today's spacing ruins efforts at strategy

[Hey Yo]

"In two games (both OT) Lebron James already has as many assists and rebounds as Michael Jordan did in the entire 1998 Finals" (6 games.)

[3ball]

No one was stopping (previous era teams) from spacing the floor.

nothing except coaching stupidity... however, i'll take the other route and say the coaches were geniuses..

by NOT spacing the floor, it allowed us to see the superior skill necessary to navigate no spacing... nowadays, it's 3-and-D skill set and straight-line drives to the open paint.. unwatchable

You're probably never going to enjoy basketball again.

this proves how dumb both you and the forum is.

you think basketball is only the NBA... ... that's why you don't understand the game at a high level

[LeBird]

Haha, you're the forum idiot. Don't take yourself so seriously.

[K Xerxes]

Last years Spurs against this Cavs would be a beatdown bigger than last years finals. GS may have more 'talent', but someone needs to drop them a memo that there are other shots in basketball other than awful 3 pointers. They are playing well below their ability, whereas Spurs last year pretty much maximised theirs.

[HurricaneKid]

nothing except coaching stupidity... however, i'll take the other route and say the coaches were geniuses..

by NOT spacing the floor, it allowed us to see the superior skill necessary to navigate no spacing... nowadays, it's 3-and-D skill set and straight-line drives to the open paint.. unwatchable



this proves how dumb both you and the forum is.

you think basketball is only the NBA... ... that's why you don't understand the game at a high level

You literally have NO IDEA what you are talking about. Do yourself a favorite and watch the coaches (Malone, BShaw, Frachilla) tape of the game. You have no idea what GS is doing defensively, what the Cle counters are etc.

I'm actually embarrassed for you at this point.

[3ball]

You have no idea what GS is doing defensively

[COLOR="Red"]Here's what GS is doing defensively - like ALL teams in today's game, they are helpless to counter the spacing that allows Lebron to isolate against a SINGLE strongside defender:[/COLOR]















[COLOR="red"]There is no counter to the 1-defender strongside - if MJ played today, there would be nothing preventing him from isolating against a 1-defender strongside on EVERY PLAY.. [/COLOR]

In Lebron's case, he isolates the most often of any player in the entire league, despite having low isolation efficiency stats.. In regular season, Lebron ranked only 78th out of 350 in isolation PPP, while his FG% ranked 117th out of 350.. In the playoffs, Lebron is 35th out of 40 in isolation PPP, and 30th out of 40 in FG%.

http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/iso...nType=Playoffs

If Lebron can isolate more often than anyone else and find team success despite such low efficiency stats, what impact would MJ's league-leading isolation efficiency have?
.

[Straight_Ballin]

lol 3ball shuts down the bron family again.

[kshutts1]

GS can counter by packing the paint, just like past eras did. Then Lebron can choose to pass to the open player, or (like past eras did) he can jack up a stupid, contested shot because "it's close".

I just don't see why people "hate" on efficient-choice offenses.

[MP.Trey]

3ball, why do you even watch basketball today? Spacing isn't going to go away and you clearly don't appreciate the kind of basketball being played, today so why even watch it? Why not just go back to jerking it over old 80's/90's Bulls games?

[tmacattack33]

I never said Lebron wasn't good.. This thread says he's an all-time great..

But he's the only all-time great currently playing.. So he's the only one that can take advantage of the fact that an all-time great + spacing > any strategy.

The facts couldn't be more clear - the Warriors have more talent than last year's Spurs... But Lebron is beating them just by shooting a ton!!... He's beating them with sheer volume, because again: all-time great + spacing > any strategy..

Kobe must see those 1-defender strongsides and be like...

Btw, don't overrate 44 pts on 38 shots, or 11-34 shooting.. it's not a good look.. cringeworthy actually... Those Finals numbers don't compare to Shaq or MJ's... Heck, Shaq shot LITERALLY TWICE as good (64% to Lebron's 32% in Game 2).

Durant is an all-time great, and Kobe, Wade, and Chris Paul were still all-time greats 2-3 years ago. And that was not that long ago really. Certainly not long enough for a whole new era of basketball to develop


And by the way, Lebron was beasting in 2010. And he was beasting in 2005 as well. What's your excuse there?

And what will be your excuse if Lebron keeps playing well beyond 2020?

[3ball]

And he was beasting in 2005 as well.

What about 2004?

Oh wait.. that was PRE-rule changes, so it's no surprise that Lebron shot 47% TS for the entire season and played worse than 40-year old MJ the prior year..

[3ball]

3ball, why do you even watch basketball today?

you think i watch NBA games...

i haven't watched 1 game all year.. i haven't watched 1 QUARTER of a game since 2011.. Just think - the many hours you guys spend watching games - i spend a fraction of that posting the most accurate predictions and analysis on here, without having watched ANY games..

That's the power of having played the game at a high level (D1 vs. many NBA players) AND being highly analytical i.e. private equity background... Pretty rare combination.

All my correct predictions come from understanding the game at a high level and glancing at boxscores/bballref... all i do is go to youtube after the game, and make GIF's of the highlights THAT I KNEW WOULD SUPPORT MY POSITIONS BEFORE EVEN SEEING THE HIGHLIGHTS.

That's what I did with the 1-defender strongside GIFs that i've been making.. I realized one day that today's spacing reduces the number of strongside defenders by using weakside floor-spreaders to draw defenders away... So I looked at the post game highlights to find examples of this, and found dozens of GIFs with 1-defender strongsides.. Pure, 100% isolations on the strongside - even more obvious than I thought it would be.

Here's more examples: Like most people, I said Chris Paul would lose in these playoffs, but how many people stated in these forums that the opponent would come from behind to win the series??... ... And in January, I said Warriors and Houston would meet in WCF and then choke in Finals vs. Cavs... Of course, last year, I harped repeatedly about how Lebron didn't shoot enough and could've beat Spurs if he shot way more... Fast forward to this season - he's shooting literally TWICE as much, and winning.

There are so many more, I can't keep track.. I remember when Steve Nash was traded to Lakers, I said he'd be nothing more than a floor-spreader... And my player scouting ability is unmatched... Sorry for the arrogance.. But it just is

[tmacattack33]

What about 2004?

Oh wait.. that was PRE-rule changes, so it's no surprise that Lebron shot 47% TS for the entire season and played worse than 40-year old MJ the prior year..

I just listed 2005 because I was going by half-decades...2005, 2010, 2015, 2020. I wasn't even looking at any stats or anything.

Anyway, Lebron was straight out of high school in 2004. LOL at you trying to talk smack about a 19 year old putting up the numbers Lebron did his first year.

What was MJ doing at 19? Dude wasn't even in the league.

[3ball]

What was MJ doing at 19?

The same thing he did at 29: being clutch and winning the championship for his team in the clutch (while playing off-ball to maximize team synergies):





These are all things that 30-year old Lebron has still never done in championship games.. The reality is that 13 PPG for Dean Smith as freshman and winning the championship in hero fashion > 20 PPG chucker on 47% TS in NBA..

[LeBird]

you think i watch NBA games...

i haven't watched 1 game all year.. i haven't watched 1 QUARTER of a game since 2011.. Just think - the many hours you guys spend watching games - i spend a fraction of that posting the most accurate predictions and analysis on here, without having watched ANY games..

No wonder you talk so much shit.