1993Playoffs wrote:Huge LeBron fan but I gotta be objective with this realizations
1. Jokic may actually be peaking higher than LBJ
I think it is wild that you are saying this in a series where Jokic’s main advantage over Lebron is that he has better endurance than the 39-year-old.
(at least on offense). It’s pretty close
Sure, but Lebron being able to play with centres gives his teams a much higher defensive ceiling.
2. Jokic is doing this with traditionally less help than LeBron
Based on what. Jamal is at least as good offensively in the playoffs as Kyrie without being as targetable defensively, and whenever Jokic has not had Jamal his teams have gone nowhere and been easy eliminations. Gordon is a fringe all-star talent on par with multiple-time all-NBA players like Siakam and Randle (former deserved, latter not deserved), MPJ is an incredible third option, and KCP was the
third best player on a Lakers team that peaked higher than these Nuggets.
Oh, and the Nuggets right now have a better full coaching staff than any Lebron ever had at the time.
in a tougher conference
Lebron never meaningfully struggled with western conference regular season games, and Jokic has only won one series where he was operating at a theoretical disadvantage (2020 Clippers).
I think Shaq is pretty overrated, but at least he regularly won at a 60-win pace — peaking at 67 wins with a pre-prime Kobe and a scattering of (reliable) roleplayers — en route to three Finals MVPs and five title runs as a leader… and I would not even be considering him over Lebron either.