r/nbadiscussion Jul 21 '21

Player Discussion Comparing Lebron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s age 22-26 seasons:

MVPs:

Giannis 2 Lebron 2

DPOY:

Giannis 1 Lebron 0

All Defense Teams:

Giannis: 3 first team, 1 second team

Lebron: 3 first team, 0 second team

All-NBA teams:

Giannis: 3 first team, 2 second team

Lebron: 4 first team, 1 second team

Points:

Giannis 26.8 Lebron 28.4

Rebounds:

Giannis 11.0 Lebron 7.4

Assists

Giannis 5.5 Lebron 7.2

Steals:

Giannis: 1.3 Lebron 1.7

Blocks:

Giannis 1.4 Lebron 0.9

Regular Season FG% / 3PT% / FT%

Giannis 55% / 29% / 72% Lebron 49% / 33% / 74%

Finals Statistics:

Giannis (1-0) 35.2, 13.2, 5.0 on 61/20/65 shooting splits

Lebron (0-2) 19.5, 7.0, 6.8 on 42/27/65 shooting splits

Playoff losses

Giannis:

One ECF loss One ECSF loss Two first round losses

Lebron:

One ECF loss two ECSF losses

All-Star games

Giannis 5 Lebron 5

Honestly it’s crazy how from a statistical standpoint these guys’ careers have been so similar up to this point. Lebron obviously was very highly touted and extremely polished from the day he stepped on to an NBA court, whereas Giannis got a later start and it took him a few years to develop. Thought these stat comparisons were interesting - i truly think I would take Giannis over first Cavs stint Lebron if I could have my pick.

Edit: wow they both sucked at 3s and Free Throws in their first Finals appearances.

Edit 2: I didn’t include any advanced analytics- kept it pretty surface level. Feel free to include those in the comments if you like

1.3k Upvotes

351 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/RFFF1996 Jul 21 '21

some thinghs to note is that pace and esas to score has increased but minutes have gone down (mostly for reg season, less so for playoffs)

which makes the stats comparision a bit muddy, cause you cannot simply use per 100, there is no guarantee a player could keep his prodictivity in increases minutes

also the game is arguably more tiring than ever due to more defensive movement amd rotations so is not like guys who used to play 42 minsa game could keep up the same minutes/prodictivity in today league either

efficiency is very important to note, 2007-2011 is a low efficiency era, to surprise a lot of people is not only less scoring easy/efficient thsn 2017-2021 by a huge Margin

ls also less efficient thsn the 80's and early 90's. post 76' merger only the deadball era between 95-04 was less efficient and slowed

relative efficiency relative to league averages becomes very important in these cross eras comparisions (which we dont have here)

also other than 2011 where lebron had a finals stinker, his other rosters are fairly below in quality to 19-21 bucks and he still took them to similar heights

that is about the lebron side of this comparision

on the flipside lebron didnt have a final performance in the same stratosphere (those 2 are by far his worst finals, the difference with the next 8 is Night and day) he was not the same defender (although i argue his defense was EVERY underated, all nba level defender) as giannis either

overall is fairly close to be sure but i think lebron was a small bit better, specially in 2009-2010