Strepbacter wrote:You don't have a point. You're talking about offensive talent, but The 09 and especially the 2010 Lakers were quite defensively oriented/slanted and clearly not as talented on O.
Why not? What makes these late 1980s Lakers teams more talented? Magic had Worthy (solid scorer, great in transition not a good creator and didn't bring much spacing), Scott (great shooter, couldn't create his own shot) and bunch of defensive oriented roleplayers in Thompson, Green, old Cooper). They also had old Kareem for two years (I hope you don't see him as a difference maker) and Orlando Woolridge (known for having very little impact).
Kobe played next to Gasol (solid scorer, excellent passer, good shooter for a bigman), Odom (great passer, low volume scorer, couldn't create his own shot, questionable spacing), Bynum (great finisher and offensive rebounder, strong post player, bad passer). They also had good shooters around them.
They look comparable to me, maybe I miss something though. Both teams have quite strong supporting casts on offense, but nothing exceptional in all-time sense.
The 08 Lakers were actually offensively oriented/slanted (but without blatantly sacrificing their defense/rebounding) and had excellent offensive talent/shooting, but were riddled with injuries/roster turnover. They finished with a +5.5 ORTG. The 88 Lakers were at +5.0. The 89 team was at +6.0. The 90 was at 5.9 and the 91 was at +4.2. All those LA teams had better health/roster continuity
Yeah, so Magic anchored to better offenses during that period than 2008 Lakers - that's my point. Of course, we can now start to contextualize this fact, but I wasn't wrong.
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This is completely false. That's exactly what he did in 2008...with a roster that had all sorts of turnover. Get your facts straight.
In fact, the "healthy" 08 Lakers posted a team offense that was among the highest in history and that matched any Magic led team.
The Best “Healthy” Offenses of All-Time
https://backpicks.com/2016/08/01/the-best-healthy-offenses-of-all-time/
90 LA: +8.7
08 LA: +8.7
87 LA: +8.4
Not that this is gospel, but you haven't "proven" anything.
That's a good point, although we should be careful with comparing 48 games sample to 92 or 72. Although it's fair to point out injuries in 2008, I wonder why they never came close to this level again after. There are some shifts in rosters, but not important enough to make it such a gap.
By the way, if we include postseason offenses then the gap becomes bigger:
2008 LAL: +7.2
2009 LAL: +7.0
2010 LAL: +5.5
1988 LAL: +8.3
1989 LAL: +9.3
1990 LAL: +8.4
1991 LAL: +5.9
Why the gap is so big on Magic-led teams favor? Again, I'm open to discussion but I don't see any reason for now to call Kobe better offensive anchor. Nor do I see any reason to call 2008-10 Lakers on Magic-led teams level offensively, though you've made a solid case for 2008.