I like Melo in this one. He's very good and backing people down and playing with his back to the basket in addition to a superb jump shot and 3pt shot. and he comes through in the clutch.
I think it's because in the playoffs defenses tend to focus on fortifying their interior defense, making it essential for scorers to get a bigger proportion of their points from jumpshots. LeBron is so beastly, though, that even in the playoffs he can plow through defenses and still get to the rim. The guy is unreal.
I don't really like this argument that Durant is better all over the court. Taking this reasoning to the extreme, you could argue that Steve Kerr (or any other great shooter) was a better scorer than Wilt Chamberlain because you would feel more confident having Kerr take the shot anywhere outside the paint. Obviously with Durant vs. Lebron, we're at least comparing two great scorers. My point is just that how you score is irrelevant (IMO) to the discussion of who is the best scorer. It's all about how often you score and how efficiently you score.
Ya know I always saw this forum's members to be honest,ubiased, and humble, But Im gonna forget the humbleness and say Hell Yeah Durants a better scorer than James
I think you are stating the obvious here. I agree that how often and how efficiently a player scores being the primary factors that should be taken into account when evaluated who the "best scorer" is, and I did not fail to neglect those measurements. It's just that Lebron and Durant are literally neck-and-neck in PPG and TS% last time I looked, so I didn't think it was necessary to address those variables. It's because they are so close in those measurements that I give the edge to Durant because of his all-around scoring percentages. Durant wouldn't be in the conversation to begin with if his PPG and scoring efficiency weren't comparable to Lebron's (just as Steve Kerr wouldn't, to reference back to your extreme example). That's just common sense to me.
you know whats interesting? none of them have a history of going off against US. For most of the last 4 years, we've shutdown or alteast contained lebron on many occasions and we play kobe as well as you can possibly play him and durant never really just torches us. This is of course because we've had premier wing defenders (shane/artest/and later ariza) backed up by premier rim protectors (yao/mutombo/hayes). Now, i do believe Melo has become a beast and thats my vote but who of them has the highest scoring average against us?
LeBron and Kobe never need to and we match up really well against the thunder. Look at the other super elite and they handle us every time because they're forced to step up for their team; Wade, Roy, Dirk do it every single time. You're seriously deluding yourself if you think the Rockets defense shutdown the best scorers in the league.
funny thing is he leads the league the in 1st quarter and 4th quarter points, and statistically those are the two most important quarters of a game. That just adds to his level of awesome.
With Durant, you are correct. But there are some people using the same reasoning to justify Kobe or Melo, and those guys are neck-and-neck with Lebron in PPG and TS%.
I would like to answer with Durant but i think if each of these players were told by their coaches 'don't pass the ball get out there and score on every possession' than LeBron would take it. Granted i'm in Australia thus see very minimal coverage of Durant in games unfortunately and see a great deal of LeBron... But on his drives when his head is down and he's got the mindset 'whatever defense i'm getting mine' it's either a layup or shooting foul. I sit there thinking if LeBron did that every possession the entire team would be fouled out in the first half. Once again - this answer is only based on seeing blanket coverage of LeBron.
