kayess wrote:Now that it's been a few hours...
Listen, I don't think the POY voting should shift on the basis of 1 or 2 games - UNLESS there was something in those games that alters how you view a player fundamentally (like, Steph has GOAT RS impact, but when things get more physical in the playoffs he drops off a bit and he needs to improve his stamina to carry his impact over to the playoffs). Curry has been way better than LeBron for most of the season AND more portable (though this gap has been exaggerate, I feel).
We have to ask ourselves: is this LeBron with a jumper really who he is fundamentally? (I don't think so, not at this point) Does it matter if his jumper sucks the entire RS but he can bring it when necessary? (I think it should - but I'm not really sure tbh). I honestly don't know how to weigh the criteria right now - and it should encourage us to rethink our criteria, rather than just the rankings for this season - about what goes into the POY.
One thing's for certain though: as he likes to say it, win, lose, or draw in Game 7, nothing can take away from the fact that LeBron's been playing at a GOAT level the past two games to rescue his team from the brink of oblivion. When you are, by varying margins, the best scorer, playmaker, man-, and help-defender in back-to-back elimination games against THE GOAT team, you know you've achieved something special. Arguably the best player in the Finals in the past 5 years.
It's special enough that LeBron haters/Kobe+Jordan stans have come out of the woodwork to start suggesting conspiracy theories, should've been over in 5s, and other matter of nonsense (EDIT: just saw someone call LeBron "the luckiest player in league history" ROFLMAO) to somehow devalue what he's done the past 2 Finals (and let's be honest here - not even his most delusional haters can deny that his increased usage and worse efficiency last year was due to the circumstances).
We've said it again and again on the PC board, and recently JVG's taken to saying this on a national stage: we let the result inform our analysis of the process too much. I feel like LeBron's been on the short end of that stick for a long time, to a greater extent than most superstars. Now he gets a chance to end all that - but even if he doesn't, hopefully his performances don't become just another footnote in basketball history.
+1
My dilemma right now is deciding how I want to go about penalizing Curry for missing PS games & determining to what degree his injuries hamper his game (if they even do).
A couple of hot games from Lebron doesn't make him better (though I don't think there was huge gap before the postseason - I never thought Curry was competing for GOAT peak), but the above point gives him a case.
That said, yeah 2016 Lebron when willing to shoot outside shots and engaged defensively is a/the GOAT level player. How much do you believe GSW has dropped from their peak 2016 level (if at all)? Beacause Lebron in the last two games (particularly late 3rd/full 4th Q) has literally wrecked them on BOTH ends by himself, which is something a younger, sprier Lebron couldn't do against weaker teams.
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