win Shares	13.6	15.26
Box +/-	3.9	7.49
VORP	4.3	7.30
Total Advanced Stats	43.9	56.52	77.68
Playoff PER	22.7	27.30
Win Shares	3.1	2.90
Box +/-	6.8	9.05
VORP	1.6	1.64
Total Advanced Stats	34.2	40.89	83.65
Reg. Season Win %	78.05		78.05
Playoff Win %	65.00		65.00
MVP Voting (75 points)	3/1,150		0.20
Playoff MVP (25 points)	0		0
Total Score			304.57

               

Stockton’s 10 greatest seasons
1996-1997	304.57
1997-1998	283.21
1991-1992	273.49
1987-1988	266.83
1990-1991	266.22
1994-1995	264.09
1993-1994	261.30
2000-2001	255.26
1995-1996	254.36
1998-1999	247.88

Career winning percentage
	W	L	Pct.
Regular Season	953	561	62.95%
Playoffs	90	92	49.45%