LeBron, Kobe, and Wade - better swingmen Jordan ever faced?

[PleezeBelieve]

Funny how Jordan kinda birth the style of play for these guys, but in the end each one of these men have the potenial to 1-up him in any given series with comparable talent.

I see no holes in any of these three players, other than Kobe's lack of heart sometimes, that preclude me from conceiveably seeing them beat Jordan in a series. That's how bad the swingmen were in Jordans era.

LeBron, Wade, and Kobe are all better than Dominique. Better than English. Better than Pippen.

Who else? Worthy? Better than him. Bird? Was he more a 4 than 3? If so, he doesn't apply.

Who else?

[jrask]

just off the top of my head:

Drexler, Reggie, Dumars (some of the greatest players ever)

add those to the list

[PleezeBelieve]

just off the top of my head:

Drexler, Reggie, Dumars (some of the greatest players ever)

add those to the list

Better than Kobe, LeBron, and Wade?

You think?

[jrask]

Hard to say..
I think its silly to compare era's anway.

Kobe, Lebron, and Wade are the greats of this era

MJ, Drexler, Pippen, Barkely, Magic, Bird, Isiah, Dumars, Stockton, Malone, etc.. are the greats of their era

[Showtime:Part2]

mj faced crap swingmen. tmac in his prime was better than any of his competition. you forgot prime VC from the current generations list.

[The MVPlaya]

Jordan23Forever in.........

5..............
4.............
3............

[marshmallow]

This is what Drexler put up against Jordan in the '92 Finals:

24.3 ppg / 7.83 rpg / 5.3 apg / 1.3 spg / 1 bpg on 40.7% shooting

This is what Jordan put up against Drexler:

35.8 ppg / 4.83 rpg / 6.5 apg / 1.67 spg / 0.34 bpg on 52.6% shooting

TBH I think Wade would potentially give MJ the biggest problems of the group and potentially get him in foul trouble with his relentless driving and explosive first step. I think MJ could bait Kobe into taking those long twos and quick threes he's so fond of. MJ would never guard LeBron since he's a SF, although I suppose the Cavs might put LBJ on MJ in an attempt to slow him down. It wouldn't work though.

[Chubby Chaser]

There was no competition in Jordan's era. Not like there is now. He benefited from a transition period of beating up on all the old Lakers, old Pistons, old Celts. There was no swing men comparable to what we see today in Kobe, Carter, Lebron, Wade, Tmac, etc.

[cdubbz]

I do think its "silly" to compare players in different eras even as close as the 90s and 2000s because players ALWAYS get better and better each era.

It does seem like theirs a lot more competition on the wings nowadays

[Lue_4_MVP]

Add Bernard King and Glen Rice to that list. Also I don't think it's fair to compare swingmen between era. The game has evolved into a more perimeter style and isolation-based game. I believe Jerry Sloan once said in 2004: the new hand checking rules have made teams like Phoenix impossible to defend.

And to be honest most centers these days are crap compared to Jordan era so it balances out imo.

[Flite]

Swingmen of the new millenium are pretty incredible, and obviously stronger competition than was Mike faced in the the 90's. However, perimeter defence was tougher, the game was played more inside-out, and I have no doubt about MJ's ability to lockdown any of these three guys as well as anyone has during their careers.

All in all, none of it really matters anyway because true greats only raise their performance against better opponents.

[marshmallow]

The Wizards version of MJ made the listed players outside of Kobe look foolish, including a prime KG (why they would put KG on MJ is a question best not answered).

[TrevorAriza]

everyone is saying it's not fair to compare era players from different eras; so why is it fair to say MJ is clearly better than kobe?

[Jordan23Forever]

Funny how Jordan kinda birth the style of play for these guys, but in the end each one of these men have the potenial to 1-up him in any given series with comparable talent.

That's absolutely not true at all. I'd ask you to support such an opinion, but based on your rhetoric, I can tell that it wouldn't be productive. There's almost no way that '89-'93 Jordan gets outplayed in (or loses) any series to any of these three assuming comparable talent.

Only Lebron and Wade have shown flashes of being as productive as Jordan was, especially in the playoffs. Neither of them is anywhere near the defender Jordan is, and neither is the assassin that Jordan was. You have zero basis for making the assumption I've quoted.

[TruSkool]

THE 90'S
jordan
pippen
drexler
bird
magic
rice
jones
reggie
hill
starks
stockton
isiah
dumars
worthy
barry
payton
sprewell
houston
webb

THE 00'S
kobe
lebron
wade
allen
mcgrady
iverson
carter
arenas
johnson
ginobili
peja
carmelo
kidd
pierce
davis
richardson
terry
marion

bottom line is- 00's are more athletic and the 99's are more physical. defensively, the 99's are by far much better, and offensively, the 99's have the edge.
*sorry i feel like some of these players can be switched around a little, but these were the MAIN PLAYERS (G/F) which would likely GUARD EACHOTHER in a game.

[Speedlot]

Can Jordan defend Lebron?

[Jordan23Forever]

Can Jordan defend Lebron?

Did Bowen?

Also, the question doesn't really bear on the issue, because the fact of the matter is that Jordan would in all likelihood outplay Lebron in any head-to-head matchup over the course of a series (isolated games can go either way). So even if Lebron "got his" (and he most certainly would), Jordan is going to get his to a greater extent. The pertinent question is not "who can defend who?" it's "who will outplay who?" None of today's star swingmen have proven to me that they can produce as well, and rise to the occasion as consistently, as Jordan did.

[Lue_4_MVP]

everyone is saying it's not fair to compare era players from different eras; so why is it fair to say MJ is clearly better than kobe?

Because it's unfair to the previous generation players, not the other way around. i mean, people take stats and see that X player is averaging these monster numbers and compare it to the legends to say they are better, but they don't take into account factors like pacing, style of play, rule changes, etc.

i mean, it seems every other team these days has a 25ppg player and a double double player, but is the quality of the players that much better than before? I don't think so. Look at scrubs like Chris Duhon who is putting up almost Stockton numbers, but is the quality of their game anywhere near each other? Hell no.

This is not a slight against this generation players, just an observation in general.

[whipdamage]

grant hill in 1996-97 had 49.6% fg, 9 rbd, 7.3 asst, 1.8 stl

[Vega]

Drexler wasn't as good as Kobe or Lebron, but I'd say he was as good as Wade is. The guy's just super underrated because he played his career in MJ's shadow, and in a small market.