Accumulative Playoff Point Leaders per season

[WhiteKyrie]

Judging greatest NBA players of all time based on the most valuable asset on the floor, scoring buckets … particularly in the playoffs, which means you had to have typically led your team to at minimum the Conference Finals or the NBA Finals.

This is post merger mind you, as it is the birth of the modern product and game. And the best basketball product and competitive climate. Pretty interesting and telling results.

Accumulative Playoff scoring leaders:

1) MJ - 8x
‘89, ‘90, ‘91, ‘92, ‘93, ‘96, ‘97, ‘98

2) LeBron - 6x
‘07, ‘12, ‘13, ‘15, ‘17, ‘18

3) Kobe - 4x
‘04, ‘08, ‘09, ‘10

4) Bird and Hakeem - 3x
‘84, ‘85, ‘86
‘86, ‘94, ‘95

5) Shaq and Duncan - 2x
‘00, ‘02
‘03, ‘05

I think you can make the argument that this is borderline the most accurate view of the greatest player of all time hierarchy list of the modern NBA.

Because excuse your bball racism, Bird when healthy was always better than Magic. Comparable passer. Way better scorer. And actually a way better defender / rebounder too.

Interesting one offs:

Tatum - 2022
AD - 2020
Klay - 2016
Worthy - 1988

Pretty telling and interesting view of certain players quality of help as well.

Namely Stephen Curry with Klay Thompson actually scoring more than him in their Finals run in 2016.

And as I said, Anthony Davis being the Lakers actual best player in the 2020 season and in the bubble playoffs.

Also, Magic’s help with Worthy, who was primarily a third option. Kareem gets a ring while averaging 14 ppg that year btw.

Jokic - 2023
Giannis - 2021
Kawhi - 2019
KD - 2014
Dirk - 2011
Wade - 2006
Iverson - 2001

Pretty accurate IMO judging quality of players in terms of their dominance over the league and their place in the all time hierarchy of players.

[FultzNationRISE]

These players are generally considered the best because fans value what they can see and easily understand, i.e. individual scoring.

So youre using a scoring stat to prove that the people we think are the best are in fact the best, when everyone thinks that in the first place because of scoring…?

Im not sure you did what you thought you were doing here. But we’re all entitled to our own viewpoints.

[WhiteKyrie]

No scoring is pretty simply the most important part of the game. And then yes of course to the more knowledgeable fan, it can be broken down further from there.

[FultzNationRISE]

No scoring is pretty simply the most important part of the game. And then yes of course to the more knowledgeable fan, it can be broken down further from there.

The most important part of the game is your team finishing with more points than the opponent. Doesnt matter whether the score is 178-177 or 3-2. It also doesnt matter who scores the points.

If player A beats five guys off the dribble and then bird feeds player B underneath the basket for the deuce each time, who was more ‘valuable’ on the possession? We know player B is gonna finish with 90 points but does that tell us everything we need to know?

It’s a lot more complicated than just who scores the points in my opinion. Of course there is correlation with point totals and player status, but if player values were truly quantifiable in an objective way (which theyre not) I think you would be very surprised how different a “God’s eye view” list of player impacts would look relative to your perceptions.

[Duffy Pratt]

Gee, I guess Duncan sucked.

[3ba11]

Not all points are the same

Some guys score in a way that allows great strategy and chemistry to be built around them, thus requiring less supporting talent - guys with low hold-time (Jokic, Duncan) and expert jumpshooters (Curry, MJ, Kobe) allow coaches to install a dynasty strategy and chemistry, so the team can win with supplementary players like Klay or Pippen instead of franchise guys like Kareem, Wade or AD.

Otoh, some guys score in a way that doesn't allow teams to have great strategy or chemistry - these would be the high hold-time guys (ball-dominators) like Lebron or Magic, who need franchise player teammates and still yield perennial underdogs or losers with weak Finals records/team ceiling

[WhiteKyrie]

Gee, I guess Duncan sucked.

Did you read? He’s at the fifth spot.

[WhiteKyrie]

Bump