Amars
Championship or nothing.
And the Giants won the Superbowl over probably the best team ever in football. I still want Brady over Eli.
Kobe or Lebron???
- Thread starter phinphan896
- Start date
King Felix
live it up have no worries
little different situation...kobe has never got outta the first round by himself, lebron got to the finals, and it was no easy task, like all of you make it out to be..
im not saying i pick lebron, im just getting tired of the excuse of "weak" eastern conference, thats how he got the finals.
phinphan896
Pro Bowler
and kobes never made it out of the first round without shaq...
Amars
Championship or nothing.
Lebron never won one game against the west opponent in a series. Kobe has. Anyway you slice it Kobe has done more against better opponent with less skill players like Smush and Kwame. The only thing the haters can say is he hasnt done it with shaq only because they cant come up with a better excuse. Jordan couldnt do it without Pippen so I guess Jordan sucks too.
Regan21286
Wa Wa Wee Wa
lol, must be running out of arguments to pull the Shaq card like that. I'm pretty sure making it to the playoffs and taking a strong team like Phoenix to 7 games with Kwame Brown at C in the Western Conference is a piece of cake.
Cavs faced Washington and NJ before meeting a real team in Detroit. Lakers had Phoenix, who's in the Spurs and Pistons tier in terms of caliber. If Lakers faced the Wiz and Nets in the first two rounds, of course they'd make it to the Conference Finals.
UCFinfan86
Oronde Gadsden's Official #1 Fan
lol i love how you keep mentioning Smush and Kwame, but don't mention Odom or Walton(who is a pretty good 6th man). LeBron had an Aging Z and a headcase who isn't no where near as good as Odom in Hughes.
Samphin
Dolphins Homer
You do realize that Walton is not our 6th man right? Walton will ride the pine once Ariza and Bynum come back. The only reason he gets any run at all right now is because everyone else is hurt. Vlad Rad just came back so expect to see Walton's minutes drop, and when Ariza gets back, Walton is non existant. He isn't as good as you think he is. Which goes to show you how bad the Laker's teams were that Walton was not only playing, but starting quite often.
As for Odom. The man Laker fans refer to as O-Dumb? The guy has all the talent in the world yet can't seem to make himself an all-star. He has a ton of talent, but he has never been able to put it together. I don't think you want to stand by that argument either in terms of whether or not Kobe had a better team in years past. He clearly didn't. Odom is seemingly doing better now, but only becasue he is a third, soon to be fourth option once Bynum comes back. Considering how much he is paid, that has to be classified as a dissapointment.
One thing that was commonplace though, was that Kwame and Smuch were STARTERS. Currently, one if a PG for the worst team in the league and can't even get off the bench. The other is vastly gaining weight for the Memphis Grizzlies as he too does not play for a team that is horrid and has no real big men. This is what Kobe had to work with.
Amars
Championship or nothing.
Odom the most inconsistent player in the NBA who has had only 1 good year in his nba career. Lots of promise and all star talent but doesnt have the mental capacity to be even a 3rd option.
Dolfan984
Active Roster
For 1 game/season? Kobe.
To build a franchise around? Lebron because of age
Lebron is great, but also one of the biggest stat padders of all time
To build a franchise around? Lebron because of age
Lebron is great, but also one of the biggest stat padders of all time
Samphin
Dolphins Homer
That is coming from a Warriors fan who hates the Lakers. :)
Regan21286
Wa Wa Wee Wa
Walton's a good 6th man, but he's no starter. Can't play D or shoot. Hughes may be a headcase but he's the opposite of Walton defensively. And aging or not, a skilled C who can still be a defensive anchor and produce offensively in the post trumps a talented but highly inconsistent SF/PF who isn't too good on man-to-man D. And that's especially true in the lEastern conference.
Samphin
Dolphins Homer
Another knock against LeBron. If his team was in the West, they would be the tenth seed right now. Chances are, they would probably be even further down due to the strength of schedule going up playing a western conference schedule.
the western conference is better, but yall are taking this WAY to far. further then 10th seed?
Samphin
Dolphins Homer
Cleveland is 16-12 against the West. They have two games remaing (against New Orleans who they lost to and Portland who they beat). If they split those games (it is reasonable to assume so), they would finish against the West and a .566 winning %. That is actually pretty good. As it stands, though, that would not be good enough to get into the Western Conference Playoffs. It would keep them in the 10th spot, however. So you can make an argument that worse than 10th may be stretching it (but only by a few games as Portland would be right behind them).
But if you look at how LeBron and Co. fared against the teams in the West with WINNING records (Spurs, Lakers, Suns, Nuggets, Warriors, Trailblazers, Rockets, Mavericks and Hornets) they are 7-10. A losing record. In fact, against teams in the East with winning records, Cleveland is only 5-5.
So combined, they are 12-15. Seeing as how they would be facing MORE teams with winning records MORE FREQUENTLY out west, it stands to reason that their record would probably be worse than what it is now. Meaning they would fall below the 10th seed.
On the flip side of the coin, lets look at the Lakers and see what their record is against the East. They are 18-9 with 3 games to go (Toronto, Washington, Charlotte). They have not lost to the teams they still play so it stands to reason that they will win those games as well and finish 21-9 against the East. That equates to .700 winning %. Roughly right around what their overall % is against the league. But digging further, what have they done against the East opponents with winning records?
L.A. is 3-6 against the winning East teams currently(swept by Cleveland and Boston, split with Detroit and Orlando and beat Toronto with one game to go). It looks like they will finish up most likely 4-5 against the East elite. By no means great. However, lets see how they have fared against the West with winning records, shall we? We shall.
They have gone 14-9 against the elite West teams. Or, a .608 winning %. Not bad. If you combine the two records against winning teams (East + West), you would currently have a record of 17-15. Not the best, but still a winning record against winning teams.
Unlike LeBron and the Cavaliers, who against winning teams, is 12-15.
So what does that tell us? It gives us an indication that Cleveland will probably make it to the second round before running into any type of competition in the East. It also shows us that Kobe plays against a tougher schedule and wins a higher % of those games with the Lakers than LeBron does with the Cavs.
Simply put, if the teams switched conferences tomorrow, L.A. would have home court advantage until at least the conference finals, whereas Cleveland wouldn't BE in the playoffs.
Can you guys tell I just finished an economics book?
UCFinfan86
Oronde Gadsden's Official #1 Fan
No one is disputing that the lakers are a better team then the cavs. And my walton reference was to last year when he was the 6th man.