Post#194 » by ardee » Wed Jul 23, 2014 8:01 pm
Kobe vs. Garnett
I want to understand why, seriously, KG can be considered a better Playoff performer than Kobe. Those who are voting for KG, break it down for me.
If you want to give KG the regular season edge, I understand. I don't agree, but I won't get into an argument over it because it's not the point I'm trying to make here.
I just don't see any fanthomable way you can rank Kobe behind KG in the Playoffs.
Offensively, Bryant is clearly better. That's not debatable whichever way you slice it. I could go and make a long case for this but I don't think I need to, unless someone disagrees here.
People are going to cry defense, but honestly until he got to Boston I've never seen real evidence of KG's defense really making a big difference to team results in Minny.
I've covered this before. In the regular season, the Wolves never had great defensive teams, or even passable ones, despite not atrocious personnel (read my lips, not amazing, but not terrible either). I credit this to irresponsible defensive play on KG's part: not exactly his fault if that's what Flip was telling him to do, but that doesn't take away from the fact that his impact was reduced.
Let's have a look at 2002: the year KG was spending a lot of time near the top of the key in a bizarre one-man zone.
That was semi-effective, because the Wolves had their opponents shooting 38% from 16 feet to the 3 point line. That was below the LA of 39.7. Not bad, until you consider opponents were shooting only 24% of their shots there. Meanwhile, Minny's opponents were shooting an above LA of 61% from 0-3 feet, and shooting 29% of their field goals in that space.
KG was leaving the lane too open by playing this 'middle linebacker' role that everyone is so crazy about. Time and time again, the Wolves were getting demolished in the paint. They gave up 335 dunks that year, which was fifth worst in the league. Then, in the Playoffs, Dirk destroyed them, going hypernova in the paint because KG was guarding Finley and in general trying to help exclusively on the perimeter.
Now, whether or not Flip told him to do that is irrelevant. If you want to give KG full credit for executing Thibs' brilliant schemes in Boston, you have to let him bare the brunt when the defense doesn't work. It can't work for him both ways.
Then in 2003, again the Wolves get destroyed in the paint against the Lakers. LA shot 67% in the paint! Playoff best. That's up there with elite paint finishers today as PLAYERS, and this was a whole team!
Same story in 2004. The Lakers eliminated the Timberwolves by shooting 64% in the paint. And drza, don't tell me KG's talents were better served helping on 3 point shooters like in the Dallas series against the Lakers, Shaq and Kobe LIVED in the paint and that's where they ate the Magic alive.
Overall, I think KG's defense is a lot less impactful than is being painted, mainly because this 'horizontal' thing is a lot less impactful than the 'vertical' style that Hakeem/DRob/Duncan usually employed. Garnett could have served his team better had he been making sure their opponents didn't shoot the most efficient shots possible instead of helping on mid-range jumpers.
In Boston things changed because he had a decent rim protector in Perkins to cover for him, so his leaving the paint helped more than it would in Minny.
Before that, his style of defense was arguably hurting his team, and coupled with Kobe's obviously big offensive advantage, there's no reason to say KG approached Kobe as a Playoff performer.
