Comments on: Who Rules the Top Defenses?

By: huevonkiller

huevonkiller — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 09:41:12 +0000

As a follow up to this incomplete analysis:

LeBron had a 117 offensive rating against the Magic in the playoffs (#1 defense), at 40+ percentage of his team's possessions, for over 44 minutes a game in the 6 game series.

That should vault him ahead of these people easily.

By: ZAP

ZAP — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:50:58 +0000

Hi Neil,

I was wondering if you can come up with a comparison between Kobe and MJ's finals performances? I was just comparing the statsof Jordan the last 3 peat and Kobe's in his last 3 finals runs. They seem pretty close. I wonder how they fared when adjusted for PER, wins shares, etc, and some other advanced metric you are using. Thanks!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:39:01 +0000

this analysis is a joke. written by some book-bot numbers guys that probably don't believe in anything not explained by numbers, like say, momentum for example. kobe and shaq's stats are really skewed because they played the new jersey nets twice in the Finals when the crappy Nets were somehow a top-5 defensive team. they also played the phoenix suns twice in the playoffs between 2000-2002 when they somehow were also a top-5 defensive team. oh yeah, and kobe played with shaq for 3 championships seasons when shaq was the most dominant 40/20 type of guy, so kobe rarely got doubled during those years. a good defense are the recent boston teams. or that 2004 detroit team. kobe got handcuffed in all three series against these teams. but start including the new jerseys and jason kidd-led phoenix's of the world into the analysis and now the numbers start lying. everyone knows who the best defensive teams are in kobe's day - spurs, detroit (when they are good), boston (when they are good) and maybe a couple others. with mj, it was detroit, new york and some others (maybe miami, shaq/penny-led orlando, utah). these are the best defensive teams. forget what the numbers say and do some stats with these teams. forget everyone else.

By: Anon2

Anon2 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:58:25 +0000

As a follow-up, I find it pretty funny that someone would suggest that Tex Winter's tried, proven, and incredibly successful triangle offense somehow PREVENTS players from maximizing their game. The man isn't called a genius for nuthin', and he SHOULD be in the Hall of Fame by now. He truly doesn't get enough credit for designing the offenses that almost perfectly blends the all-time great talents in Jordan, Pippen, O'Neal, and Bryant (along with all-star caliber talent in Dennis Rodman, Eddie Jones, Pau Gasol, etc.)with good role players into a highly efficient and aesthetically-pleasing brand of basketball that is always among the best offenses in the NBA every season and gives opposing defenses fits.

By: Anon2

Anon2 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:06:07 +0000

^^^ I don't think there's a significant effect at all. For one, the triangle offense -- which is a pretty efficient offense overall -- is designed for Kobe to get a TON of touches on his sweet spots of the floor (mostly the low-post and high-post elbow areas, and sometimes at the top of the key), and he's able to catch the ball in those areas and create his offense. Those areas are also among the highest efficiency areas of the floor in basketball anyway, so he's not getting "cheated" out of having good% shot opportunities when he gets the ball. And for another, you're exaggerating the occurrence of the "bailout" situations you describe (especially the late-shot clock situations) They don't happen that much in basketball games anyway, and you would be dealing with small sample sizes.

By: Anon

Anon — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:49:45 +0000

Examining Kobe's drop in ORtg against good teams vs Wade's doesn't tell you about their skills relative to each other, rather only their skills relative to themselves. In other words, you can't observe the effect of system based on opponent. For instance, Kobe's ORtg could still suffer as he is the "bailout" option and thus takes lower efficiency shots, whereas Wade gets to pick and choose what he gets. The data may show the opposite, but I think the more interesting comparison would be to compare their efficiency on mid-shot-clock and late-shot-clock possessions, especially against good teams.

By: Regenerator

Regenerator — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:29:04 +0000

I know this is a mostly 2008 season-specific discussion, and I am no big supporter of Kobe (researching this website has really opened my eyes as to how overrated he truly is), but there are a couple of arguments in favor of Kobe that are difficult to dispute. Yes, there are a million complex metrics and statistical measurements which one can use, but sometimes you can get bogged down in the complexity of number-seeking and forget about the glaringly obvious, which can be even more telling. Since there seems to be a lot of general Kobe-bashing in this thread ("Kobe is one of the great second-fiddles of all time", etc), I'll go ahead and come out with this non-2008 related fact - Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in a modern-era basketball game, something considered unthinkable before it happened. He also scored 62 points in 3 quarters (sat out the entire 4th) against my Mavs in the same year - could have easily been another 80-pointer, or at least in the 70's, but the game was already won. Does anyone think any other player in the NBA, now, or perhaps ever, is capable of those feats? I know Wilt did his thing, but I'm referring strictly to the modern-era, where no one is going to average 50 points a game. One could make an argument that the talent required to accomplish a feat of that magnitude overrides any number of miscellaneous metrics. Just thought I'd throw that out there, not that I'm even saying I myself wholly believe it. But it should be considered. I do think Lebron is a better player. But a better scorer? Perhaps its simply a matter of "best consistent scorer" vs. "most explosive scorer".

By: Duff Soviet Union

Duff Soviet Union — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:56:10 +0000

If you judged a player by the intelligence of his fans Kobe Bryant would be sub-replacement level.

By: Eddy

Eddy — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:26:07 +0000

Hah, Neil.

I agree, though. When we're talking about the 3 BEST offensive players in the NBA, it should be LeBron/Wade/CP3.

By: Neil Paine

Neil Paine — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:44:12 +0000

I was just trying to limit it to the 3 guys most people consider the best scorers in the league, but yes, I agree that Paul is a more productive overall offensive player than Kobe. Of course, I'm going to get crucified for saying that by Mr. Bryant's loyal band of internet supporters, who appear to have some kind of batsignal-type apparatus that alerts them anytime someone writes that Kobe isn't the best player in the league... "Quick! To the computers! We have to protect Kobe's reputation on blogs and message boards everywhere!" (Just kidding, Kobe fans... Maybe.)