I wasn’t a part of the fanbase at the time of Smits, but outside of the three pointer him and Myles have nearly identical stats. Even advanced stats like Ortg, Drtg, VORP, and win shares are essentially the same. So why is it that Rik Smits is universally loved and held as a legend, but it seems half the fan base hates Myles? Stats of course don’t tell the whole story, so can any veteran fans weigh in here?
I can’t speak directly to Rik Smits, but I can speak personally about Myles in this comparison. My personal Myles hate started when he was drafted because we were trying to get back into contending and had a major hole at Shooting Guard. Instead of drafting Devin Booker, who was my favorite player out of college and a shooting guard, we drafted a big man when our roster was loaded with big men. He was supposed to be able to play with the others, but he has proven time and time again that he needs to play the 5 so we keep losing out on players that can make a real difference for the team, but instead he get a player that everyone in the comments has called a role player. Sure, we would not have gotten Tyrese without Sabonis, but my hatred started when we drafted 2 Bigs in the draft when we only had Rodney Sucky and Monta Ellis as our guards to pair with George Hill.
TLDR: Rodney Sucky, Monta Ellis, Myles < Domas and Devin Booker = I hate the players because of who we had in our grasp, but chose mediocrity as always