More impressive title, Wade in 06 or KG in 08?

[masonanddixon]

Obviously Wade.

Even if the refs played a huge role, it was statistically the greatest Finals performance ever.

[masonanddixon]

kg in 2008. better defender, rebounder...more of a presence.

wade was great in 2006, but shaq was still the man in miami.

lol Shaq was terrible in the Finals. He was constantly being benched for old man Alonzo.

[Dave3]

kg in 2008. better defender, rebounder...more of a presence.

wade was great in 2006, but shaq was still the man in miami.

13/10 in the finals vs 34 ppg and the one with 13 is "the man"

How young are the kids on this board now? Jeez.

[ArbitraryWater]

13/10 in the finals vs 34 ppg and the one with 13 is "the man"

How young are the kids on this board now? Jeez.

Dude is actually an older fan of the game... knowledgable but biased in cases like this.

[masonanddixon]

Dude is actually an older fan of the game... knowledgable but biased in cases like this.

Ah is he a Lebron fanboi?

[NZStreetBaller]

The most recent underrated Finals performance is Kobe's 2002. Dude put up 27, 6, 5 on 51%, which would be good enough for Finals MVP in almost any given year.

The most recent overrated Finals performance, based on some of the posts I've seen on this board, would be Shaq in '06.

Welcome back kenneth

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

KG by far. He anchored a GOAT level defense and it was like 80% him. Lets not forget past prime KG anchored the best defense in 2012 when he didnt have any other great defenders or bigs on the team

he passed better, shot better, rebounded better, defense was on another level entirely. Wade was a better slasher that got some of most egregious ref help ever

[necya]

OP is such a stupid poster, just shut up man

[aj1987]

The most recent underrated Finals performance is Kobe's 2002. Dude put up 27, 6, 5 on 51%, which would be good enough for Finals MVP in almost any given year.

Not when your teammate averages 36/12/4/3 on 60%.

KG averaed 20/11/3/1/1 on 54% TS. Wade averaged 28/6/6/2/1 on 59%. +5 rebounds and good defense is not enough to offset +8 PPG and +3 assists. Also, Wade was a pretty good defender himself. Also, the Heat beat 2 60 win teams and none of the teams they played against were a couple of games below .500.

[Dresta]

OP if you think that Shaq was a defensive anchor in 2006 you really did not watch the Heat much, or at all that year. Shaq was a defensive liability at the end of the 06 season. In the finals, Zo had a far bigger defensive impact.

Anyway, the answer to this question is of course Wade:

KG: 18/13/3/2/1 on 47TS% Ortg 99 Drtg 99
Wade: 35/8/4/3/1 on 57TS Ortg 113 Drtg 97

Wade's was one of the biggest one man shows in a finals ever; KG didn't even win finals mvp, played 5 less mpg, and Boston were as good with him off the court as on.

Shaq?

14/10/3 on 53TS% 95Ortg, 99Drtg

And Zo had a huge impact with an Ortg 119 and Drtg 89 - in fact, what this huge impact from a simple straight swap really shows is that Shaq (if anything) was losing Miami the series, not winning it.

[miles berg]

Wade easily. Wade is up there with Dirk 2011 at the top of recent history.

[PJR]

Anyone who says Garnett cannot be taken seriously.

[CJ Mustard]

When are people gonna understand that a championship run includes the regular season, Playoffs, and Finals? With the way people only bring up the Finals, you'd think Cedric Maxwell was the man on the 1981 Celtics. Wade had a really good Finals series, but he had Shaq commanding double teams to free him up (and the refs calling everything in his favor). KG was DPOY, 3rd in MVP voting, was his teams leading scorer, rebounder, and defensive anchor in the Playoffs, and led a better team than Wade did.

[Papaya Petee]

Ok then lets break this down

Regular season
Wade- 27\7\6\2\1 with a worse supporting cast #2 seed
KG- 19\9\3\1\1 with arguably the GOAT supporting cast #1 seed

Not much debate here, Wade was better all around.

Playoffs
Wade- 28.5\6\6\2\1 50% FG (16-7 Record)
KG- 20\11\3\1\1 50% FG (16-10 Record)

Numbers Wade once again was better all around.

Throughout the first 2 rounds, Garnett and the 66-16 Celtics allowed the 35-47 win HAWKS to take them to 7 games, and the 45-47 win CAVS to take them to 7 games.
Wade and the Heat took care of business, bouncing the 41-41 Bulls in 6 and 49-33 Nets in 5.

During the Conference Finals, both teams took out the Pistons in 6 games. However, the 2005-2006 version of the Pistons was MUCH better than the 2007-2008 version, and the Heat did it without HCA while the Celtics had HCA.

Finals
Wade- 35\8\4\2\1
Garnett- 18\11\3\1\1

This is where this becomes a stupid debate. The Heat beat the 62 win MAVS team in 6 without HCA, with Wade having one of the greatest finals ever. Heat were down 0-2 and down 13 points in the 4th quarter in game 3, and Wade took over, his last 4 games he scored 42,36,43 and 36 points respectively. That being in his 3rd season in the NBA.

Celtics beat the 57 win Lakers in 6 with HCA, while Garnett having a good series, didn't even win FMVP on his team.

Other points
Wades second option in Shaq averaged 13 PPG in the Finals, while Garnett
had 2 players score 20+ PPG in the Finals.

The Heat faced 2 60+ Teams in the playoffs without HCA
Celtics faced none. Despite that, the Heat finished with a 16-7 playoff record to Bostons 16-10

Wade won the FMVP, while Garnett did not. Everyone with a brain knows Wade>>>> Garnett in terms of those 2 runs.

[Dresta]

When are people gonna understand that a championship run includes the regular season, Playoffs, and Finals? With the way people only bring up the Finals, you'd think Cedric Maxwell was the man on the 1981 Celtics. Wade had a really good Finals series, but he had Shaq commanding double teams to free him up (and the refs calling everything in his favor). KG was DPOY, 3rd in MVP voting, was his teams leading scorer, rebounder, and defensive anchor in the Playoffs, and led a better team than Wade did.

What you mean is Garnett was given a better team than Wade. And no, for a championship run, the regular season doesn't really matter much at all. As shown by the Miami Heat in 06: only winning 52 games, before being carried to a title by an incredibly dominant playoff run by Wade - he had a fantastic ECSF, ECF and Finals. In the three most important series he was far and away the best player on the Miami heat, and i can't say the same about Garnett in 08.