I'd agree Duncan, and KG should both be #1 and #2, but I'm curious to know the response to:
a.) Why were the Lakers the worst team in the league defending the three point line (opponents shooting .380 from behind the arc against them)? And for overall defensive FG%, they were also well below the league average? And is it possible that without Shaq, Kobe's defense got possibly a tad bit overrated because of the offensive load he had to carry? I mean look at the top wings from the 15 games Shaq missed:
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Steve Smith – 12 points on 5-7 shooting.
Derek Anderson – 6 points on 3-9 shooting
Corey Maggette – 16 points on 6-10 shooting
Derek Anderson – 24 points, on 9-15 shooting
Ricky Davis – 24 points on 8-18 shooting
Paul Pierce – 28 points on 11-25 (guys like Eric Williams and Delk had huge games also)
Jerry Stackhouse – 29 points on 9-23 shooting.
Jason Terry – 21 points on 7-16 shooting
Jason Richardson – 11 points on 5-17 shooting
Cuttino Mobley – 15 points on 4-13
Michael Finley - 18 points on 7-19
Stephen Jackson – 28 points on 10-18
Matt Harpring – 21 points on 8-11 shooting
Cuttino Mobley – 16 points on 5-15
Allan Houston – 53 points on 18-29
Total PPG: 21.4 points per game on .469% from the floorEven if you don't want to include the Allan Houston game, those wings averaged just over 19.1 points per game while still shooting 45% from the floor. Now I know there are a multitude of factors that go into such statistics like this, but the bottom line is, if Kobe is this ridiculous lock down defender, he should have guarded these perimeter players that were on their game, and limited them far more than what their production showed against the Lakers.
Games played and minutes was part of my reasoning. Including the playoffs, Kobe played 12 more games and 670 more minutes. That's significant.
That's a bad argument once you factor in the playoffs. That's a completely different scenario, where it's not an equal opportunity for everyone to play the same amount of games. To fault McGrady in the regular season for missing seven games, that'd be a somewhat legitimate argument, but to include playoffs is reaching IMO. I mean Shaq averaged 28/13/3 with 3 blocks in the first round against the T-Wolves, if McGrady had that type of production, I'm sure he would have played a few more playoff games as well.
That sort of argument could even be applied to players that played a full season. Like in 05-06 where Kobe played pretty much a full year (80 games), but a player like LeBron would have technically played 5 more games than Kobe and over 400 more minutes in that same season. While in just the regular season alone, Bron actually played ONE LESS game than Kobe did.
To me, that's a faulty argument when you factor in playoffs to talk about ones durability.
I realize that the Lakers didn't do too well without Shaq (and Fox, mind you), but it's important to look at who else was on the roster and who their opponents were if we're going to judge team performance. The Lakers were not going to play that difficult of a schedule the entire season, so there's no reason to suggest they would have finished with 27 wins.
I agree they wouldn't have finished with 27 wins, but it is quite telling that they lost to all sorts of competition (meaning they didn't just lose to the guys they were supposed to). They played four Eastern Conference teams in that stretch, the Cavs, Hawks, Celtics, and Wizards, all of which were losses.
Anyways, it's about time I voted:
1. Duncan
2. Garnett
3. McGrady
4. Bryant
5. O'neal
Though to be honest, I'm still wavering on the placement of Shaq. I was even strongly considering him to put over BOTH McGrady and Kobe. The only thing against him was the number of games he missed, but his impact was still there. 45-22 with him in the lineup, opposed to 5-10 without. And roughly 28/11/3 and 2+ blocks on 59% in the regular season (27/15 in the playoffs). I think he was the better player between the three. Could be subject to change, but I believe that will be my list. You might not believe it, but I strongly considered Kobe over McGrady as well, haha.