LABron James Discussion: Olympics MVP

If I was Shaq I wouldn't move two feet in that car, if he got in a wreck, his legs are history!

 

Not to discredit LeBron because to be doing what he is doing at his age is nothing short of exceptional but the league has gotten noticeably easier to rack up stats. It used to be rare to see a player score 25 but now 25 points is a below average game for the best star players.

In 2004, you had 21 players who scored above 20 PPG.
Last year, there were 43 players who scored above 20 PPG.

Am I supposed to believe Bradley Beal and Booker were equal or comparable scorers to Kobe? Their stats say so but their game doesn't compare.

 

yeah, no way jayson tatum is a 30ppg scorer even a decade ago.

 

I hate Booker but man he is a great scorer. He would pushing to 30ppg regardless of era due to his versatility

 

booker is soft as s***. no way he'd be putting up 30 pts a game in the era where hand checking was allowed and you had actual big men in the paint

 

He scored more in a game than Jordan ever did.

but he cried about the double teams being unfair



not so easy to compare stats between eras

 

Yeah he's soft but people get rose tinted glasses over time. Soft dudes like Peja and Michael Redd put up tons of points in the handcheck era.
NBA talent is just unreal now - the game has grown and Booker for all his faults is just flat out a better player than guys like Peja, Redd let along guys like Cutino Mobley, Ricky Davis, etc (all dudes who put up 20+ ppg in the handcheck era)

 

peja and redd relied on their outside shot to score though. i'm not saying booker would've been a scrub back then, but i can't see him scoring like he does now with how much more physical defenders were

 

20 isn't 30.

peja topped out at 24 (one season, was 20 or fewer every other). redd at 26. and i actually think redd was as tough to guard as booker in his prime.

i think if guys could put their hands on tatum and booker away from the basket, their numbers would drop, as would their efficiency.

i think the only modern players whose offensive games would stand up are the posts (jokic, embiid) and guys like kawhi and jimmy butler. i just imagine what curry's career would have been with derek harper types just ragdolling him around for 36 minutes a night. i'm not saying that was a better state of affairs, just that it was different.

 

Old man still has a bit left in the tank. He can’t carry us though. Rest of the team simply has to step up.

 

He should’ve gotten a lot more free throws.

 

another season of bron getting murdered driving to the hoop and not getting any calls

 

I liked that he operated a lot from the block off ball. He looked really fluid around the hoop. Only 3 legit threes (1 was a full-court heave) and zero turnovers. The team looked inept when he went to the bench for any sort of breather. The refs are still trash on his drives though...

 

The problem I see with this is that Booker is plain just better than Peja and Redd. He's much better at getting to the rim at both as he's got a good handle and he's got that pullup mid range game which was the rage pre-analytics

Also defenses are just better now. For all the ringing about hand-checking, teams can zone which was legalized after Riley's thug ball ended. I've watched a lot of NBA and while things have changed, I pretty much think for the most part great players in the past would be great now and vice versa