ShaqAttack3234 wrote:I don't think this is an old school vs new school thing. Had he come up to at least 54-55% during his playoff run, I'd give it a bit more weight. He's a really efficient player, but I don't see how having more access to stats has anything to do with him being conscious of a 60% streak or having competitions with Wade for 50+% games. I want players taking good shots, but not caring what their percentage ends up being. That's one thing I really don't like about this efficiency generation, that the players, including premier names like Lebron, Durant and Wade all care about the percentage. It's obvious that Lebron can't be quite as selective in the playoffs either which is why he hasn't yet come close to 56-57% in a playoff run. Until he does, I'm not going to care much.
I look at what MJ did with Phil as coach. No question in my mind he could have put up better numbers or shot an even better % had he looked for HIS ideal shot more at the basket and by dribbling more, but he took the shots in the offense, a lot of jumpers at that, took over when he had to ect.
I understand why it raises red flags that he's conscious of his stats, but what I really want is for you to concretize your fears in something that's actually a problem.
If LeBron's passing up shots he should take, then it's a problem. If he's not, then it's not, right?
LeBron's scoring 26.1 points per 36 minutes right now.
The most he's ever scored was 27.4.
This would be a negligible difference even if we didn't remember that he's since moved from a unipolar offense to a superteam.
So what's the problem?
Re: Jordan taking the shots "ha had to".
1) Jordan played in an offense who's greatest strength by ORtg factors was it's rebounding. Their actual 1st attack wasn't in this Heat's league. Think about what that means. If your teammates are rebounding specialists, then it doesn't make sense to work so hard to pass to the right teammate.
And of course, who came first? Jordan. The Bulls built the rebounding around him, so he wouldn't have to. That Bulls team was one form of an ideal in basketball strategy, and everyone involved should get a ton of credit. Jordan of course deserves more credit than anyone else, but it's worth remembering what infrastructure was required in order to pull that off.
Of course there is the irony involved that I'm here talking about the move away from rebounding in the NBA with the Heat being extreme on that front, while Jordan's team was literally the exact opposite on that front. One more time to emphasize that we should be careful about saying any particular thing is a weakness. Were I to hold up the Heat's 1st attack as being a reason why LeBron was clearly better than Jordan, it would not be appropriate.
2) Let's not forget that it's not like LeBron shies away from extreme volume scoring in the clutch.
LeBron's averaging over 50 points per 48 minutes of crunch time basketball this year, as he's done many times before. Again, there's just not evidence that LeBron is typically not taking shots he should take in order to max out efficiency stats.