What is the most impressive carry job by a star?

[Big_Aristotle]

That's a no brainer. Lebron James in 2007 and 2018 by a mile, and then we can argue about the rest.

Kobe in the years where they got a 3-1 lead against the Suns maybe? You can also consider to add the 2015 Finals, where Lebron managed to get the Cavs a series lead with a bunch of nobodies (Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were injured) against the Warriors.

For me definitely not Dirk. Despite how impressive that was, he had a very good supporting cast with veteran players like Jason Kidd.

[dhsilv2]

06 Kobe was a legit statement.
Lebron his entire time on the early cavs.
Jokic in 2022 was just absurd!
KG in 2004 needs mention.


The old classic obvious Duncan, Hakeem, and Dirk rings are all of course up there, but lets talk about some more interesting ones.

Oh and where's 75 Rick Barry for you rangz only guys? Nobody on that team had a 1 BPM just for context. That's pretty darn good carry job.

[Tottery]

11' Mavs are underrated.

[dirkforpres]

Dirk, far and away.

They were underdogs in every round of that playoff run and Dirk was left to rely on himself and a bunch of >30 role players to advance each round. The carry job he did against 3 HOFers in their prime was legendary.

I cant say Lebron in any year.. The Eastern Conference was just always a cake walk to the finals every year for him when all he basically had to do was outplay Demar Derozan.

[raptorforlife88]

Kawhi 2019 not being here feels criminal.

The way he willed his team against Embiid-Butler Sixers and Giannis Bucks were exceptional, and then going up 3-1 against the Warriors core trio with Cousins.

What Kawhi did against the the Bucks and Sixers was unbelievable, but in the finals he got lots of support from Siakam, Lowry and FVV. Siakam and Lowry outplayed him in a couple of those games at least. He did start running out of energy nearer the end of that series.

No way to say it was a carry job. That roster had Lowry, Siakam, Ibaka, Gasol, and Danny Green playing major minutes. It had guys who play major roles on other teams currently like FVV and Powell off the bench.

That was a deep as hell team, and the evidence is that Kawhi left the next year and the Raptors won more games than, and made it as far as the Clippers did in the playoffs without him the next year.

[LLJ]

Kawhi 2019 not being here feels criminal.

The way he willed his team against Embiid-Butler Sixers and Giannis Bucks were exceptional, and then going up 3-1 against the Warriors core trio with Cousins.

Kawhi was definitely The Guy but the team was stacked with three point shooters, a former DPOY as well as several former all-defense guys, plus two other all-star calibre players...

It was one of those teams that at the time looked like a major carry job, until you actually looked at the roster. Then you go "waitaminnit...this team is really stacked..."

[Lockdown504090]

06 Kobe was a legit statement.
Lebron his entire time on the early cavs.
Jokic in 2022 was just absurd!
KG in 2004 needs mention.


The old classic obvious Duncan, Hakeem, and Dirk rings are all of course up there, but lets talk about some more interesting ones.

Oh and where's 75 Rick Barry for you rangz only guys? Nobody on that team had a 1 BPM just for context. That's pretty darn good carry job.

kobe averaged 35.4 of his teams 99 ppg and they only had 90 possessions per game. middle of the pack teams average 10 percent more, had more spacing from teammates and put the ball in the superstars hands less than they do now. adjusting for inflation, that would likely be a 40+ppg season right now.

[kodo]

Iverson '01 taking that team to the Finals.
2nd highest scorer on his team was Theo Ratliff, 12 ppg.
Starting guard/wings had TS% below .500 (Eric Snow 9 ppg on 48% TS, Lynch 9 ppg on 49% TS).
His best 3P floor spacer was Aaron McKie who shot 31%.
Mutombo was a great defender in his career but he was 34 that season.

Actually took a game from the Kobe/Shaq Lakers, in a game where Shaq had 44 & 20. AI had 48 in a game that only went up to 107.

[dhsilv2]

06 Kobe was a legit statement.
Lebron his entire time on the early cavs.
Jokic in 2022 was just absurd!
KG in 2004 needs mention.


The old classic obvious Duncan, Hakeem, and Dirk rings are all of course up there, but lets talk about some more interesting ones.

Oh and where's 75 Rick Barry for you rangz only guys? Nobody on that team had a 1 BPM just for context. That's pretty darn good carry job.

kobe averaged 35.4 of his teams 99 ppg and they only had 90 possessions per game. middle of the pack teams average 10 percent more, had more spacing from teammates and put the ball in the superstars hands less than they do now. adjusting for inflation, that would likely be a 40+ppg season right now.

I don't think you can do this "adjusted for inflation" or a better way is to say "adjusted for that era's deflation". Then again 2006 was an outlier year in big single season scoring in that era due to the league transitioning with rules/rule enforcement changes to open the game up for guys like Kobe with hope they'd be more like Nash.

If we do a bit of a fun look, cause why not? 2006 vs 2024 % of team's points, ordered by PPG leaders, using basketball reference to filter guys not qualifying. PLayer PPG/team PPG. No adjustment for missed games.

1. 35.6% 28.8%
2. 31.85% 25.7%
3. 32.2% 25.2%
4. 28.8% 24.7%
5. 27.2% 24.0%

So this inflation thing doesn't really work 1:1 like people want. Scoring is much better distributed at the top today.

What made Kobe impressive was that while doing that his team was 8th in offensive rating off his offensive work. Not the points per game alone. That part isn't that meaningful, the offensive impact is what drives why that was an amazing carry job.

[dhsilv2]

Mutombo was a great defender in his career but he was 34 that season.

The guy who won defensive player of the year and lead the league's 5th best defense and was 2nd team all NBA...but because he was 34 we ignore that? The 76ers were one of two teams with 2 all nba players that year. Those two teams played in the finals.

[jbk1234]

People saying 2007 for LeBron and not 2018 is wild. He was much better in 2018 and faced better teams + actually played much better on the road to the finals. His 2007 run is extremely overrated.

I don't think that any of the Cavs players who started alongside LBJ in 07 start on that Cavs 18 team. I mean Boobie friggin Gibson was the 2nd most impactful Cav in 07 and he had one good game off the bench.

[life_saver]

Lebron 2018...the rest of the roster played like **** in the playoffs

[Special_Puppy]

Kawhi 2019 not being here feels criminal.

The way he willed his team against Embiid-Butler Sixers and Giannis Bucks were exceptional, and then going up 3-1 against the Warriors core trio with Cousins.

Kawhi was brilliant, but he had a great supporting cast during that title run. Excluding garbage time, the Raptors had a +9.1 net rating the year before he arrived and a +6.6 net rating the year after he left.

[dhsilv2]

People saying 2007 for LeBron and not 2018 is wild. He was much better in 2018 and faced better teams + actually played much better on the road to the finals. His 2007 run is extremely overrated.

I don't think that any of the Cavs players who started alongside LBJ in 07 start on that Cavs 18 team. I mean Boobie friggin Gibson was the 2nd most impactful Cav in 07 and he had one good game off the bench.

I mean if we're JUST talking playoffs I guess Gibson has case. But Big Z and Varejao were pretty darn good. Z on both ends and Varejao being a great high energy defender. That team had some really good defensive players despite the offense being more or less all Lebron.

[red96]

Hakeem and Dirk are the only 2 acceptable awnsers. All other options are wrong.

[Hellcrooner]

if a team wins a ring it means is a good team with a good leader.
miracles dont happen.
you can be god but if your team is crap yo are NOT winning anything.

Carry jobs is more about being able to carry a bunch of crap the furthest that is humanely close.

In that regards and even if i loathe Kobe and kobe stans make me want to puke him being able to lead an unit with Smush Parker and Kwame being starters into the playoffs and being 2 up on the suns ( even if he himself was the reason they didnt seal the deal) has to be one of the greatests Carry jobs ever.

And for me, his buddy Pau leading a f. boat loaded of b.s role players to back to back 50 wins season in a deep as hell west is also as good a carry job as any other, no matter what happened in the playoffs vs MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH better teams, i mean, all those sweeps, the second best player in the grizz would probably not even START in their rival.

[TheNG]

Jokic is the only player to win the ring with any previously selected All-Star. Not sure how he is not in the list...
But the answer is either Dirk or Hakeem.
BTW - LeBron never took a "weak" team to a title, just to a final loss - not sure what is impressive about that for some people.

[Bornstellar]

Duncan carrying the Spurs to a ring while being absolutely dominant on both sides of the court in 2003 while his best teammates were a 19 year old TP, rookie Manu, and old/injured Robinson in his last season. Robbed of the only quadruple double in finals history in the closeout game.

[Ritzo]

Kawhi 2019 not being here feels criminal.

The way he willed his team against Embiid-Butler Sixers and Giannis Bucks were exceptional, and then going up 3-1 against the Warriors core trio with Cousins.

Lowry, Gasol, Green, Siakam, VanVleet, Ibaka, Powell, OG
That's one of the deepest roster in recent memory. Raptors also went 17-5 record without Kawhi in the regular season

[DAWill1128]

Surprised Iverson making the finals wasn't on this list.