More impressive finals run: LeBron in ‘07 or Hakeem in ‘86?

[henshao]

Lebron had the weaker team, though both his own and his opponent's

[OhayoKD]

Sure--lets address it.

The Houston Rockets had multiple good offensive players on their team who helped lift up the offensive to support Hakeem's post-dominance. Both Sampson and McCray posted > 1.0 OBPM [Lewis Lloyd] which represent solid offensive support throughout the starting line-up and balance in terms of shot creation [While Hakeem's 7.8 AST% throughout the playoffs is--terrible].

Defensively, McCray and Sampson provided defensive impact in an era where large line-ups would dominate [McCray and Sampson completing the front-court with Hakeem].

As for the Cavaliers, they were constructed with Donyell Marshall [0.8 OBPM] as the 2nd best offensive option during the regular season. In the post-season, Sharp Shooter Daniel Gibson was the only offensive bright spot next to James though as you can see, the team severely lacked a secondary playmaker and shot creator outside of LeBron James.

This is the offensive Burden I am talking about. The Cavaliers were complete Ass with LeBron on the bench offensively--but this wasn't the case for Hakeem given how impactful guys like Sampson and McCray were Defensively [and really both sides being + players].

The Cavaliers were absolutely dreadful offensively without James in both the Regular Season and Post-Season, bottoming out as a 93.5 Ortg in the [small sample size alert but lines up with the regular season] 77 minutes James was on the bench in the post-season.

Circling back to the OP, which asks "Which player's run impressed you the most?", a completely subjective question, I feel as if LeBron's run--to me-- given the circumstances and roster constructions of both teams, leaves me to be more impressed with his run, regardless of who was better in a vacuum.

But this isn't a complete comparison. Fundementally, a comparison of "influence on winning" is a comparison of differences. Arguing that lebron's team is worse(you didn't even bring up what hakeems' team ratings were without him) is just half of the argument.

Also how "impactful" was sampson exactly? Because he led the rockets to 29 wins before Hakeem got there went .500 without him in 86. Say we take the 10 game sample as more indicative than the 82 game one(note that 10 game sample is the best hakeem's team ever played without him in a season before his first title), is there even a clearly more impressive outcome than smoking the lakers from that era?

Well I would definitely say LeBron contributed more to winning when examing the rosters and the roles each player played in the post-season. The Cavaliers would have been swept in the 1st round without LeBron due to having no other player to replicate his massive offensive duties and responsibilities while the Rockets had multiple two-way players and didn't need to fill a playmaking void if Hakeem wasn't playing.

Rockets were a better cast =/ lebron contributed more to winning. Sure rockets were a better cast, how does that prove lebron contributed more when it was the rockets who did vastly better as a team?

Well, I did do a comparison--I simply didn't post everything I have researched over the years on both series in my original post(s).

I'm not talking about the amount of evidence/research, i'm talking about the macro of your posts here which basiclaly amount to

lebron's team was worse, lebron's team had a terrible offensive ratign without him, lebron had players x, y, z, Hakeem had players x, y, z -> lebron was more impressive

You're completely disregarding actual team performance which is as essential as "who had less help"

[Homer38]

LeBron's Finals performance gives him the edge here.

What was so great about his finals performance?

Yeah like, what? Incredibly weak supporting cast or not, Lebron was legitimately awful in the '07 Finals. This is Hakeem easily.

He was not serious....