That’s fine. I’m not arguing that Hakeem was a great defender. The poster I was replying too stated that Hakeem has accomplished much more overall than Kobe. I listed many categories where Kobe was better and All defensive teams was just one of them. I’m not hearing any argument for the rest of them.
Did Lebron mail in regular seasons before his second stint in CLE? I don’t remember that but could be misremembering.
His knee has been messing with him most of the playoffs. Can’t remember the last time he had 30. Kyrie has been great, but I have no idea why he hasn’t been more aggressive.
Personally I’m taking Kobe in the top 10 over the Hakeem’s and even Steph’s.
The narrative around the end of his Cleveland stint was that, as great as he was (and he had already been the best player in the league for a few years and won two MVPs), he didn't quite have the defense he would and he needed to add something to his offensive game (people looked towards the post a la Kobe).
Hakeem did more with less than Kobe. Kobe was a clear #2 in the first three titles (though he was clearly a Top 2-3 player by the last one), and while he was the lead player on the 2009-2010 teams, those teams were pretty amazing, depth-wise.
Yeah I remember the post convos towards the end of CLE and him hitting up Hakeem in Miami to fix it.
Agreed on both points. Even as a Kobe hater I find it hard to not give him credits for the 5 rings though. Even with the depth of the 2009-2010 squads they don’t win without him being Kobe. We’re seeing that now with the TWolves and Ant with a team that’s built almost exactly the same way. (Right down to the bigs that were big but had reputations for being soft).
9-9 at the line, still not shooting all that well. 4 Turnovers. He can be a lot better than this.
I know Luka is hurt and not himself but it's the playoffs, you gotta play through it and perform. Kyrie was awful too, the assist #'s were good but he's not there to get 9 points. You can't build up a big lead like that at home and then get no scoring from Doncic or Irving. One of them can be bad but not both of them.
Don’t want to say Kyrie has been awful. He’s been getting guys involved and playing great defense. No reason he’s only taking 11 shots in a game though. Especially with Luka being hurt the way he is. It’s weird.
Here’s a fun fact: Over the course of two finals (2008 & 2010), with Ray as the primary defender, Kobe shot 40.5% from the floor, including an all-time godawful 6-for-24 in a game 7.
What did Ray shoot in game 7?
Love the Ray plug and I get it. As a Kobe hater turned appreciater after retirement I argued these points for awhile.
3-for-14 -- as a 35-year-old with bum knees guarding the other team's leading scorer.
What stats are you talking about? Please don’t waste my time and bring up blocks and steals. His defensive impact metrics were great in his prime.
I cited the stat in my original post (defensive plus/minus). He was never Top 10 in any advanced metric for defense except the year I cited. He was (2012-2020) a very good defender, and exceptional when he wants to be (playoffs). If he's in the 85 percentile, that means 14% of players are better defenders than him (unless BBall-index has some different meaning of percentiles)...hard to see how that contradicts my point.
