Exactly. If you look at it logically, IMO - Tracy is the better overall player. During the 2002-2003 season, McGrady had a higher overall FG% and inside the arc FG% than Kobe...a player who's playing with pratically the most dominant force this league has ever seen. There should be no excuse that has Kobe shooting a lower percentage than Tracy from the field. Or how about last season. Kobe shot .437% from the field while McGrady shot .417%. On a team pratically by himself...< - TMAC And another player playing with Shaq, Malone, and GP for much of the season, Kobe still couldn't shoot over .44% from the field. But here's the kicker. McGrady nearly took 8 three point attempts a game. Tell me anyone in this league that can be double and tripleteamed, be the only star on the team, take nearly 8 threes a game, and still manage to shoot nearly 42% A percentage that A.I. put up in his MVP season. And then the defense. IMHO, the defense I witnessed of McGrady in his last season at Toronto - when he didn't have to carry the offense pretty much by himself - was 2x better than what I saw of Kobe last season.
Don't forget Ray Allen is in the West also. If we didn't get TMAC, I would have loved to see Shuttlesworth bless us.
Please. In one game Kobe shot a low percentage and had to put 38 shots to keep his streak going. He misse quite a few shots at 4th qtr and even couldn't finish a dunk. He's obviously very tired at the end of his 40pt streak.
Okay, show me where Mcgrady put up 9 40 pt. games in a row. He couldn't do it. So don't tell me that Mcgrady is the better condition player.
Eh? I call it the "Clipper Effect." Two stars make winning easier. I think it's very, very rare that they make scoring either. This is due as much do having to change one's style of play than simply having to share the shots. Even if there are plenty of shots, if your team isn't revolving around you, you'll get fewer prime opportunities. Both Hakeem and Clyde scored fewer together than they did apart. When Barkley came, everyone scored less again.
So one guy wants to carry a team by himself and the other one doesn't want that responsibility? Who are you arguing for exactly?
you're projecting. We hope T-Mac knows what it takes to win a championship. It seems to me we know that Kobe knows what it takes since he has won three. Not saying that him winning championships makes him better because obviously he had Shaq, but any championship argument goes in Kobe's favor.
well almost all of cato's per minute stats dropped and his fg% really dropped because we decided to give him more free reign to shoot jumpers which was a bad idea. so obviously, cato was much better last year despite all of that. oh and according to most cuttino never played D or hit 3's before jvg. i mean sure, he did, but why let that stand in the way of saying jvg did a great job of making him good. the whole world is a brighter place for having jvg in it.
as for who's better, i have to go with kobe. offensively, it's hard to fin separation. both can hit the outside shot (though both were a little off this year), both drive exceptional well, both can post their guy up, and both can finish amazingly well (though kobe is better at finishing with contact, actually i'd say he's the best in the league when drawing contact outside of shaq but shaq doesn't really count). defensively, kobe has been better the last few years but he hasn't been carrying a team on his back as much and tmac obviously showed potential in toronto so it's hard to give kobe the edge. where i do give kobe the edge is mental toughness, drive and will to win win, and clutchness. as for clutchness, there is simply no argument. "meh" asked for evidence of this? gee, i don't know, any of about 30 shots from the last few years. i mean it's shocking when kobe doesn't hit a big shot. he has no peer in this regard. he seems to know the clock exactly, he never panics, he gets his shot, and he drains it. it's like jordan all over again. he just does what he wants at the end and you can't stop it. as for mental toughness, just look at the games he played on court dates. it may not make him a hero to do that, but it does make him mentally tough. to have to go through all of that, then get to a game right before it starts and still dominate and hit buzzer beaters is just amazing. drive and will to win are harder to gauge but he just seems to be on another level than everyone. he just wants to win and that's all he wants to do and it's what drives him. obviously kobe has the playoffs/championships aspect but that's more of an imcomplete (though tmac would have to be damn good in those moments to match) because kobe's always had shaq to help him get to those big moments. and as for stats. kobe has shaq to draw attention but he also has shaq to draw away shots and change his style of play. therefore, i'd say the effect on kobe's stats caused by shaq is fairly negligible. so for right now, i have to give kobe the edge, though tmac may show us something even better playing with a real supporting cast.
I voted Kobe, but I meant up until now. Hopefully Tmac and Yao will play well enough together, and I would not be too surprised if they did, that Tmac can make Kobe piss sitting down next year.
This sort of response is exactly why brought up this point. Kobe absolutely fizzled against the Pistons this year, that last-second 3 in game 2 notwithstanding. And while Kobe made a lot of last second shots, how many has he missed? I've seen quite a few games when Kobe absolutely dominated, but also quite a few when his bricklaying singlehandedly cost Lakers games. Also, do you know for a fact that T-Mac doesn't do anything down the stretch in close games? Do you, or just about any other poster here, actually watch enough Magic games to have even a clue of how clutch T-Mac is? It's easy to say a player's clutch when your team is better than the opposing team just about all the time. And that you play in so many playoff games that you're given tons of opportunity to showcase your talent.
true, but essentially every time he's given a chance to showcase his clutchness, kobe does. i mean, you did see the last game of the season where he clinched the pacific title with not one, but two unbelievable buzzer beating 3's, right? the last one had my friend, who didn't really even care about the game but who was watching with me on LP, going crazy when it went in. it was one of those moments where something that seems so obvious still just leaves you in awe. an "i don't believe what i just saw" moment. those aren't alone. basically, lets ask this question. you have to bet your life on one guy making a shot in the last seconds of an nba game. who do you pick? i pick kobe 100 times out of a 100. he just doesn't get fazed.
Sorry, but your opinion skewed if you believe: 1. Clutch is only in the form of scoring. 2. Clutch is only in the form of making game-winning shots or to tie the game. That is not what clutch is.
then please define clutch for me and then list the players who are better at it than kobe. clutch is coming up big in the biggest moments and kobe does it better than anyone else.
This question has been asked too many times. I like coach T answer 'If I get one, don't care the other.'
Up until last year I felt that Tracy McGrady was the best guard in the NBA and the 3rd best player in the league (#1 being Garnett, #2 Duncan). He the Magic have been primarily been him and a bunch of 2nd string players and he had brought the Magic within one game of advancing to the playoffs. Last year was a bad year for T-Mac still better than the other 99% of the league, but for him it was a worse year. Kobe is a better defender but I would give McGrady the edge on offense. McGrady before this past season was completely unstoppable when he had the ball in his hands. Everyone continues to bring up the point that T-Mac doesn't have the rings and isn't as clutch as Kobe. You can't discount the guy because he hasn't been playing alonside the most dominant player in the game like Kobe has. If the roles were reversed Kobe wouldn't have 3 rings or nearly as many clutch late game playoff shots. Looking strictly at their overall talents and skills I would have to give the edge to T-Mac.
