bertrob wrote:
I agree with your list for the most part but I cannot, for the life of me, see how you can think this
Please explain
Nitro's post from earlier about Kobe and his '07 season should do the trick.
Nitro1118 wrote:05-08 he was the best player in the league IMO, with 06-07 being his best season. That season he had 10 games scoring over 50pts which is insane...basically, every 8 games he dropped over 50. That was also his most efficient year scoring the ball, with a TS% of over .580. That's huge for Kobe, as for the last 8-9 years he's had IMO the most polished, versatile set of weapons scoring the basketball the league has ever seen. However, what has killed him at times in the past was his efficiency (due to shot selection), so back in 06-07 when he still had most of his athleticism in-tact and was done adding every type of move in the book to his arsenal, he started picking and choosing his spots better than the previous seasson when he averaged 35PPG. Therefor, he was as explosive and unstoppable scoring the ball as I have ever seen anyone post-Jordan (02-03 T-Mac and current Durant and LeBron aren't far behind, though). He had the talent, skills and moves to counter every single defense thrown at him, and he had that Jordan-like killer instinct to bury teams by himself with his scoring. Occasionally, he would shoot himself and his team out of games as a result, but in 06-07 him winning his team games by obliterating the other team was a far more common occurance.
Also, that season he really started learning how to become a better leader. He became a better and more voal teammate off the court, more of a teacher on the court (as opposed to simply chewing people out like he did in the past), and he started to trust his teammates. As a result, he got a LOT more out of that awful roster of role players than anyone could have predicted.
Like virtually every season, Kobe averaged over 5 rebounds and assists, and compared to his 05-06 campaign he did put in a considerably greater amount of effort into his defense on a nightly basis.
In 06-07 Wade missed a lot of games due to injury, LeBron's jumper was still iffy as was his defense, KG was starting to decline and couldn't get his team a playoff birth, Dirk's game wasn't as well-rounded as Kobe's and he was completely shutdown in the playoffs as the 8th seeded Warriors took down his Mavs, and Duncan started to decline and didn't need to play like a superstar every single night with the emergence of Manu and Parker. Therefor, that season Kobe was without a doubt the best player in the league IMO. 05-06 and 07-08 he was also the best player in the league, but those seasons you could make stronger cases for some of his individual competition.
It sums it up perfectly. Duncan has the best argument over Kobe in '07 though but I'm still rolling with Kobe that season.
