Kobe: Carmelo More Difficult To Defend Than LeBron

[Tien]

When you tell your statistics teacher that you'd rather take a 20 game sample size over a 800 game sample size, he'd fail you on the spot.

realgm statistics! How does that work!?!

[og15]

Melo is a better 3pt shooter yet LeBron averages better for his career on 3pt shots.

Can't explain that!

Is it really so difficult to understand?

Lebron biggest strength is his penetration and the defenders try to avoid that and leave him more room, sometimes they want him to shoot the 3pt...because there is a chance that he misses it, but if he penetrates no one can stop him....

And Carmello is a good shooter, so he gets guarded really tight at the 3pt line....

Thats why I dont agree with Kobe... but you cant say that they are the same shooter, just because they have the same percentages!

I think Carmelo actually does more catch and shoot 3PT shooting, while Lebron does a little more 3PT shooting off the dribble, but you'll have to check that.

[toodles23]

Melo is a better 3pt shooter yet LeBron averages better for his career on 3pt shots.

Can't explain that!

Is it really so difficult to understand?

Lebron biggest strength is his penetration and the defenders try to avoid that and leave him more room, sometimes they want him to shoot the 3pt...because there is a chance that he misses it, but if he penetrates no one can stop him....

And Carmello is a good shooter, so he gets guarded really tight at the 3pt line....

Thats why I dont agree with Kobe... but you cant say that they are the same shooter, just because they have the same percentages!

I think Carmelo actually does more catch and shoot 3PT shooting, while Lebron does a little more 3PT shooting off the dribble, but you'll have to check that.

Yep, he does. So over the course of his career, Lebron makes 40% more threes per game on a slightly higher percentage, while being assisted significantly less, and somehow MELO is the better 3 point shooter? How the **** does this make sense?

The entire argument is based on Melo's hot streak early in this season, yet these same people ignore that Lebron's been nearly as hot from deep this season (Melo's shooting .455, Lebron .424). Both guys will finish with percentages in the 30s.

[osamu]

I think some of us are getting too defensive in this thread. Melo and Lebron are two different players. Melo creates for himself, whereas Lebron creates the best possible situation for the team. Scoring wise Melo has many more go to moves than Lebron, he really knows to beat his man to get the shot he wants. Lebron is more cerebral in this sense because he's looking at the defense to figure out the best shot the team could get. After reading that SI article on Lebron's basketball iq, you have to appreciate his attention team coverages.
So, 1 on 1 Melo can be more difficult to guard, but he can score 40 and his team can lose (granted the knicks don't continue shooting +40% from 3pt). Lebron's game optimizes team production, its hard to see the Heat lose when he has 8+ assists. Both these guys are very difficult to stop when hot.

The last thing I would like to point out, is that this comparison is like Hakeem vs Shaq (I mean no disrespect to compare Melo to Hakeem) But Hakeem had all the moves, and with Shaq it was the same moves over and over. Is the consensus among NBA players that Hakeem was better than Shaq because of all these moves? Or was Shaq considered the better player because of his dominance? I choose Shaq, simply because he was a genetic freak, much like Lebron, and his dominance meant wins 90% of the time.

Please don't equate Hakeem's level of impact to Melo's. Hakeem was a beast on both sides of the court, arguably top 10 player. Just for argument sake, I wanted to point out that Hakeem's offensive variety did not separate him from Shaq. So neither should Melo's 'beloved' scoring abilities make him more or less difficult to guard.

P.S what does Kobe know about defense...

[swag2011]

P.S what does Kobe know about defense...

9x 1st team D.... U mad???

[osamu]

P.S what does Kobe know about defense...

9x 1st team D.... U mad???

I'm glad he's being exposed this year