10. Blake Griffin
9. Deron Williams
8. Derrick Rose
7. Kobe Bryant
6. Kevin Durant
5. Dirk Nowitzki
4. Chris Paul
3. Dwayne Wade
2. Dwight Howard
1. LeBron James
The Enigma that is Lebron James
I get it. Lebron's production is off the charts, and he is the ultimate stat stuffer. I predicted that last year the Heat would challenge the Bulls for the all-time best record and that the King would average close to, if not, a triple double. Which of course was before I saw how flawed a team the Heat were. That being said, by the time the playoffs started I thought they had righted the ship, and they were my favorite to win the championship. I had given Lebron a pass for his previous playoff failures simply because I knew that his previous Cleveland Cavalier teams weren't very good and that the Orlando Magic led by Dwight Howard and the Boston Celtics defensively led by Kevin Garnett made perimeter players mortal. Even the likes of Kobe Bryant, who almost shot the Lakers out of winning a championship until Pau Gasol saved them with gutsy play (that we haven't seen from him since), was limited by the Celtics' incredible team defense. But not this year, no sir. With Dwayne Wade on his side and Chris bosh, no way they can clog the lanes and keep LeBron down. He's just too talented to not bring home the title. THE BEST PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE playing with the 3rd best player - no way.
I was dead wrong. Not only have I jumped off the bandwagon, I'm running along the side of it, throwing burning bottles of booze at it. Not only do I not think Lebron James is the best player in the NBA, I would argue that he is the WORST kind of superstar to have.
In basketball, you build your team around the superstars. You find out what they do incredibly well, and then you plug in the pieces. Consider this: in the NBA finals, everyone on both teams played near or surpassed what they did in the regular season except one player - Lebron James. He was the only one that didn't come close to putting up the numbers that he normally does, and that's fine to a point, but you still gotta get your numbers, even if it means shooting more at a lower field goal percentage. A team will average between 92-108 pts scored per game. When a guy throughout the year averages 26-28 of those points and then it starts to trickle down, we now have to come up with an additional 65-81 pts. When someone averages over 25% of your points scored, that means that the ball is in their hands a lot, which means that other players don't get many touches. Offense in sports is all about finding a rhythm, and if a player does not get the ball much, it's harder for him to establish that rhythm.
LeBron every season averages between 26-30 pts a game. When he has been eliminated in the playoffs, he performs woefully under his playoff production. Last year he averaged 27 points in the reg season and in the finals, 14.3...ouch. I know that he played great in the 1st three rounds in the playoffs, but he hit 17-41 from 3-point range, which is nowhere near what he normally did, and after Game 1 where he hit 4-5 against Dallas from 3-point-land, he was effectively exposed. He has no real mid-range game and no post moves, so teams know that if they don't let him drive the lane, he will shoot threes and that doesn't get it done in the playoffs. LBJ, I still believe you have a lot of time left to stake claim as one of the 10 best players to ever play the game, but greatness is all about winning championships.
I was dead wrong. Not only have I jumped off the bandwagon, I'm running along the side of it, throwing burning bottles of booze at it. Not only do I not think Lebron James is the best player in the NBA, I would argue that he is the WORST kind of superstar to have.
In basketball, you build your team around the superstars. You find out what they do incredibly well, and then you plug in the pieces. Consider this: in the NBA finals, everyone on both teams played near or surpassed what they did in the regular season except one player - Lebron James. He was the only one that didn't come close to putting up the numbers that he normally does, and that's fine to a point, but you still gotta get your numbers, even if it means shooting more at a lower field goal percentage. A team will average between 92-108 pts scored per game. When a guy throughout the year averages 26-28 of those points and then it starts to trickle down, we now have to come up with an additional 65-81 pts. When someone averages over 25% of your points scored, that means that the ball is in their hands a lot, which means that other players don't get many touches. Offense in sports is all about finding a rhythm, and if a player does not get the ball much, it's harder for him to establish that rhythm.
LeBron every season averages between 26-30 pts a game. When he has been eliminated in the playoffs, he performs woefully under his playoff production. Last year he averaged 27 points in the reg season and in the finals, 14.3...ouch. I know that he played great in the 1st three rounds in the playoffs, but he hit 17-41 from 3-point range, which is nowhere near what he normally did, and after Game 1 where he hit 4-5 against Dallas from 3-point-land, he was effectively exposed. He has no real mid-range game and no post moves, so teams know that if they don't let him drive the lane, he will shoot threes and that doesn't get it done in the playoffs. LBJ, I still believe you have a lot of time left to stake claim as one of the 10 best players to ever play the game, but greatness is all about winning championships.
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