RealGM

Let's get hyped up for the game 3 tonight

Which are the best idividual series ever that you've ever watched? By "best", I mean they both look that way from objective standpoint, but also throw in your subjective feelings about them. To make the pool smaller, let's use my completely arbitrary criteria:

- minimum 6 games played (to make sample of size bigger),
- you have to watch at least two of these games (this is more for oldschool choices),
- the bigger the stage, the better - but you can even pick the first rounders,
- you can pick a loser from the series.

Let's do it

Maybe not for the entire series,but the last 3 games of LeBron in the 2016 NBA finals,it was so legendary



He did everything,like scoring,defense,playmaking,etc and it was against the best regular season team of all-time

Same as above.

Taking into account competition and degree of difficulty, it has to be 2016 LeBron in the Finals. His level of dominance on both sides of the floor was just ridiculous, led all teams in all 5 categories.

Amongst the HMs are 1st threepeat MJ and Shaq in the Finals, 1967 Wilt against the Celtics, and LeBron himself in a few other series.

70sFan wrote:Let's get hyped up for the game 3 tonight

Which are the best idividual series ever that you've ever watched? By "best", I mean they both look that way from objective standpoint, but also throw in your subjective feelings about them. To make the pool smaller, let's use my completely arbitrary criteria:

- minimum 6 games played (to make sample of size bigger),
- you have to watch at least two of these games (this is more for oldschool choices),
- the bigger the stage, the better - but you can even pick the first rounders,
- you can pick a loser from the series.

Let's do it

1. 1995 WCF vs SA by Olajuwon is imho the greatest individual series (and overall playoff run to a title) ever.

2. Jerry West in the 1969 NBA Finals.

3. Kareem Abdul Jabbar in the 1974 Finals.

Honorable mention:

1992 Finals Michael Jordan and 2016 Finals by LBJ

I'd go with either 1995 Hakeem against San Antonio or 2003 Duncan against New Jersey, but I'm not really cut out to answer this question. One, I'm not sure how many games I watched in both of those series (though I do remember watching, especially in 1995), and two, I don't ever think to myself as I'm watching, "This is the best series I've ever seen anyone play." Or even afterward, really. I've never given it serious thought. I guess "a series" feels a bit arbitrary to me, though of course it's not any more or less arbitrary than a game, a season, or a playoffs. But those two come to mind first.

Actively appreciating how good it was while I was watching: 2019 Kawhi Philly series. Crazy scoring against a really good opponent, pretty consistent through the whole series, ridiculous series winning shot as the cherry on top.

I watched it but didn't really have a nuanced appreciation for it at the time: Shaq 2000 Finals.

I have to say Jordan in the 91 finals. Averaged more assists than Magic in the first 4 games of that series. Took a 20 assist game from Magic in game 5 to pass him and i believe Jordan had 10 assists of his own in that game.

too many worthy candidates imo

wouldnt know where to even start

falcolombardi wrote:too many worthy candidates imo

wouldnt know where to even start

I think you could start with top series for each of your top 10 players ever. It's a good way to start and be sure you won't omit most of great performances.

Let’s be real here, this will take a lot of research and consideration for context before really saying. An MJ or Lebron series will be a popular pick, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it goes to someone else. Shaq, Kareem, Duncan and Hakeem are all surely in consideration.

Gonna almost certainly be someone with a high capacity for truly elite defense.

Jordan out of the question IMO. Just never even near the kind of defender needed.


Joel Embiid crushed the Raptors and Nets offenses so much in the 19 playoffs he was tilting games toward blowouts in just a few minutes at a time.

Defense can scale up astronomically.

LeBron was amazing in the back end of the 16 finals. Magic level offense, Russell level defense, t minimum for 3 games.

However on the whole, one of those absolute max motor Duncan series from 01-03 could be overall as good if not better.

Even KG had a 19 Embiid type playoff run at like 35 in 2012. In/out splits showed he wa a pretty much shutting LeBron down drastically in that series, and LeBron erupted outrageously in the non-KG mins.

Only god knows the kind of destruction two-at guys would put on pre-1997.

One thing about Jordan in these is, is his offense even better than a hot….like Lillard or somebody? Lillard when hot, and he’s been piping hot in the playoffs although a generally bad playoff player, his offense is likely better and more floor shifting than Jordan’s.

Shaq has some really dominant overall series where his foul rate ruined rotations, and on top of an efficient 30/13, he made teams less aggressive on both ends with his presence, and it’s a visible thing only +/- can pick up. And could even affect the game with him off court.

17 Kawhi likely peaked higher than any wing in the era though. His series against Memphis he tamed a piping hot Conley, and had a cyborg Kobe kind of shot creation series. Superhuman stuff that I just haven’t seen since. 22 Butler was not a regular kind of great either but Kawhi was more resilient.

09 LeBron is a different era. Confident he peaked higher than any Jordan series or run of any kind.

70sFan wrote:

falcolombardi wrote:too many worthy candidates imo

wouldnt know where to even start

I think you could start with top series for each of your top 10 players ever. It's a good way to start and be sure you won't omit most of great performances.

Hmm…could this be a project, i.e., top 3 series played by the RealGM top 20?

As for the topic, too many great series by James, Jordan, Kareem, Wilt, Shaq, etc., but one I want to throw out there is Bird’s 1986 series vs. an 8+ SRS Bucks team—25/9/8 on 67% TS against the #2 defense, -4.5 rDRtg Bucks.

Also, a LeBron series that doesn’t get mentioned enough due to competition: 2009 vs Atlanta. 34/8/6 in molasses slow tempo played (about 80 possessions per game) and a miniscule 6.5 TOV %.

Individual game BPMs:

28.0
26.3
33.7
10.4

homecourtloss wrote:Hmm…could this be a project, i.e., top 3 series played by the RealGM top 20?

I think that would be cool, would top 3 be enough though?

70sFan wrote:

homecourtloss wrote:Hmm…could this be a project, i.e., top 3 series played by the RealGM top 20?

I think that would be cool, would top 3 be enough though?

Maybe top 5. Shaq, James, Jordan, Kareem…these guys could have many but for the rest of top 20 players, which series were their best is a bit clearer with fewer possibilities.

1967 Wilt against the Celtics who had won 60 games that season and 9 out of the past 10 ten titles.

Game 1:

Wilt - 24 points, 32 rebounds, 12 assists, 12 blocks, 69% FG

Game 2:

Wilt - 15 points, 29 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 blocks, 45% FG

Game 3:

Wilt - 20 points, 41 rebounds, 9 assists, 5 blocks, 57% FG


Game 4

Wilt - 20 points, 22 rebounds, 10 assists, at least 4 blocks, 44% FG


Game 5:

Wilt - 29 points, 36 rebounds, 13 assists, 7 blocks, 63% FG

Series average

Wilt - 21.6 ppg, 32.0 rpg, 10.0 apg, 6+ bpg, 56% FG

FuShengTHEGreat wrote:

70sFan wrote:Let's get hyped up for the game 3 tonight

Which are the best idividual series ever that you've ever watched? By "best", I mean they both look that way from objective standpoint, but also throw in your subjective feelings about them. To make the pool smaller, let's use my completely arbitrary criteria:

- minimum 6 games played (to make sample of size bigger),
- you have to watch at least two of these games (this is more for oldschool choices),
- the bigger the stage, the better - but you can even pick the first rounders,
- you can pick a loser from the series.

Let's do it

1. 1995 WCF vs SA by Olajuwon is imho the greatest individual series (and overall playoff run to a title) ever.

2. Jerry West in the 1969 NBA Finals.

3. Kareem Abdul Jabbar in the 1974 Finals.

Honorable mention:

1992 Finals Michael Jordan and 2016 Finals by LBJ

All great mentions. Especially the Hakeem one considering who was guarding him.

ShotCreator wrote:Gonna almost certainly be someone with a high capacity for truly elite defense.

Jordan out of the question IMO. Just never even near the kind of defender needed.


Joel Embiid crushed the Raptors and Nets offenses so much in the 19 playoffs he was tilting games toward blowouts in just a few minutes at a time.

Defense can scale up astronomically.

LeBron was amazing in the back end of the 16 finals. Magic level offense, Russell level defense, t minimum for 3 games.

However on the whole, one of those absolute max motor Duncan series from 01-03 could be overall as good if not better.

Even KG had a 19 Embiid type playoff run at like 35 in 2012. In/out splits showed he wa a pretty much shutting LeBron down drastically in that series, and LeBron erupted outrageously in the non-KG mins.

Only god knows the kind of destruction two-at guys would put on pre-1997.

One thing about Jordan in these is, is his offense even better than a hot….like Lillard or somebody? Lillard when hot, and he’s been piping hot in the playoffs although a generally bad playoff player, his offense is likely better and more floor shifting than Jordan’s.

Shaq has some really dominant overall series where his foul rate ruined rotations, and on top of an efficient 30/13, he made teams less aggressive on both ends with his presence, and it’s a visible thing only +/- can pick up. And could even affect the game with him off court.

17 Kawhi likely peaked higher than any wing in the era though. His series against Memphis he tamed a piping hot Conley, and had a cyborg Kobe kind of shot creation series. Superhuman stuff that I just haven’t seen since. 22 Butler was not a regular kind of great either but Kawhi was more resilient.

09 LeBron is a different era. Confident he peaked higher than any Jordan series or run of any kind.

Oh brother the myth of 17 Kawhi series against Memphis. Danny Green was who cooled Conley down not Kawhi and there was no Tony Allen that series. Kawhi went off against 40yo Vc, James Ennis and Wayne Seldon relax. He was good but not spectacular against Houston. They had their best defensive performance without him where they forced elimination game James to one of his worst bed **** meltdowns. There were excuses for Kawhis defense that season and defensive metrics not aligning when while opponent 3pt shooting was a factor a lot of it was the Jonathan Simmons minutes and him playing better wing defense than Kawhi that season and we saw that when Kawhi was out. I know Bpm, Vorp, Raptor etc are the foundation for a lot of your analysis but there's more to it than that

Jimmy's defense this playoff run was def better than Kawhis 17 playoff defense or any of his defensive playoff runs besides 16. His defense on Trae, Maxey, Harden and Jaylen was real not like Kawhis fake defense on Conley which again Conley was mostly on fire when Danny was on the bench.



And that was Jimmy's 41/9/5 game 1 with 4 steals and 3 blocks. Tucker was def the biggest issue for Jayson by far and Dipos ball pressure made Jaylens live dribble tougher but Jimmy's overall defense this run was tremendous and higher level than any non 16 Kawhi playoff run

Dunno how to properly gauge Kawhis overrated 19 playoff defense with how loaded that roster was and Nurse turning out to be a defensive mastermind too

It has to be the two 2018 LeBron series vs. Indiana and Boston. He pretty much won those series by himself.

PhiEaglesfan712 wrote:It has to be the two 2018 LeBron series vs. Indiana and Boston. He pretty much won those series by himself.

Going by that criteria, 1977 Kareem vs Warriors is comparable.

ofc not the best ever but i watched some series by my man andrew toney again because of off days between finals etc and man...!!!
when he became the boston strangler it was something else.nightmares in beantown.his finals are great too.

also think dirkster deserves a mention.maybe his chirurgic dismantling of the thunder in 11.