LeBron casually led the league in scoring at 37, while still giving you his career average in rebounds and assists.
LeBron is still the best all around and most versatile player in the NBA
No one combines the size, strength, speed, vision, scoring ability and consistency that man gives you on a night in, night out basis.
He's still top 2 or 3 in the NBA, period.
Let's look at all the guys you people try to put over him:
LeBron is legitimately a better all around player than Steph. I don't need to pull out their numbers for this, but Steph only played 8 more games than LeBron and got 5 less points on about the same attempts, and the same amount of assists, even though Steph is a point guard. Steph obviously is the better FT shooter, and only made 1.6 more threes per game (while taking three more attempts per game) and that's basically his claim to fame. LeBron just does more things offensively and defensively, including the ability to guard 1-4 effectively. If Steph has a bad shooting night, he is effectively useless. LeBron is still grabbing rebounds and dropping dimes, and doesn't get hidden on defense
The only metric Giannis beats LeBron is total rebounds per game (11.6 to 8.2), which he should, because he's a seven footer and not a perimeter player, even though he wants to be and spends a significant amount of time out there. LeBron beats him in points, assists, free throws, steals and has a similar number of blocks (1.1 to 1.4). You really cannot make a case for Giannis being better than LeBron offensively, and you have to turn to the defensive side, which I would give the nod to Giannis. At its absolute worst, this is a barely even matchup.
This is an offensive contest. Luka has Bron beat in assists and rebounds, and LeBron beats him in scoring and scoring on significantly better efficiency, on every area of the court. They shot and made about the same number of threes. Bron shot a higher percentage from the line, had less turnovers, more steals and more blocks. There isn't a world were Luka loses in this many stats and he's better than Bron.
I saw Morant mentioned earlier and I was completely puzzled. LeBron beats Morant in literally every single statistical area that we measure, including defensive win shares. You literally cannot back up the claim that Morant is better than LeBron in any area of basketball, and Bron did this in his 19th season.
Another puzzling selection. LeBron beat him in every single statistical measure except free throw shooting. Defensively, I think Tatum is better than LeBron, but LeBron has been coasting for a minute, so it's hard to compare.
Yet another player LeBron is statistically better than in every single stat, outside of free throw shooting and 3 point shooting percentage (even though LeBron made MORE threes than Durant last year. LeBron's percentage is lower because Durant took 3 less attempts per game). Durant played one less game than LeBron last year, so I'm not even sure where people are getting this from.
This is a wash, and I can understand people going either way. They are essentially dead even from a statistical point of view (Joel wins in scoring*, rebounds and FTs, LeBron wins in assists, FGs, steals and 3s). I reluctantly give Embiid the defensive nod, but when you're probably the biggest player in the NBA, and you guard nobodies for the majority of the season, it's not really a fair comparison. Embiid dominates a weak position, being a true Center in a game full of 230lb SFs and PFs playing "Center".
LeBron plays the most competitive position in the league, and even then, he's guarding multiple positions, which Embiid does not do. LeBron's defensive numbers took a hit because of Vogel playing him out of position against guys like KAT, and the Lakers being a terrible defensive rotation team. It's not a fair comparison.
*Also, Embiid's scoring win was inflated by LeBron not playing the last couple of games. That could be considered a wash too.
This is the player I would say comes the closest to supplanting LeBron as the best player in the NBA (numbers-wise). He destroys LeBron on the boards, shoots a better percentage than LeBron overall and from the line, and beats his assist numbers. LeBron is the better pure scorer and shooter. As all around players, they are incredibly close, and anyone arguing for Nikola over Father Bron would get zero argument for me.
The top three players in the game are currently
1. Jokic
2. LeBron
3. Embiid
Steph, KD, Tatum, Luka, Kawhi and Giannis get in where they fit in. I would rank them like this, but I wouldn't really care how you ordered these guys:
If you don't have a top 5 postseason player you're not winning the championship.
The top 5 post postseason players barring injuries are:
* Lebron
* Giannis
* Curry
* Durant
* Kawhi
This is the only list that really matters...These 5 players have won 10 of the last 11 championships...Until one of the other elite players wins a Championship, this is the only list that matters. If you substituted any of these players for Tatum, Boston would've won the championship.....Yeah, I know Tatum beat KD, but the Kyrie/Simmons drama really screwed the Nets up.
If you don't have a top 5 postseason player you're not winning the championship.
The top 5 post postseason players barring injuries are:
* Lebron
* Giannis
* Curry
* Durant
* Kawhi
This is the only list that really matters...These 5 players have won 10 of the last 11 championships...Until one of the other elite players wins a Championship, this is the only list that matters. If you substituted any of these players for Tatum, Boston would've won the championship.....Yeah, I know Tatum beat KD, but the Kyrie/Simmons drama really screwed the Nets up.
As I said, Barring injuries......Curry, Lebron, Kawhi, and AD have all missed the playoffs 1 or 2 times over the last 4 seasons due to injuries, not because they played poorly.
He's proven himself to be one of the most effective high-volume scorers in a postseason climate (over a generous sample size), which is the ultimate acid test for an elite player. And with the margin of natural progression given his age, I don't see any issue with folks putting him in their top-10 rankings.
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