Which NBA Player Has the fewest flaws in their game?

[mastermind]

But y’all have no problem calling certain other players with large offensive burdens lockdown defenders.

The closest I’ve seen on the perimeter was Kobe during the 1999/2000 season. He never defended that well again, and was living off his rep for the rest of his career.

LeBron was never that level.

Draymond and KG are the best defenders I’ve seen.

 

[ISO]

Lol at anyone considering lebron a lockdown defender...cmon man

This clown here is one of the biggest propagators of LeBron not being a lockdown defender despite in his prime being considered one by peers, coaches, media and in actual games being trusted to guard the best/hottest player on the floor regardless of position throughout his teams championship runs.

 

[ISO]

The closest I’ve seen on the perimeter was Kobe during the 1999/2000 season. He never defended that well again, and was living off his rep for the rest of his career.

LeBron was never that level.

Draymond and KG are the best defenders I’ve seen.

How for example is Kobe in 2000 more of a lockdown defender than LeBron in 2012?

The Tony Parker numbers are there by the way in the IG post.

 

[ISO]

How is LeBron doing this to a scorer of Carmelo Anthony caliber in the playoffs yet there are people on this site who refuse to call him a lockdown defender particularly Kobe stans and LeBron haters.

Meanwhile, Scottie Pippen is unanimously called a lockdown defender despite throughout the 90’s having never faced or locked down a scorer of Carmelo’s caliber. I mean Grant Hill crossed this nikka out his sneakers.

 

[killacal]

How is LeBron doing this to a scorer of Carmelo Anthony caliber in the playoffs yet there are people on this site who refuse to call him a lockdown defender particularly Kobe stans and LeBron haters.

Meanwhile, Scottie Pippen is unanimously called a lockdown defender despite throughout the 90’s having never faced or locked down a scorer of Carmelo’s caliber. I mean Grant Hill crossed this nikka out his sneakers.

This sports math you're doing is embarrassing drake smiley be damned

 

[ISO]

This sports math you're doing is embarrassing drake smiley be damned

Refute the points or don’t quote me.

 

[ISO]

I want to know why so many Kobe stans have made it a point to diminish LeBron’s defensive ability without fail you always see it

 

[killacal]

I want to know why so many Kobe stans have made it a point to diminish LeBron’s defensive ability without fail you always see it

Do you even work breh this is unhealthy

 

[Jplaya2023]

This nikka said Mark fukking Jackson who averaged 7 points per game and was also 32

LeBron was out here checking players like Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose in the playoffs in their primes my man

Pippen didn’t face the same quality of competition as LeBron has in his career as a defensive player that’s just a fact.

By the way LeBron would average more steals had his career played out in the 80’s and 90’s because of the shrunk court and style of play. It’s a reason players averaged more steals then.

the ENTIRE Miami team guarded rose that series. Let's keep this a buck. Rose had keith bogawd, and deng flanking him with carlos "begin" boozer and noah as his bigs. Rose had no spacing on the court. Parker used to torch lebron because the entire team couldn't collapse on his like they did rose.

Also the narrative that pippen didn't face the same competition as lebron just has to stop. That narrative is tired and trash. Pippen came into the league guarding MVP larry bird and left guarding Tmac and Kobe. If you want to sit here and compile a list we can but it's futile because pippen guarded some of the guys lebron guarded. you act as if pippen played in the 40s and lebron played now.

I brought up Mark Jackson to show you how Pippen disrupted an entire teams offense with his defense. Scottie's defense is immeasurable you can't just look at the stats you have to look at the impact.

 

[ISO]

Do you even work breh this is unhealthy

So you got nothing copy.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Literally every player has flaws, but the best answer I can come up with is mid-90s Hakeem. He wasn't a great free throw shooter and didn't have range out to 3pt, but that's nit-picking for a center as good as him.

Steph and Nash flawless offensively but both food on Defense . MJ/Dream/Kobe/KD flawless on O and Def

MJ struggled from the normal 3pt distance.

Dream was a below-average FT shooter

Kobe took too many bad shots and gambled a ton defensively, failed to show out in big games too often

Durant isn't a good defender when he's not protected by better ones and also came up short in big games too often (though was better last year)

 

[Professor Emeritus]

How for example is Kobe in 2000 more of a lockdown defender than LeBron in 2012?

Penny had no problem scoring in the 2000 WCSF

Reggie and Jalen were running a train on Kobe in the 2000 Finals

Lakers had to switch Kobe off of Iverson in the 2001 Finals cause he was getting manhandled

Rip and Billups scored just fine in the 2004 Finals


Kobe was great on certain possessions, but for a full game? Is there a single all-star level player that Kobe locked down in the playoffs at any point in his career?

 

[ISO]

the ENTIRE Miami team guarded rose that series. Let's keep this a buck. Rose had keith bogawd, and deng flanking him with carlos "begin" boozer and noah as his bigs. Rose had no spacing on the court. Parker used to torch lebron because the entire team couldn't collapse on his like they did rose.

Also the narrative that pippen didn't face the same competition as lebron just has to stop. That narrative is tired and trash. Pippen came into the league guarding MVP larry bird and left guarding Tmac and Kobe. If you want to sit here and compile a list we can but it's futile because pippen guarded some of the guys lebron guarded. you act as if pippen played in the 40s and lebron played now.

I brought up Mark Jackson to show you how Pippen disrupted an entire teams offense with his defense. Scottie's defense is immeasurable you can't just look at the stats you have to look at the impact.

Now this. Let’s stop the bullshyt if it was Pippen he would be lauded for locking up Rose. It wouldn’t matter what help was provided by Harper, Brown, Jordan, Rodman, etc. The circumstances of D-Rose roster would not be brought up. It would just stand as is but since it’s LeBron all these semantics have to be applied.

Stopping a great scorer is always a team effort and a team defense always tries to leverage the rosters weaknesses against the star player that’s normal basketball shyt.

The fact of the matter is that LeBron held Rose to 1-of-15 (6% FG) when he was his primary defender in the 4Q’s of the 2011 ECF. He was Miami’s most effective primary defender minimum 5 plays on Rose. He was also a huge part of shutting Rose down off-ball with his switching, rim protection, and hedging on screens. But let’s not credit him because it’s LeBron.

Parker did not torch LeBron. He shot 22% in 4Q’s against him as his primary in the 2013 Finals.

Look at the article I posted or the IG post with the stats and live reaction.

 

[ISO]

the ENTIRE Miami team guarded rose that series. Let's keep this a buck. Rose had keith bogawd, and deng flanking him with carlos "begin" boozer and noah as his bigs. Rose had no spacing on the court. Parker used to torch lebron because the entire team couldn't collapse on his like they did rose.

Also the narrative that pippen didn't face the same competition as lebron just has to stop. That narrative is tired and trash. Pippen came into the league guarding MVP larry bird and left guarding Tmac and Kobe. If you want to sit here and compile a list we can but it's futile because pippen guarded some of the guys lebron guarded. you act as if pippen played in the 40s and lebron played now.

I brought up Mark Jackson to show you how Pippen disrupted an entire teams offense with his defense. Scottie's defense is immeasurable you can't just look at the stats you have to look at the impact.

The narrative isn’t trash it’s the truth on average on a nightly basis LeBron had tougher defensive matchups and in the playoffs definitely had much tougher matchups.

Outside of Jordan who was his teammate there weren’t high volume scoring wings. Of course over a 17 year career you can nitpick certain names.

It’s funny actually most of the high volume scoring wings came when he was a young guy or when he was old.

In his prime throughout the 90’s who were the overly skilled high volume scoring wings he faced? Which ones did he lock down. Drop the names. Even the best wings outside of Jordan most weren’t shooting over 15 times a game.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

LeBron has never been a lockdown defender

Ask all-star Paul Pierce who was guarding him when he averaged 13ppg on 34% shooting in the 2010 ECSF, miles worse than the rest of his playoff series that year.

Ask MVP-level Rose who was locking him down in the 4th quarters of the 2011 ECSF.

Ask prime 2012 Carmelo who his toughest defender was in the playoffs.

Ask Tony Parker who locked him down in the 2013 Finals.

LeBron has as many examples of locking down all-star caliber players in the playoffs as anyone else in this conversation.

The closest I’ve seen on the perimeter was Kobe during the 1999/2000 season. He never defended that well again, and was living off his rep for the rest of his career.

LeBron was never that level.

Here are the top perimeter players Kobe faced in the 2000 postseason:

2000 WCSF: Penny Hardaway 21ppg on 49/29/74 splits (averaged 17ppg regular season)
2000 WCF: Steve Smith 18ppg on 47/60/90 splits (averaged 15ppg regular season)
2000 Finals: Miller 24ppg on 41/38/98 splits and Rose 23ppg on 47/50/83 splits (both averaged 18ppg regular season)

If Kobe in 2000 was the greatest lockdown defender you've seen, then who the fukk was he locking down?

and the Spurs almost won an NBA finals because LeBron isn’t an elite shooter.

Could also be framed as "And the Heat, Cavs, and Lakers all won NBA Finals on LeBron's shooting." Bron has a better history of clutch shooting games in pressure playoffs (facing elimination) than Kobe does. Hell, his overall shooting in the playoffs and in the Finals is better than Kobe's too.

He has become one over the years, but his defense has been trash since.

Trash since when? Bron's defense was elite in 2016 and 2020 while taking them to a title both times.