2009 PS LeBron Vs 2010 RS LeBron

[Proxy]

Could it be argued that 2010 Regular Season LeBron was about as good as 2009 Playoffs LeBron offensively?

I think there is an argument, but that his statistical dominance was suppressed by the addition of Shaq (about 1/3rd of his minutes), who LeBron in 2009 obviously didn't have to share any offense with. I don't think it's unreasonable that a player could continue their dominance from the end of one season into another. It also continued into the first round of the 2010 playoffs, but then he played through injury against the Celtics.

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Via pbpstats.com

2009 PS Bron Stats:
47.68 PTS/100
61.35 TS%
9.85 AST/100
23.07 AST Points/100
3.67 TOV/100
11.8 Team P/M
114.77 Team ORTG
580 Mins


2010 RS Bron Stats W/O Shaq:
44.09 PTS/100
61.03 TS%
12.34 AST/100
28.49 AST Points/100
4.61 TOV/100
15.85 Team P/M
119.32 Team ORTG
1931 Mins

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Per 75 Comparison:
• 35.76 P / 75 Vs 33.07 P / 75
• 61.35 TS% Vs 61.03 TS%
• 7.39 A / 75 Vs 9.26 A / 75
• 17.3 APts / 75 Vs 21.37 APts / 75
• 2.75 T / 75 Vs 3.46 T / 75
• 11.8 Team P/M Vs 15.85 Team P/M
• 114.77 ORTG Vs 119.32 ORTG
• 580 Mins Vs 1931 Mins

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Albeit small sample, against top-5 defensive teams, the Cavaliers had a 113 ORTG in minutes with LeBron on and Shaq off (370 mins). I'm not a fan of comparing lineups to full team season data, but this was back when the average DRTG of those teams was around 103-104 .

Expanding the sample, LeBron's averages against top-10 defenses with Shaq off (10 best excluding the Cavs):

44.52 PTS/100
58.99 TS%
11.29 AST/100
26.81 AST Points/100
4.75 TOV/100
9.74 Team P/M
114.05 Team ORTG
641 Mins

Fairly similar to his overall numbers with Shaq off that season

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More evidence of that Shaq likely wasn't very valuable to that team despite having a solid on court net rating in minutes on without LeBron in the RS - The Cavaliers were 20-3 (71 Win Pace) in games LeBron played in that Shaq did not play in.

That being said I wouldn't really discount the games Shaq played in from the "Shaq off" sample because they did start halves without him occasionally.

Anyways, thoughts? I collected these numbers a while ago so please correct me if I got anything off.

[rk2023]

2010

Breakdown in 2013

Year by Year Offense

Comp of 2010 James vs. 89 Jordan

Pretty cool breakdown from Sideshowbob here on 2010 James, it checks out well compared to sentiments/data put forth in this post. Process wise, I don't see too much of a difference with either iteration of James - at full health - here.