The Myth of Lebron the elite defender

[knickswin]

Originally Posted by donald_trump

when did michael jordan ever guard hakeem olajuwon? i guess he wasnt good enough.
remember that time kobe guarded howard in the finals and shut him down? yep, thats because it didnt happen.

yet all stats suggest contrary to what you are saying. they show that lebron is in fact the best defender at his position, simply at holding his man to the lowest production out of all the players at his position. over 82 games, its hard to call this coincidence. having the best defensive rating in his position as well. hard to call it coincidence. having some of the best stats at his position. hard to call it coincidence.

why is it that in all these stats lebron just happens to be among the best if not the best in the league, and certainly in his position?

Lebron is 6'8 and strong as an ox. It's far from unheard of to put strong sf's/pf's on Dirk to muscle him off his spots at least for some possessions. Heck, Chuck Hayes is shorter than Lebron and he gives plenty of PFs and centers the business when he guards them. Lebron is just not that fundamentally sound a defender. Watch Nick Collison guard Dirk in the WCF; Nick is giving him everything he can handle. Playing him tight, readjusting himself after Dirk makes a move, closing out the space as quick as possible when he shoots. Have you ever seen Lebron play defense like that on a really good scorer? What he did against Derrick Rose is far from the same thing BTW.

I don't really care for defensive stats because I don't think they tell the whole story. Defense is mostly about the coach's MO and good team commitment and communication IMO. Maybe the reason small forwards have done poorly against the Cavs and Heat is because those teams have tended to play really good perimeter defense in general. I bet most players have put up number worse than their career averages against the Cavs and Heat just because those are very good defensive clubs.

[Nash-tastic]

While I do think LeBron is overrated as a defender, but come on

[whatever666]

Originally Posted by Nash-tastic

While I do think LeBron is overrated as a defender, but come on

Can you explain how he is overrated? I think he is rated pretty fairly, as the best defender at his position right now which ofcourse automatically makes you one of the best defenders in the NBA, he is easily the most versatile defender in the NBA, there is really nobody who can guard up to four positions that efficiently, the only guy who could do that before was Scottie Pippen, he is leading in defensive winshares at his position and even led the league in that the previous playoffs, shutting down even point guards, he is rated very fairly, its not like somebody said he is the best defender in the NBA? That belongs to Dwight Howard.