The LeBron James Thread

[iLLWiLL9105]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Lockout hurt Durants scoring pacee. Otherwise he probably would be well over 10000points.

[ojandpizza]

How long was the lockout season? 66 games? 16 games less than a full season..

At 28ppg Durant would have had an extra 448 points.

Still less than LeBron, but closer.

LeBron's ppg over those 5 seasons is higher as well.

[JODYE]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Durants scoring pace is not better than LeBrons.. You realize all it woulda took for LeBron to be the scoring champ instead of Durant last season is an extra free throw per game? Just 1 free throw.

LeBron could easily lead the league in scoring. It just becomes a matter of if he wants to.

Well it's impossible to know what KD would have done in those extra 16 games during the lockout shortened season and including this season, but had he just scored at his average, he would have been within 100 points, but if we go off how he played the last 5 games, averaging 31.4 a game, he would have surpassed LeBron's pace and at the rate he is going this season, would have had another 300+ points more than LeBron in this first 6.

The thing, even with this lockout shortened season in play, if KD maintains the scoring pace he is on, and at bare minimum maintains the average amount of points he's scored per year (taking into account he scores at minimum his season average the rest of the way this year) which we can only assume that he will get better, but going off of what we know, coming into the league later than LeBron did, he can become the youngest to 20,000 if he averages over the next 4 years 28-30 ppg.

With the way he has evolved as a scorer, I don't think it's out of the realm of reality to assume, he'll maintain a scoring pace in that range. Crazier still is that if he maintains that exact pace, he'd be the youngest to do so by 6 months, all while coming in the league 3 months later than LeBron.

But you said it perfectly, and I agree 100%, LeBron could lead the league in scoring if he wanted to, but the way he has developed and evolved as a player, I don't think he needs to, nor wants to at this point.

[JODYE]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

But to really put this all in perspective about how we marvel at how these guys can score, if Michael had come into the league the same time that LeBron and KD did in terms of age, including the season he missed 64 games due to injury, he would have been the youngest to score 20,000 by almost 2 years. Crazy stuff.

Doesn't take away from what these guys can do though. Two incredible basketball players and it's a pleasure to watch them both.

[ojandpizza]

Well it's impossible to know what KD would have done in those extra 16 games during the lockout shortened season and including this season, but had he just scored at his average, he would have been within 100 points, but if we go off how he played the last 5 games, averaging 31.4 a game, he would have surpassed LeBron's pace and at the rate he is going this season, would have had another 300+ points more than LeBron in this first 5...

I have no idea what this is trying to say.

But If Durant would have averaged 31.4 PPG those last 16 he would have still been short. I originally thought the the lockout year was 62 games (before checking) and multiplied 20games by 30ppg and that was also still short...

To catch LeBron at the end of his 5th season Durant would have had to average just over 44 points per game in those remaining 16 games? No way would that have happened.

Idk why you're including this season. If you count Durant's 40 games from this season you'd also have to account for LeBrons first 40 games of his 6th season.

[JODYE]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

That was supposed to be a 6, not a 5 in terms of seasons. I changed it. My fault.

[ojandpizza]

That was supposed to be a 6, not a 5 in terms of seasons. I changed it. My fault.

Even at 31ppg over those last 16 games if Durant continued at his 29.3ppg for the remaining 42 games this season he would still be under LeBrons first 6 seasons total.

[ojandpizza]

Also unlikely he would catch him by his 7th season either. Since LeBrons average for that year was 29.7ppg.. Durant hasn't had a season that high since 4 years ago.

[JODYE]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Even at 31ppg over those last 16 games if Durant continued at his 29.3ppg for the remaining 42 games this season he would still be under LeBrons first 6 seasons total.

At minimum he would have only trailed by double digit points (if you averaged it at the bare minimum 28ppg)

Regardless, we're talking in hypotheticals now. We have no way to really agree on what he would have or could have done so that's really going to get us no where. Hell he could have maybe bumped the average up to 35 or even down to 25, but we'll never know for sure.

What we also don't know, is where he will finish this year. If the way he has been going this season is any indication, he'll finish well over 30 ppg, based on the fact that each month, his scoring average has increased, all the way up to 32.3 ppg in January.

Either way, LeBron's dip in scoring the past 3 years is documented, and should KD retain the pace I said in the earlier post, or exceed, he would become the youngest to 20,000.

With that said, we're going to get a much clearer picture of projecting this type of stuff after the next two years or so. For all we know, Durant could go crazy and average 32+ the next two years and really throw off this whole discussion. Going to be interesting to watch.

[Sam Marlowe]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Oscar reached the milestone at 673 games played. Margin of error is +/- 3 games. LeBron reached it in 726 games.

Thanks man, good find. Was Oscar the fastest in terms of games played?

[ojandpizza]

At minimum he would have only trailed by double digit points (if you averaged it at the bare minimum 28ppg)

Regardless, we're talking in hypotheticals now. We have no way to really agree on what he would have or could have done so that's really going to get us no where. Hell he could have maybe bumped the average up to 35 or even down to 25, but we'll never know for sure.

What we also don't know, is where he will finish this year. If the way he has been going this season is any indication, he'll finish well over 30 ppg, based on the fact that each month, his scoring average has increased, all the way up to 32.3 ppg in January.

Either way, LeBron's dip in scoring the past 3 years is documented, and should KD retain the pace I said in the earlier post, or exceed, he would become the youngest to 20,000.

With that said, we're going to get a much clearer picture of projecting this type of stuff after the next two years or so. For all we know, Durant could go crazy and average 32+ the next two years and really throw off this whole discussion. Going to be interesting to watch.

Like I said, even if he did bump it up to 35ppg he still wouldn't have been there. He needed to average 44 PPG over those last 16 games to catch LeBron.

But you're right we don't know what would or wouldn't have happened. The point is that he hasn't been scoring at quite the pace James was at that point in his career.

It is also very unlikely Durant finishes as the youngest player to 20,000, but I guess it's possible. Also very unlikely he reaches 15,000 younger than LeBron either.

But yeah if for some reason Durant scores at a career high for the rest of this season and over the next 3-4 seasons then maybe he will surpass him.

But that wasn't really the point. The point is that thus far in Durants career LeBron was scoring at a higher pace than Durant was.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Here's an idea. Let's just watch two all-time players play ball and enjoy it. Who gives a **** how fast somebody scores so many points. The league has virtually outlawed defense as it is so it's a skewed stat in the first place and these two won't matter when they finally do just go ahead and kill defense completely and the next generation's LeBron shatters the record.

Where's Suntan to rant about media sensationalism on that one? You wanna talk about media sensationalism, pointless stats like these fastest to do something, or youngest to do it. As if fans would have a clue about stuff like that without a media member bringing it up. LeBron's got what 20,000+/5,000+/5,000+ and counting? That's impressive enough until he's finished, same as KD. Only numbers that anybody should be talking about are total points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks, field goal percentage and so on when that player's career is over. Not all this, most points in league history on the second night of a back to back, all-time leading scorer in lockout shortened seasons, fastest to reach a triple double after a month long injury and all this other random crap with about a thousand different variables on why somebody else didn't do it.

[ojandpizza]

@King it's actually much more impressive to accomplish the scoring feats Durant and LeBron are/did than it would have been to do it in years past.

You look back when guys like Wilt and Oscar and Baylor were doing stuff like this. Teams were averaging around 30ish shots more per game. That allows for more points, assists, and rebound opportunities, much more. Defense rarely even double-teamed, even Wilt was rarely double-teamed. Teams played straight up man-to-man defense, no zones clogging the lane either.

For LeBron to reach 20/5/5 nearly as fast as Oscar did is one of the most impressive accomplishments any basketball player has ever had.

And defense being non-existent is so overblown. If defense was actually that bad teams wouldn't be scoring less points than what was scored in the 80s/90s and before that as well.

[Sam Marlowe]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Today's game is specifically designed for wing players to score more easily. The Rules Committee made no bones about it when they changed things in 2001. And their plan worked, we saw noticable scoring increases from the perimeter after 2001. Many wings today haven't even had to develop full skill sets. The game encourages setting for a shot from distance or attacking the basket and scoring/drawing s foul. Some dont even drive with intent to score, the foul is enough.

[jeebs9]

Only Lebron could fuel a thread like this.

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