He would have more ISOs in the 90's. Good luck hand checking him Vinnie del Negro - I'm sure that will be easy, good luck guarding him on the perimeter, Charles Oakley.
Agreed, Payton and Malone were better than a current Ray Allen. Look at their stats. It's not a difficult concept. I'm sure you can understand it. First of all, Gasol is a lock for the HOF. Secondly, look at Bynum's stats for those years. He had a PER of 20. Bosh also had a PER of 20. The difference is that Bynum had a much greater defensive impact than Bosh did. Once again, look at the stats. This goes back to relative strength. When Kobe won with Shaq, he had the best frontcourt in the league. When Kobe win without Shaq, he still had the best frontcourt in the league. So by winning without Shaq, what exactly has he proven? If so, it's because of the defensive attention that Lebron/Wade draw. Ray Allen can no longer be the focal point of the offense. Bosh is definitely not a superstar. Wade is arguable due to his knee injuries forcing him to miss games. Look at the stats. You're too caught up in reputations, and it's blinding you to the reality. Bosh is averaging 15ppg/6rpg/1apg/1spg/1bpg. Those are superstar numbers?
Pretty good post, but Pippen was a much better defender than LeBron and LeBron is a MUCH better offensive player than Pippen ever was. Even without MJ, Pippen never came close to LeBron's average offensive season.
Jordan had tougher competition as well. The eastern conference has been a joke for the past few years. It's been a cakewalk to the ECF for the Heat. Jordan had to go through tough physical teams like NYK, DET and IND just to get to the finals. Then after going through that gauntlet, he had to play against Magic, Drexler, Barkley, Malone, etc... Outside of Durant, Lebron hasn't faced that level of competition. Maybe Paul George in upcoming years, but that's about it. Melo and Harden are one way players and Lebron has been lucky to catch Kobe on the downside of his career. I know it's not Lebron's fault for the weak competition, but just saying, Jordan's road to his 6 were a lot harder than Lebron's 2, especially Lebron's first championship which was a joke in a shortened season playing in the eastern conference.
This is actually a great point. The league so lopsided the competition in the East is a total joke. Miami's so much better than anybody its not even fair. Never in league history has a conference been that bad. Has Miami benefited from this? Absolutely. Especially in the playoffs
The East was even worse in the early 2000s, during the Lakers threepeat. Back then, it didn't even matter who came out because they weren't winnng the title. At least now there are two legit contenders in the East, and as recently as 2012 there were three.
It's not a great point at all, I dunno why you guys like to hate on LBJ so much...Kobe fanboys, maybe? First of all the only reason Miami's so much better than the comp is because of LBJ, most of you guys act like Wade and Bosh and Allen are these amazing HOF all stars all playing in their prime, that's not true at all. In fact, just last season Wade and Bosh combined for 10 pts in the game 7 finals against the Spurs. Secondly, you act like MJ himself didn't play on a tough team, his Bulls that he won a 6 peat with was so good they reached the ECF the years he retired. LOL which team do you remember was the biggest threat to MJ during his 6 peat? There wasn't one! The Detroit Bad boys were the closest however they were already old by the time Pippen and Kerr and Rodman and the rest of the Jordaners arrived on the scene, before that MJ was treated pretty much the same as LBJ was in Cleveland because he couldn't get over the hump.
I still can't get over the fact that there are people that still thinks without the hand checking rule, Lebron turns into a poor man Pippen. And when people shouted the fact that Lebron is still bigger AND faster than anyone during the 90s, they then turn and says that Centers are much better then, forgetting the fact that there is no zones then as well. When being reminded, they continue to shout out the strength of roster for reasons I dun know why. So does playing in a weaker team or conference makes a player better or weaker? Anyway, for me personally, Lebron is getting there, but he have to continue his dominance over a longer stretch of time before he gets to be in the conversation of Jordan.
You know I was ready to agree with you, but the Jazz were an experienced team with a guy considered by many at the time to slow Jordan down in Russell. Jazz had the best PG and best PF in the league at the time. They were well coached and destroyed teams with the pick and roll. Lets say Jordan gets an offensive foul that play. Jazz win game 6. Game 7 is anyone's game. So to answer your question, yes I do believe that Jazz can beat the bulls in 7
Pretty sure Miami has a pretty impressive winning streak against the Western Conference at the moment during the regular season. http://www.bsports.com/statsinsights/nba/miami-heat-historical-domination-western-conference Just throwing that out there...
The point is, MIA has an easier road to the playoffs than any western conference team and certainly has had an easier road to the finals than did Jordan's Bulls. Miami is a great team and LBJ is one of the all-time greats. But MIA essentially has two bye rounds and then a really tough series vs IND and then the finals. Look at this season, Wade has played in a little more than half of their games and the Heat are still in 2nd by more than a handful of games.
Why are you debating Miami when the topic is about LBJ? This is LBJ's playoff averages last year: 25.9 pts, 8.4 rebs, 6.6 assists, 1.8 stls Putting up those kinds of averages is easy? Oh yeah I'm sure LBJ didn't even break a sweat every game, he let his buddies Ray Allen, Chris Bosh and Wade do all the work for him Easy is Kobe shooting 40% in the playoffs and still winning a ring, easy is not LBJ averaging historic numbers in the playoffs just his team can win a game 7.
The era is tailor made for a player like Lebron. The role of the conventional big man has been devalued due to numerous rule changes, the 3 second rules on bigs needs to be removed so they can clog the lane and possess the ball like they did in Hakeem's day. They need to bring back handchecking and physical play needs to come back or wing players like Lebron will continue to be the most important pieces to a team. I've been watching basketball since the early 80's and this is by far the weakest era of big men ever since I started watching the NBA. The rules now just aren't in favor of really big centers, you need mobile centers now who have long wingspan and can slide in and out of the paint without drawing violations. Its harder to anchor a good defense like this, but its made worse by the fact that officials call ever single touch foul they can when a defensive player makes contact with an offensive player. There is no motivation for a team to play good defense under these circumstances, so they just run the ball around and chuck up shots and most teams put limited effort into playing defense. Imagine if the NBA instituted a rule in that guards and forwards could only dribble the basketball for 3 seconds before shooting or passing, while big men could do whatever they wanted. Lebron would be garbage and players like Bosh or Love would actually be considered more valuable than him. But the NBA always wanted to create the next Jordan, that's a marketing mechanism. Fans don't care for big men, they like wing players.
Yes, if the NBA instituted such a rule, the game wouldn't be basketball as we know it, either from this era or the forty years previous. What would Magic be with such a rule? How about MJ? Barkley? Kobe? Why don't we just make a rule that dunks are worth 10 points. Then guys like Kemp and Griffin will be considered more valuable than guys like Magic or Jordan. It seems like everyone tries to make special edge cases to explain away LeBron's dominance of the league since pretty much his 2nd year. It's stupid. Appreciate the guy for what he is, which is the best basketball player on the planet right now. Maybe he worries about his numbers a little bit but it seems to have no bearing on his team success, considering that the Heat will most certainly be one of the top teams yet again, just like LeBron's teams always are.
Just admit, the current NBA rules favor wing players more then big men. Then we can end the conversation. Atleast give me that.
The NBA definitely protects perimeter players more now, but keep in mind that in the past there have been rules that penalized big men even more, such as the shortening of the lane and the banning of the dunk (college). So it's not like favoring small guys is some revolutionary new basketball adjustment. I mean, in MJ's time they even shortened the three point line! LeBron would be a top 3 player no matter the era. He has very few flaws in his game and a perfect body for basketball.
