I should include Nash among the game's best passers as well.
Chauncey Billups is a nice player, don't get me wrong, but he's hardly a great passer. He gets to hit Rip coming off of screens nailing jumpers pretty much at will - I would guess that those passes are probably half of his assist total, and pretty much any PG in the NBA could get those..his value is on defense, outside shooting, and overall leadership.
I'm not saying LeBron is the best PG in the game - there is a difference between a great passer and a great point guard - Brad Miller, C, on the Kings, is an excellent passer, and he's a center - Chris Webber, despite my hatred of him, is a very good passer too. LeBron's court vision is the difference here - his passes aren't great because he's being double teamed, his passes are great because he sees the entire court and understands where people are moving and/or supposed to move - he's not often compared to Magic Johnson because he gets double teamed a lot!
P.Gold, lets look at Lakers V Cavs, leaving LeBron and Kobe out
Pg - Smush Parker vs E.Snow - not much exciting here on either team to be honest, Parker is a better scorer, Snow is a better defender - I suppose you have to give the edge to Snow, but I don't see much of a difference, do you?
SF - Lamar Odom v Sasha Pavlovic - nuff said...Sasha's actually pretty good, but this is a huge advantage for the Lakers
PF - Kwame Brown v Drew Gooden - Gooden is the better player...not sure what Brown's issue is, he has talent but it isn't often on display
C - Z v Mihm - Z clearly is better, Mihm is decent, but he's not Z
The Lakers are 24-21, and have been healthy all season - the Cavs have been without Larry Hughes for some time, going on 14 or 15 games I think - I'd say if the Cavs were healthy the whole year they would have 2 or 3 more wins, I think they lost 6 or 7 in a row after he went down....
Bottom line - I agree, the Cavs have a better team than the Lakers do, but I'm not sure that says anything at all about Kobe making people around him better - and I'm not a Kobe hater at all - saying I'd take LeBron over Kobe is hardly hating him - but offensively it's pretty much him and the other 4 guys - I saw him posting up on several posessions against the Cavs a few weeks ago and you could clearly see him getting pissed when he wasn't getting the ball 2 posessions in a row, regardless of where the ball ended up, and when Odom took a jumper, Kobe just put his head down and headed back to the other end - that's not making your teammates better.
Chauncey Billups is a nice player, don't get me wrong, but he's hardly a great passer. He gets to hit Rip coming off of screens nailing jumpers pretty much at will - I would guess that those passes are probably half of his assist total, and pretty much any PG in the NBA could get those..his value is on defense, outside shooting, and overall leadership.
I'm not saying LeBron is the best PG in the game - there is a difference between a great passer and a great point guard - Brad Miller, C, on the Kings, is an excellent passer, and he's a center - Chris Webber, despite my hatred of him, is a very good passer too. LeBron's court vision is the difference here - his passes aren't great because he's being double teamed, his passes are great because he sees the entire court and understands where people are moving and/or supposed to move - he's not often compared to Magic Johnson because he gets double teamed a lot!
P.Gold, lets look at Lakers V Cavs, leaving LeBron and Kobe out
Pg - Smush Parker vs E.Snow - not much exciting here on either team to be honest, Parker is a better scorer, Snow is a better defender - I suppose you have to give the edge to Snow, but I don't see much of a difference, do you?
SF - Lamar Odom v Sasha Pavlovic - nuff said...Sasha's actually pretty good, but this is a huge advantage for the Lakers
PF - Kwame Brown v Drew Gooden - Gooden is the better player...not sure what Brown's issue is, he has talent but it isn't often on display
C - Z v Mihm - Z clearly is better, Mihm is decent, but he's not Z
The Lakers are 24-21, and have been healthy all season - the Cavs have been without Larry Hughes for some time, going on 14 or 15 games I think - I'd say if the Cavs were healthy the whole year they would have 2 or 3 more wins, I think they lost 6 or 7 in a row after he went down....
Bottom line - I agree, the Cavs have a better team than the Lakers do, but I'm not sure that says anything at all about Kobe making people around him better - and I'm not a Kobe hater at all - saying I'd take LeBron over Kobe is hardly hating him - but offensively it's pretty much him and the other 4 guys - I saw him posting up on several posessions against the Cavs a few weeks ago and you could clearly see him getting pissed when he wasn't getting the ball 2 posessions in a row, regardless of where the ball ended up, and when Odom took a jumper, Kobe just put his head down and headed back to the other end - that's not making your teammates better.
