Heej wrote:Joey Wheeler wrote:therealbig3 wrote:
Eh, disagree. Kawhi is the best scorer in the league, pretty clearly imo. Can literally get whatever he wants, whenever he wants. There's no good half court defense against him other than 1. hoping he misses and 2. doubling him, and leaving other players wide open.
That's not the case with LeBron. He can be slowed down as a half court scorer, unless he's hot with his jumper.
Probably true. Durant is the best scorer in the league clearly imo, but he's not a factor this season and might never return to his best. Harden is superior in the RS, but that has never translated to the playoffs. Kawhi is probably the best scorer right now, he's just deadly from midrange, looks a bit like Jordan even...
NGL man watching Kawhi get whatever he wants in the mid-range really makes me rethink Jordan is the GOAT from time to time. Can't imagine him not putting up 30+PPG on 63+ TS%
I think guys like jordan, kobe, wade would put up insane numbers in todays league, kobe and jordan especially
I wonder how good Kobes midrange game would be today, i recall illegal defense rules lowered guard offense all around, and the changes in 06 mostly let them get to the rim more easily but kobe went the opposite route and actually shot more middies that year (and iirc people were sayinf he was getting hacked, althouh i was too young to jnow first hand). The average top midrange shooters at the wing were lower in the 2000s vs now too, which makes sense since easier penetration gives you alot more space/seperation off of midrange pullups
Kobe himself was around 43-45% from midrange, but one big thing thats happened more recently is mid rangwrs thenselves are getting closer because of better penetration opportunities, jordan was better at long midrangers than shorter ones according to the guy that made the shot chart stuff. Kobe was actually better at short middies than jordan was according to the shot chart data
Alot of people say the 2000s was the last time for the midrange game, but i almost feel like it was the worst time for it, at least fir slashinf wings. People were more forced into taking it because of new help d rules and teams hadnt adjusted yet, so midrange percentages were
Lower than in other areas, and were taken from further away. (So midrange was more a quick reaction as a second option rather than getting what you want)
I mean, kobes postgame has always been more of an outlier than his iso game in terms of synergy data, i mean he was better than KG and Duncan in terms of post effeciency which is pretty absurd
Otoh, the reason why I have lebron as my personal GOAT, aside from playcalling and all of that is versatility. Imo this is what seperates him on offense vs the hardens and lukas in the world. I think both kobe and jordan would average ludicrious numbers in todays league, I mean since we have some synergy data for kobe, when i ran it and compared his average per play types to the 50th percentile in 2016, the disparity of kobes effeciency per playtype vs "the average" was actually ridiculous (and ive always felt kobe wasnt helped by his system in terms of his impact vs he helped it, but he was always in trash offensive systems that didnt work modern day when the triangle wasnt there, and when he was wih d antoni and they literally barely had a system other than using post freezinf screens and ball screens more its no coincidence he had a reneissance).
Id argue both are better scoriers than lebron on ball, but bron has the ability to fill ANY role in offense, which just adds versatility to the team, outside of sharpshooter
For example, if you put him in the portland offense instead of nurkic, put a restriction that he cant be the primary ball handler, it still completely solves the problem they had acorinf against us, and would absolutely unleash lillard in that it means that the trapping D we used on him wouldnt work since bron would be an incredible short roll playmaker instead of a guy like nurkic or whiteside.
Essentially, lebron is prolly not the GOAT scorer, but in terms of total package hes at least arguably the best at running the offense as a ball handler ever.
Otoh, when you take into account everything else, that he essentially is the best "hole plugger" on offense ever, then i think it puts him over the edge. Outside of shooting, or not having centers or something, lebron pretty much automatically can plug in any weakness a team has.
Essentially its his well roundedness that seals the deal for me. He could even play an off ball big roll if he wanted to.
