kelly dwyer or whatever the hell his name is, he's a total moron. on the pg rankings he put all sorts of bums ahead of aaron brooks. once i saw that he had jose calderon ahead of brooks i stopped reading it all together. putting wade ahead of kobe is similiar to putting drexler ahead of jordan in 1993. the guy is an idiot. his rankings are ridiculous.
He can, but he doesn't do it as well as Wade. The reason why I'd say Wade's ability to get to the basket trumps Kobe's jumpshot is because it makes him a more efficient scorer, plain and simple. The midrange jumper, while an important weapon to have, is the least efficient shot in basketball. I agree that I'd rather have Kobe taking shots at the end of games. But baskets in the 1st qtr are worth just as much as baskets in the 4th. Wade's lateral movement allows him to cut off penetration, and his long arms enable him to close out and contest the jump shots of taller players. Regardless, it's a moot point. The reason I brought up Artest is because even if Kobe is a better defensive player (arguable), he has less of an impact on the game on the other end of the floor since he's not guarding the other team's best player. Last year, Wade was almost always checking the other team's best perimeter threat. Moreover, who would you rather have guarding Chris Paul at the end of the game, Kobe or Wade? Well, where were all the assists when the Lakers were a mediocre team immediately after the departure of Shaq? You're arguing backwards. Wade wouldn't be shouldering the PG responsibilities if he didn't have the skills to handle them. For all intents and purposes, Kobe IS the Laker's PG. Fisher isn't a creater or playmaker in any sense. Odom's a dynamic player, but he doesn't handle the ball as much as he used to. But really, my argument about the PG skills has more to do with the fact that just watching them, I think Wade has a better handle and better vision. You disagree, whatever, we move on. We're not talking about greatness or legacy, we're just talking about which player is objectively better. If Wade had Kobe's jumper, this wouldn't even be an argument. Wade would be the better player, end of discussion. But Kobe STILL would have won the title last year, everything else being equal. Kobe's still going to be fighting injuries, and he's going to be fighting the inevitable decline that comes with aging. Wade's entering his prime. It's not like he was a slouch in the postseason last year either, he was incredible, but his team was terrible. Now Wade has an even better supporting cast than Kobe does, and we'll get a chance to see what he does in the postseason.
As requested by Kelly many times here, please don't post the entire article/section about the Rockets. He needs the clicks so we can continue to read quality writing from him. Please take the time to click on the link if you haven't already.
kobe has 3 or 4 more years of being in his prime. why do you think he worked out with hakeem in the summer. he knows he needs his game to evolve exactly like jordan's did. he knows he will wear down if he just dribbles around the top of the key all day. that is why he works in the post and does turn arounds. kobe could do turnaround jump shots until he is 40. lebron never posts up, and wade doesn't either. they drive from the front the whole time. jordan could probably average 15 a game still off shooting turn around jumpers and the man is 50
not only that, kobe will enter this year fresh as can be. he trains harder than anyone and takes care of his body more than anyone. the guy does yoga and leans himself down as much as he can. he is an absolute fitness guru. none of these injuries he has will linger. he knows how to rehab himself. kobe has one goal and that is to be considered the greatest player that ever lives and the only way he can do that is by winning 7 or 8 titles. even then people would try and claim jordan was still better. all i'm saying is just like jordan, kobe will play until he is 34 or 35 without decline. even if he drives less he will still be the best player just like jordan was for his last 3 pete. you really think he won't rehab out of his mind? kobe could probably bust his 81 point game next year if he wanted to, and the rest of his team sucked so he had to shoot every time. Kobe has had no decline
A midrange jumper is not less efficient than a three point shot and both Jordan and Hakeem made a career off of hitting midrange fadeways and they became their go to moves. Dwade won't last much longer if he can't switch up his style of play. Kobe not having to play defense has nothing to do with his defense not being better than Wade's defense. Just because he isn't force to play defense doesn't mean he isn't better at it when he is called upon. Second, if it was Chris Paul I might rather have Wade holding him but if it was Lebron, Durant, or Melo I would rather have Kobe so pretty much that is just arguing matchups. However, I do believe Kobe would matchup better against Paul than Wade would against Durant and Melo. The year after Shaq left Kobe averaged 6 assists a game which is only .6 below Wade's average and that just happens to be the only year he played in a non Phil Jackson offense. Also Kobe isn't the Lakers' pg it is clearly Fisher regardless of whether he is a creator or a playmaker. In the traingle offense Kobe isn't really asked to be a facilitator. Jordan was a pretty good passer himself but in the triangle offense he wasn't really asked to do the same things he once was and his assist numbers dropped. The offense that the Lakers' run is not one that is going to create high assist numbers. Even Pippen, who was considered the Bulls point forward, only averaged about 5 a game. The main point is Kobe isn't asked to be a high assist guy in the offense the Lakers' run. I'm not saying Kobe is the greatest sg of all time but he is the greatest sg in the game right now. But so that we want keep arguing semantics I'll go ahead and state that when i say greatness or best in this discussion they mean the same thing. Giving Wade Kobe's jumper is ridiculous to me. Kobe is arguably the greatest mid range jump shooter of all time and you can't just say if Wade was too he would be better than Kobe because that's exactly what makes Kobe better than him. I'm not arguing that Kobe wasn't on a better team I'm just arguing that he is better than Wade. But you are right about Wade having a supporting cast this year. Kobe has a team full of guys that were good players but not consistent all stars before they got to the team. People forget that Pau was only a one time all star in 5 seasons before he started playing with Kobe and now all of a sudden he is the best big man in basketball. If Wade and Lebron don't get that ring next year all the talk of them being better than Kobe should stop.
This is basically where I should tell myself to stop trying, but... Midrange jumpshots and three pointers generally do not lead to FTs. With this in mind... If a player shoots 300 3s, he needs to hit 33.3% to score 300 points If a player shoots 300 midrage shots, he needs to hit 50% to score 300 points Many players hit 33.3% or better on their 3pt attempts. Very few players hit 50% or better on midrange jumpshots. This is why the midrange shot is less efficient than a 3ptr or a shot at the rim. It's why guys like Ron Mercer are terribly inefficient scorers. Forget it. The point is, Wade guards 1s and 2s, Kobe guards 2s and 3s. It's pointless to bring up Melo, Durant etc. because Wade ISN'T going to guard those players (and Kobe isn't either!). It's like saying Karl Malone is a better defender than John Stockton because Stockton wouldn't be able to check Barkley in the post. First, I don't even know where your going with this, because when Kobe posted his career high in assists (6.0 per game), he wasn't even playing in the triangle offense. But at the end of the day we're not even arguing Kobe's assist numbers, simply who's possess the greater PG skills, i.e., ball-handling, court vision, passing ability. From looking at the numbers and watching both players on the court, there's not a lot of compelling evidence to suggest that Kobe bests Wade in this regard You clearly missed the point. It was just an example. Give Wade Ray Allen or Dell Curry's jumper, I don't care. The point was, if he had that, he'd be the best SG in the league WITHOUT question. And Kobe STILL would have won the title last year despite being the clearcut 2nd best SG in the league. Which illustrates the problem with judging a player's INDIVIDUAL standing among other players at their position by their TEAM accomplishments.
where did you decide that kobe never guards the other teams best player. he almost always guards the other teams best player, or whoever he needs to. when he played the thunder he guarded westbrook cause fisher was getting burned.http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/36837988/ns/sports-nba/
his percentage gets lowered because whenever they are way behind at the end of games he has to bomb 3s to try and get them back in it. and he is still at 46 percent
Midrange jumpers lead to free throws a lot more than three pointers do so you can't just take free throws out of the argument. Plus like somebody above said the midrange jumpshot opens up other parts of your game. If you are saying that it is more efficient for a player to take 15 3 pointers a game than 15 mid range jump shots a game then this is the point where i should tell myself to stop trying. No it's not. Comparing a pg to a pf is a completely different story. There are plenty of wing defenders that guard players at the 1,2 and 3 spot. Kobe can guard 1s,2s, & 3s as a whole better than Wade can. If Deron Williams is having a good game against the Lakers expect to see Kobe out there on him at some point. Can you say the same about Wade with regard to Durant/Melo minus him now having Lebron? Wade might be better at guarding some 1s than Kobe is but Kobe has the advantage when it comes to guarding other 2s and 3s. Where I was going is to say that Kobe had his best career assists numbers in an offense that wasn't the triangle offense. The point is that the triangle offense isn't one where he is going to get a lot of assists and in the one year that he wasn't running it his numbers went up. As far as court vision and all that goes I think it's a bit silly to think that Kobe couldn't run the pg position well if he wanted to and was asked to. If that was his job his numbers would go up but that isn't what he is asked to do. Kobe makes good passes when he wants to but most of the time he wants to shoot. Lastly, using his pg skills as a bonus for him being a better sg doesn't make all that much sense when he is the only of the two that handles a lot of the pg duties. If you are arguing about him being the best sg then talk about what he does as a sg and not as a pg. In a sport like basketball, team accomplishments and individual standing are very closely related. One great player can take his team all the way to the championship like Dream did back in 94. Kobe leading his team to two straight championships as the hands down best player on that team says a lot about his ability as a player. I am not saying that Kobe is the best because he was won two straight rings but I am saying that 2 straight rings on top of everything else he can do is a player is a testament to how good of a player he is and helps put him on top of Wade IMO.
when you get older you have to play with your back to the basket and be able to have a midrange game. kobe with his midrange game can play for a long long time. wade and lebron have to go to the hole to score. they don't put their back to the basket and try to get position that way. all the greats use the midrange game. jordan changed his game and by the later titles on the bulls he was all midrange. that isn't to say that he couldn't still drive whenever he wanted to. but kobe can drive whenever he wants to also. the midrange game is also what propelled olajuwon to dominance later in his career. when he hit his prime it was all midrange. yeah he still went to the hoop and had other moves. but the midrange is what makes all the greats
and while magic didn't have a turn around jumper, i don't see wade ever going to the hoop and doing sky hooks. you have to be able to post up and use the midrange game
you are probably one of those people who say kobe was 6-24 in game 7 of the finals so he shoots all jumpers. jordan would never do that they say. so therefore wade shoots a higher percentage and kobe must have some great team, and he is just overrated jordan in game 4 of the 96 finals 6-19 http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199606120SEA.html then game 6 of the finals 5-19 http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199606160CHI.html i bet most of them were jump shots. just like a lot of kobes, but in a 7 game series and with the other stuff they do both of them find a way to win and both of them basically hit 50 percent of all their jump shots. every once in a while they have off shooting games. at the end of the games these guys can almost always get off a good look. if jordan had shot a lower percentage than wade, would you say that wade was the better player. say this was 96 and wade was doing this then you are just coming up with reasons to discredit a guy. kobe is better than wade plain and simple. and to say that he isn't is absolutely ridiculous
