If 08-10 LBJ played in 96-98 would he...

[knightfall88]

you can't reference kobe's defense and then ignore lebron's. not only is lebron a far superior defender at this pint, but lebron's defense in the celtic series was amazing. he shut down paul pierce and played the passing lanes very well. he was all over the floor in pretty much every game other than game 5.

this cavs team is not the same....no doubt. but look. look what lebron did tonight with the heat team around him. lebron has an uncanny ability to win games with little to no help. he did it in cleveland and he could do it other places. its why the cavs didn't fall off much at all last year when west/z/shaq all missed a ton of games. cavs also only had jamison for 25 games and mike brown was simply a poor coach.

does this mean lebron is the best player ever? hardly. but i think lebron might be the best perimeter player for leading an average squad to regular and post season success. look what lebron did from 06 to 10 with those teams. its remarkable in my opinion. just remarkable.

yeh you are right. Lebron was amazing defensively in the boston series. He completely shut down Paul Pierce who accounts for a whopping 12 - 17pts in the boston offense.

But I think he was even better in the year before that against Orlando. He completely shut down Rafer Alston, I mean that guy couldnt get anything to sink.

[Simple Jack]

Detroit happened before Lebron made the playoffs. If you want to you could get quite a few of Kobe series from 00-02 but considering he wasn't the same player, but you'd be getting twice as large of a sample size at that point. That's not really fair at all. And OKC isn't as bad as the ones I listed for Lebron. I could probably get 2 or 3 more series as bad as that from Lebron.

How isn't it as bad as LeBron's? You listed numbers for LeBron, called them subpar. I listed worse numbers across the board for Kobe, you cite his defense for reasoning while failing to mention LeBron's defense. How subjective can you possibly be?

[magnax1]

How isn't it as bad as LeBron's? You listed numbers for LeBron, called them subpar. I listed worse numbers across the board for Kobe, you cite his defense for reasoning while failing to mention LeBron's defense. How subjective can you possibly be?
I'm sorry, but Kobe's OKC series just wasn't as bad as Lebron's Boston series. And I'm not solely looking at statistics since I brought up Kobe's bad series. I made a mistake in doing that for Lebron, though I didn't mean to use it as the sole means of my argument, but more as a representation of his play, which I haven't done since comparing him to Kobe anyway.
Either way, I'm not be biased based off of statistics. Statistically Kobe's Boston series was better then his OKC series, though like I said Kobe's defense on Westbrook was what turned the tide of that series.
I don't mention Lebron's D because it hasn't been very good until this year, so it's not worth mentioning.

[OldSchoolBBall]

LeBron's the ONLY one doing it today as well. In a league loaded with perimeter stars. That tells you more about his ability than anything about the rules. The league averaged 99.5 ppg on 46% shooting back in '96. 100 ppg on 46% in 2010. The game hasn't changed much. MJ couldn't do 30 ppg on 60%+ TS% from 96-98 because he was 33-35 years old and nowhere near the slasher+finisher he was in his earlier days, or LeBron is now.

He's way too limited a scorer to average those numbers in the mid-late 90's imo. The lane was more crowded, big men were actually big men who attempted to block shots, and there were fewer bailout calls. It would affect his ability to get and make his high percentage shots inside. Jordan averaged 30.4 ppg/49.5% FG/58.2% TS in just 37.7 mpg in 1996. I don't see Lebron putting up those number efficiency-wise. Like I said, 27-29 ppg/56-58% TS (maybe even 30 ppg), sure. But not 30+ pts/60% TS.

[Simple Jack]

I'm sorry, but Kobe's OKC series just wasn't as bad as Lebron's Boston series. And I'm not solely looking at statistics since I brought up Kobe's bad series. I made a mistake in doing that for Lebron, though I didn't mean to use it as the sole means of my argument, but more as a representation of his play, which I haven't done since comparing him to Kobe anyway.
Either way, I'm not be biased based off of statistics. Statistically Kobe's Boston series was better then his OKC series, though like I said Kobe's defense on Westbrook was what turned the tide of that series.
I don't mention Lebron's D because it hasn't been very good until this year, so it's not worth mentioning.

It's not a comparison directly of his series with Boston; just about his play in general (what you expect vs what he actually did). If you think OKC was up to Kobe's potential, it's not saying much about Kobe, or rather your opinion of him as a player.


I don't mention Lebron's D because it hasn't been very good until this year, so it's not worth mentioning
:wtf:

His defense "wasn't very good" until he became a member of the Heat? His 2nd DPOY voting must have been some sort of joke; as was his 1st all-team defensive selection. Your credibility just went out the window.

[cp3mvp2011]

I don't see why his FTA would dip at all. MJ had no trouble averaging double-digit FTA in the 80's when he relentlessly attacked the basket. The rules for what actually qualifies as a foul in the paint haven't changed at all over the years. It's not like athletic swingmen weren't averaging high amount of FTA even prior to the rule change. AI, Kobe, T-Mac and Pierce had no trouble averaging around 10 FTA during the early 00's, arguably the toughest defensive period in NBA history. There's absolutely no reason to believe LeBron's FTA would decrease if he played pre-04-05.



LeBron's the ONLY one doing it today as well. In a league loaded with perimeter stars. That tells you more about his ability than anything about the rules. The league averaged 99.5 ppg on 46% shooting back in '96. 100 ppg on 46% in 2010. The game hasn't changed much. MJ couldn't do 30 ppg on 60%+ TS% from 96-98 because he was 33-35 years old and nowhere near the slasher+finisher he was in his earlier days, or LeBron is now.

lbj playing against soft defence era . mj >>>>>>>>>>>>>> lbj:confusedshrug:

[cp3mvp2011]

lol @ heat is top 3 defensive team ( WITH LBJ ) in nba :roll: