What will negate bigs from switching on to smalls and defending effectively is when the smalls gave birth the ability to shoot the basketball and make a play off the dribble AND they are in an offense that allows them to create instead of simply throw the ball back to James.
Considering he was considerd the best point guard by the likes of Zach Lowe this season ok. If you say say
Well name me a better point other then paul or Wall? why would we not give one of the best if not the best playmaker in the league?
Larry O'brien doesn't consider Harden the best this season. And his opinion means way more than Zach Lowe.
- Steph Curry - Russ Westbrook - IT I get all of the above are debate-able. The debate would be: Steph: is the best there ever was at a specific skill-set that is the best skill-set to be the best at in today's NBA. Being such opens up the whole floor for the rest of his team. Fine distributor himself and slightly better ball-handler. Not a liability defensively. Russ: Pretty similar player in terms of impact on the game and weaknesses. More of a force of nature athletically. More clutch this year. Will win MVP this year -if that means anything. IT: This clearly isn't true long-term, and of course he isn't the overall playmaker James is, and is equally inept defensively, and doesn't contribute on the boards. The argument for him this year is simple - he was dominant in the 4th quarter and clutch time... Anyway... the guy you were responding to suggested James would be coming off the bench in 2-3 years, which is of course crazy. In my view, he can be either a PG or a SG from now on. It's not necessarily permanent, but could be. But in either position he has to improve the key areas of (i) reduce turnovers, (ii) off ball movement, (iii) 3 point shooting - especially consistently over the course of a season (was 35% pre all star, 33% post, and horrendous in the playoffs, and especially against better competition (shot horrible %s against GSW, Utah, San Antonio, OKC).
