I don't find it all that impressive at all. His TS% was abysmal, which is a stat I like, as was his Offensive rating. His defensive ratings started off strong, but slid from bad to terrible as the series went on. I see nothing more than a good player who was on the court all the time, and had the ball, all the time, thus a heavy raw stat output. Efficiency is everything, and he just didn't have it. And I not convinced of this being tired excuse. The Cavs basically sat out the first three rounds of the playoffs, while the Warriors had to go through 3 legit teams.
I don't like the idea of MVP got pretty much shut down by Iggy most of the time. LBJ got most of his numbers facing lesser defenders with Cav's team effort(screens and switches). It's GSW's team strategy to let LBJ get his numbers with low efficiency. I don't think LBJ is the best player on the planet. IMO it's AD but he doesn't have a good team and coach yet, and most importantly he played in West where a randomly picked playoff team has a decent chance to win the Eastern conference.
LOL - got shut down? That's great. Iguodala might have bene the most effective defender but "shut down"? After LeBron posted probably the biggest stat dump, carrying hte heaviest burden, in modern finals history in a series where they should have been swept? I live it.
What's an example of an acceptable TS% for a player with a 40% usage rating then? Only one player has ever had one that high in the finals. Guess who it was.
I don't know. All I know is that under 50% or whatever he had is unacceptable. How about we start with getting above league average at least?
as great as lebron is, i believe he's starting to hit the downside of his career in terms of physical strength. and his jumpers are so broken.
Why would we start with that? He's not an average player, not in an average situation, and not assuming an average burden.
Uh okay, that is a weird statement. So, just by a quick glance and in no way an exhaustive statistical search: The three names that come to mind when it comes it wing players, in the post season, in similar situations, are Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Allen Iverson. For the sake of simplicity, I will equate high usage too high "burden", isolate to the playoffs to make it a "non average situation", Bryant, in the 2012 playoffs (His highest (non Shaq years) usage playoffs): Now you can make a case that his burden is lower because of Bynum and Gasol, but it sure didn't affect his usage. Iverson, in the playoffs, had a ridiculous burden, but kept it respectable. (although his 2002 was admittedly poor) And of course Jordan, pre Pippen And then Lebron, who somehow gets a pass because of his "burden" I hope I have adequately illustrated why I do not respect his performance. I stand by my previous statements. Empty raw stats, inefficient, and unimpressive. I take offense to people claiming this was some sort of historic performance by Lebron. It wasn't.
Find me another player that led all players in the finals in scoring, rebounding, and assists and then we can compare Lebron's performance to that player. Until then, you really can't compare it to anyone else. If you don't respect his performance, it says more about your inadequacy as a basketball analyst than anything else.
Saying what Lebron did in these Finals amounts to "empty stats" and "unimpressive" is incredibly silly. Any other player with his supporting cast going up against these Warriors gets swept rather easily.
Has anybody ever done anything like what he did in the finals before? If the answer is no, it stands alone in history. The answer appears to be No. Kobe and Jordan didn't even make it to the finals the years you posted. So we're left with 2001 Allen Iverson vs. LAL, who had 1 epic game (the game 1 win) 2 decent to good games, and 1 stinker) racking up a paltry 19 assists in 5 games. IMO it doesn't really compare to what LeBron did the last few weeks. EDIT - as an aside - even though the situations aren't analogous - look at LeBron's assist percentage as compared to those other guys. 3 games over 60, that's simply another universe from one in which Iverson or Kobe or Jordan inhabited.
Oh give me a ****ing break with the shifting of the goal posts, with irrelevant statistics. Just because the Warriors have the depth to not have one standout player with accumulated raw stats, doesn't justify Lebron's **** finals performance. If the Cavs would have played the Rockets, with a dominant rebounder like Howard, or scorer like Harden, that bull**** statistic wouldn't even be there. Same with the Clippers, Paul would have led with assists, Jordan with rebounds, and maybe even Griffin with scoring.
No one, I mean no one could win with the backcourt James had. Delly, Shump, Smith and JJ with James off the court 0/21.
Finals, playoffs, whatever. That speaks more to a weak east and a fairly mediocre Cavs teams being defaulted a finals berth more than it disproves my position. How is a Cavs/Warriors finals any materially different from an OKC/LAL second round matchup in 2012? Lets just agree to disagree.
LOL the fact that you think one player leading all players in scoring, rebounding, AND assists is "irrelevant" is more evidence as to your failure as a basketball analyst. Anyone who averages 36/13/9 in the finals IS the MVP. Period. Sure the scoring was inefficient, but that doesn't significantly take away from his accomplishment.
And the cavs were a few plays away from taking a 3-0 lead. You are probably one of those fans who would b**** if Lebron decided to take 20 shots on high efficiency. Instead the narrative would be Lebron didn't shoot enough.
Yep, last year James uber efficient and got blown out to the Spurs. This year totally different and they didn't suffer the same fate facing what people call one of the greatest teams of all time without #2 and #3 and Andy and kept it close all series.
If you don't think his performance was as impressive as many are making it out to be, then that's fine. Saying he had a "**** finals performance", however, throws your credibility out the window. That's simply not objective.
The title of the thread is "Finals MVP on a losing team" - it's not "Finals, playoffs, whatever" MVP on a losing team. It's a different conversation. YOu're right htat LeBron's overall playoff run this year is not up to his usual ridiculously brilliant standards, I made the same argument myself earlier. And you're right that the Cavs playoff run this year was kind of a joke due to a defaulty East. But they overachieved in the Finals, IMO, pretty much entirely due to LeBron.
