List of the best Defenders who ever guarded MJ and Lebron

[CavaliersFTW]

Boris Diaw, Jason Terry, and JJ Barea

[3ball]

i forgot Nate McMillan..

btw, the only guys on MJ's list of defenders that didn't receive All-NBA Defense distinction was Reggie Lewis, Gerald Wilkins, Jerome Kersey and Ron Harper.
.

[3ball]

Lebron's era is more competitive at his position by far though.

Can you list some (or all, if you want) of the best SF's from Lebron's era so I can compare to the list below?


Best SF's 1984-1998

Larry Bird
Dr. J
Scottie Pippen
Dominique Wilkins
Bernard King
Adrian Dantley
Alex English
James Worthy
Chris Mullin
Grant Hill

Honorable Mention: Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Glen Rice, Kiki Vandeweghe, Mark Aguirre, Glenn Robinson, Jamaal Mashburn, Detlef Schrempf, Tom Gugliotta,, Sean Elliot, Richard Dumas

Defensive Specialists: Dennis Rodman, Derrick McKey, Rodney McCray, Clifford Robinson, Anthony Mason, Paul Pressey, George Lynch, Jerome Kersey, Stacey Augmon
.

[Kvnzhangyay]

that's like me asking you to prove OJ's guilty.

Uh, no its not

[sdot_thadon]

Can you list some (or all, if you want) of the best SF's from Lebron's era so I can compare to the list below?


Best SF's 1984-1998

Larry Bird
Dr. J
Scottie Pippen
Dominique Wilkins
Bernard King
Adrian Dantley
Alex English
James Worthy
Chris Mullin
Grant Hill

Honorable Mention: Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Glen Rice, Kiki Vandeweghe, Mark Aguirre, Glenn Robinson, Jamaal Mashburn, Detlef Schrempf, Tom Gugliotta,, Sean Elliot, Richard Dumas

Defensive Specialists: Dennis Rodman, Derrick McKey, Rodney McCray, Clifford Robinson, Anthony Mason, Paul Pressey, George Lynch, Jerome Kersey, Stacey Augmon
.

Than sg was for Mj dude, lol. Calm down.

Oh you forgot another few guys lebron had to deal with. Tony allen, james posey, Paul pierce, kobe (duh), Danny granger, Richard jefferson, vince, etc.

[Trollsmasher]

Never heard about a half of those "MJ defenders"

Should not be surprising, because there were about 15 players in the whole league capable of playing something resembling defense in the '80s/'90s

[sdot_thadon]

Never heard about a half of those "MJ defenders"

Should not be surprising, because there were about 15 players in the whole league capable of playing something resembling defense in the '80s/'90s

Probably cause you're too young lol. Mj faced some capable guys here and there. I do feel lebron has faced more troublesome defenders though.

[senelcoolidge]

Probably cause you're too young lol. Mj faced some capable guys here and there. I do feel lebron has faced more troublesome defenders though.

That list of MJ defenders is impressive. The Lebron list not so much in total. Old MJ really made a prime KG look bad in that video. Nice find.

[Prometheus]

The Spurs completely transformed the way they guarded Lebron in 2014 vs. 2013.

In 2013, the Spurs were enamored with the stats showing Lebron shoots a whopping 40% of his shots at the rim, and finishes 75%.. Accordingly, they felt they had to prevent him from getting to the hole, so they gave him wide open jumpshots - the stats ALSO showed he shot poorly from mid-range and long two's, so there was some rationale for using this approach... The strategy did okay - Lebron averaged 25 PPG on 45%.

But after getting their heart broke in 2013, the Spurs went back to the drawing board and figured out a BETTER way to guard Lebron - they noticed that since he came to Miami, his shot attempts were down, and he focused on keeping his efficiency high.. They exploited this by playing him straight up, since his efficiency-approach made him not a threat for a big scoring game..

The straight-up approach allowed them to stay at home and shut his teammates down, which led to the Heat getting destroyed by record margin - the counter to this strategy was for Lebron to take advantage of the straight-up defense and go off for 40 PPG, thus giving his team a chance to win.. But unfortunately, his basketball acumen deficit did not allow him to figure out that straight-up defense means he should try to go off for a huge game - honestly, one 40 point game would have done it, then the Spurs would've gone back to letting him shoot wide open jumpers..

I can't believe how many people seemingly did not even watch these past Finals. They refer to LeBron being dared to shoot - which is completely false. After he proved he could beat them from the outside, Pop flipped the script and had Kawhi play him tight.

I somewhat agree with you on LeBron's approach as well - although I think you're still being a little biased. Not only did the Spurs get RED HOT, like the entire team just began shooting lights out in a way that no other team has... ever... (or at least in the past 15 years that I've been closely following basketball)... but literally everyone on Miami was just god awful. Chalmers became a walking turnover, Wade could no longer get his own shots or even put the ball on the floor against Green, and all of their shooters went cold.

Basically I would have liked to see LeBron be more aggressive, but with how absurdly bad his teammates were playing, and how blistering the Spurs were on offense, it's pretty hard to see it making much of a difference.

And the shots/game argument about LeBron is faulty since he missed the ends of four games - three due to blowout and one due to heat cramps.

[andgar923]

Boris Diaw, Jason Terry, and JJ Barea

CP3

[andgar923]

This. Diaw can't guard LeBron worth shit. They were sagging off, and LeBron was going through a cold streak.

And he also couldn't drive past him or get the position he wanted.

[f0und]

much more impressive list for mj. whats more, is that when he would get past those defenders, he still had to contend with a plethora of bigs from the best big man era.

[pauk]

I will redo this for you, more accurately.... here are the all-nba defenders who actually guarded Lebron/Jordan regularely....

Best defenders Lebron went up against:

Ron Artest (1st all-defense)
Tony Allen (1st all-defense)
Kawhi Leonard (1st all-defense)
Andrei Kirelinko (1st all-defense)
Gerald Wallace (1st all-defense)
Bruce Bowen (1st all-defense)
Andre Igoudala (1st all-defense)
Paul George (1st all-defense)
Shane Battier (1st all-defense)
Kobe Bryant (1st all-defense)
Thabo Sefolosha (1st all-defense)
Doug Christie (1st all-defense)
Raja Bell (1st all-defense)
Tayshaun Prince (2nd all-defense)
Jimmy Butler (2nd all-defense)
Dwyane Wade (2nd all-defense)
Luol Deng (2nd all-defense)

Best defenders Jordan went up against:

Gary Payton (1st all-defense)
Michael Cooper (1st all-defense)
Alvin Robertson (1st all-defense)
Sidney Moncrief (1st all-defense)
Joe Dumars (1st all-defensive)
Dennis Johnson (1st all-defensive)
Eddie Jones (2nd all-defense)
Nate McMillan (2nd all-defense)
Reggie Lewis (blocked prime Jordan 4 times in a game!)

Not sure if i should count 2001-2003 for Jordan? Because there you could add Kobe Bryant, Clifford Robinson & Doug Christie aswell.

[Champ]

Add Reggie Lewis to MJ's list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni7t4swtdYw

RIP, Reggie.

[pauk]

Add Reggie Lewis to MJ's list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni7t4swtdYw

RIP, Reggie.

Wasnt all-nba D, but dayum, with that video... he earns a spot