Top 10 RS Campaigns since 2000

[wafflzgod]

What are the top 10 single regular season campaigns by an individual player since the 1999-00 season, based solely on that player's individual level of play and impact? (1 selection per player)

[Cavsfansince84]

02 Duncan
03 Kobe
04 KG
09 CP3
09 Wade
09 LeBron
14 KD
16 Steph
17 WB
19 Harden
22 Jokic
20 Giannis

Are probably my top 12 but I don't really know how I'd order them outside of WB and Harden being at the bottom and LeBron probably at the top. Some of those seasons are also highly arguable for LeBron, Steph, Jokic, Giannis and Harden.

[Homer38]

02 Duncan
03 Kobe
09 CP3
09 Wade
09 LeBron
14 KD
16 Steph
17 WB
19 Harden
22 Jokic
20 Giannis

Are probably my top 11 but I don't really know how I'd order them outside of WB and Harden being at the bottom and LeBron probably at the top. Some of those seasons are also highly arguable for LeBron, Steph, Jokic, Giannis and Harden.

No 2000 Shaq?

[Cavsfansince84]

No 2000 Shaq?

I took since to mean no 00 so left him off. Easier to have 11 than 12.

[AEnigma]

1. 2009 Lebron (2010 close argument)
2. 2004 Garnett (2003 close argument)
3. 2016 Curry
4. 2003 Duncan (2002 close argument)
5. 2000 Shaq (I know it was not in the parametres but it felt strange to exclude; 2001 is down a few spots.)
6. 2020 Giannis
7. 2022 Jokic
8. 2006 Kobe
9. 2019 Harden
10. 2009 Wade
HM: 2003 McGrady, 2006 Nash, 2009 Chris Paul, 2014 Durant, and 2017 Westbrook

(Will clarify that I am not saying 2006 Kobe should have won MVP, because I think there is a significant difference between leading a contending team and leading a mere playoff team. However, solely on individual merits, I will acknowledge Kobe’s season stood out most to me.)

[LukaTheGOAT]

I will emphasize ranges here:

1. 2009 Lebron


2. 2003/2004 Garnett
3. 2016 Curry
4. 2022 Nikola Jokic


5. 2020 Giannis Antetokounmpo
6. 2019 Harden
7. 2009 Chris Paul
8. 2002/2003 Duncan
9. 2001 Shaq
10. 2009 Wade

2000 Shaq would be #5 or #6 probably.

[EmpireFalls]

Poor 2014 Durant. That was one of the most ridiculous regular seasons ever especially with Russ going down. And he can’t even get into the top 10?

[Cavsfansince84]

Poor 2014 Durant. That was one of the most ridiculous regular seasons ever especially with Russ going down. And he can’t even get into the top 10?

I'd have it in my top 10 and mentioned it above. I think its in the 7-9 range.

[OhayoKD]

2009 or 2010 being anything but 1 is not really defensible

[lessthanjake]

Steph’s 2016 seems like the pretty obvious #1 here. The next tier below that would include Jokic 2022, LeBron 2009, and Garnett 2004 (though each of those three have arguments to go for an adjacent year of theirs instead). The tier after that kind of just includes the best regular seasons from the other best players of that timeframe. So, things like Giannis 2020, Harden 2019, Duncan 2002, Shaq 2000 (if 2000 is an eligible year here), Wade 2009, Durant 2014, Nash 2005, etc.

[AEnigma]

So obvious, yet somehow you are the only person who would claim the 2016 Warriors’ supporting cast was only 1.7 SRS stronger than the 2009 Cavaliers.

[falcolombardi]

Steph’s 2016 seems like the pretty obvious #1 here. The next tier below that would include Jokic 2022, LeBron 2009, and Garnett 2004 (though each of those three have arguments to go for an adjacent year of theirs instead). The tier after that kind of just includes the best regular seasons from the other best players of that timeframe. So, things like Giannis 2020, Harden 2019, Duncan 2002, Shaq 2000 (if 2000 is an eligible year here), Wade 2009, Durant 2014, Nash 2005, etc.

Is definetely not obvious lmao as this thread shows

[ardee]

1. 2009 LeBron
2. 2016 Curry
3. 2000 Shaq
4. 2022 Jokic
5. 2002 Duncan
6. 2004 KG
7. 2006 Kobe
8. 2009 Wade
9. 2017 Westbrook
10. 2014 Durant

HM: 2007 Nash, 2009 Paul, 2019 Harden, 2020 Giannis, 2024 Luka

[lessthanjake]

So obvious, yet somehow you are the only person who would claim the 2016 Warriors’ supporting cast was only 1.7 SRS stronger than the 2009 Cavaliers.

Yeah, there’s big diminishing marginal returns on SRS when you get to extremely high net ratings, in significant part because what happens when you’re a lot better than opponents is that your team just gets ahead by a lot and lets up because it’s ahead.

So, for instance, you’ll find that Steph played less than 40% of the Warriors’ 4th quarter minutes that season and that the Warriors had a -15 net rating in the 4th quarter with Steph off. Obviously, this wasn’t a real reflection of the team’s quality, but rather was just a reflection of what happens when you’re blowing teams out, but that stuff sure did decrease the Warriors’ overall SRS and net rating a good deal. To some degree this is true of any really good team, but it was especially true for the 2016 Warriors. To take this example, the 2016 Warriors had a superior net rating in the 4th quarter with Steph on than the 2009 Cavs did in the 4th quarter with LeBron on, and yet the 2009 Cavs had a 7.14 better net rating in the 4th quarter overall than the 2016 Warriors. This is basically just reflective of the rubber-band effect when you get to super high net ratings. It’s hard to go super high, because at a certain point being better just results in the team throwing more of its minutes, which largely counteracts the effect of being better. If we tried to take a good bit of this out of the equation and looked at what the teams did in the first three quarters of the game, as well as OT (not a perfect measure of course, as it is both underinclusive and overinclusive for these purposes, but it should give us a general sense of things), we get the 2016 Warriors having a 3.32 better net rating than the 2009 Cavaliers. Which, given the differences in pace and strength of schedule (the gap between the two teams overall in SRS is larger than it is in net rating), would probably roughly correspond to having between a 4 and 4.5 higher SRS. And, honestly, even that is probably underselling it, because the rubber band effect isn’t just limited to the 4th quarter (or just to minutes without the star player on).

In other words, I’d agree that the 2016 Warriors supporting cast was at least 1.7 SRS better than the 2009 Cavaliers supporting cast, but I also think the 2016 Warriors as a whole were a good deal more than 1.7 SRS better than the 2009 Cavaliers, and that there was clearly just a lot of rubber banding there.

Steph’s 2016 seems like the pretty obvious #1 here. The next tier below that would include Jokic 2022, LeBron 2009, and Garnett 2004 (though each of those three have arguments to go for an adjacent year of theirs instead). The tier after that kind of just includes the best regular seasons from the other best players of that timeframe. So, things like Giannis 2020, Harden 2019, Duncan 2002, Shaq 2000 (if 2000 is an eligible year here), Wade 2009, Durant 2014, Nash 2005, etc.

Is definetely not obvious lmao as this thread shows

Do I really need to explicitly state the unsaid fact that my posts speak to my own views? Like, obviously if I say I think something is “pretty obvious,” then that’s reflective of what I think is obvious. If others disagree, that’s fine. People disagree on pretty much any concept you can think of—including ones that you and I might both agree are obvious.

[OhayoKD]

Lebron's 2016 regular-season has a better case against 2016 Steph's RS than 2016 Steph has vs Lebron's 2009 RS

[PistolPeteJR]

Steph’s 2016 seems like the pretty obvious #1 here. The next tier below that would include Jokic 2022, LeBron 2009, and Garnett 2004 (though each of those three have arguments to go for an adjacent year of theirs instead). The tier after that kind of just includes the best regular seasons from the other best players of that timeframe. So, things like Giannis 2020, Harden 2019, Duncan 2002, Shaq 2000 (if 2000 is an eligible year here), Wade 2009, Durant 2014, Nash 2005, etc.

Is definetely not obvious lmao as this thread shows

Other things are obvious though lol

[Throwawaytheone]

.

[parsnips33]

2009 or 2010 being anything but 1 is not really defensible

Definitely defensible, as this thread shows

[EmpireFalls]

It is not obvious to me that either 2016 Curry or 2009 LeBron is the “obvious pick” here. Instead of making passive aggressive comments why can’t both of you just lay out a cohesive argument for why you believe your stance?

This is my issue with the PC board, it seems to devolve into petty beefs before the real quality discussion.

[wafflzgod]

I will emphasize ranges here:

1. 2009 Lebron


2. 2003/2004 Garnett
3. 2016 Curry
4. 2022 Nikola Jokic


5. 2020 Giannis Antetokounmpo
6. 2019 Harden
7. 2009 Chris Paul
8. 2002/2003 Duncan
9. 2001 Shaq
10. 2009 Wade

2000 Shaq would be #5 or #6 probably.

Hmm what about 2014 Durant?