RealGM

This is not a troll thread, it is a response that I was working on before that thread made a couple of hours ago, and I think it is a good talking point on the subject - Jordan and Lebron scoring comparison



Lebron so far has taken 29313 fgas, Jordan took 24537 fgas, for RS. Lebron 5896fgas for PS, Jordan 4497 for PS.

FTs it's Lebron for career 11404fta, Jordan 8772fta.


Now per game it's -
Jordan 22.88fgas/g, Lebron 19.65fgas/g
Jordan 8.18fta/g, Lebron 7.64fta/g


Ts Add:
Jordan career - .569ts, league - .534ts, = +.35, League-Adjusted ts+ = 106
Lebron career - .589ts, league - .546ts, = +.43, League-Adjusted ts+ - 108

Context is needed in the sense that Lebron scores most of his points closer to the basket than Jordan, who shot from further out more, which translates to higher percentage. Compare bigs on average, who shot closer to the basket, to guards, who shot further from the basket, the bigs on average have higher percentages.


RS:
% of FGA by Distance
Jordan (stats only 1997-2003, age 33-39, four seasons) - (0-3) .170, (3-10) .095, (10-16) .301, (16-3P) .354, (3P) .080
Lebron - (0-3) .354, (3-10) .129, (10-16) .096, (16-3P) .184, (3P) .236

FG% by Distance
Jordan (stats only 1997-2003, age 33-39, four seasons) - (0-3) .598, (3-10) .377, (10-16) .444, (16-3P) .453, (3P) .315
Lebron - (0-3) .741, (3-10) .428, (10-16) .365, (16-3P) .386 (3P) .348


PS:
% of FGA by Distance
Jordan (stats only 1997-2003, age 33-39, four seasons) - (0-3) .216, (3-10) .091, (10-16) .290, (16-3P) .296, (3P) .107
Lebron - (0-3) .353, (3-10) .142, (10-16) .091, (16-3P) .173, (3P) .240

FG% by Distance
Jordan (stats only 1997-2003, age 33-39, four seasons) - (0-3) .656, (3-10) .430, (10-16) .418, (16-3P) .446, (3P) .236
Lebron - (0-3) .735, (3-10) .413, (10-16) .363, (16-3P) .377 (3P) .332



The biggest context is, the nba in Jordan's time was much more physical, check footage of Jordan vs Pistons playoffs, games in general from 1980s and 90s. The outside shooting, the "spacing", was also less in Jordan's time. It was more difficult to score in that regard.



The scoring load is also a key point:

RS:
Jordan - Bulls from 1984-85 to 1997-98, excluding 1985-86 and 1994-95 which Jordan missed almost both those seasons, and Wizards 2001-02 and 2002-03 = 118642 points.
Jordan career total points = 32292.
Proportion of teams' points = 0.272

Lebron - All teams total points in Lebron's career = 176389 points.
Lebron career total points = 40474.
Proportion of teams' points = 0.23


*Jordan scored more of his teams' total points than Lebron did.

Lebron has marginally higher efficiency on way lower volume. Scoring 33 ppg is way more impressive than scoring 28 ppg. And that's without even considering how pace, rules and spacing affect scoring and all of these factors IMO make it easier on Lebron.