this spot should be go to bryant. nobody has his combo of best player in the league type peak play, ridiculously long 10 year prime, insane longevity, phenomenal box-score and +/- numbers, team success, and accolades/accomplishments. it’s a joke hes out of the top 10.
relevant seasons:
2000: Kobe put up 23/6/5/2/1 on good efficiency (+2.4% TS relative to league average) 110 ORTG (+6) and was very arguably the best perimeter defender in the entire league (youngest player in history to make an all-defense team) on 67 win team that happened to one of the best defenses ever --98.2 DRTG, -6 relative to league average. (Does bird have a defensive peak even close to this?(2000).
Lakers first 15 games without Bryant: 104.6 ORTG (+.5 relative to league average so they were barely above league-average offensively, +5.7 differential overall)
Lakers next 67 games with Bryant: 108.6 ORTG (+4.5 relative to league average, would rank #1 offensively, and a overall differential of +9.9)
Best regular season ever/GOAT level play with Bryant in the lineup.
Yeah,hes not the player he would later become but right away we can see that he’s having huge impact and is a top 10 player in the league.
22/5/4/1.5/1.5 and his defense was even better in the post-season, and he had an all-time great Game 7 in the WCF (25 pts/11 rbs/7 asts/4 stls/3 blks).
2001:
Sorta of an amusing regular season filled with false narrative. Kobe gets off to an amazing start through the first two months. He averages 30/6/5/2 on amazing efficiency-- 56% TS/114 ORTG (would be 58% TS/118 ORTG today) and the lakers go 30-15 and have the best offense in the league. they’re #1 in ORTG and are +6! relative to league average. This is a borderline GOAT level offense. naturally a certain big fella starts bitching and moaning even if if Bryant has been incredible and the offense is historically good. and you start getting all the nonsense in the media and the silly “selfish” narrative appears. Its pretty amusing.
Bryant plays the first 52 games. At this point the lakers are 35-17 (67% win, 57 wins over full season) with still the best offense in basketball/historically great offense @ +6 relative to league average.. But they are seen as an “underachieving’’ team.. Naturally the fools in the media and everybody else are quick to blame Bryant, but the real for their “underachieving” is the mediocre defense. They have a 106 DRTG.+3 over league average. Its clear their “anchor” is back to coasting defensively and everyone else is too. They also have some injury issues. Of course kobe too deserves criticism for not playing up to his full capabilities defensively the reg season. I simply wanted to point out how (Please Use More Appropriate Word) the narratives about kobe “being selfish” and other nonsense that sprang up that reg season are.
Anyway, he misses the next 3 games after playing 52 straight. The lakers win by 2 pts against the spurs, beat the 18-37 hawks at home, and a .500, 28-27 magic team at home…
He misses 2 games in mid-march. Lakers beat a 27-38 Celtics team at home by 5, lose by 12 against a 32-33 sonics team.
But how about when he misses an extended stretch? Obviously an extended stretch will be a lot more telling than 2 games here and there. Well he misses 10 straight later on (plays 11 minutes in one of them before leaving). Lakers beat the 17-41 wizards, impressive win against the kings, impressive win vs. mavs, good win vs. jazz, beat the 12-62 bulls, beat the 34-42 Celtics, 5pt win over wolves. They lose by 21 against the suns, by 24 against the kings, lose to the knicks, but of course we know that point differential/offensive rating/defensive rating is a far greater indicator of team quality than W-L record. So how do the lakers look without the “selfish” Bryant during their only extended stretch without him.. These 10 games? well their offensive rating during this stretch is 105.7...good but nowhere near the borderline historic 109 ORTG/+6 offense they put up when Bryant is playing. What about defense? Well it’s still thoroughly mediocre at 103.9 (+1 over league average). Their overall point differential over this extended stretch? A measly +1.8.…(Their 4 losses without Bryant come by an average margin of 14.5 PPG…)
Now lets look at how much better they are when he return. It’s a bit better than +1.8 team…
After missing 10 straight kobe returns to play the last 4 . His astronomical impact is immediately clear. Lakers have a 120 ORTG and DRTG of 102.5...for a differential of +17.5...that’s just a bit better than the +1.8 they were in the previous 10 without him…
,
Overall he averages 28.5/5.9/5.0/1.8/0.6/25 PER/55.2% TS/112 ORTG (+3.2 above league-average, equivalent to around 57% TS/116 ORTG in today's league so fantastic efficiency) in the regular season.
Helps co-anchor the #2 ranked offense in the league, finishes #3 in ORAPM(
https://sites.google.com/site/rapmstats/2001-npi-rapm), and plays good defense though he's not as consistent as he was in 2000.
*small note: shaq missed 6 straight games (only missed 8 all year) in late jan/early feb and the lakers went 4-2. Bryant averaged 34 PPG/9 RPG/4 APG/1.7 SPG/1.7 BPG on 55% TS/114 ORTG*
After a phenomenal reg season Bryant has one of the best postseasons in history.
He averages 29.4/7.3/6.1/1.8/0.7/25 PER/3.8 WS (#1)/+14.2 +/-(#1 on team)on phenomenal efficiency--56% TS/116 ORTG (would be a 120 ORTG in todays league environment) in the post-season while playing absolutely fantastic defense. Hes getting steals, he’s helping and doing a excellent job of getting back on shooters, causing deflections, shutting his man out, rebounding the ball, dude is everywhere defensively. watch some games from that post-season and you’ll hear commentators like doug collins raving about how incredibly quick and active the lakers perimeter defense is.. How great they are at swarming. Kobe plays a HUGE part of this. and is a major reason the lakers finish #1 in post-season DRTG with an amazing 98.2 DRTG.
He averages 34/7/7/2/61% TS in the WCF including a ridiculous 45/10/58% TS on the road in game 1 and this is against the best defense in the league, and 35/9/5/2/57% TS in the WCSF. For the postseason lakers have a 113.0 ORTG with him on the court, and 98.0 when he's off. most impressively he does it on the greatest post-season team in history BY FAR (15-1!). A team that had the #1 defense and #1 offense and won by an average margin of 15 PPG. this is some of the best all-around ball any player has ever played. dude is EVERYWHERE. 22 years and already a top 3 player in the world. you could make a great case that he was a top 2 player.
2002: 25+/5.5/5.5/1.5/0.5/55% TS/112 ORTG (equivalent to 114 ORTG today,so fantastic efficiency) while playing all 82 games. again, finishes #2 in ORAPM (
https://sites.google.com/site/rapmstats/2002-rapm) and co-anchors the #2 offense in the league.
puts up 27/6/5/2 with his usual excellent defense in the post-season including a 27/6/5+/1.5/0.8/62% TS/120 ORTG in the finals against the best defense in the league.
27+/6/4/2 in the WCF including 31/11/5/2/132 ORTG and 30/10/7/2/121 ORTG in back-to-back elimination games to win the series. his WCSF is probably one of the greatest "clutch" series ever. shaq has the worst series
ever and the lakers still beat a 58 win/6.2SRS/#2 DRTG spurs team in 5 games...because of bryant's incredible 4th-quarter play. every game goes down to the very wire and bryant averages a ridiculous 11 PPG/63% TS in the 4th quarters as he takes over down the stretch in EVERY single win for the lakers. lakers win 3rd straight title.
2003: no need to go too in depth... this is one of the greatest all-around seasons ever.
30 PPG
7 APG
6 APG
2.2 SPG
0.9 BPG
55.2% TS( 57.2% TS in today's league)
38% from three on 6 attempts per game
26+ PER
15 WS
#2 in ORAPM (
https://sites.google.com/site/rapmstats/2003-rapm)
20 40+ point games including 9 straight at one point
averaged 40+ PPG for the entire month of march
5 50+ point games
5 triple-doubles
22 double-doubles
in the post-season he does 32/5/5/2 with a +/- of +17!
top 3 player in the league at least.
and he's doing this season and others in the GOAT defensive era (99-04) where league average TS/ORTG was notably lower....
2004: the single toughest defensive season in history...league average ORTG is at at a ridiculously low 102.9...league average TS is at 51.6%...
kobe gets off to a slow start because of the off-court issues/conditioning but still puts up 23/5/5/54% TS (+2.4) and 111 ORTG (+8, equivalent to 115 ORTG today) through 33 games. lakers go 23-10 with a 106.7 ORTG (+3.8 relative to league average, #4 in the league) and a overall differential of +6. he gets injured and misses the next 7 games (plays 15 min in one of them) and the lakers go 3-4. 98.5 ORTG in those 7 games, a decline of 8.2 points! he comes back for two games and lakers put 115 ORTG and win both. he gets injured again. misses next 7 games. lakers go 4-3 with wins against the 21-24 raps, 19-30 cavs, 13-40 magic, 21-32 heat) and get blow out in every single loss. again, lakers offense totally falls off. ORTG during those 7 games is 100.9 (-2) and overall they play like a -4.3 team.
kobe pretty much plays the rest of the season (only misses two games during which the lakers go 1-1 and their offense collapses yet again--96.6 ORTG in those two) and puts up 26.6/6.4/6.0/1.8/0.6/56.3% TS (58.2% TS today) and 116 ORTG ( 120 ORTG today) and is the best player in the league (outside of KG) over the second half of the second. lakers have a 107.3 ortg (top 3 in the league) over this span.
overall for the season he puts up 24/6/5+/2 on fantastic efficiency (55.1 TS/112 ORTG which is equivalent to 57% TS/116 ORTG today) and has his best defensive season since 02.
basically, when he's playing the lakers look like a 1st-tier contender and a top 3 offense. and when he's out they're mediocre and absolutely awful offensively. imo kobe has clearly become the best player on the lakers by this season.
his numbers fall off in the post-season (25/6/5/2/51%TS/103 ORTG) but you know what the insane thing is? his efficiency
is still well above league-average in the post-season. there's never been a tougher defensive environment than the 04 post-season. league average ORTG in that post-season was a ridiculously low 98.8. thats insane. seriously, there's a reason they changed the rules and eliminated hand-checking the next season. it should also be pointed out that no star in modern history has played better defensive competition than what kobe saw that post-season.
he played:
the rockets (#5 defense, -3.9 relative to league average)
the spurs (GOAT level defense, #1 ranked, -8.8! relative to league average)
the wolves (#6, -3.3 relative to league average)
the pistons (GOAT level defense,#2 ranked defense, -7.5! relative to league average...but these numbers don't tell the full story. after the rasheed wallece trade the pistons had a defensive rating of
91.9 . that's
-10.9!!! relative to league average. this is easily the best defense ever)
so he played two GOAT level/top 5 all-time defenses and two other top 5 defenses in the toughest defensive environment ever. insane. of course, he was still phenomenal through the first round three rounds and torched the GOAT level spurs defense in the last 4 games ((28/6/6/2/56% TS)including a all-time great 42/6/5/2/65% TS game in game 4 as the lakers backdoor swept
imo top 3 player in the league behind only KG/Duncan
2005: obviously easily the worst season of his prime. his numbers are still phenomenal (28/6/6/1.4/56.3 TS (+3.3) and i have no doubt that he would be in contention for best player in the league with better health and a better environment but of course the only thing that matters is what actually happened.. he suffered through plantar fasciitis the entire season and never really looked like himself. clear huge down season but still a top 10 player.
2006: the return. this is one of the greatest offensive seasons of all-time.
he puts up 35+/5+/5/2/28+ PER/15+ WS/56% TS/114 ORTG and somehow takes a horrific supporting cast (kwame brown/luke walton/sasha vujiec/odom/chris mihm/smush parker/devean george/brian cook/laron profit) and leads them to 46 wins, 7th best offense ,and 7th best SRS (2.52) and basically has them at 50 win caliber/quality in the west.
he put up the greatest adjusted offensive +/- scorer to EVER be recorded at +18.9:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bryanko01/on-off/2006/That same year he was #1 in ORAPM at with nobody even remotely close to him:
https://sites.google.com/site/rapmstats/2006-rapmhe has 27 40+ point games, 8 50+ point games,two different months where he averages 40+...he has a 81 point game...and another game where he puts up 62 pts in three quarters against the best team in the west.
what's crazy about this season is that he actually got off to a slow start. he suffered a sprained hand in the 3rd game which really bothered him for a couple of weeks. Only put up 32/5/4/50% TS though 15 games...
Then 36+/6/5/2/58% TS/116 ORTG through the next 67 games and the lakers had a 110.5 ORTG over that 67 game stretch. that's the 4th best offense in the league (+4.3 relative to league average)that's right. he was anchoring a top 5 offense with total and utter garbage around him. incredible.
best player in the league.
2007: not as great as 2006 due to the off-season knee surgery which caused a somewhat slow star...but still an extraordinarily season.
averages 32/6/5/2/26+ PER/58% TS/115 ORTG with a monster +6 ORAPM
10 50+ point games
20 40+ point games
couple 60+ point games
two different months of averaging 40+
puts up 38/6/5/2/58% TS/117 ORTG in the last 35 games
somehow takes this supporting cast:
smush parker
lamar odom (missed 24 games)
luke walton (missed 22 games)
maurice evans (6 games missed)
kwame brown (missed 41 games)
jordan farmar (missed 10 games)
ronny turiaf (missed 10 games)
brian cook (missed 17 games)
vladimir radmonivic (missed 17 games)
sasha vujacic (missed 10 games)
and still makes the playoffs in the West, has them at the #7 ranked ORTG, and #4 in eFG%. incredible. this is even worse garbage than what he had in 2006.
best player in the league.
2008: puts up 28+/6+/5+/2 on fantastic efficiency-- 58% TS/115 ORTG--
his +/- numbers continue to be amazing.
finishes #2 in ORAPM/+6.1 overall (
https://sites.google.com/site/rapmstats/2008-rapm).
plays all 82 games at 39 MPG. and his defense is excellent. legitimately all-defense worthy and his best defensive season 2004. so we're talking about a guy who is at least a top 2 offensive player in the world and a legitimately very good defender. leads the most inury-riddled team in the league to 58 wins and a 7.2 SRS/#1 seed in the best/toughest conference ever. anchors the #3 offense in the league...a team that was GOAT level offensively after the pau trade. they went 29-7 with a 9+ SRS! and 116.6! ORTG in the 36 games after the trade. bryant put up 29/6/6/2/59% TS/118 ORTG in those 36 games. he averages 34/6/5/2/59% TS/119 ORTG including a 49/10/5/2/66% TS game against a 50 win nugs team in a 1st-round sweep. he does 33+/7+/7+/2/63% TS/122 ORTG in the WCSF, and then 30/6/5/2/61% TS against the #2 defense/defending champ spurs.overall the lakers go 12-3 in the first three rounds of the playoffs with bryant putting up 33/6/6/2/61% TS/119 ORTG…and even those numbers don’t really capture how well he was playing. His D continued to be strong and his play-making/creation for others amazing. This season is easily the best he’s ever been as a passer/creator.
overall he has another all-time post-season run.30+/6/6/2/58% TS/116 ORTG over 23 games against 4 50+ win teams including a 66 win GOAT level defenses and the defending champs.
best player in the league.
2009: pretty much the perfect season. he sorta coasts during the reg season and still completely dominates. puts up 27/6/5/1.5/56% TS/115 ORTG/#3 in ORAPM/+6.1 overall and is still a good defender. takes incredible care of the ball. somehow manages a ridiculously low 9% turnover rate. anchors the #3 offense in the league and his raw offensive +/- is amazing. lakers have a 116! ORTG with him on the court. leads his team to 65 wins, 7.3 SRS, and they win a great conference by 10 freaking games.
he then has another all-time post-season run. puts up 30+/6/5+/2/56.4% TS/9% turnover rate/116 ORTG while playing excellent defense (especially in the last two rounds) over 23 games. including 34/6/6/2/63% TS/132 ORTG in the WCF and 32+/7+/6/1.5/1.5/54% TS/111 ORTG in the Finals. anchors a dominant post-season team. they go 16-7 with the 12th best playoff SRS ever and 8th highest point differential...with a supporting cast of essentially pau/odom and a bunch of role-players. wins his 4th championship.
top 2 player in the league.
2010: starts out putting up 30+/6/5/2/57% TS/115 ORTG through the first two months and the lakers are well on their way to another 60+ win season. injures really hurt him, he's not healthy for the entire second half of the season pretty much, and his numbers take a tumble. still, he ends up with another fantastic reg season, though clearly a step down from his 06-09 runs. still ends up averaging 27/6/5/1.5/0.5/+5.6 RAPM and his +/- numbers are still phenomenal. clearly he's in the very last stages of his prime by this point. leads his team to 58 wins and the #1 seed.
he then has one last hurrah with yet another incredible post-season run.
averages 29+/6+/6/1.5/57% TS/117 ORTG over 23 games. after he gets his knee drained after game 4 of the first round...he proceeds to have one of the great stretches of his career: 30+/7+/6/1.4/0.8/58% TS/119 ORTG over the last 19 games including a ridiculous 34+/9/7/2/64% TS/135 ORTG WCF ...lakers have a GOAT level 116 ORTG during that 19 game stretch. wins his 5th championship. this is the end of his prime.
top 3 player in the league.
he then falls off clearly and is no longer the same guy, but we're still talking top 10 payer in the league level in 2011, 2012, and 2013. \
2012 in particular is underrated. 28/5/5/1.4 while playing 39 MPG with easily better defense than 2011 and 2013 and he had a terrific playoff run…and the only bad thing was that his efficiency was only slightly above league-average…but that’s almost exclusively caused by the horrific spacing on that team. Two slow plodding 7-footers in the foot-court and very little shooting+ coached by the worst offensive head coach in the league (mike brown) is a recipe for disaster. He would have been significantly more efficient on almost any other team in the league.
Proof?
His TS% that season with both Pau/Bynum on: 51% TS
With just Pau: 56% TS
With just Bynum: 56% TS
Both out: 55%
More proof" in the games either Bynum or pau didn’t play he had a TS% of 57%.
And in 2013 we saw his efficiency shoot back up to excellent levels---57% TS/112 ORTG--and its exclusively because of the much better spacing.
2012 kobe is still a top 6-7 player.2011 and 2013 is still top 10.that’s still a hugely valuable player to have.
basically bryant holds one of the very greatest offensive seasons ever (2006), one of the greatest all-around seasons ever (2003), and multiple all-time great playoff runs (01, 08, 09, 2010).
We’re talking about a guy who has about 8-9 different seasons where he was a top 3 player in the league, 15! All-NBA seasons in total (insane longevity), and a 3-yr peak (06-08) where he put up 32/6/5/2/57% TS/27 PER and was very widely regarded as the greatest player on Earth.
He has one of the sickest post-season stretches EVER with his run from 08-10...30+/6/6/2/57% TS/116 ORTG/26+ PER while leading his team to 3 straight Finals and back-to-back championships.
The dude's career averages are 26/5/5/1.5/56% TS/112 ORTG...over nearly two ****ing decades. He has more 30+ point/40+ point and 50+ point games than anyone outside of Mike and Wilt. During his 10-year prime you'll looking at averages of 29/6/5/2/56% TS/25+ PER...and 4 of those seasons were spent in the GOAT defensive era (99-04), while sharing the ball with another star, and playing in the triangle.
Those numbers are just as good in during his post-season prime...expect no star (outside of Shaq) has ever played better defensive competition during the postseason.
This list is the strongest opposing playoff defenses for modern stars in the playoffs
PS Prime Avg. Opp Drtg ▾
Shaquille O’Neal 101.9
Kobe Bryant 102.6
Kevin Garnett 103.5
Dwyane Wade 103.7
Tim Duncan 103.7
Karl Malone 103.9
Steve Nash 103.9
Dirk Nowitzki 103.9
LeBron James 104.4
Michael Jordan 105
Larry Bird 105.5
Hakeem Olajuwon 105.8
Charles Barkley 105.8
David Robinson 106.5
Magic Johnson 106.7
He has some of the most ridiculous feats/stretches of all-time.
5 different months where he averaged 40+ PPG
9 straight 40+ point games
13 straight 35+ point games
27 40+ point games in one season
10 50+ point games in one season
5 different 60+ point games
81 points
62 points in three quarters
4 straight 45+ point games
A different stretch of 4 straight 50+ point games
Last 30 games of 07: 38 PPG/6 RPG/5 APG/2 SPG/58% TS
Last 68 games of 2006: 36+ PPG/6 RPG/5 APG/2+ SPG/57% TS/116 ORTG
And he doesn't just dominate in the box-score...dude is also a +/- monster.
He has the #3 RAPM (regularized adjusted +/-) of the decade once you adjust for minutes and is #1 in ORAPM:
https://sites.google.com/site/rapmstats/10-year-rapmAt his offensive peak (06) he put up the greatest adjusted offensive +/- scorer to EVER be recorded at +18.9:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bryanko01/on-off/2006/That same year he was #1 in ORAPM at with nobody even remotely close to him:
https://sites.google.com/site/rapmstats/2006-rapm#2 in minute-adjusted 01-12 ORAPM behind only Nash:
http://godismyjudgeok.com/DStats/2012/nba-stats/overrated-and-underrated-via-rapm-part-2/*note: I realize RAPM is not even close to being a perfect tool, nor do I see it as such. I'm merely pointing out that Kobe definitely seems to be a player who has enormous impact even outside his terrific box-score numbers*
Efficiency:
Considered and ‘inefficient chucker” by ignorant fools even though he’ put up fantastic/excellent efficiency numbers throughout his prime and has a career TS/ORTG. Of 56%/112 over 18 seasons!. This is just one of many false narratives/myths about him.
He’s consistently +3-4% relative to league average TS/+9-11 points over league average ORTG in his 10 year prime. This is very good and more than comparable to many of the guys ahead of them.
Here’s what prime Kobe’s TS/ORTG numbers would look like in the today’s era based on league-average TS/ORTG of 2014--53.6% TS, 106.7 ORTG
2001: 57% TS/115.7 ORTG
2002: 56% TS/115.7 ORTG
2003: 56.7% TS/114.1 ORTG
2004: 57.1% TS/115.8 ORTG
2005: 56.9% TS/111.8 ORTG
2006: 56.0% TS/114.5 ORTG
2007: 57.5% TS/115.2 ORTG
2008: 57.2% TS/114.2 ORTG
2009: 55.3% TS/114 ORTG
2010: 53.8% TS/108 ORTG---injured
As you can see his efficiency is consistently excellent/very good throughout his prime.
Another myth destroyed.
If you wanna just look at his game from a skill/ability/talent position...we're talking about of the 5 best scorers ever, one of the best non-PG creators/play-makers/ball-handlers of all-time, someone who was legitimately a good and sometimes even great defender for many seasons, a fantastic rebounding guard, and a guy with an almost perfect skill-set.
Dude has seasons (2013) where he led the entire freaking lead in post-up efficiency as a freaking guard: Among 106 players to finish at least 75 post-ups with a shot, drawn foul, or turnover, Bryant was the most efficient in the league, per Synergy Sports. The most efficient! At age 34! He hit 55 percent of his post-up shots and produced 1.05 points per possession from the block, per Synergy.
He's one of the greatest mid-range players/shooters ever:
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/courtvision-kobe-bryant-and-the-elbow-test/He can shoot the 3. He has superb handles. He might the greatest triple-threat player ever, and has GOAT level foot-work and shot-making ability. Seriously, we're talking about one of the three best ever in terms of sheer skill.
In terms of accolades/accomplishments...
5 NBA Titles and 7 Finals Appearances
2 Titles/4 Finals appearances as the best player
2X Finals MVP
1X NBA MVP
2X Scoring Champion
15X All-NBA including 11X All-NBA 1st Team
12X All-NBA defensive team including 9X 1st Team
16X Time All-Star
It’s a joke hes not in the top 10.