I’m tempted to translate “aren’t captured primarily in his stats” as “pretty much don’t exist.” I won’t because I understand that in the '10-‘11 finals he was frustrated by Dallas’ defense, was not aggressive enough, and came up small, but even so it indicates that people’s view of LeBron is based more on how they feel about him than what he does.
That’s an indication of selective focus by his critics, not a failing by LeBron. Not to deny that his flaws exist, but this is pretty much the same as the increasingly discredited nonsense you get about clutch baseball players: people focus on particular moments in defining somebody and blow them out of proportion because it feels like they tell a meaningful story. Sometimes they don’t, and the focus on those stories can expand to the exclusion of reality.
Probably not, and it makes some people crazy. Of course, Kobe’s selfish desire is so selfish that it often hurts his own team - something he was constantly bashed for between the Shaq trade and the Paul Gasol trade and which has increasingly popped up again as the Lakers have declined. This season he was very good overall and not all that good in clutch moments. Meanwhile the stats said LeBron was about as good as Kevin Durant in those kinds of situations this season. But of course Kobe’s teams have won championships, which buries all flaws.
As much as I can appreciate where you are coming from, I think we both know that stats do not always capture what happens on the floor.
Most critiques will have a “selective focus” to some extent.
It doesn’t bury all his flaws. It does show the mentality he has for basketball. I think Kobe’s problem is less selfishness, and more self-destructiveness (eg. the Colorado sexual assault incident, running Phil out of town). But that said, when you are trying to differentiate between guys at that level talent-wise, the things that separates them most often is that intangible will to win. Kobe is not a better player (talent-wise) than Lebron, but he seems to view himself as someone who is destined to make history, and willing to put his ass on the line to do it. Kobe plays like he is playing against Jordan, Magic and Bird. His current competition is beneath him; all that matters is what the history books say. Maybe James can develop that mentality, but he hasn’t yet. And the fact that he hasn’t means any discussion of him being a top 10 player are a little premature.
To prove my point. If Kobe were magically 27 again, would you take Lebron over him if you are trying to win a championship? Who do you give the ball to with 10 seconds left?
Here are LeBron’s playoff stats (first is current series, second is total playoff numbers)
Minutes - 45.6; 41.9
FG% - .500; .496
3P% - .273; .267
FT% - .648; .728
REB - 10.0; 9.1
ASST - 4.0; 5.3
STL - 1.4; 2.1
BLK - 1.6; 0.8
TO - 3.4; 3.4
PTS - 31.8; 29.9
Those are pretty monster numbers. I agree that “clutch” is oftentimes tied to a narrative that may not hold water when the actual statistics are examined; yet I also agree (to a much lesser extent) that there have been instances, when the stage was set, so to speak, where he didn’t make a signature play in dramatic fashion - Jordan switching hands on a layup, Magic’s skyhook on the parquet, for example.
To me, he is joy to watch, ever since I saw him play in a televised game from his Soph or Jr year. Truly a transcendent, generational player. However, his game lacks a je ne sais quoi (grace? a touch of the sublime?); and the back to back gaffes of “the decision” and “not one, not 2…” remain hanging over him, his lasting legacy to this point.
Yup. And when that focus is not sensibly chosen and it distorts the critiques, the critiques are not credible. We’re drifting away from the original defense topic here, so I will say that last night LeBron shut down Pierce defensively and destroyed the Celtics on offense. There’s not too much else you can ask the guy to do in one game. He should do it again in game 7, and if he does they’ll very likely win. He’s had other huge games in the playoffs over the years, of course, but they don’t always get as much attention as his failures the last few years - and Kobe’s awful game 7 from a couple of seasons ago doesn’t get much attention either because his team won anyway. I’m not hearing a lot of talk about the fact that Wade has had four bad games in a row in this series either. But maybe this belongs in the more general NBA thread rather than a thread about versatility on defense.
As to the OP: Back in the day when Don Nelson coached the Milwaukee Bucks, they were rather successful playing ‘small ball’. One big reason for this was the ability of Junior Bridgeman (a 6-5 guard/forward) to defend all 5 spots on the floor. While he was not a ‘shut down’ defender at the 4 or 5, he had the ability to get under the balance point of centers and power forwards to keep them from using their weight to back him out of his defensive position, along with the quickness to get into the passing lanes and deny ball entry.
Bridgeman was a good shooter and scorer so the net result of his defense on bigger players and the fact that they would get quickly fatigued trying to chase him around on the offensive end (remember - these were pre-zone days), usually ended up in Bridgeman outscoring them and helped to make Don Nelson’s small ball a winning strategy.
