Best way to describe him is a cherry-picking defender. He played his success for weakside blocks into the NBA all defense team, which is absurd. He's an average defender, but for a superstar player, that's pretty good.
If we are really being nickpicky, KD blew right past George on that dunk on Hibbert, and George is considered a great two-way player. It happens.
He is consistently good and sometimes great defensively. His post defense is overrated and for all the hype about his ability to guard all five positions, he cannot handle true PFs down low. David West threw him around (without Lebron helping by flopping) like has Kevin Martin.
In today's NBA there are few skilled, traditional PFs like West. So Lebron can handle himself against most modern "power" forwards.
There is no way you can defend a good NBA perimeter player one on one on every possession. Saying that LeBron gets blown by does not mean he is not a good defender. Every defender gets blown by some of the times.
lebron is not an overrated defender...he really is good on defense if anything overrated about lebron, its his offensive game...he is just not a pure scorer
What an ignorant thing to say. Remember that shot that Jordan missed that could've won the game? He just isn't built to win games. Remember the time Hakeem got dunked on by STARKS? He is not that great of a shot blocker/rim protector.
Depends on what the base 'rating' which we're judging is. I really don't have a firm grasp on what people really think about him. Is it appropriate for him to be first team all-defense? I think so. He's so huge and mobile that the entire offense bends over backwards trying to keep him from being able to play help defense. Is he some Russell-like deity that absolutely defines excellence on that end? God no. He rarely makes gritty defensive stops because he's so intent on avoiding fouls. He gets beat on backdoor plays and gives up easy rebounds to guys like Leonard, same as most guys would. He's the current best defender in the world at his peak but he doesn't play up to his peak too often, which is fine for an offensive superstar. So if the rating is "really, really good" I think he's properly rated. If it's "the best", I'd say that's hyperbole.
lebron is a good defender, but is very overrated, there's a reason Wade guards the best offensive player, when they get switched lebron can hold his own sometimes, but the bad outweighs good on that, when he gets really committed to defense in 1 game, he does fairly well, people mistaking weak side blocks and jumping the passing lanes for a steal because someone on the ball played good defense and playing good one on one defense. everyone gets caught up in 1 game defensive performances for lebron too, 1 game he played really good defense on derrick rose, 1 game he played really good defense on rondo, who isn't that good of an offensive player anyways, if you play 1 or 2 games well defensively out of a 6 or 7 games series, then you're not that good of a defender...but i will go with my beginning statement, and i'm a lebron hater, he is a good defender.
Remember when Hakeem got posterized by Kevin Johnson, yeah because of that Hakeem is an overrated shot blocker.
Quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever read on the Internet and I've been on the Internet a very long time. Wade guards the best offensive player REALLY???? Wade is a huge liability on defense and never guards the other teams best player. Geez
He's a strong 3 or quick 4, but he's having trouble to guard quick 3's or strong/tall 4's. Overall quite good and versatile, but not great which is fine given his offensive load.
This. He is not over rated though, he is good enough. What he is often over rated about is that he is talked about as a GOAT. The greatest NBA players often save their best for the finals not during the regular season. 'Nuf said.
have you ever watched a heat game, especially in the playoffs, wade starts off and for most of the game stays on the best offensive player, other than parker, wade spends the most time on most of the other teams best player
