Post#79 » by Doctor MJ » Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:34 am
My vote:
1. LeBron
2. Kobe
3. Wade
4. Dwight
5. Nash
Tough choices.
The #1 spot really came down to LeBron & Kobe because, as I've mentioned before - I can't lift Wade over LeBron of a first round exit. For Kobe, the door was open after LeBron's ignominious exit - but because LeBron was clearly the superior through the regular season & first round, Kobe had to do more than just win. Kobe's Phoenix series had me all set to give him the nod. Not only was he stellar - but he was basically doing what I always want him not to do because I think he won't succeed, and then succeeding. Meaning - the contested jumper (though to be fair his overall team play was stellar too.
There's no doubt in my mind, that a guy who can reliably make those jumpers is the most dangerous possible player, because it's impossible to stop a guy from shooting those without leaving the rest of the court wide open. Kobe gets in a zone sometimes, and when he does, he becomes the best player ever to lace'em up imho, and in Phoenix he was playing close to that level for about the whole series.
Then Boston came, and we saw what we're more used to seeing with Kobe - some good times and some bad. I don't want to make it sound worse than it is. He was still the best player on the court - but - in the end it's still not really clear he did better than LeBron against the Celtics. Similar box score stats, a 4-3 win a poor game 7 and a teammate in Gasol who was the 2nd best player on the court, vs a 2-4 loss with no reliable teammate to speak of - this is not what I was hoping for. In the end, while I'd probably give Kobe the nod for the superior playoffs, it would be more by a more-team-success tiebreaker than anything else. And as I said - I consider LeBron's regular season to be vastly superior. Too much to overcome with so little.
Last, re: leadership. Not really buying the narrative that Kobe rallied his teammates to a superdramatic turnaround. Supporting casts that do better at home than on the round are simply a fact. LeBron's negative influence? To whatever extent it happened, it happened as a result Boston kicking their but, not the other way around.
Kobe vs Wade for the #2 spot. Another choice that drove me nuts, since it's arguable that Wade looked better in both the regular and post seasons. I just don't feel confident in claiming Wade had the better post-season. This is not to say I'm convinced in the other direction though.
Wade put up huge numbers in a big loss. Beyond that, the team didn't just lose, their offense got shut down (horrendous ORtg). Now, this doesn't necessarily say anything bad about Wade, and could conceivably mean something good ("Teammates so absolutely horrendous and they still can't stop him!". What's a certainty though, is that a defense that's that successful hasn't been pushed to its limit - whereas I'm certain that their later series did just that. In the end, I just like Kobe proved more than Wade.
And I'm using the word "proved" quite deliberately. I think this analysis shows just how important it is to wait a few seasons before doing the final analysis on any given season. If Wade proves more impressive than LeBron when they play together, I won't be totally shocked, but to this point can't boost him higher right now.
Now one last point, because it's something my inner devil's advocate keeps nagging me about: Wade's not exactly unproven. He led a team to a ring with a performance that was arguably better than any Kobe's done. That's true, and while you can't justifiably argue that Wade's gotten even better since then based on his '08-09 season, this is '09-10, where his stats dropped not only down from '08-09, but '05-06. Basically, I'm not yet prepared to give the general nod over Kobe. Sometimes he's played better, but sometimes no. For this season, for this moment of reflection, Kobe gets the nod.
Howard gets the 4 spot with relatively little internal debate. In this season, once again, there are times when you watch him and you don't see how another player could be better, and you don't see how his team can possibly lose. And then there are other moments where you marvel at how raw he still is. (Or maybe "raw" isn't even the term to use any more) This lack of reliability is what sets him below the Big 3, but the fact that he's still once again not far away a ring in a dominant fashion makes it out of the question to drop him too far.
Final spot, Nash vs Durant. Another tough one. One where I may change my mind later. This is obviously strongly influenced by Durant's poor post-season, and it's reasonable to ask if I'm overreacting. After all, an 8 seed losing to a 1 seed is hardly worthy of damnation, and small sample size etc. But Durant's game plan really seemed to go to hell, against a team that really wasn't playing that well (and the fact that he's a young player, and young player's do show a trend of playoff disappointment doesn't help).
Meanwhile you've got Nash. Obviously, Nash played against the Lakers too, after the Lakers had started playing really well (starting with the Jazz), and Nash was clearly more impressive against the common opponent. More generally, the Phoenix success this year was really something. The let go of Shaq, and go from missing the playoffs to the WCF - stunning. One might point to the fact that the Sun bench was stronger this year than previously as a mark against Nash, but a lot of that goes toward chemistry, and Nash's impact on team chemistry is rivaled only by Garnett. I'll also point out that for all the talk of Phoenix' offense being a regular season wonder, the Sun's playoff ORtg improved to 117.8, while facing 3 above average offenses. This is the 3rd best all time by a team that got as far as the WCF, behind the '87 Lakers and the '85 Suns. This is fantastic work, and all things considered, Nash impressed me more.
Honorable Mention:
Durant
Deron & Dirk - My 7 & 8 respectively in the regular season, and both played great in the playoffs. I thought Deron might push his way even higher by the time the playoffs ended, but the competition was just too fierce.
Gasol - Decisively pushed his way on to the HM list. Before the Phoenix series, I was seriously thinking he'd crack my top 5 as the best player on the league champs. He then had some times when he disappeared or was neutralized, and Kobe's star shone brighter. Beyond that, I just came away from the Phoenix series feeling that Nash was the 2nd best guy on the court, not Gasol.
Rondo - This last spot fills me with conflicted emotions. There's probably no one who I enjoyed watching more in these playoffs than Rondo...when he was playing well. I had him as a lock for my HM before the finals, but then watching him brick out of the finals made me seriously considering putting Melo, or Bosh, or another Celtic here. Still, he was the MVP of the Celtics during that great run through the ECF, and that's no small feat.
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