Who is the worst player in this picture?

[FultzNationRISE]

Has to be KD. Failed so many times, had a horrible time post 2018. It's not Wade. Wade's 2006 run is more impressive than any of Kobe's and he did it with a much worse version of Shaq.

"Much worse" is inaccurate.

Shaq was runner up for league MVP with the Heat in 05. In 06 with Zo in the picture he played less minutes so his scoring dropped a lil but his eFG% didnt, it remained identical to 05 which was actually the highest of his career.

His role changed because Miami had a lot of shot takers that season but theyre not winning a championship if Shaq was "much worse" than his Laker years.

It was after the championship when Shaq basically said "I'll just start collecting checks now"

[mr4speed]

Hard to say. Physically speaking Curry did the most with the least and Shaq did the least with the most.

It might be Kareem though. That dude was corny... and basically won nothing outside Magic carrying him.

What?? Kareem won 6 MVP's and was the FMVP in 71 and 85 and was voted the FMVP in 1980 after Magic's great game 6 but because he was not present, the voters were asked to change their votes so Magic would get the award - see "Kareem" pages 140-141. Kareem won the rebounding title in 75-76 season at 16.9 per game. Kareem in his first ten seasons averaged 14.8 rebounds per game. Kareem in 1984 was 4th in the MVP vote and in 1985 was 5th in the MVP vote. Magic was a great addition to the LA team, but carried Kareem? - no way.

[Im so nba'd out]

MJ

[Phoenix]

People picking Kareem who were born decades after he retired but speak with such authority. Not much else to add to the discourse....

[Jud]

wade and it's not close

[PistonsFan#21]

People picking Kareem who were born decades after he retired but speak with such authority. Not much else to add to the discourse....

Not saying those people are right or wrong but how is it any different than people defending him even though they were also born decades after he retired? I doubt there is more than 3 posters on this site that saw Kareem play live in his Milwaukee days.

[BarberSchool]

Offensively ? Duncan.

Defensively ? Steph.

All around ? Wade.

[Phoenix]

Not saying those people are right or wrong but how is it any different than people defending him even though they were also born decades after he retired? I doubt there is more than 3 posters on this site that saw Kareem play live in his Milwaukee days.

Fair enough, but I generally steer clear of defending or criticising players I lack enough knowledge to offer a reasonably intelligent opinion on. I would personally err on the side of thinking Kareem being the worst player here is a fairly outlier take, if for no other reason than just going by the context of relative dominance of his own era there's little reason for me to think he's the worst player. I don't need to view it from the lense of trying to determine if he was better on the floor than eg KD.

[ShawkFactory]

Has to be KD. Failed so many times, had a horrible time post 2018. It's not Wade. Wade's 2006 run is more impressive than any of Kobe's and he did it with a much worse version of Shaq.

Shaq was still a force in 06. The numbers suffered a bit but both the Pistons and mavericks made it a point to take him out of the game.

To Wade’s credit he feasted on that. But it wasn’t like they were throwing the kitchen sink at him and he still dominated. Shaq was still in the back of everyone’s minds.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Pure skills perspective, taking everything else out of the equation - all of these are light years above Lebron. Ironically or not ironically the only one here pictured with a losing finals record.
Curry = 4/6
Wade = 3/5
Jordan = 6/0
Kobe = 5/7
Magic = 5/9
KD = 2/3 (or 2/4 if you count the 10 min he played in the 2019 finals)
Duncan = 5/6
Shaq = 4/6
KAJ = 6/10

Only one of these is 4/10.

[ShawkFactory]

Pure skills perspective, taking everything else out of the equation - all of these are light years above Lebron. Ironically or not ironically the only one here pictured with a losing finals record.
Curry = 4/6
Wade = 3/5
Jordan = 6/0
Kobe = 5/7
Magic = 5/9
KD = 2/3 (or 2/4 if you count the 10 min he played in the 2019 finals)
Duncan = 5/6
Shaq = 4/6
KAJ = 6/10

Only one of these is 4/10.

Only one of them is each of the records you posted as well. None of them are identical.

[RRR3]

Pure skills perspective, taking everything else out of the equation - all of these are light years above Lebron. Ironically or not ironically the only one here pictured with a losing finals record.
Curry = 4/6
Wade = 3/5
Jordan = 6/0
Kobe = 5/7
Magic = 5/9
KD = 2/3 (or 2/4 if you count the 10 min he played in the 2019 finals)
Duncan = 5/6
Shaq = 4/6
KAJ = 6/10

Only one of these is 4/10.

Your brain doesn’t function properly if you think 2 rings are worth more than 4.

[j3lademaster]

Your brain doesn’t function properly if you think 2 rings are worth more than 4.

you’re just mad mj is 6/0. He’s so good he won 6 chips despite going to 0 finals. Infinity percent finals win rate.

[PistonsFan#21]

Pure skills perspective, taking everything else out of the equation - all of these are light years above Lebron. Ironically or not ironically the only one here pictured with a losing finals record.
Curry = 4/6
Wade = 3/5
Jordan = 6/0
Kobe = 5/7
Magic = 5/9
KD = 2/3 (or 2/4 if you count the 10 min he played in the 2019 finals)
Duncan = 5/6
Shaq = 4/6
KAJ = 6/10

Only one of these is 4/10.

Hypothetically speaking, remove Lebron from those Cavs, Heat and Lakers rosters and replace him with any of the players in the picture. Do they still make it to the Finals 10 times? And if yes which one do they win / lose ?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Hypothetically speaking, remove Lebron from those Cavs, Heat and Lakers rosters and replace him with any of the players in the picture. Do they still make it to the Finals 10 times? And if yes which one do they win / lose ?

You put 87-98 Jordan on that 11-15 Heat team, they win all 4. Certainly make 2007 maybe a 7 game series too; let's not forget Lebron's team in '07 - he scored 27+ PPG regular season but only 22.0 on 35% shooting with 5-6 turnovers per game. This is after 4 full NBA seasons - 320+ NBA games played. Yeah he wasn't 23 yet, but Magic/Kawhi/Kobe all had no problems winning rings (2 of them got FVMP) younger than that.

2016 obviously Jordan would win - he won in 1998 with Pippen giving him a 8 pt. and a 6 pt. game. Kyrie had a 41 pt game on 71% shooting and only scored 2 less pts than Lebron for the series.

I'd say KAJ, Magic, Duncan replacing Bron on all those failed years would result in more wins for them, but the 2007 Duncan v. Duncan matchup would get interesting.