RealGM

Some are high on 18’ Lebron, some are not.

Wade easily.

People value 18 LeBron for his playoff run and this really comes down to, do I think 09 Wade could have done something similar. Uh....yeah. Oladipo and the like dont have a prayer against that Wade.
No disrespect to LeBron but 09 Wade against that level of competition easily dominates and makes the finals. And maybe does better in the finals as well.

09 Wade for me was somewhat in the ballpark of 09 LeBron in raw ability and that's saying a whole lot.

To me, 18 LeBron can easily be argued as the best version of LeBron as a player. Not in terms of full regular season performance - though let's not be dramatic and pretend he wasn't good enough in that regard to finish 2nd in MVP voting on the year - but in terms of individual championship odds. I think come postseason he was pretty much unstoppable on offense as he was at a point right before his athleticism was about to take a hit while also having faced enough defenses throughout his career to have a counter to pretty much every defensive attack. And his defense was clearly above average as well, so while he's had seasons where he was providing All-NBA Defensive Team level defense in the past, I personally think his offensive advantage in 2018 made him a better player who could truly take control of every game to an extent in which he couldn't in those other years. 2018 LeBron would never have some of the poor shooting nights that 2013 LeBron had in the Finals.

So considering the fact that I can convince myself this was LeBron's peak as a player, while also being confident that LeBron at his best was better than Wade at his best, I'm taking 2018 LeBron over 2009 Wade.

SeniorWalker wrote:Wade easily.

People value 18 LeBron for his playoff run and this really comes down to, do I think 09 Wade could have done something similar. Uh....yeah. Oladipo and the like dont have a prayer against that Wade.
No disrespect to LeBron but 09 Wade against that level of competition easily dominates and makes the finals. And maybe does better in the finals as well.

09 Wade for me was somewhat in the ballpark of 09 LeBron in raw ability and that's saying a whole lot.

This is a weird post. Wade lost to the 2009 Hawks in the first round while putting up numbers nowhere near as good as 2018 Lebron's, and those Hawks were no better than the 2018 Pacers... and of course Lebron himself made incredibly easy work of the Hawks in the very next round while blowing away Wade's performance. Lebron's supporting cast in 2018 was no better than the 2009 Heat's either. They were balanced very differently with the Heat being defensively oriented and the Cavs being 5th on offense to go along with a historically awful defense, but the net impact of the casts was about the same.

Wade 2009 vs. Hawks: 29/5/5, 3.6 TOs, 56.5 TS%

Lebron 2018 vs. Pacers: 34/10/8, 3.7 TOs, 65.5 TS%

And just so we avoid excuses about changed league environment...

Lebron 2009 vs. Hawks: 34/8/6, 1.8 TOs, 66.7 TS%

The DRTGs of those teams were practically identical as well, 108.1 for the Pacers and 107.6 for the Hawks.

Wade had the better regular season but for the playoffs I'm taking 2018 Lebron without any hesitation. This was his offensive peak (well beyond Wade's IMO) and in the playoffs he was still a net positive defender.

SeniorWalker wrote:Wade easily.

People value 18 LeBron for his playoff run and this really comes down to, do I think 09 Wade could have done something similar. Uh....yeah. Oladipo and the like dont have a prayer against that Wade.
No disrespect to LeBron but 09 Wade against that level of competition easily dominates and makes the finals. And maybe does better in the finals as well.

09 Wade for me was somewhat in the ballpark of 09 LeBron in raw ability and that's saying a whole lot.

Do you think the 2009 hawks were better than the 2018 Pacers, Raptors and Celtics?

I do not think so, so do not say that Wade would have made the finals easily .... And it was not easy for the Cavs against the Pacers and the Celtics ... They needed 7 games and many 40 game points of LBJ to win his series .... LeBron's 2018 season became underrated because of his bad of January and also his defense, but when you have a huge load to carry on offense, you are less effective in defense.

yoyoboy wrote:18 LeBron . And his defense was clearly above average as well,

Literally nothing to my knowledge points to this. Everything points to him being a negative there, in the regular and playoffs.

No-more-rings wrote:

yoyoboy wrote:18 LeBron . And his defense was clearly above average as well,

Literally nothing to my knowledge points to this. Everything points to him being a negative there, in the regular and playoffs.

During the regular season he was a little below average. Playoffs clearly above average.

Lebron easily.

Not even a contest.

I personally have 18 as lebrons peak so...

lol this board is a joke. Who is voting on this ****?

Dupp wrote:I personally have 18 as lebrons peak so...

It's an honor to have you as a Clips fan Dupp!

Wade was physically overwhelming and he was a young Jordan so watching him play was always box office back then, but LeBron's 18 PO run was next level. The game was too easy for him, or in other words, it "all came together" as they like to say. He was just that good.

The High Cyde wrote:

Dupp wrote:I personally have 18 as lebrons peak so...

It's an honor to have you as a Clips fan Dupp!

Since birth!

Dupp wrote:

The High Cyde wrote:

Dupp wrote:I personally have 18 as lebrons peak so...

It's an honor to have you as a Clips fan Dupp!

Since birth!

Damn right, not like that poser ClipsFanSince98


*Just kidding we all love him lol

In now looking at the poll results and i dont understand how Wade has more votes than LeBron.

James was sensational in playoffs, very, very efficient. One of the best offensive postseasons of all time.

I really hope Lebron wins this year. All the talking heads saying nobody wants to play with him. Lebron is getting really disrespected recently considering he is arguably the GOAT.

letskissbro wrote:lol this board is a joke. Who is voting on this ****?

I voted for 2009 Wade in this one because LeBron was inconsistent in the regular season.

In the post-season LeBron carried the biggest group of players he has ever done to an NBA Finals (except 2007, but the EC was weaker) while putting on a scoring clinic. In fact, his scoring in the 2018 post-season was arguably the best scoring post-season in the modern era.

Even through all of that LeBron wasn't great off the court. He had one foot out the door, he didn't maximize some of his teammates and he clearly was "disengaged" during part of the season. He wasn't welcoming to newer players from the Irving trade and didn't help the transition.

Ultimately some things off the court matter. Couple that with 2009 Wade being an absolute, no questions asked top 20 Peak of alltime and it becomes a "splitting hairs" type of comparison.

2018 does get underrated.

Wade's run from mid February to mid March is the craziest 10+ game stretch in regular season I've seen alive. Including Kobe's 40 ppg months, or LeBron's or Curry's ones.
His game was nearly flawless during that stretch. Crazy volume scoring (37.2 ppg) on a crazy efficiency (.657 ts, +8.1 rts), playmaking, defense, hustle.

Sublime187 wrote:I really hope Lebron wins this year. All the talking heads saying nobody wants to play with him. Lebron is getting really disrespected recently considering he is arguably the GOAT.

He was voted as the number 2 goat peak by knowledgeable posters. What disrespect.

If anything there’s such recency bias for anyone to think 2018 Lebron is remotely peak level.

Wade was injured midway (back spasms, IIRC) in the 2009 1st Round Playoff series against the Hawks, just for context.