Finals predictions...

Where do you rank Kobe in the NBA right now?

second behind lebron like i have done for years now. I would also take durant over kobe for 82 games although kobe over durant for the playoffs just as i said earlier in this thread

Durant just beat Kobe and played better. Durant is better than today's Kobe and it's really not that close.

if you say it isnt close then it must be true. Kobe played fine. A little less efficient, but better defense and scored more and should have a had a good deal more assists if not for the bigs struggling every time kobe looked for them. Thunder won becasue they were the better team and were able to push the pace, not becasue durant outplayed kobe.

I don't like OKC's help D, I like the idea of making Battier and Chalmers beat you withteh jumpshot, but they're doing a really bad job at recovering.

I'd play Westbrook off the ball, when the ball swings from Durant or Harden to Westbrook the defender can't recover because he was in help position to double Durant, and then Westbrook is able to get to the rim, Haslem has been a monster on the boards, but Westbrook needs to stop taking jumpshots and drive it.

Battier Chalmers have been great, love Miami's ball movement, they're finding the extra man and getting good shots.

Maybe we just have different views on what efficient is. I don't call 42% on 26 shots a game efficient

neither do i

So I.... Win?

no, i said kobe was less efficent but played better overall. so repeating what i said doesnt mean much. But if you want to say you win go ahead.

I love Kobe, but you'd be blind not to acknowledge the fact that Durant has head adn shoulders surpassed him. I don't mean to disrespect Kobe, but that's just the truth, his game is now based entirely off fadeaway jumpshots, Durant is just too explosive and better with his offensive game now.

well i must be blind then. I mean kobe still has more moves, is a better passer, better dfender and outscored durant by 5 a game. Durant won though so i guess to the victor goes the spoils. But if the lakers other players stepped up and the lakers won people would be saying kobe showed the young guy it isnt his time yet. Its all about who wins to some people which does make some sense, but its not everything.

^Kobe still has very nice moves, but it's clear he has very little bounce or spring in his step, in the sense that I don't think he could just plain dribble by anyone anymore. Kobe can still score 27 a game, and I expect the Field goal percentage to rise, but by no means is Kobe done, he's still top 7 or 8 though in the game today, and top 10 all time easily.

Kobe scored more because he took 7 more shots a game. Durant is the better scorer, shooter, rebounder, team player, and way more efficient

a lot of those 7 extra shots a game were situations where the lakers needed kobe to bail them out late in the clock, something metta, sessions, blake, ebanks barnes cant consistently do off the dribble. Of course those are often gonna be lower percentage shots thus misses, but not all of them are kobe's fault because he is often asked to bail out the offesne late in the clock. Durant has much more help in those situations with westbrook and harden both creating off the dribble when the offense bogs down.