Peak Iverson vs Peak Wade

[Dresta]

To tpols, the 2010 Celtics are one of the rare exceptions of the quality of a team not matching their regular season performance. Due to their core's age they rested guys prepping them for the long haul of the playoffs. I'm sure you can agree, being a Laker fan whose team went 7 games with them that they were much better than a 50 win team.

And 50 win teams are really good. 60+ is just flat out greatness from a ball club. 47 wins isn't anything to sneeze at either in the 1st round of the eastern conference.

Yeh, saying 'Wade lost to a 50-win team while having top-5 defense in 10' is completely disingenuous to say the least.

It was the Boston friggin Celtics!

[tpols]

Shaq wasn't relied on because he was sucking ass that series. Shooting less than 30% from the line and being a defensive liability. There were times when Riley preferred Mourning to Shaq in that series, and his impact was bigger. Taking the whole playoffs into account though, Shaq was a all-star calibre player - but how many people win championships without at least 1 all-star player.

All I was saying was that Shaq whole stint with Wade shouldnt be judged off of 6 games. Wade had Shaq when he was still one of the best centers in the league and an MVP candidate. You guys are tearing him down off a tiny proportion of the whole sample size.

You are talking absolute rubbish in saying Wade's 09 team was as good as Iverson's 01 team. Iverson had Mutumbo during that run; in the conference finals Mutumbo averaged 17-16-3; his overall PER during that playoff run was virtually the same as Shaq's in 06 (.2 difference), and Mutumbo played a lot more minutes. Wade's second best player in 09 was a rookie Michael Beasley I don't even think any of the teams Iverson beat were better than the Hawks in 09 if i'm honest (only the Bucks have an argument here, and as i said, Mutumbo averaged 17-16-3 against them) - the East was weak as shit that year. In 10 Wade went out to the Celtics, who made it to the Finals, losing by a single game; since when would Iverson have done any better?

I never said Wade's team was as good as Iversons.. just that they had similarly built teams. Similar relative defensive ratings and inept offensive creators outside of their stars. Eric Snow.. Aaron Mckie.. george lynch.. that team struggled just to get shots up. Such little offensive talent it wasnt funny.
Get the outta here with that Mutumbo shit.. 90+% of his impact came defensively. He was never a high quality offensive player and would never be considered a quality offensive second option.

And I never said that Iverson wouldve beaten the C's with Wade's team. I said they both wouldve been outed.

Your last point: yes, Wade on those Sixers teams doesn't get past Shaq and Kobe, but Iverson on that 06 team with Shaq most certainly doesn't win the title.

Maybe you're right.. idk. As it stands Wade was extremely fortunate to get past those mavs anyways. Down 0-2 in a double digit hole in game 3 and you come back? I dont think theres any player in league history you can stick in that situation and be sure their team was still going to win. Replay that series a bunch more times and the Mavs win it 9/10 times. Like the 11 Heat did for the 11 Mavs the 06 Mavs did for the 06 Heat.. both choked everything away. And it did take some of the most terrible reffing ever to even come true..

[Mass Debator]

Yeh, saying 'Wade lost to a 50-win team while having top-5 defense in 10' is completely disingenuous to say the least.

It was the Boston friggin Celtics!

Lol exactly. That old Celtics team took Lebron's Heat to a game 7 in 2012.

People be talking as if Iverson dominated the playoffs and if it wasn't for the Lakers, they would have a chance at the title. 76ers wouldn't even beat the Spurs, Kings, or Blazers..and probably even the Kidd's Suns which they struggled with in years past in the reg. Not to mention they almost lost to Vince Carter's raptors on their way to the finals. Carter had nooooobody. Iverson averaged almost 33 points shooting below 39%. So for every 5 shots attempted, he makes 1.9 of them...people who think that is cool for the team is smoking something.

Wade is the better player. Iverson is the better ball thief.

[Lord Leoshes]

Wade all day cause he was the way better defender, while about the same offensively, though Wade kills him in%.
+ he was the only one of the 2 that was able to get their teams over the hump & win a championship with either as their offensive leader.
Maybe if Iverson was a better defender, they wouldn't of last in the finals, where defense wins.

[aj1987]

he was the only one of the 2 that was able to get their teams over the hump & win a championship with either as their offensive leader.

But Shaq was the reason why he won the championships though. AI never had a top 10 GOAT and all..

[sportjames23]

This. He wasn't underrated in his day, but now.. he sure is.

ESPN basically blackballed this guy from ever becoming known in a positive light by the new generation of fans.

I remember a few years back when he was having some problems with the league, ESPN flashed a stat which read "Only Franchise with a MVP & COTY in the same year" in which they only showed Lebron/Mike Brown and didn't even mention that AI & Larry Brown had done it nearly 10 years prior

Hell, did they forget about 1996, MJ and Phil?

[HoopsFanNumero1]

I made a thread on this before and as I mentioned there, Iverson gets incredibly overrated because of his '01 run. Also, it's funny people keep bringing up Wade's '06 Finals when the '01 Sixers-Bucks series is considered to be one of the most rigged of all time.

[TheCorporation]

I'll take the 3 time Champion, who had the best NBA Finals performance of all-time, that is a bigger, elite 2-way player, for 400 Alex.

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