78.6% of NBA GM's picked Kobe as the player they want taking the last shot

Once you start talking about passing and creating in general, the argument has to go even more strongly in Lebron's favor. He has shown an ability to set up shots for his teammates and trust them to make the play. If Kobe gets a chance to take a game winner, he will. The only trust he puts in his teammates is that they'll bail him out by getting put backs.

 

Kobe's not as efficient as LeBron since he doesn't go to the hoop as often. But he's a better shooter from 4 feet out. With that ability, he can be still considerably efficient and let the bigs operate inside. LeBron, on the other hand, cannot cooperate low post offensive player. Everyone has to get out of his way and better practice 3pt. They are not shooting more efficient as a team, the team is giving their own efficient shots to LeBron.

Gasol consistently shot 5%+ higher in Lakers than in Memphis. Shaq shot 4.3% lower than the season earlier, Jamison 3.5% after changing team. That's just how Kobe and LeBron impacted their game, respectively.

 

Winning is about quantity, not quality. Efficiency stats are great for fantasy leagues but for actual basketball, it doesn't matter how you get a win, a win is a win.

Vince Carter is a good example of this. He's more efficient than Kobe but he's one of the biggest chokers ever.

It doesn't matter how efficiently you get a win or how pretty you win a game.

It's about winning the game....the more the better.

There are definitely areas where Lebron is better than Kobe but he's nowhere close when it comes to game winners.

 

before last season, kobe got 89% of the vote, despite the fact he was 14 of his last 56 in those situations. apparently the GM's aren't particularly concerned with numbers or currentness when it comes to voting for clutchness, but rather perception and reputation.

over that same time period, kobe had 1 game winning assist, lebron had 6. not sure how looking at all around playmaking in the clutch is going to go kobe's way.

 

Thank you for making an intelligent, logical post that reflects the fact that both objective and subjective criteria should probably go into this decision. All things considered, I would have put Lebron, Pierce, and Melo ahead of Kobe using a combination of what I've seen them do and what the stats say they do.

And for those who keep trying to discredit me as some nutcase because I picked "Steve_Francis_rules" as a username 11 years ago, I just want to point out that Stevie's percentage on game winning shots is 16% higher than Kobe's.

Can we at least all agree that Chauncey Billups does not at all deserve his reputation for hitting clutch shots? The guy 6/37 on game winners from 04-09.

 

Right, name one player made better or shot more efficient by LeBron's playmaking? Hughes, Wally, Mo, Shaq, Jamison, anyone at all?

Starbury and AI averaged 8 assists too in some seasons and they were still ballhog.

 

Nice try goodbug, but Mo and Jamison both saw their true shooting percentages rise when they teamed with Lebron. They dropped in FG%, but when you account for the extra open threes they were hitting, they were actually scoring more efficiently. Hughes and Wally also had seasons with a TS% higher than their career averages while playing with Lebron.

The only example you gave that fits your argument is Shaq, and there was a lot more going on there than just a change of teams. Like the fact that he didn't show up in the same shape he did his last year in Phoenix and the fact that he was no longer benefiting from that miracle-working team of trainers they have.

 

Chauncey is Mr. Big Shot cause he has been known to hit the big shots in the playoffs when it matters. Regular season games count but the pressure on you for hitting a game winning shot during the regular season is know where close to what it is in the playoffs. I'd take Chauncey over a lot of players in a big playoff games because he has been there before and came through.

 

i guess kobe, but he definitely isnt clutch as some of the players in the past. i would take bird or jordan, or even reggie miller to take the last shot over kobe. most of kobe's game winners last season came from regular season games. i think he missed 2 or 3 potential clutch shots in the thunder series where he got bailed out by artest and gasol.

 

Lebron sucks at taking the last "shot"

going to the basket and begging for a call at the last minute? yeah, I'd take Lebron.

 

Nice lie. So you want to talk about TS%. Hughes had his worst days in Cavs. Only one season over .500 at .504, others below .500 Hughes had 2 seasons over .52, one over .51, before and after Cavs. He's close to all star status in Wizards, had difficulty to start after Cavs.

Wally saw a huge slump in both pts and fg% once he changed, recovered from it next season, but getting 8 points less than in Seattle. Never got a job since.

Jamsion, TS% .002 higher than in Wizards that season, 0.019 less than 08-09. And don't forget Jamison is getting almost 5 points less.

Only Mo is shooting better for TS%, and only from 3pt line. And he got 2 assists less than in Bucks.

Shaq, I don't want to go into there.

Overall, you confirm my theory, the more the player is close to excel under hoop and the less he's a 3pt good shooter, the bigger he suffers from LeBron's play style.

 

Those are good points, maybe I'm not being objective enough. Can you share your source on how you found the 14/56 and game winning assists? I don't know where to find that.

Offensive creation is fairly difficult to quantify and I certainly can't say that raw assist numbers (1:6) accurately capture a player's ability in this area.

Another thing to consider is that when you get deep in the playoffs, usually only the best defensive teams are left standing. Players face different defenses at this point than they did in the regular season, defenses that collapse in the lane faster and rotate more effectively. I would imagine that this favors Kobe's perimeter-oriented style of play, but that's only theoretical. I'd like to see some numbers on clutch playoff performance for a starting point.

For some reason, my subjective viewing experience tells me that Kobe has been a go-to guy in far more high stakes games than almost anyone else currently, and that is where his advantage is derived from.

 

According to what? You're +/- stats

The guy is triple & double teamed in the clutch more than anybody, yet he the most game winners. Do stats measure the difficulty of shots a player hit?

 

I don't think that's important. But against good playoff team, LeBron's team lost more close games than they should. e.g. They lost 3 out of 4 close games in Magic series, Magic didn't even have an elite perimeter player.

Kobe's team has been through may close battle in playoff and his team came out on the winning side more often than not.
Call it luck or whatever, even if Kobe missed a winning shot, his team had better chance to put it back, because the other team was entirely focused on him.

 

So you also think they should have voted for Joe Johnson and Vince Carter? I guess we should also throw Rashard Lewis in there. I mean you must think that if you're basically calling the GMs idiots and pointing to that stat as proof.

 

vince carter is clutchm I dint understand people here calling him a choker, I've seen enough GW from him throughout his carrer

 

Call it Kobe having a lot more help. He's arguably 2nd fiddle on most of his championship teams.

 

GM must dislike lebron for what he did this offseason too i guess. some of that polls that should have lebron as #1, he wasn't even on the list.

and steve_francis, why are you keep arguing with these guys? stats tell the story for INDIVIDUAL players. kobe fan boys dont' want to look at the stats. you just need to stop talking to them.

facts are facts.

 

He is, 3 out of 5 he's the robin. Still way better than 0 as a the batman and 0 as the robin.

 

This is very funny. I get that GM can be biased. But I am amazed LeBron fanboys take 0 vote as a result of offseason and not interior skills of LeBron.