Better Playoffs: 2012 LeBron vs 2016 LeBron

[CodeBreaker]

Both won the chip, but which LeBron was more impressive in the Playoffs?

[Stan]

Definitely 2012. 2016 LeBron before the Finals played well, but it wasn't like he was blowing anybody away with his performances. Plus he was going up against some extremely weak competition. GOAT level Finals performance, but LeBron was more impressive in 2012

[Dupp]

2016 is not only better he’s way better. Maybe not over the course of a season but when it counts against good competition he’s the one you want. Way more experienced and resilient to pressure and great defense. His offense and ability to control the game is on a completely different level. 2012 lebron ain’t coming back from 3-1 down.

[70sFan]

James faced much tougher competition in 2012 EC run and he played better during the whole playoffs run. Both years are great, but give me 2012 LeBron.

[70sFan]

2016 is not only better he’s way better. Maybe not over the course of a season but when it counts against good competition he’s the one you want. Way more experienced and resilient to pressure and great defense. His offense and ability to control the game is on a completely different level. 2012 lebron ain’t coming back from 3-1 down.

Not identical situation, but he did extremely well under pressure against Celtics. In fact he dominated them. Let's not act like 2012 James wasn't experienced enough - he played almost a decade in this league by then with some deep postseason runs before.

Some may argue that 2012 James wouldn't come back from 1-3, but he wouldn't even allow to that situation. Let's not forget that James wasn't that great at the beginning of the finals in 2016.

[Homer38]

Everyone remember the game 6 in Boston in 2012 but so many forget the game 4 in Indiana when the heat were down 2-1 in the series

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[No-more-rings]

I like 2012 better. I still think it was his best playoff run from start to finish. 2016 has the better narrative due to beating a 73 win team and all but I don’t think his overall level of play was quite as good. That run was something special, and he really did it with no Bosh for a lot of the conference playoffs and a limited Bosh in the finals. Wade played like an all star but was kind of inconsistent overall in the playoffs too.

[No-more-rings]

2016 is not only better he’s way better. Maybe not over the course of a season but when it counts against good competition he’s the one you want. Way more experienced and resilient to pressure and great defense. His offense and ability to control the game is on a completely different level. 2012 lebron ain’t coming back from 3-1 down.

Way better? Cut me a break.

2012 Lebron didn’t have to come back 3-1 because he never let it get to that point in the first place. He did however come back from 3-2 with one of the all time great performances against the 1st ranked defense on their home floor. Lebron did ATG work against the Warriors, but they would’ve been sent home if Kyrie didn’t have an insanely impressive explosion scoring performance in that game 5. Lebron didn’t receive support like that against Boston. It was a complete one man annihilation against the best defense on their home floor in a win or go home.

[Odinn21]

We usually assume peak as regular season + playoffs. But if we limit the time window even further, 2012 playoffs is the ultimate peak of the player.

[E-Balla]

We usually assume peak as regular season + playoffs. But if we limit the time window even further, 2012 playoffs is the ultimate peak of the player.

Yep. The 2009 playoffs was better but based on LeBron hitting more shots than ever before and generally being lucky enough to hit 47% of his midrange shots. In 2012 he had no jumper but dominated anyway.

[MisterHibachi]

I would go with 2012 as the better player, but the 2016 playoff run felt better.

[cheese318]

Everyone remember the game 6 in Boston in 2012 but so many forget the game 4 in Indiana when the heat were down 2-1 in the series

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That has to be one of the highest amount of rebounds in one game in his career. Did ever get over 20 rebounds in one game? Definitely a game that gets overlooked when you think about it and never disappointed when you get to marvel at how absurdly good this athlete has been throughout his career. For all the haters that just don’t like him for so many obnoxious reasons maybe when he leaves the NBA they might actually see the talent he had and level of play he brought to the NBA from day one


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[Lost92Bricks]

2016 is not only better he’s way better. Maybe not over the course of a season but when it counts against good competition he’s the one you want. Way more experienced and resilient to pressure and great defense. His offense and ability to control the game is on a completely different level. 2012 lebron ain’t coming back from 3-1 down.

But maybe 2012 Lebron doesn't let it get to 3-1.

That's the part of Lebron's 2016 finals series that gets swept under the rug. He himself played a role in them going in that hole. He underperfomed in the first 4 games.

Lebron in 2012 was about to go down 3-1 to the Pacers and dropped 40/18/9 on the road. One of his most underrated performances.

[Dupp]

2016 is not only better he’s way better. Maybe not over the course of a season but when it counts against good competition he’s the one you want. Way more experienced and resilient to pressure and great defense. His offense and ability to control the game is on a completely different level. 2012 lebron ain’t coming back from 3-1 down.

But maybe 2012 Lebron doesn't let it get to 3-1.

That's the part of Lebron's 2016 finals series that gets swept under the rug. He himself played a role in them going in that hole. He underperfomed in the first 4 games.

Lebron in 2012 was about to go down 3-1 to the Pacers and dropped 40/18/9 on the road. One of his most underrated performances.

He did get down 3-2 to a far far worse team than the warriors though, before he had his goat game). Cavs got smashed in games 1 and 2 away but after he and the team were good to great.

That Celtics team really wasn’t that great and the warriors were all time good. There’s a pretty big difference there.



Look comes down to what you prefer. 12 bron was dpoy level and could carry a much bigger load over a season. 16 bron was far more experienced and seasoned and I believe his offensive game was on a completely different level.

[No-more-rings]

2016 is not only better he’s way better. Maybe not over the course of a season but when it counts against good competition he’s the one you want. Way more experienced and resilient to pressure and great defense. His offense and ability to control the game is on a completely different level. 2012 lebron ain’t coming back from 3-1 down.

But maybe 2012 Lebron doesn't let it get to 3-1.

That's the part of Lebron's 2016 finals series that gets swept under the rug. He himself played a role in them going in that hole. He underperfomed in the first 4 games.

Lebron in 2012 was about to go down 3-1 to the Pacers and dropped 40/18/9 on the road. One of his most underrated performances.

He did get down 3-2 to a far far worse team than the warriors though, before he had his goat game). Cavs got smashed in games 1 and 2 away but after he and the team were good to great.

That Celtics team really wasn’t that great and the warriors were all time good. There’s a pretty big difference there.



Look comes down to what you prefer. 12 bron was dpoy level and could carry a much bigger load over a season. 16 bron was far more experienced and seasoned and I believe his offensive game was on a completely different level.

So a few things i had to respond to.

- The Celtics were not Warriors level that’s true, but there’s no doubt they were always very formidable and a tough out for any team in the playoffs during that era. With Bosh out a lot of the series, the supporting cast he had wasn’t all that close to what he worked with or got from the Cavs.

I don’t know how you come up with 16’ being on a completely different offensive level, I don’t see anything supporting that besides narratives. 2016 was the year he may have struggled with his jumper even more than 2012.

They’re showing the entire 2012 ECF Heat vs Boston on nba tv today it may be worth looking at.

[OfficialRef]

2012, considering prior to the finals he played much better competition than whatever the east put out in 2016.

Great 16' finals but he was pretty dominant in 12' as well

[ardee]

We usually assume peak as regular season + playoffs. But if we limit the time window even further, 2012 playoffs is the ultimate peak of the player.

Yep. The 2009 playoffs was better but based on LeBron hitting more shots than ever before and generally being lucky enough to hit 47% of his midrange shots. In 2012 he had no jumper but dominated anyway.

Given the fact that he had no jumper and dominated wouldn't you want to pick the version of him that had a jumper and still dominated?

LeBron's ultimate peak if you look at it in a more condensed way is the 2018 Playoffs until the hand injury at the end of game 1. If you include the entire Finals, I would probably give it to the 2017 Playoffs then. What he was capable of doing by that point was well beyond 2012.

[70sFan]

We usually assume peak as regular season + playoffs. But if we limit the time window even further, 2012 playoffs is the ultimate peak of the player.

Yep. The 2009 playoffs was better but based on LeBron hitting more shots than ever before and generally being lucky enough to hit 47% of his midrange shots. In 2012 he had no jumper but dominated anyway.

Given the fact that he had no jumper and dominated wouldn't you want to pick the version of him that had a jumper and still dominated?

LeBron's ultimate peak if you look at it in a more condensed way is the 2018 Playoffs until the hand injury at the end of game 1. If you include the entire Finals, I would probably give it to the 2017 Playoffs then. What he was capable of doing by that point was well beyond 2012.

It was his offensive peak, but he wasn't on 2012 level defensively by this point. It's up to you how would you weigh that, but 2018 James wasn't able to do things 2012 James did regulary too.

[ardee]

I would pick 2016. The stats are basically even but the player IQ, poise and confidence he had in 2016 sets him apart (or in general, sets the second Cleveland run apart from the Miami one). His jumper was not great either year but more trustworthy in 2016, and I think in the Playoffs he was better defensively too.

It's an interesting comparison to be sure, pitting the first year of the two legendary 3 year runs.

[No-more-rings]

I would pick 2016. The stats are basically even but the player IQ, poise and confidence he had in 2016 sets him apart (or in general, sets the second Cleveland run apart from the Miami one). His jumper was not great either year but more trustworthy in 2016, and I think in the Playoffs he was better defensively too.

It's an interesting comparison to be sure, pitting the first year of the two legendary 3 year runs.

Again, I don’t get what this “more poise and confidence” is based on?

I watched both runs. Maybe not every game, but the bulk of it and certainly the important games. Lebron showed elite confidence in 2012 and if game 6 vs Boston and beating a great OKC team in 5 games doesn’t prove this I don’t know what does?