Everybody here is smoking bath salts saying durant over kobe on scoring skills. Might as well say novak has passed dirk in scoring skills. Not to put durant down the man is a great, great scorer But do ya'll have any idea on how insanely high kobe's offensive skills are? How big his arsenal is? how many moves his 34 y/o 6 time champ ass has? Kobe is most definitely has the best skills. Durant may be a better shooter, he may get more points But don't you ever say he has more skills the kobe Not at this point in his career, maybe when durants hit's 30 we can talk But for now, put the bath salts down and admit kobe has the skills.
Right now? Durant. Best pure scorer who still plays? Kobe in his prime. Come back when you drop 81 in a game
Of course efficiency must be kept into consideration, which the biggest knocks to Kobe and Carmelo right now. Neither of them have shot a abnormally high percentage like Lebron this past year. That is why I personally was able to cross them out.
I don't get why people always pick Carmelo over LeBron in scoring. Never minding the fact that Lebron has averaged over twice as many assists as Melo and therefore has probably limited his shot opportunities, he's outscored Melo nearly every season (averaging 3+ more ppg for their careers, even in the playoffs) and with far better efficiency. Even from the 3 point line, even though people see LeBron as an average at best shooter and Melo as a marksman. I get the Melo seems like the smoother and more aesthetically pleasing scorer, but why does that matter? Is Kevin McHale a better scorer than Wilt Chamberlain because his post game is infinitely more varied?
"Best pure scoring skills" = Wether your impressed or no on how the player passes? C'mon guys were talking about scoring "SKILLS".
I also don't understand why people break down scoring in terms of effectiveness and "skills". I think it's just a way of glorifying players that don't produce as much but look cool doing it. We don't do this for any other aspect of basketball. It's not like we say that Blake Griffin is a better "pure rebounder" than Dwight Howard because he looks better doing it despite averaging fewer rebounds. It would be laughable. Nobody says that Jason Williams is a better "pure passer" than John Stockton because he throws a bigger variety of passes.
Your right in what you are saying, but I think what the opposing side is stating is that they have many different ways to score and thus have more effectiveness or "skills". Kinda like how Hakeem has "5 post moves and 4 counter moves" (Shaq) and therefore always kept the defence guessing and can score easier.
it seems to be because people's brains can't comprehend that just because carmelo is one-dimensional on offense (in that he doesn't pass or create for others) that that doesn't mean that one dimension is now better than it really is. his lack of passing causes people to overrate his scoring. carmelo doesn't score the most, isn't even close in efficiency to guys like durant and lebron, and in a versatility contest would lose handily to someone like kobe. if we're ignoring efficiency like with carmelo, then kobe has almost every move you could ever want and the ability to score in almost every way an offensive player can. he certainly has more post moves than carmelo who mostly just bulls his way in with his strength. the myth of carmelo as the best pure scorer in the game (because his offense is more purely scoring than everybody else) started a long time ago and as this thread shows it is a hard one to kill off. apparently winning 3 straight scoring titles on super high efficiency isn't quite up to carmelo's "i occasionally post up and never pass" standards.
Bosh has better scoring skills than Lebron? How does somebody like Lebron average 27.6 ppg for his whole career with great efficiency not at least crack the top 5?
