E-Balla wrote:freethedevil wrote:E-Balla wrote:LeBron's best prior to this season maybe. During this season LeBron hasn't played as well as AD is all year for any stretch and his best single game isn't better than AD's either.
there was one game vs houston where it felt like he was protecting the rim even more than ad.
That was a great game but it's not better than AD's best game is what I'm saying. Actually he barely had a better game that day, AD had Westbrook and Harden on lockdown that game and IIRC both guys were playing well when other people other than AD guarded them that night.
I think that its more so that because of what we seen with lebron its fair to give him that benefit of the doubt that he has another level he can hit till he shows he really cant, and i think with how long its been we can give him till the finals. I think this is the first series where AD is blatantly better, portland id give it to bron, houstan id give it to AD but its not by an absurd amount, since id say AD should dominate that matchup more and bron was playing crazy D that series and the way the rockets play make it hard for AD to be as impactful on defense as he normally is
Otoh when it comes to their best, i do think AD might be better in a team built around him than lebron in a team built around him at this point in their careers, but as someone who got hella into the nba when seeing that unibrow commercial, i dont think people get how crazy it is to watch AD do what hes doing now
Like with AD, and in the playoffs before, his best skill was normally his off ball game, and lack of playmaking and pick and roll ball handlers outside of bron made me worried that this part of his game wpuld take a step back
And it did, and it was annoying over the RS, but in the playoffs he just randomly becomes the best on ball scorer big in the nba, and i might take out big lmao. Its kind of insane
With AD his performance and therefor kmpact should be more reliant than bron, because he is supposed to need a good ball handling pick and roll guard, a guy like lillard murray curry or cp3, yet he doesnt and he just of nopes it
I think in context his playoff run has been historic. Like brons not the best partner AD could have in terms pf his individual performance, a guy like cp3/curry/lillard/murray would be better because hed get switched on to smalls
Like when it comes to this series, while jokic is facing a tougher defense with the coming of murray being a guy you need to guard like lillard and curry in the p and r, hes now, in my opinion, in a harden like perfect situation for his talents on offense. Mainly, he has top tier shooting (now that murray is a top shooter), top tier p and r partner thats a small so better switches, and a top tier offensive coach.
When it comes to davis, outside of bron, playof rondo is good but hes still non threat in the pick and roll as a scorer which means they cant run it well since they just focus on AD, outside of that no one can run the pick and roll and everyones g league level at passing, outside of kcp and green, their shooting specialists, and bron, in the bubble they dont have anyone in their rotation who shot above 33.3% from three. Vogels a good coach, incredible on d, but not great on offense
Like they have near league worst shooting now, bad playmaking outside of bron and rondo, rondo who cant score well enough in p and r to be a great partner, and defensice minded coach
Its like when you check the boxes, without bron AD might have the worst constructed team around him in the nba considering his playstyle
I think when evaluating this run you have to consider that while tules have helped players today, the biggest thing is undoubtedly spacing, yet davis is often playing with less spacing than any team remaining in the playoffs.
When you consider how much more effecient davis has been than his positional peers, that this team is poorly constructed in terms of heightening his individual effeciency, that hes a two way guy and and that hes scoring at a genuine historic rate given his minutes and the offense is not built around him like harden or doncic, then i think we have to consider how good this playoff run really is. Like even his passing has been on point.
Like unless he sucks from here on out, i feel like this has to be way up there in big man playoff runs. Idk how much of it is real and how much is fluke because hes shooting really is insane, but i think if he pulls off a great finals series, you have top tier scoring, high tier passing, high tier defense, high creation for a big man, and in terms of effeciency, for a big, pretty much unheard of territory. Doing this on a team built to his original weaknesses only adds to it
Like the tyoical argument against his effeciency is that hes scoring easy buckets so his effeciency should be high, but he has less of a percentage of his possessions cutting (8.2%) and as the roll man (7.6%), than 07 duncan (12.1%% and 7.5%) 2011 dirk (13.6% and 3%)
For a modern day comparison, for a creator, jokic is at 16.9% and 8%, for a off ball big, adebayo at 17.7% and 24%. Embiid last year, 15.5% and 8.4%. Giannis last year, 6.5% and 5.5%, this year, 9.2% and 5.7%, but keep in mind giannis has double the percentage in transition, its higher relative to their half court offense
Ad in the 2018 run was 18.8% and 14.1% so its just kinda wild lol
So its just kind of like, ADs scoring at a really high rate, at an absurdly effecient rate, in a role that isnt effecient not just relative to modern guys but even in the 2000s, since he isnt getting easy buckets (which i forgot to mention but hes better at getting them than anyone, hes effeciency in them blows the others out of the water) despite being in a team that doesnt help his individual performance at all
If it ends in a title and he goes off, i cant think of many big men runs that have been more impressive
Yeah but i still thinj lebrons gonna be better in the finals ngl
