Next Coming wrote:I would see where you would make that point but James is kind of a different type of perimeter player.
He'd probably be our best rebounder.
World's tallest midget!
But seriously, LBJ IS great, but he cannot affect the oher aspects of the game the way a dominant interior player. Opposing defenses ALWAYS stop the interior first, THEN account for the perim. That's why you see recovery runs OUT to the shooter, and never into the big guy; it's always the first check off the list. An outside guy can be left wide open and still miss much of the time...an interior guy who gets the ball uncovered inside, even Rasho, will hit 99/100.
So the nature of the game suggests a dominant inside guy will draw more attention away from other players than a dominant perim guy. For example, when both were in their primes, coaches like PJ himself and Riley still said Hakeem got more attention from opposing defenses as a whole than MJ did. It's the nature of the beast.
And at the other end, there isn't a perim defender alive who affects the nature of the whole defense to the same degree as even just a good defensive 5. They allow ALL other defenders to gamble more, play strong-side off the shooting/drive hand, etc. A dominant defensive perim will, at best, take out someone else and maybe help in the lanes or with the odd recovery. They won't change how the whole team can play defense.
To me the reason this might still go LBJ is that his talent/ability at those areas where he is dominant might be so above others that he still checks out higher on balance. But I don't know.
I DO know that it's probably easier to build a winner around a dominant big than a dominant swing. It's easier to plug in other guys, AND players want to come play with dominant bigs more than any other kind of player, ever great point guards, because they make your job so much easier everywhere.
At those that are saying Dwight's not dominant. Dwight is THE BIG of this generation, and will continue to be for quite some time. He is as dominant as they come. Once every 10 year type of guy.
