Kobe vs. LeBron

February 11, 2009 at 7:43 am · by bteitelbaum · Filed under Lakers, Rants and Raves, Stats

As we all know by now, Kobe and LeBron tore up Madison Square Garden in back-to-back games last week, prompting reinvigorated debate over who is better. One of the many persistent arguments used by King James backers focuses on passing ability. They claim that LeBron is far superior at getting his teammates involved and creating easy shots for them. Furthermore, the stats back them up; James averages 7.1 assists/game, as compared to Bryant’s 5, and the Knicks saw them drop 11 and 3 dimes, respectively.

I don’t deny that LeBron is a fantastic passer, and I’m not going to contend here that Kobe is better in that facet of the game. However, I will say that the above argument ignores a vital piece of the big picture. I have read a lot of sports articles recently, and not one has mentioned the LAKER’S PASSING ABILITY AS A TEAM. Kobe gets a ridiculous amount of “hockey assists” – plays in which he makes the second pass before a bucket, or in which his pass directly leads to someone else’s assist. How often have we witnessed the following chain of events: Bryant gets doubled or at least draws help, then Bryant passes to a big (Gasol/Odom) in the high post, then that big goes high-low to another big (Gasol/Odom/Bynum) who finishes the play. It happens all the time. Although this hockey assist stat is not recorded, it is a crucial aspect to a team’s offense efficiency. Kobe and LeBron average practically the same amount of shot attempts per game (20.9 – 20.3), so it’s not as if Kobe is looking to score significantly more than LeBron. And whereas Kobe’s passes may not lead to direct baskets as often as LeBron’s passes, I would definitely argue that Kobe puts his team in a position to get a good shot as much as anyone in the league.

Check out these stats:

• The Lakers are the second best team in the league in terms of total assists, at 23.2 per game, while the Cavs sit at lowly number twenty-four, with only 20.2.
• Only two Cleveland players aside from LeBron average more than 1.7 assists/game, while Los Angeles has six who do it besides Kobe.
• Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Ben Wallace, and Anderson Varejao dish out a combined 3 helpers, while Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum dish out 7.4
• Ilaguskas averages 15.1 shots per 36 minutes and makes 50% of them, while Gasol makes 56% of his 12.3 attempts.

If Pau shot the ball with the same frequency as Big Z – that is to say, if he hoisted up a midrange jumper every time he got the rock after a pick-and-roll – Kobe would definitely average more assists per game. But Gasol is more circumspect and tries to find the best shot possible for his team. In fact, most of the Lakers play that way. Thus Kobe’s specific assist totals are relatively modest.

So let’s not forget that Kobe knows how to move the ball and is a willing passer. He’s shooting the best percentage of his entire career because he’s forcing things less than in past years. He now completely trusts his teammates, and that’s why the Lakers are the best offensive team in the league. And obviously there are still nights when he just feels it and wants to score. Please stop preaching critically about Kobe’s scoring in garbage time against the Knicks. If you had the opportunity to break the MSG scoring record, you would totally gun for it. Don’t even pretend that you wouldn’t. Just because you could never shoot 19-31 or go down in hoops history doesn’t mean you should begrudge Kobe.

For visual evidence that Kobe (and the Lakeshow) can drop dimes, see the video clips below.

Behind the back

Showtime

Ridiculous

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Does Scoring Ability Equal Greatness?

December 21, 2008 at 10:33 pm · by bteitelbaum · Filed under Stats

I just read something about the prevailing thought that the best players in the NBA can score at will. This from a recent post at freedarko.com: “I guess I’m just surprised to see Harris, Granger, and Roy near the top, because I never considered them dominant scorers. Don’t Paul or Howard seem a tier higher than them? I mean based on presence alone.”

 I don’t think you can dispute the fact that Chris Paul and Dwight Howard are better players than Devin Harris, Danny Granger, and Brandon Roy. But why are we conditioned to think that better players are automatically better scorers? Probably because scoring is the most glamorous part of basketball, the crux of the SportsCenter highlight and the first stat anyone ever mentions. However, as people who really study the game know, scoring does not always mean dominance. And dominance does not always mean scoring.

 This brings up an interesting question. If the ability to score at will does not necessarily correlate with offensive greatness, then what does determine how good a player is? I think mainly the ability to force the other team to change the way it wants to play. Let’s take a recent Dwight Howard game as a case in point. In the Magic’s 106-103 victory over the Lakers on December 20, Howard racked up 18 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots. All of these statistics are below his season averages, so why was this such a great game for Howard? Because he put enough pressure on the Lakers to force them to change their entire game plan. Firstly, let’s look at the effect Howard had on Lakers’ budding center Andrew Bynum. After two fouls on Howard in the first minute of the game sent Bynum to the bench, he ended up playing 12 minutes, scoring 3 points, and grabbing 1 rebound. Those are Mark Madsen numbers. Not to mention the fact that the whole Lakers substitution rotation was thrown out of whack, disallowing the second unit from comfortably playing together as well. His team hit 12 3-pointers, often because of doubles down on Howard that prompted kick-outs and ball movement. Some may counter my argument by saying that when the game was close in the fourth quarter, Howard got to the line and connected on 8-11 free throws, taking over the game with his scoring. And I don’t devalue that point. But the Magic was only involved in a close game with the lakers because of Howard’s early play, which did not include much scoring.

The greatest players are those that don’t need to score to take over a game, but who can score when their teams need it. That is the difference between “point guards” Magic Johnson and Allen Iverson. We all know how many championships each has won.

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