2013 detail analysis of LeBron: Greatest Peaks

[Micku]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cYVXHi8EJY&feature=emb_logo

Always love this video series of the greatest peaks.

I personally always thought that LeBron James in 2013 was the best version of himself. At least in the regular season. His mid range game, 3pt shooting, off the ball, defense, and intelligence was all in perfect balance here. And you still get the great play making.

But he wasn't the best at everything tho. Despite his improvement of his outside scoring and off the ball movement, it was never his strongest feats. There are times, as the video pointed out, whenever Wade would have the ball and drive and kick out, LeBron still didn't catch and shoot while he was open to space the floor. And while on the ball, teams would sag off of him and let him shoot the jumper, like they still do now. In the 2013 playoffs, that made some series harder than it should've been. And LeBron would mostly picked his spots more when he felt confident enough to shoot it, than shooting it when the defense gave him. He made it up with his IQ and his sheer power when driving and cutting.

09 was the best athletic LeBron, but not the most skillful.
16-18 was probably the best offensive version of LeBron, but not the best defense.
12 and 13 LeBron, imo, is the balance of both worlds.

[RRR3]

LeBron’s defense was still killer in 2016, but agree after that less so, especially 2018 lol. It’s been pretty good last two years though.

[8Ball]

2012 was the highest NBA peak ever.

I watched every game and he didn't have more than 2 bad games an entire season.

The 2012 playoff run with injured Bosh was also legendary 2018 levels.

Game 4 Indiana, game 6 Boston.

[Indian guy]

It's a good breakdown of his game, even if neither 2012 nor 2013 is his peak. If we are going for LeBron's best 2 year stretches, I would've preferred 09/10, 17/18 and maybe even 13/14. All of those versions are notably superior offensively and it offsets whatever defensive gap that exists IMO. Oh well. Based on all the players he (Ben Taylor) has covered so far, LeBron's had the least amount of shortcomings/negativity, I think. I think he'll be the winner of #1 peak in NBA history.

[dankok8]

It's a good breakdown of his game, even if neither 2012 nor 2013 is his peak. If we are going for LeBron's best 2 year stretches, I would've preferred 09/10, 17/18 and maybe even 13/14. All of those versions are notably superior offensively and it offsets whatever defensive gap that exists IMO. Oh well. Based on all the players he (Ben Taylor) has covered so far, LeBron's had the least amount of shortcomings/negativity, I think. I think he'll be the winner of #1 peak in NBA history.

He focused more on negative aspects of Jordan to bring him down to Earth because some fans consider him a god in all aspects of the game. Ben just wanted to point out that he also had some weaknesses. He mainly talked about gambling so steals. That was really the only weakness for the years he chose which is 1989-1991. With Lebron people already know his weaknesses so he didn't have to spend as much time on them.

I think MJ will be #1 and Lebron #2 when/if he ultimately ranks them although he said rankings don't matter to him. It's really hard to compare big men and perimeter guys though. My gut tells me that someone like prime Kareem was more impactful than even Jordan because the defensive impact of bigs is just too much for perimeter guys to match.

[Micku]

It's a good breakdown of his game, even if neither 2012 nor 2013 is his peak. If we are going for LeBron's best 2 year stretches, I would've preferred 09/10, 17/18 and maybe even 13/14. All of those versions are notably superior offensively and it offsets whatever defensive gap that exists IMO. Oh well. Based on all the players he (Ben Taylor) has covered so far, LeBron's had the least amount of shortcomings/negativity, I think. I think he'll be the winner of #1 peak in NBA history.

You don't think 13 is his peak? I suppose it shows the greatness of LeBron for having so many great years at different times and you could definitely argue for either years.

But I think his other years had more flaws in his game. While 17/18, his defense was lacking, but his IQ was more off the charts. 09/10, he was more raw but lack of a post game and his outside shot was off.

13, I feel like he had the least amount of flaws in his game. If can recall, if you go the synergy stats, he was among the best at post up efficient and catch and shoot and such. It's a little deceiving tho, because tho this was LBJ best year with shooting, he wasn't really a shooter. But imo, his jumper was smoother and he was more confident in making them. If I can recall, Spo helped Wade on his jumpshot and then he shot near Kobe lvls in 09, so he may helped LeBron. The playoffs it fall, but the RS it was amazing. I swear of all the years, he played, I think in the Miami years he played more off the ball than any other stretch. But that's just feeling. I don't know for a fact. But interesting enough, Lebron ball was more efficient with the Heat's offense than him playing off the ball. I thought within the stretch when they won 27 in a row, they played their best basketball. So, even him playing off the ball, it was among the best in the league.

He didn't go over their defensive line up, but I'm glad he mentioned that he was rim protector. And the fighting over screen and his mobility to through it was lacking when the opponent was quick. However the Heat's defensive schemes often cover due to their small ball line up. Bosh was incredible at hedging. And Battier was nice too. LeBron was quick enough to keep up with guards and he could switch out many players. Mostly 1-4. And if they played small ball, 1-5.

One thing I am disappointed by the video is the lack of the playoff mention here. I suppose it doesn't matter too much as a overall season? But one thing to highlight is the shot selection in the playoffs. Imo, it really slows the flaw of LeBron's scoring versatility. As mentioned in the interview, when they clog the paint, and give LeBron the shot, he wouldn't take it. Which was unlike the regular season, which imo, helped made the Heat so dominant and I thought what really separated himself from 1st run with the Cav years. You can see his shooting go down. From 10-16ft it dropped from 41.5% to 31.1%. His 16ft-3p didn't drop nearly as much. He was a bit more hesitant to shoot it as well. which made some series harder than it should've been. I suppose it's nitpicking at my end. Some other years he had was he didn't even take it, and knew his spots and took it there. He did say he was mediocre shooter, so I guess that's covering it a bit. But imo, it was only the playoffs when it became streaky than the RS where it seemed he had no weakness on the floor or he picked his spots better.

As you said, of all the videos, I think LeBron came with the least amount of flaws. It's looking the best. If he does rank'em, I feel like it's definitely a contender. Although statistically, it probably isn't the best. His 2009 season probably would've bumped up the stats. Although I would disagree with it personally in terms of least amount of flaws out of any player, it does show how awesome LeBron is.

[Micku]

He focused more on negative aspects of Jordan to bring him down to Earth because some fans consider him a god in all aspects of the game. Ben just wanted to point out that he also had some weaknesses. He mainly talked about gambling so steals. That was really the only weakness for the years he chose which is 1989-1991. With Lebron people already know his weaknesses so he didn't have to spend as much time on them.

I think MJ will be #1 and Lebron #2 when/if he ultimately ranks them although he said rankings don't matter to him. It's really hard to compare big men and perimeter guys though. My gut tells me that someone like prime Kareem was more impactful than even Jordan because the defensive impact of bigs is just too much for perimeter guys to match.

Haha! And that right there is more of a exaggeration I feel. He was the best at playing the passing lane and one of the best off the help for a trap. At least of the players I ever seen, and the games that I watched. It was somewhat similar to Larry Bird roaming around, but MJ had more reflexes to his game since he was quicker. He was also quick to get back if he missed. He did gamble tho. But he was so good at it, teams avoided to run plays with whatever side MJ was on the floor. Not to mention his on ball D.

Granted, he probably watched more games than I.

Even he said it was positive more than a negative it seems, but it's hard to quantify the impact of MJ defense.

[dankok8]

Haha! And that right there is more of a exaggeration I feel. He was the best at playing the passing lane and one of the best off the help for a trap. At least of the players I ever seen, and the games that I watched. It was somewhat similar to Larry Bird roaming around, but MJ had more reflexes to his game since he was quicker. He was also quick to get back if he missed. He did gamble tho. But he was so good at it, teams avoided to run plays with whatever side MJ was on the floor. Not to mention his on ball D.

Granted, he probably watched more games than I.

Even he said it was positive more than a negative it seems, but it's hard to quantify the impact of MJ defense.

Oh I agree but I think Ben presented it that way to drive his point across. If he said "MJ sometimes gambled a little bit..." people would accuse him of nitpicking. To sell it he had to exaggerate a bit.

It's generally very hard to quantify defense. There are some stretches like the 4th quarter of Game 1 of the 1991 Finals which I watched recently where MJ gambled on Magic 2 or 3 times and got burned. But there are also instances in Game 3 and 4 where he forced countless turnovers from Magic and others by roaming and ambushing guys. Sometimes players would be spooked simply looking for MJ. I still think his gambling style of defense given his quick hands and how good he was getting steals and of course his speed on the break once he got the possession were a huge positive overall. A lot of his defensive plays were 4-point swings. The average players he did it on weren't as good as Magic and secondly there is a selection bias. People always bring up Game 1 4th quarter where Magic burned him and how Pippen defended Magic well in Game 2 but Jordan spent most of the rest of the series on Magic and did really really well defending him.

[eliteballer]

With or without steroids?

[Indian guy]

He focused more on negative aspects of Jordan to bring him down to Earth because some fans consider him a god in all aspects of the game. Ben just wanted to point out that he also had some weaknesses. He mainly talked about gambling so steals. That was really the only weakness for the years he chose which is 1989-1991. With Lebron people already know his weaknesses so he didn't have to spend as much time on them.

He genuinely sounded unimpressed with MJ's defense. Concluded him to be a + defender but definitely no all-time great. Whereas with LeBron he considers him historically great on both ends. Ben also did a top 40 project not too long ago and actually ranked LeBron 1 spot higher than MJ. I'm fairly certain he's gonna have LeBron at the top of this project too.

But like someone said, it doesn't matter what the rankings are. It's just fun to watch some of the greats' game broken down to this degree. I disagree with plenty of what Ben has to say, but applaud the ridiculous amount of work he has put into it.

[Micku]

He genuinely sounded unimpressed with MJ's defense. Concluded him to be a + defender but definitely no all-time great. Whereas with LeBron he considers him historically great on both ends. Ben also did a top 40 project not too long ago and actually ranked LeBron 1 spot higher than MJ. I'm fairly certain he's gonna have LeBron at the top of this project too.

But like someone said, it doesn't matter what the rankings are. It's just fun to watch some of the greats' game broken down to this degree. I disagree with plenty of what Ben has to say, but applaud the ridiculous amount of work he has put into it.

Same.

I disagree on his assessment of MJ's defense, but love the thought and work he puts into his vids. The rankings itself, as mentioned, don't matter as much as the break down. We don't have a vid series with this presentation of a break down of with every star.

[dankok8]

He genuinely sounded unimpressed with MJ's defense. Concluded him to be a + defender but definitely no all-time great. Whereas with LeBron he considers him historically great on both ends. Ben also did a top 40 project not too long ago and actually ranked LeBron 1 spot higher than MJ. I'm fairly certain he's gonna have LeBron at the top of this project too.

But like someone said, it doesn't matter what the rankings are. It's just fun to watch some of the greats' game broken down to this degree. I disagree with plenty of what Ben has to say, but applaud the ridiculous amount of work he has put into it.

That was his top 40 career project. He actually values MJ's peak seasons higher than Lebron's based on the CORP measure that he came up with but he ranked Lebron higher overall due to longevity.

https://i.ibb.co/tcK8ndg/MJ-LBJ-CORP-Comparison.jpg (https://ibb.co/q9jkhZK)

[ArbitraryWater]

Obviously not his peak but the "best balance" analogy will always appeal to simpletons.

His offensive game and scoring wasnt nearly as effective, fleshed out and polished as it was at its extreme mastered best in 2017 and 2018 when he could win a series against the GOAT team ever by himself (bar refs intervening).

[SouBeachTalents]

Obviously not his peak but the "best balance" analogy will always appeal to simpletons.

His offensive game and scoring wasnt nearly as effective, fleshed out and polished as it was at its extreme mastered best in 2017 and 2018 when he could win a series against the GOAT team ever by himself (bar refs intervening).
Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on 2013 being his peak too. If Allen misses that 3 no one would EVER consider 2013 to be even close to his peak year, he would've been crucified for his mediocre Finals performance. '09, '12, '17 & '18 are all at minimum better versions of LeBron, even if his defense wasn't as good in some of those years he played significantly better offensively in the playoffs, the offensive gap is simply too substantial to overlook

[Indian guy]

You don't think 13 is his peak? I suppose it shows the greatness of LeBron for having so many great years at different times and you could definitely argue for either years.

But I think his other years had more flaws in his game. While 17/18, his defense was lacking, but his IQ was more off the charts. 09/10, he was more raw but lack of a post game and his outside shot was off.

To me it's about the totality of your impact and not necessarily how rounded your game was. Yes, 09/10 probably couldn't shoot as consistently as '13 LeBron or be as effective in the post, but his slashing game and motor is so clearly superior in 09/10 that it more than offsets whatever skill-related advantages the older version might have. To me his game is clearly more playoff-resilient in 09/10/14/17/18 than '13. The numbers bear this out too.

[Micku]

I'm a little shock by you guys saying 13 isn't the peak or among his peaks, but all your points are valid. I won't argue too much on it.

But is it solely playoff performance?

Because 13 regular season, I feel like he never been better than that. Although with the Cavs of 09 and 10, his impact was felt more. And it shows within the stats, I would argue it's because the team needed him to do that. He was doing everything for them. Unlike with the Heat, where the team was better overall. Granted, he wasn't as athletic as his Cavs self, his energy was still there. The advance stats do indicate, at least in the regular season, 13 was his best or second best season. Of course advance stats don't mean everything. And there were some rules changes later on the decade.

The 13 playoffs, you guys do have a point. I feel like LeBron shooting ability became streaky rather than consistent. And he become more hesitant to take it, which I felt that separated him from the other years.

I just think that 13 was his regular season peak while he had others being his playoff peaks.

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

2014 was Bron's peak imo.

Might've not had the GOAT numbers, but his offensive skills peaked up until that point. And if you look at his shooting percentages (10ft, 10-15ft and 3PT range) they're the best of his career. Especially in the playoffs.

Bron played at a level where he rarely had a rough patch. Good enough on defense too unlike the argument against 2018.

People see that Miami was blown out by the Spurs, and think he could have done more. Bron showed up though. Put in the numbers and still gets criticized for it. There are few if any superstars that would have won that title in place of him. Wade and Bosh were cooked and Bron was doing most of the heavy-lifting.

But yeah, 2014 was like a sneak preview of 2018 just with better defense. More or less anyway.

[Taurus]

While I can't say it was his all-around peak, my favorite year for Bron was 2018 (specifically in the playoffs). Dude was at his offensive best and just put a pretty underwhelming cast on his back and got them all the way to the Finals. Never seen his jumper so consistent throughout an entire playoff run.

[dankok8]

Calling 2017/2018 Lebron's peak is ignoring a few factors:

1) Defense. He was average defensively in 2017 and just terrible in 2018. And he was terrible in both Finals. Something you can't say for 2013.

2) He handled the ball a lot more in 2017 and 2018. There was no Wade to hold the ball while Lebron stands in the corner. In Miami this happened a lot and stopped Lebron from putting up his best stats a lot of the time. This is evident in his usage rate.

3) He took the regular seasons in 2017 and 2018 off compared to 2013. He conserved energy which made him a lot of fresher for the playoffs. 2013 being several tiers better as a regular season holds a lot of weight and somewhat makes up for his poorer playoff performance IMO.

4) The league as a whole was way more offensively minded in 2017 and 2018 compared to 2013. The average DRtg of Lebron's opponents in 2013 was 102.5. In 2017 it was 107.3 and and in 2018 it was 106.4. Average league pace was 92 in 2013 compared to 96.4 in 2017 and 97.3 in 2018. Give 2013 Lebron a few more fast break chances each game and much worse defenses overall and his numbers would be much better.

[Indian guy]

Calling 2017/2018 Lebron's peak is ignoring a few factors:

1) Defense. He was average defensively in 2017 and just terrible in 2018. And he was terrible in both Finals. Something you can't say for 2013.

3) He took the regular seasons in 2017 and 2018 off compared to 2013. He conserved energy which made him a lot of fresher for the playoffs. 2013 being several tiers better as a regular season holds a lot of weight and somewhat makes up for his poorer playoff performance IMO.

The argument in favor of one's peak needs to have more going for it than just oh-he-played-harder. Yes, over the course of a long season, 2013 LeBron may provide a little more value because of his defensive effort. But just how valuable is that extra effort in a playoff series/run, where ANY version of LeBron is bound to ramp up his effort anyway? To me, if your goal is to win 1 series, you go with the version with the most resilient offensive game because the other end of the court is simply a matter of effort. And there are too many versions of LeBron with a notably better offensive game than his 2013 self. And the numbers clearly bear this out. Yes, the league is a little more offense-friendly by 17/18 (ORTG 106 vs 108), but it doesn't explain LeBron averaging 6-8 more ppg on far better efficiency in the 17/18 playoffs compared to 2013. He's just better.

There's just too much winning bias at play in people picking 2013. But like someone said, would anyone consider 2013 his peak if Ray Allen misses that shot? Absolutely not. He'd be crucified for his sub-par play in the Finals and the dip in his playoff production compared to regular season.

[kawhileonard2]

2014 was Bron's peak imo.

Might've not had the GOAT numbers, but his offensive skills peaked up until that point. And if you look at his shooting percentages (10ft, 10-15ft and 3PT range) they're the best of his career. Especially in the playoffs.

Bron played at a level where he rarely had a rough patch. Good enough on defense too unlike the argument against 2018.

People see that Miami was blown out by the Spurs, and think he could have done more. Bron showed up though. Put in the numbers and still gets criticized for it. There are few if any superstars that would have won that title in place of him. Wade and Bosh were cooked and Bron was doing most of the heavy-lifting.

But yeah, 2014 was like a sneak preview of 2018 just with better defense. More or less anyway.

Kawhi embarassed this guy that season.

[dankok8]

The argument in favor of one's peak needs to have more going for it than just oh-he-played-harder. Yes, over the course of a long season, 2013 LeBron may provide a little more value because of his defensive effort. But just how valuable is that extra effort in a playoff series/run, where ANY version of LeBron is bound to ramp up his effort anyway? To me, if your goal is to win 1 series, you go with the version with the most resilient offensive game because the other end of the court is simply a matter of effort. And there are too many versions of LeBron with a notably better offensive game than his 2013 self. And the numbers clearly bear this out. Yes, the league is a little more offense-friendly by 17/18 (ORTG 106 vs 108), but it doesn't explain LeBron averaging 6-8 more ppg on far better efficiency in the 17/18 playoffs compared to 2013. He's just better.

There's just too much winning bias at play in people picking 2013. But like someone said, would anyone consider 2013 his peak if Ray Allen misses that shot? Absolutely not. He'd be crucified for his sub-par play in the Finals and the dip in his playoff production compared to regular season.

The teams he faced in the 2017 and 2018 playoffs were much worse defensively than those he faced in the 2013 playoffs where he faced three consecutive good defenses with Bulls, Pacers and Spurs. All those teams packed the paint, had really good defensive bigs (Noah, Hibbert, Duncan) and the game was even a bit more physical. You can't tell me with a straight face that the defensive competition is anywhere close. It's not.

Any version of Lebron plays defense like 2013 Lebron in the playoffs? Not even close.. 2017 Lebron had neutral metrics and 2018 Lebron was just terrible on defense and a solid negative. I don't think an older Lebron didn't make an effort but he didn't have the stamina to play full throttle on both ends in his mid 30's.

[ArbitraryWater]

The argument in favor of one's peak needs to have more going for it than just oh-he-played-harder. Yes, over the course of a long season, 2013 LeBron may provide a little more value because of his defensive effort. But just how valuable is that extra effort in a playoff series/run, where ANY version of LeBron is bound to ramp up his effort anyway? To me, if your goal is to win 1 series, you go with the version with the most resilient offensive game because the other end of the court is simply a matter of effort. And there are too many versions of LeBron with a notably better offensive game than his 2013 self. And the numbers clearly bear this out. Yes, the league is a little more offense-friendly by 17/18 (ORTG 106 vs 108), but it doesn't explain LeBron averaging 6-8 more ppg on far better efficiency in the 17/18 playoffs compared to 2013. He's just better.

There's just too much winning bias at play in people picking 2013. But like someone said, would anyone consider 2013 his peak if Ray Allen misses that shot? Absolutely not. He'd be crucified for his sub-par play in the Finals and the dip in his playoff production compared to regular season.

Someone who gets it.

But people's heads are gonna explode because they cant wrap their head around this...

"but.. but.. defense?!"

Their conventional measuring sticks are not working.

Anyone who thinks 2013 LeBron was a better basketball player than 2017, 18 LeBron doesn't really get it.

2012 Bron got it done too, but it wasn't as measured, clinical, and consistently hot as 17-18.

[Indian guy]

The teams he faced in the 2017 and 2018 playoffs were much worse defensively

Comparing raw DRTG 4-5 years apart is misleading and tells us little about actual defensive ability. The far majority of the league from mid 90's to early 00's had a lower DRTG than the Bad Boy Pistons. Does that mean Pistons would just be an average defensive team in the 90's/00's? Obviously not. Only way to truly gauge your defensive effectiveness is how it fared relative to competition. So let's look at LeBron's playoff defensive competition in 2013, 2017 and 2018.

2013 102.5 DRTG (3.5 points better than league average)
2017 107.3 DRTG (1.6 points better than league average)
2018 106.4 DRTG (2.2 points better than league average)

As you can see, the difference is fairly minimal. LeBron, on average, played pretty good defensive competition all 3 seasons. Obviously, 2013 was toughest, but by no means large enough to compensate for the massive difference in his production between 2013 and 2017/18. 26 ppg on 59% TS vs 33 ppg on 64% TS. There's no comparison. He's a far better offensive player in 17/18 than 2013. And whatever defensive gap there exists simply isn't significant enough to tilt in 2013's favor. High volume scoring on elite efficiency is by far the most impactful attribute a player can bring on the basketball court. Individual defense on the other hand, particularly on the perimeter, isn't anywhere close to as impactful.

And frankly, numbers to me aren't even that important. It's simply a matter of watching the game as opposed to following boxscores/narratives to know LeBron's superiority come 17/18 over his 12/13 self.

[RRR3]

2014 was Bron's peak imo.

Might've not had the GOAT numbers, but his offensive skills peaked up until that point. And if you look at his shooting percentages (10ft, 10-15ft and 3PT range) they're the best of his career. Especially in the playoffs.

Bron played at a level where he rarely had a rough patch. Good enough on defense too unlike the argument against 2018.

People see that Miami was blown out by the Spurs, and think he could have done more. Bron showed up though. Put in the numbers and still gets criticized for it. There are few if any superstars that would have won that title in place of him. Wade and Bosh were cooked and Bron was doing most of the heavy-lifting.

But yeah, 2014 was like a sneak preview of 2018 just with better defense. More or less anyway.
I really thought he’d be a consistent shooter after 2014. His jumper was so good that year, I remember Kawhi having to fight over screens against him (much different than 2013)

[dankok8]

Comparing raw DRTG 4-5 years apart is misleading and tells us little about actual defensive ability. The far majority of the league from mid 90's to early 00's had a lower DRTG than the Bad Boy Pistons. Does that mean Pistons would just be an average defensive team in the 90's/00's? Obviously not. Only way to truly gauge your defensive effectiveness is how it fared relative to competition. So let's look at LeBron's playoff defensive competition in 2013, 2017 and 2018.

2013 102.5 DRTG (3.5 points better than league average)
2017 107.3 DRTG (1.6 points better than league average)
2018 106.4 DRTG (2.2 points better than league average)

As you can see, the difference is fairly minimal. LeBron, on average, played pretty good defensive competition all 3 seasons. Obviously, 2013 was toughest, but by no means large enough to compensate for the massive difference in his production between 2013 and 2017/18. 26 ppg on 59% TS vs 33 ppg on 64% TS. There's no comparison. He's a far better offensive player in 17/18 than 2013. And whatever defensive gap there exists simply isn't significant enough to tilt in 2013's favor. High volume scoring on elite efficiency is by far the most impactful attribute a player can bring on the basketball court. Individual defense on the other hand, particularly on the perimeter, isn't anywhere close to as impactful.

And frankly, numbers to me aren't even that important. It's simply a matter of watching the game as opposed to following boxscores/narratives to know LeBron's superiority come 17/18 over his 12/13 self.

Why are we comparing to league average? What is the rationale for that?

You mean to tell me when the entire league average DRtg goes up, we should ignore that... The 2018 NBA as a whole was much more offensively minded than the 2013 NBA.

And again it's a combination of factors... resting on defense, resting in the regular season, handling the ball more and playing weaker defensive teams. All of those factors contributed to higher numbers in 2017 and 2018. And besides there's always variance with small samples sizes. Lebron could have just had a bad shooting streak in the 2013 playoffs and a hot shooting streak in the 2018 playoffs. That's far from impossible.

Like this season, Lebron shot >40% from 3pt for the first 20 games then in February he shot like 26%... Was Lebron a Curry-level shooter and now he just can't shoot? Of course not. Lebron is more likely just a 34% 3pt shooter who goes through hot and cold patches.

[Micku]

I think both is true, but I still disagree with 18 being clearly better over 13 at least imo. But that's more RS than POs.

18 LeBron is better than 13 offensively in the POs. Like Indian guy said, you can just watch the games and see how good he was there. He was just more confident about his game, smarter, and his shot was on throughout the playoffs.

But dankok8 is right in that the defense got worse. You can could argue offense schemes got better too analytically I suppose. You don't really have to use Dtrg. As Indian Guy said, you shouldn't really compare that across eras anyway because there is too many subjective stuff. But you don't really need it in this case to say that 17 and 18 was more offensive minded than 13. But just look at the rim percentage of 17 and 18 in comparison to 13.

rim percentages in PO in the league
13:
61.8%

17:
63.3%

18:
67.8% (best ever)

LeBron percentages went up too. His highest year is 18. Lebron at the rim:
13:
69.4%

17:
78.9%

18:
79.1% (his best year)

Now LeBron has been able to shoot great at the rim since he came to the league. And 17 wasn't even that much better than 13 at rim % league wide, but 18? Everyone shot better. Not to say he wasn't capable of 70% at the rim. He consistently did that multiple times. But I don't think it's that much of a coincidence that LeBron had his highest % peaks at the rim as the years go on as rim protection become harder and harder, at least in the POs. However, the LeBron 18 in the RS wasn't his career best at the rim. And that's not the point I'm trying to make. It the league's best, which indicates it's easier to score at the rim.

Not just the playoffs. The whole season. And it recorded, at least the time, a record high since we are able to record the officially area percentages from 97. And you don't even need these stats. You can look at the games too. There was emphasis on clogging the paint with LeBron on the Heat. They gave him the outside jumper, just like how they do now. There was more big bodies to oppose him at the rim compared the more small ball line up in 18. And just any big bodies. They were real solid defensively.

Teams would more likely to sag off and contain either Wade or LeBron if either one had to ball to prevent them from driving. They were great with cuts, especially that year, when so it would catch teams off guard. But in 13 PO, Wade was on one leg. So, it made things harder for both of them.

But as Indian Guy said, LeBron 18 was better playoffs offensively. His outside was on. 3pt shot was a'ight, but his mid range game was on that year. He didn't shoot it that much tho, and picked his spots. However, it was on 13 season too. Just not in the playoffs. This is what separated them. LeBron 18 was on the playoffs, but not in the regular season.

LeBron 13 was better than LeBron 18 in the regular season. He played better offensively and defensively. And in that year, it was harder score, but teams were approaching the space and pace, and the 3pt shot play more and more. Just in the playoffs, his jumper became much more streaky and lost confidence in'em and wasn't as good. The Spurs gave him the shot. They had Diaw guarding him at times, and he could blow past him. But he didn't. Plus he had Duncan waiting for him. And he wouldn't or couldn't make the outside shot. I never seen anything like it. At times they gave him the Rondo treatment. Like dared him to shoot it. They did it more more so than the Pacers and the Bulls did. LeBron 18 was smarter and more confident. But LeBron is streaky in general. He becomes hot then cold.

I don't mind if you say 18 was better than 13 too much tho. I'm just giving my reasons why I think 13 LeBron was better in the RS. 13 LeBron had the jumper on the whole season or he was smart at picking his shots. However 13 LeBron was about to have a finals similar to 11 and it was definitely gonn'a be bad. So, winning, definitely helped. 18 LeBron wasn't as good in the RS, but stepped it up to another lvl offensively. But I feel the arguments of that offense was much better and defense was worst definitely has some merit and contributed. To what extent, I don't know for sure. At the time tho, that Cavs team sucked. Defense should've been all over him, but it didn't matter. He amazing in the POs. He did much better than his peers who had stars on their teams and better teams in general.

[Manny98]

People in this thread trying to figure out LeBrons peak

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7aCWDyW0PJCsxHna/giphy.gif

[dankok8]

By the way Ben Taylor's choice for Lebron's peak is 2012 and 2013. It's not the 2012-2013 season as the title of his video suggests.

[Micku]

By the way Ben Taylor's choice for Lebron's peak is 2012 and 2013. It's not the 2012-2013 season as the title of his video suggests.


Oooh. Thanks for the clarification. That toss in wrench for my view saying someone agrees with me that his RS 2013 was his best. I still say that's the best I ever seen him play in the RS 13. I don't think he ever reached that height again