This Date in Lakers History, 2006 and 2022
The phrase "making your teammates better" is both overused and meaningless. One player cannot "make" another player better--but a great player can make his team better, and there is a great "not advanced" statistic for that: wins and losses.
For example, consider this date in L.A. Lakers history.
On February 14, 2006, the Lakers had a 26-25 record. The undisputed best player for the 2006 Lakers was Kobe Bryant, who is
not cited as often for making his teams better as he should be
when one considers who his teammates have been, how well they performed alongside him, and how much his teams won. The 2005-06 L.A. Lakers finished sixth in the Western Conference with a
45-37 record. They then pushed the third seeded Phoenix Suns to seven
games in the first round of the playoffs.
The top five scorers for the 2005-06 Lakers were Kobe Bryant (35.4 ppg), Lamar Odom (14.8 ppg), Smush Parker
(11.5 ppg), Chris Mihm (10.2 ppg), and Brian Cook (7.9 ppg). Lakers not
named Kobe Bryant combined for one career All-Star selection before,
during, and after that season (Andrew Bynum, who played 338 minutes in
2005-06, made the All-Star team in 2012).
On February 14, 2022, the Lakers have a 26-31 record. The undisputed best player for the 2022 Lakers is LeBron James, who is often credited with "making his teammates better" despite the fact that every All-Star who has played alongside James has suffered declining statistics: that list includes Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Anthony Davis, and the much-maligned Russell Westbrook, who played at an MVP level in the second half of last season before being thrown on the proverbial trash heap in L.A. so far this season. The top five scorers for the 2021-22 Lakers are LeBron James (29.0 ppg), Anthony Davis (23.3 ppg), Russell Westbrook (18.3 ppg), Carmelo Anthony (13.4 ppg), and Malik Monk (13.0 ppg). Lakers not names James combined for 36 All-Star selections plus three selections to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
Comparing the two teams without counting Bryant and James, the 2022 Lakers have three 75th Anniversary Team members, while the 2006 Lakers had one player who made one All-Star Team six years later. Yet, the 2022 Lakers are ninth in the Western Conference, and if the season ended today they would have to earn a playoff spot via the Play-In Tournament; the 2006 Lakers were one defensive rebound away from beating the powerful Suns in game six in the first round of the playoffs.
James is an extraordinarily talented player who has accomplished a lot during his incredible career, but everything on his teams happens on his terms, and the main focus is not always team success. Davis is in his prime. Westbrook was playing at an MVP level just a few
months ago. Anthony provides scoring punch off of the bench. Monk would
have been the third best player on the 2006 Lakers behind Bryant and
Odom. If you took Bryant and James out of the equation, and arranged a time machine game between the 2022 Lakers and the 2006 Lakers, the 2022 Lakers would win by 20 points--but the difference is that when you put both players in the equation James has been unwilling/unable to elevate the 2022 Lakers, while Bryant figured out how to push, pull, and drag a 2006 Lakers team with very limited talent not just into the playoffs but almost to the second round--and after the Lakers added one one-time All-Star to that limited roster in 2007, Bryant carried the Lakers to three straight NBA Finals, winning back to back titles in the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
There is a good reason that every time I hear the ridiculous comparisons of LeBron James to Michael Jordan my response is, "LeBron James has not even passed Kobe Bryant yet, so why is anyone comparing James to Jordan?" James has won fewer championships than Bryant with a worse Finals winning percentage, and James has demonstrated that he needs multiple All-Stars alongside him to win titles. It is not 100% clear that James surpassed Tim Duncan on the list of great players in the post-Jordan era; Duncan and James faced each other in three NBA Finals, with Duncan's teams winning two out of three--and Duncan was one Ray Allen three pointer away from going 3-0 versus James in the NBA Finals. Shaquille O'Neal did not stay at his absolute peak as long as Bryant, Duncan, and James did, but are we absolutely sure that peak James is better than peak O'Neal? I'm taking peak Jordan over any of those players, and James has to establish clear superiority in the post-Jordan era before being compared to Jordan.
James is a great player, but the media-driven narratives asserting that he is the greatest player of all-time and that he is the best at "making his teammates better" are demonstrably false.
Labels: Anthony Davis, Brian Cook, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Mihm, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Lamar Odom, LeBron James, Malik Monk, Russell Westbrook, Smush Parker
posted by David Friedman @ 9:40 PM
