WIthout Kobe they turn into the Rockets without Tmac. They will be damn solid for 3 quarters, but when the game gets close in the 4th they will lose more often than win. Kobe brings A LOT to the table especially in crunch time.
And without Lebron the Cavs are competing for the #1 overall pick. Well done, except your dissing of Nash. Ask players around the league if Nash is one of if not the most difficult players to stop from generating offense for his team, and they will say yes he is. Court vision and shooting extremely efficient counts--ask previous MVPs not known for individual defense like Magic, Bird and Barkley. What Nash did with a team with a rag tag group of shooters and no big man at all was amazing two years ago (2nd seed in West and delivered them to game 6 of the WCF). Part of the MVP is escalating your teammates. Nash having 2 MVPs may be a little stretch (Lebron and Wade had great cases wieghing individual performance and team success/leadership), but him winning before Kobe (whose team's best finish has been 7th since he took over from Shaq) was not. I don't have a big problem with Dirk winning either. He had great efficiency and production and lead by far the best regular season team. As thoroughly enjoyable as it was for Dallas to get spanked it the 1st round, he had a good case for a regular season MVP. Before people think I am totally picking on Kobe, I would have said the same thing about Tmac winning when he had a phenomenal stat line but his team was 8th. I have also noted if Kobe gets his team to the #1 West seed I have no problem with him winning. But if Kobe doesn't catch Lebron statistically and both teams are close in seeding (2/3)--it should go to Lebron. In short people should have an open mind and let the season play until its end.
I'm just curious...if Lebron and Kobe switched teams, how do you think the Lakers and Cavs fair? Better, worse, or equal?
They are so close, I don't think it's possible to say one way or the other. One factor that needs mentioned also is the difference in coaching.
if lakers had LBJ instead of KOBE, they probably will start going down the drain, but KOBE on the cavs would lead the cavs to win the east
if kobe was white, he'd be a nine time defending mvp but instead he hasnt won a single mvp to hell to all those heartless kobe haters.. yall are more heartless than ronny turiaf ..literally
obviously everyone has Kobe blinders on.. or maybe it was the Gasol trade... but Lebron has been insane this year too. He is doing it all over the court with half the team Kobe has. Don't get me wrong.. Kobe is mr 4th qtr but if you compare who has the most 4th quarter points this year.. it's Lebron by a landslide. (saw it on sportscenter)
This thread has really brought out the village idiots now, or maybe they are just trolls. Well, since Lebron is scoring more and more efficiently, shooting a better percentage, rebounding more, and is a better distributor to teammates (both raw and efficiency)--the Lakers would be better. But we won't let facts get in the way of Kobe man love. That said I don't think the Cavs would be much worse with Kobe for Lebron—3rd to 5th seed in the East. Since they can really defend and rebound, they would compliment Kobe's league best one on one scoring abilities well. The Cavs if anything need even more shots from Lebron (particularly pre-trade), I am sure Kobe in his place would be happy to oblige.
You are out of your mind with your "selective facts". Would you like to factor in defense to your argument? Kobe is, without question, a better defender than Lebron and always guards the other team's best perimeter player. Who cares about scoring efficiency? Kobe scores when he needs to score and Kobe wins more games in the 4th qtr than Lebron. To say that the Cavs would go from 3rd to 5th with Kobe instead of Lebron is laughable.
not really. there is plenty of time during a game when he isn't. just like most any start. i hope everyone. although it's basically a dead heat when comparing true shooting percentages (lebron's FG% advantage goes away thanks to 3's and ft's). unless it's changed recently, the cavs have the most 4th quarter comebacks this year. i don't think those were larry hughes led comebacks. he said they would be anywhere from 3rd to 5th, which is about right.
You can't have your cake and eat it too, ParaSolid. The numbers show that Lebron James is having a better statistical season than Kobe Bryant. True, the Eastern Conference is weaker, but the numbers can't get discounted twice. Now to take your "all up on Kobe's nutsack" opinion to task, you admit that Kobe does less on his team because he doesn't have to put up more based on his roster. What would Kobe's and Lebron's stats be if they switched teams? You seem to think that Kobe would average 50 ppg if he had to go up against the Knicks every night. Hardly. But Kobe would score more, for sure, but no more than 2 - maybe 3 - points more a game on average for a season. What about the assists and rebounds? I can go on and on with you, but there's no point, really, in doing so. So all I can say in closing is that Lebron is having a better season THIS YEAR and is more valuable THIS YEAR to HIS TEAM than can be said of Kobe. Have fun at the Kobe love fest/circle-jerk with A.J. Adande.
Are you sure about that? According to 82games, At the end of close games the Cavs are 25-9 (.735) with LeBron on the court this season, with a significantly weaker supporting cast. In other words, they outscored the opponents in 25 games, and got outscored in 9 games, with LeBron on the court at the end of close games. In that time, LeBron scores over 49 points and gets 6.5 assists per 40 minutes played. By comparison, LA is 17-6 (.739) at the end of close games with Kobe on the court, and he scores 44 points and gets 4.3 assists per 40 minutes played. Kobe has done very well, don't get me wrong, but saying he "wins more games in the 4th" really isn't apparent when you look at the evidence. I know at least until recently Cleveland led the league in 4th quarter comebacks, LeBron led the league by a huge margin in 4th quarter scoring, and the Cavs were winless when LeBron didn't play. What does that tell you?
That the Kobe nutsackers don't care about evidence? Funny people called out about using such stats as points, efficiency, rebounds, assists, a/TO, etc. I sure was selective there. I also think Lebron is a tremendously underrated defender. Look at Kobe versus Lebron head to head of late. Even if Kobe is the better individual defender, it hardly makes up for other areas Lebron is better (particularly court vision and distributing the ball despite having lesser teammates to covert).
give me a break. The game was 99-98 cavs with 4 minutes left. He hit two threes that could be considered "stat padding." But oh no, only 44 points, 10 assists, 8 boards, 4 steals and 2 turnovers on 14-28 from the floor when the game was really in doubt. And believe it or not kobe stat pads as well. The guy puts up these kind of lines nightly with every team gearing their defense to shut him down.
It's nice to see that you're enamored by LeBron's 50 point outburst to beat the almighty Knicks. Regarding LeBron's higher RPG, well duh, he's a small forward, they typically out-rebound shooting guards. Did that get past you? More assists? He massages the ball until he can score or find an teammate whose defender commits to him. Why does he have to do that? Because Mike Brown has no clue how to run an offense. It's basically a Lebron clear-out every single time. The Cavs wouldn't even make the playoffs in the West...and you're saying LeBron's the MVP? Kobe averaged 31 points a game last season and 35 the season before that. This was in a WC with a lot of great defensive teams. He shot 45% or better in both seasons, while getting a large percentage of his points from the perimeter. He's shown he can carry a team. I'm sure he'd have no problem averaging a ridiculous amount of points especially when he gets to play the Milwaukees and the Philadelphias of the league 4 times a season. No more than 2 or 3 points better than LeBron's current average of 30? Pssh, yeah right. He'd average at least 35, and that's being conservative. I've seen the value of Kobe, that of a leader and someone who won't let his team lose. Being the MVP goes beyond stats. You think the Lakers would be in this position if Kobe wasn't playing? No. Even with Gasol and Odom, that team would probably miss the playoffs. LeBron is most valuable player on the Cavs team, and is more vital to their success than Kobe is to the Lakers simply because there's no one close to his talent level on that team. Does he deserve the MVP because of that? No, not really. T-Mac was doing the same thing in Orlando, but he didn't get the MVP, because Tim Duncan was doing less but winning more. OMG! I feel so insulted! Now I have no choice but to agree with you! If you're going to critique my opinion, do it without these dumb**** remarks. I didn't say anything to offend anybody, I'd appreciate it if you did the same.
