What Does Charles Barkley Need to be an Equal to LeBron

[LakerLegend]

Not accolades.

I mean just in terms of attributes as a player at their peaks.

For example:

Barkley is a better post scorer.

LeBron is a better shooter.

LeBron is arguably the best passing SF ever.

Barkley is arguably the best rebounding PF ever.

LeBron is a great rebounder for a SF.

Barkley is a great passer for PF.

LeBron has a big edge defensively, but when Barkley wanted to he could make an impact on defense.

LeBron is a better ballhandler and can play multiple positions, but Barkley is one of the best ballhandling PF's ever and can play point forward plenty.

[70sFan]

Mostly defense. This gap is quite huge and I don't believe Barkley could be equal to James with his defensive skills. Offensively he was perfectly fine.

[GeneralManager]

Not accolades.

I mean just in terms of attributes as a player at their peaks.

For example:

Barkley is a better post scorer.

LeBron is a better shooter.

LeBron is arguably the best passing SF ever.

Barkley is arguably the best rebounding PF ever.

LeBron is a great rebounder for a SF.

Barkley is a great passer for PF.

LeBron has a big edge defensively, but when Barkley wanted to he could make an impact on defense.

LeBron is a better ballhandler and can play multiple positions, but Barkley is one of the best ballhandling PF's ever and can play point forward plenty.

Regarding your premises, no objections except that I object to your statement, "LeBron is a better shooter."

This is most certainly not true. Barkley is the better shooter from 0-3 feet, Barkley is the better shooter from 3-10 feet, Barkley is the better shooter from 10-16 feet, Barkley is the better shooter from 16-23 feet.

Damnit I wish we had shot location data. Someday we WILL have shot location data.

Barkley is a better shooter than LeBron from all of these ranges.

[GSP]

Offensively might rate Chuck ahead of Lebron career wise and hes easily top 10 and in contention for greatest offensive big with Dirk and Shaq IMO. I mean for his game I'm not sure he needs any offensive improvement outside of being a good 3pt shooter considering how often he took those relative to how good he was at shooting

Defense is the issue always was with Chuck. Since he's a big he didn't even need to be a DPOY level defender overall.to be in Lebron tier but a tier or two below that. Unfortunately Chuck was a clearly negative defender vast majority of the time

[70sFan]

Not accolades.

I mean just in terms of attributes as a player at their peaks.

For example:

Barkley is a better post scorer.

LeBron is a better shooter.

LeBron is arguably the best passing SF ever.

Barkley is arguably the best rebounding PF ever.

LeBron is a great rebounder for a SF.

Barkley is a great passer for PF.

LeBron has a big edge defensively, but when Barkley wanted to he could make an impact on defense.

LeBron is a better ballhandler and can play multiple positions, but Barkley is one of the best ballhandling PF's ever and can play point forward plenty.

Regarding your premises, no objections except that I object to your statement, "LeBron is a better shooter."

This is most certainly not true. Barkley is the better shooter from 0-3 feet (which let's face it is NOT really shooting, it's layups/dunking), Barkley is the better shooter from 3-10 feet, Barkley is the better shooter from 10-16 feet, Barkley is the better shooter from 16-23 feet.

Damnit I wish we had shot location data. Someday we WILL have shot location data.

Barkley is the better shooter from all of these ranges easily and it's not close.

http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=1244886

It's more than nothing. Incredible effort from Phily.

[GeneralManager]

It's more than nothing. Incredible effort from Phily.

Thank you.

[Dupp]

Lebron is a better shooter than barkley.

[GeneralManager]

Lebron is a better shooter than barkley.

...from three point range and nowhere else.

[penbeast0]

Defense is huge, especially for a big, which is where Barkley played. He was turrible. Also, his party hardy attitude and tendency to say whatever came to mind caused problems at times with teammates; LeBron provides much more positive leadership.

[B_Creamy]

Defense is huge, especially for a big, which is where Barkley played. He was turrible. Also, his party hardy attitude and tendency to say whatever came to mind caused problems at times with teammates; LeBron provides much more positive leadership.

Can you recall a particular instance where he rubbed teammates the wrong way with something he said publicly?

[penbeast0]

I got a lot of the Barkley stuff from reading Jayson Williams's book; he talks about the locker room frictions in there. Barkley could get away with more than most because it was just "Chuck being Chuck" but there were incidents. If I get time after work and remember, I will look it up.

[Woodsanity]

Barkley would need to be an elite defender imo. The defensive gap is quite large.

[Joao Saraiva]

Big defensive improvement.

Work ethic - not going fat into the season.

Better control - Barkley had some behavior problems. LeBron flops sometimes but he's smart, doesn't get in trouble.

On offense... I'd say LeBron's pass is a bigger asset than Barkley's offensive rebounding. So maybe some better shooting to compensate or better passing from Barkley, even tough he was very good as a PF.

I'd say the offensive gap is not really big, even tough I feel confident enough to say LeBron was the best offensive player between them.

[HeartBreakKid]

Charles Barkley is arguably the best power forward rebounder? Dennis Rodman is a power forward...I'm not sure how anyone can argue that Barkley is a better rebounder than Rodman.

As scorers, Barkley is probably a bit better than James. James blows Barkley out the water in terms of playmaking, James is a much better handler and passer, Chuck was good for his position but James is great period.

Defensively the gap is really big, James can be a top 5 defender on any given league, Barkley a lot of the times was lousy.

[ThaRegul8r]

Seeing how the question is framed in the present tense, if one thinks LeBron is better than Barkley (which, I think it's safe to say, most people would agree with), obviously there's nothing Barkley can do to change that since he retired three years before LeBron entered the league.

[RightToCensor]

Jenny Craig

[LakerLegend]

Charles Barkley is arguably the best power forward rebounder? Dennis Rodman is a power forward...I'm not sure how anyone can argue that Barkley is a better rebounder than Rodman.

As scorers, Barkley is probably a bit better than James. James blows Barkley out the water in terms of playmaking, James is a much better handler and passer, Chuck was good for his position but James is great period.

Defensively the gap is really big, James can be a top 5 defender on any given league, Barkley a lot of the times was lousy.

Barkley had to carry a much bigger load than Rodman. Rodman's role was play defense and rebound, Barkley also had to carry entire offenses.

[JordansBulls]

Barkley can't do anything to be Equal to Lebron as he retired nearly 15+ years ago.

[FuShengTHEGreat]

He should've played his career as a SF on offense and defence. Especially on defence instead of often being asked to guard some 6'10 odd tree.

He justily deserves to be knocked over his questionable defence but part of it wasn't his fault at his height with guys being able to see over him easily.

Looking back at his career i'm not even sure why he even played PF to begin with. He had the ball handling ability that matches up with most of the great SF players in history. In some cases like Worthy and even Larry Bird he surpasses them in this aspect. Every great SF ever was taller than him. Heck there are SG's in history taller than he was too.

Now I don't think this changes much on the outcome of his career winning or stat wise but he put himself at a disadvantage almost every night on D.

[trex_8063]

Lebron is a better shooter than barkley.

...from three point range and nowhere else.

We're not doing this again.

Here's how it's gone so far....

YOU (same tune): "Barkley is a better shooter from everywhere inside the 3pt arc"----not "I think he is" or "he might be", but "is", as if it is a known reality......The irony being that in your very next statement you lament not having shot location data for him (but very cocksure that would only prove you correct).

70sFan: (post #5 itt) provides link to shot location data for a not insubstantial 27-game sample from '93 (arguably the best mid-range shooting season of his career; certainly better than he'd been in the 80's and certainly utilizing it more than in any previous season)........this data clearly suggests that your above statement may be incorrect===>Barkley from"mid-range" (which in this data-set includes everything outside the paint, but inside the arc......which will include a few baseline or post shots from <10 feet, though mostly in the 10-23 ft range) was 36.6%. Lebron in his prime has been 37.0% from 10-16, 38.8% from 16-23 (and 43.6% from 3-10).

YOU: Thank him for the information......and then proceed to ignore it as you repeat the same mantra again (post #8).


Your credibility and genuineness of intent is not aided by making assertions that you cannot support by objective means, and then ignoring objective means which run contrary to your assertion.

Check your PM's later on tomorrow.