Most underrated LeBron PS series

[OhayoKD]

Lebron faced pretty bad defenses during that 2020 title run. Not a single top 10 defense faced which played a role in making his numbers look better.

Miami was tied for 9th.
Houston was 14th but closer to 9th than 16th.

Top 10 is extremely arbitrary, no?

Miami’s defense was actually really good. The way they held down Indiana in Milwaukee in bubble conditions which were conducive to better offense was excellent.

Miami had a -5 rDRtg vs. Indiana
Miami had a -4.2 rDRtg vs. Milwaukee (held Giannis to 55% TS, 21 ppg)
Miami had a +1.2 rDRtg vs. Boston (held at Tatum to 55% TS)
Miami had a +6.1 rDRtg vs. Los Angeles

Houston actually had a -8 rDRtg over 7 games vs.OKC in bubble conditions. And as Colbini mentioned, Houston was half of a point per 100 possessions away from being the 9th ranked defense.

Denver had an average defense. He got roasted hard versus Utah, but they actually did really well against the clippers (i.e., -3.8 rDRtg., held Kawhi to 55% TS)

I Don’t think it would have mattered about the defenses the way James was playing. Playing better defenses didn’t generally affect LeBron much.

They were really good, but a bunch of that is contingent on bam adebayo

[One_and_Done]

Based on the average poster's opinion? The 2011 Finals.

[Djoker]

Better defenses didn't affect his efficiency much but how about scoring rate, playmaking and turnovers? Efficiency on its own only gives us one out of the four offensive dimensions.

It didn’t affect his scoring rate, either, other than at -7 rDRtg defenses.



For defenses faced between -1 rDRtg to -9 rDRtg, his scoring was also unaffected.





If you take just a years from 2008-2020, all of those numbers for all of the types of defense, his face to go up.

I don’t have the creation numbers for individual series. I don’t have the numbers for the turnovers, but even if his creation did go down, and his turnovers went up, we still know that regardless of the defense, LeBron’s team is produced, tremendous offenses, often says that we’re better with LeBron on the court.

Ok when you say "adjusted" points per 100 what does that mean? How did you arrive at those numbers?

[homecourtloss]

Better defenses didn't affect his efficiency much but how about scoring rate, playmaking and turnovers? Efficiency on its own only gives us one out of the four offensive dimensions.

It didn’t affect his scoring rate, either, other than at -7 rDRtg defenses.



For defenses faced between -1 rDRtg to -9 rDRtg, his scoring was also unaffected.





If you take just a years from 2008-2020, all of those numbers for all of the types of defense, his face to go up.

I don’t have the creation numbers for individual series. I don’t have the numbers for the turnovers, but even if his creation did go down, and his turnovers went up, we still know that regardless of the defense, LeBron’s team is produced, tremendous offenses, often says that we’re better with LeBron on the court.

Ok when you say "adjusted" points per 100 what does that mean? How did you arrive at those numbers?

That last chart title should say “Pace adjusted.” It can be found on stats.nba.com

Against the very best defenses, LeBron’s scoring rate wasn’t much affected (not at all from 2008-2020), his rTS% and reFG% actually were better against very good/great defenses, and the team rORtgs against very good/great defenses was incredibly impressive.

[Djoker]

It didn’t affect his scoring rate, either, other than at -7 rDRtg defenses.



For defenses faced between -1 rDRtg to -9 rDRtg, his scoring was also unaffected.





If you take just a years from 2008-2020, all of those numbers for all of the types of defense, his face to go up.

I don’t have the creation numbers for individual series. I don’t have the numbers for the turnovers, but even if his creation did go down, and his turnovers went up, we still know that regardless of the defense, LeBron’s team is produced, tremendous offenses, often says that we’re better with LeBron on the court.

Ok when you say "adjusted" points per 100 what does that mean? How did you arrive at those numbers?

That last chart title should say “Pace adjusted.” It can be found on stats.nba.com

Against the very best defenses, LeBron’s scoring rate wasn’t much affected (not at all from 2008-2020), his rTS% and reFG% actually were better against very good/great defenses, and the team rORtgs against very good/great defenses was incredibly impressive.

Yea but when you're using rTS%, reFG% and rORtg they are all relative to opponent so why would you expect them to change? The relative efficiency metrics already correct for opponent defense.

I'm not sure this data is saying as much as you think it does.

[homecourtloss]

Ok when you say "adjusted" points per 100 what does that mean? How did you arrive at those numbers?

That last chart title should say “Pace adjusted.” It can be found on stats.nba.com

Against the very best defenses, LeBron’s scoring rate wasn’t much affected (not at all from 2008-2020), his rTS% and reFG% actually were better against very good/great defenses, and the team rORtgs against very good/great defenses was incredibly impressive.

Yea but when you're using rTS%, reFG% and rORtg they are all relative to opponent so why would you expect them to change? The relative efficiency metrics already correct for opponent defense.

I'm not sure this data is saying as much as you think it does.

They’re saying things you don’t like is the issue.

[Djoker]

Anyways the most underrated Lebron series for me is 2011 vs. Chicago. He played very good D on Rose in the 4th quarters. And after a bad Game 1, he averaged 28.5/8.3/6.8 on 59.0 %TS (+8.1 rTS) with 3.5 topg in four wins. No one ever talks about this series.

[Colbinii]

Is rTS% and rEFG% based on opponents defensive TS% and eFG% or is it based on the league average?

[rk2023]

Is rTS% and rEFG% based on opponents defensive TS% and eFG% or is it based on the league average?

I take it the former

[OhayoKD]

That last chart title should say “Pace adjusted.” It can be found on stats.nba.com

Against the very best defenses, LeBron’s scoring rate wasn’t much affected (not at all from 2008-2020), his rTS% and reFG% actually were better against very good/great defenses, and the team rORtgs against very good/great defenses was incredibly impressive.

Yea but when you're using rTS%, reFG% and rORtg they are all relative to opponent so why would you expect them to change? The relative efficiency metrics already correct for opponent defense.

I'm not sure this data is saying as much as you think it does.

They’re saying things you don’t like is the issue.

Djoker when lebron defenses do worse in select series then their overall playoff numbers

vs

Djoker when lebron's offenses do better in those same series than their overlal numbers

[Djoker]

My point is simply that looking at how a player/team performs against different levels of defense by using relative efficiency that already corrects for opponent is kind of redundant. You can reasonably expect that there will be weak or no correlation because the relative metrics already correct for opponent.

[70sFan]

My point is simply that looking at how a player/team performs against different levels of defense by using relative efficiency that already corrects for opponent is kind of redundant. You can reasonably expect that there will be weak or no correlation because the relative metrics already correct for opponent.

To be fair, we do see correlation in many cases.

[Djoker]

My point is simply that looking at how a player/team performs against different levels of defense by using relative efficiency that already corrects for opponent is kind of redundant. You can reasonably expect that there will be weak or no correlation because the relative metrics already correct for opponent.

To be fair, we do see correlation in many cases.

It's a really weak correlation.

In the MJ graphs he posted on the other thread, the correlation (R squared value) for rTS% against different rDRtg defenses was 0.141. And if you look at the graphs, it's only after you go to -5 defenses that you start seeing a drop in efficiency. In fact MJ has just one series where his rTS% is deep in the negative and that's the 1997 ECF vs. Miami and that one series drags his averages against elite defense way down.

I think for this analysis, using rTS relative to league average rather than relative to opponent makes more sense.