1989 Cavs vs. 2015 Hawks

[3ball]

Price > Teague
Nance > Millsap
Daughtery > Horford

Ron Harper (19 ppg + defense) > Korver (12 PPG)
Hot Rod (12/6/2 blk) > Carroll (12/6)


Cavs won 57 games and were 2nd ranked defensive team (102.9 DRtg).. Hawks won 60 games and were 6th ranked defensive team (103.1 DRtg).

MJ averaged 40/8/6 on 60% true shooting vs. Cavs in playoffs, who had a 106.3 DRtg in that series, compared to the Hawks' 109.9 DRtg against Lebron in the current series.. Both MJ and Lebron's series played at a pace of 89.

[inclinerator]

biggest difference between lebron and mj is the jumpshot, if lebron had a jumper he'd put up numbers like that too

[aj1987]

Price > Teague
Nance > Millsap
Daughtery > Horford

Ron Harper (19 ppg + defense) > Korver (12 PPG)
Hot Rod (12/6/2 blk) > Carroll (12/6)


Cavs won 57 games and were 2nd ranked defensive team (102.9 DRtg).. Hawks won 60 games and were 6th ranked defensive team (103.1 DRtg).

MJ averaged 40/8/6 on 60% true shooting vs. Cavs in playoffs, who had a 106.3 DRtg in that series, compared to the Hawks' 109.9 DRtg against Lebron in the current series.. Both MJ and Lebron's series played at a pace of 89.
29 >> 17. Deal with it, **** boi.

[3ball]

biggest difference between lebron and mj is the jumpshot, if lebron had a jumper he'd put up numbers like that too


Agreed - if Lebron had an elite jumpshot like MJ, he'd put up MJ scoring numbers.

But I still think the way Jordan got his buckets gave his team a higher ceiling.. MJ's off-ball, HIGHLY ASSISTED scoring style allowed teammates many more opportunities to playmake/get assists, especially because he was such a high volume scorer.. His highly-assisted style made him a gold mine of assists for teammates, thus improving the playmaking capacity of the entire team.

Otoh, even though Lebron plays a normally high-assisted position (SF), his low-assisted, point-guard style REDUCES his teammates' capacity to playmake and assist - Lebron's teammates simply can't assist the team's #1 option nearly as often as MJ's teammates could.. Not surprisingly, MJ realized far more synergies with teammates, which resulted in the Bulls achieving more out of their talent.

[3ball]

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/5-22-2015/WAhpK1.gif

29 >> 17. Deal with it, **** boi.



It's quite clear - 1989 Cavs were more talented at every position and had superior defensive players.. Their defensive rating was better than the Hawks in the regular season, playoffs and the actual playoff series in question.. The Hawks' lesser talent and weaker defense would allow MJ even better stats than he had against the Cavs, especially since he'd face less defenders on the strongside in today's game..

Every team's 3-point shooting and spacing strategy uses weakside-floor spreaders to draw defenders away from the strongside - it's common for players to face strongsides that contain only 1 defender, as Lebron has done the entire series (shown in GIF above, and extensively in this thread (http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377327)).

Otoh, these weakside floor-spreaders didn't exist in previous eras, so defenders weren't lured away - defenders just remained on the strongside, which meant players faced strongsides that were already flooded with all 5 defenders (http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11128077&postcount=21).. The difference is night and day - just a completely different game altogether.
.

[RRR3]

29 >> 17. Deal with it, **** boi.
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