Playoffs - '06 Wade or '09 Bryant?

[Quotatious]

Who was better in the playoffs on their way to the title?

[mischievous]

Wyane.

[Blackfyre]

I don't see any seperation between the two. You're just as likely to win a championship with either player. No right answer here.

[Texas Chuck]

Kobe was great. Wade was still clearly better imo.

[chrismikayla]

Wade was slightly better

[G35]

I'll give this to Wade primarily because of what he did in the Finals. Not that he wasn't amazing during the rest of the playoffs but if he doesn't go ridiculous in the finals that run isn't that special.....

[DirtyDez]

I'll give this to Wade primarily because of what he did in the Finals. Not that he wasn't amazing during the rest of the playoffs but if he doesn't go ridiculous in the finals that run isn't that special.....

He was actually better in the ECF's but the finals overshadows it.

[Swagalicious]

I don't see any seperation between the two. You're just as likely to win a championship with either player. No right answer here.

This. It's not at all a slight to Wade's performance, but every star wing ate Dallas for breakfast that year. I'm quite confident 09 Kobe could beat that team in Wade's shoes, just as much as I'm confident in saying that 06 Wade could do the same thing in Kobe's place.

The level of consistency by both guys was amazing. Both of them really kicked it into higher gear in the last two rounds.

[G35]

I'll give this to Wade primarily because of what he did in the Finals. Not that he wasn't amazing during the rest of the playoffs but if he doesn't go ridiculous in the finals that run isn't that special.....

He was actually better in the ECF's but the finals overshadows it.

Well I think the Pistons were a better defensive team than the Mavericks so that should be accounted for but here are the stats:

Wade in Finals
34.7 PPG
7.8 REB
3.8 AST
2.7 STL
1.0 BLK
.572 TS%
36.9 USG%
113 ORTG
97 DRTG
125 GScore


Wade in ECF
26.7 PPG
5.2 REB
5.5 AST
1.8 STL
1.5 BLK
.684 TS%
30.6 USG%
120 ORTG
99 DRTG
121 GScore

It's debatable which series is better, in the finals Wade was pretty much the only effective offensive player for the Heat which accounted for his much higher USG. This resulted in him achieving higher volume boxscore numbers. OTOH, Wade was far more efficient in the ECF's, but Shaq was more effective as well and the Heat were far less dependent on Wade to win the series. I just don't think Wade's 2006 playoffs would be put up in comparison without that finals run......

[roriobane]

Wade didn't have a better Finals. He simply had the benefit of playing a mediocre Mavs defense (#11th in DRTG) that spent the entire season getting destroyed by perimeter stars and yet the Heat offense (100 ORTG, equivalent to the worst offense in the league) was pathetic despite Wade's pretty box-score numbers. Kobe, meanwhile, played a historically great defense (#1 in DRTG, -6.4 relative to league-average, top 25 mark in history) and totally destroyed them (32+/7+/6/1.5/1.5/54% TS/113 ORTG/35% USG) while anchoring a Lakers offense that totally torched that historic defense (they had a 111 ORTG in that series). Oh, and Kobe had perhaps the best defensive series of his career. Certainly his defense was better than Wade's.

Their box-score/advanced stats are extremely similar but Bryant scored with higher volume, higher usage, took MUCH better care of the ball (8.7TOV% to Wade's 14%) and that's why he was more efficient (117 ORTG to Wade's 115), and he anchored a far better offense (LA had a ORTG of 111.4 over the entire playoffs compared to the Heats 106.2) against better defensive comp and better overall comp.

And of course Bryant was doing his thing on one of most dominant playoff teams of all-time: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-year-of-the-warriors/

With a supporting cast essentially compromised of Pau/Odom and a bunch of scrubs. Incredible.

Yeah, he was clearly more impressive.

[HeartBreakKid]

Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom and 'a bunch of scrubs' is pretty damn good. I mean the Lakers size was a huge reason why teams struggled to beat them, and why they matched up so well against Dwight Howard. If Kobe doesn't have two great bigs, then the Lakers would just lose just like James' Cavs did regardless of his performance.

[RSCD3_]

Close but Wade makes most of his seperation from the semi's and to a noticeably lesser extent the finals.

Kobe had a better Conference Finals IMO.

1st Round

wade

24.7 PPG on 54.0 TS% and 7 APG on 2.28 AST%/TOV% Ratio, 111 ORTG Vs 7th Ranked Defense

kobe

27.4 PPG on 57.0 TS% and 5.6 APG on 1.67 AST%/TOV% Ratio, 111 ORTG Vs 10th Ranked Defense

2nd round

wade

27.6 PPG on 59.8 TS% and 6.6 APG on 2.32 AST%/TOV% Ratio, 117 ORTG Vs 3rd Ranked Defense

kobe

27.4 PPG on 53.5 TS% and 3.7 APG on 3.41 AST%/TOV% Ratio, 114 ORTG Vs 4th Ranked Defense

Conference finals

wade

26.7 PPG on 68.4 TS% and 5.5 APG on 1.47 AST%/TOV% Ratio, 120 ORTG Vs 5th Ranked Defense

kobe

34.0 PPG on 62.7 TS% and 5.8 APG on 3.61 AST%/TOV% Ratio, 131 ORTG Vs 8th Ranked Defense

Finals

wade

34.7 PPG on 57.2 TS% and 3.8 APG on 1.88 AST%/TOV% Ratio, 113 ORTG Vs 12th Ranked Defense

kobe

32.4 PPG on 52.5 TS% and 7.4 APG on 3.69 AST%/TOV% Ratio, 111 ORTG Vs 1st Ranked Defense