Playoffs Only: 2008 Kobe vs 2024 Luka

[Matt15]

Playoffs only, who was the better player?

[One_and_Done]

Luka by far. Kobe leading this Mavs team would have been out in the 1st or 2nd round.

[TheGOATRises007]

I'd say Kobe

[LukaTheGOAT]

Kobe

I think there is a reasonable argument that Luka's series against the Wolves is the best single series out of both runs, however, Kobe was more consistent throughout his run.

Kobe's averages adjusted for inflation are about

•30.5 aPts/75,+4.9 rTS%

ScoreVal-1.8
PlayVal-1.2

Backpicks BPM-7

Team Offense: +5.5


Luka Doncic

27.7 pts/75, rTS% of -0.3%

ScoreVal-0.2
PlayVal-1.6

Backpicks BPM-6.9

Team Offense: +2.5

Outside of the underlying numbers, there is just less concern with Kobe's game to game conditioning for his style, and less injury questions. I think it was more difficult for Luka to access an additional gear in the state he was in.

Luka would have to be better offensively for me to consider him over Kobe, and I can't quite get there. There was a substantial margin in how they scored the ball with Kobe doing it on more volume, better efficiency, and being more active off-ball to conduct his work. Kobe was also probably just a couple rungs down in terms of general playmaking quality, as I don't think Luka stressed defenses as much, due to not getting as clear of blowby as he typically does against his defender, which means forcing less rotations/reactions from the defense. Luka's usual claim against Kobe on offense is him being in a different stratosphere of playmaker, but I think it was notably less poignant this run.

Also, while Luka had his moments on defense, I don't think Kobe had a stretch as porous on defense as Luka had in the Finals. Kobe's motor on that end was higher, from video he seemed to have more communicative.

[AdagioPace]

Kobe was an actual athlete playing sport at the highest level.
Luka, this PS at least, was a super talented and impressive, but obsessively medicalized, sometimes comatose, decrepit ruin of a player.

[ardee]

Kobe

I think there is a reasonable argument that Luka's series against the Wolves is the best single series out of both runs, however, Kobe was more consistent throughout his run.

Kobe's averages adjusted for inflation are about

•30.5 aPts/75,+4.9 rTS%

ScoreVal-1.8
PlayVal-1.2

Backpicks BPM-7

Team Offense: +5.5


Luka Doncic

27.7 pts/75, rTS% of -0.3%

ScoreVal-0.2
PlayVal-1.6

Backpicks BPM-6.9

Team Offense: +2.5

Outside of the underlying numbers, there is just less concern with Kobe's game to game conditioning for his style, and less injury questions. I think it was more difficult for Luka to access an additional gear in the state he was in.

Luka would have to be better offensively for me to consider him over Kobe, and I can't quite get there. There was a substantial margin in how they scored the ball with Kobe doing it on more volume, better efficiency, and being more active off-ball to conduct his work. Kobe was also probably just a couple rungs down in terms of general playmaking quality, as I don't think Luka stressed defenses as much, due to not getting as clear of blowby as he typically does against his defender, which means forcing less rotations/reactions from the defense. Luka's usual claim against Kobe on offense is him being in a different stratosphere of playmaker, but I think it was notably less poignant this run.

Also, while Luka had his moments on defense, I don't think Kobe had a stretch as porous on defense as Luka had in the Finals. Kobe's motor on that end was higher, from video he seemed to have more communicative.

Great post, agree with pretty much all of it.

I will say that for your comment on Luka vs Wolves being the best series in either run, we should at least consider Kobe vs the Jazz in '08. 33/7/7 on 63% TS against a 6.9 SRS team, being guarded by no less than Andrei Kirilenko a lot of the time. He did it all in that series.

[ShotCreator]

Luka has looked much better in the playoffs. Crazy to me he made it so far playing pretty "mid" for his standards. Not a bad run, at all. But this was a good, not great playoff run overall.


I'm not too high on Kobe, so I truly believe this is close either way. It's weird. Luka trashed a very good defense in Minnesota and made them look bad, but got drowned by Boston in a way I'm not sure would've happened to Kobe. Kobe was no elite defender, but I don't question his gas tank in this period at all.

KG obliterated Kobe's finals performance himself but I think that could happen to the best of them. LeBron for instance. OTOH, Andrew Nembhard may well have had a better series against Boston than Luka did.

It feels like Luka should be better but I really do think his performances lag behind in this comparison. He just didn't compete well enough.

[LukaTheGOAT]

Kobe

I think there is a reasonable argument that Luka's series against the Wolves is the best single series out of both runs, however, Kobe was more consistent throughout his run.

Kobe's averages adjusted for inflation are about

•30.5 aPts/75,+4.9 rTS%

ScoreVal-1.8
PlayVal-1.2

Backpicks BPM-7

Team Offense: +5.5


Luka Doncic

27.7 pts/75, rTS% of -0.3%

ScoreVal-0.2
PlayVal-1.6

Backpicks BPM-6.9

Team Offense: +2.5

Outside of the underlying numbers, there is just less concern with Kobe's game to game conditioning for his style, and less injury questions. I think it was more difficult for Luka to access an additional gear in the state he was in.

Luka would have to be better offensively for me to consider him over Kobe, and I can't quite get there. There was a substantial margin in how they scored the ball with Kobe doing it on more volume, better efficiency, and being more active off-ball to conduct his work. Kobe was also probably just a couple rungs down in terms of general playmaking quality, as I don't think Luka stressed defenses as much, due to not getting as clear of blowby as he typically does against his defender, which means forcing less rotations/reactions from the defense. Luka's usual claim against Kobe on offense is him being in a different stratosphere of playmaker, but I think it was notably less poignant this run.

Also, while Luka had his moments on defense, I don't think Kobe had a stretch as porous on defense as Luka had in the Finals. Kobe's motor on that end was higher, from video he seemed to have more communicative.

Great post, agree with pretty much all of it.

I will say that for your comment on Luka vs Wolves being the best series in either run, we should at least consider Kobe vs the Jazz in '08. 33/7/7 on 63% TS against a 6.9 SRS team, being guarded by no less than Andrei Kirilenko a lot of the time. He did it all in that series.

Oh of course. That's why I just said I believe there is a reasonable argument, instead of announcing something definitive because somethings can be left up to interpretation. Like some might consider his WCF series against the defending champs Spurs even more impressive. But my general point was that despite the massive peaks of a playoff run, which people are prone to look at, to define it, we should be careful in letting that influence how we see how they played in general.