Who is the greatest offencive superstar right now that cant play D for......... My choice would be Lebron James, I havent seen him do much in D, and his D stats arent that spectaculor. His steals are ok but he doesnt make his team better at all, like michael jordan did. He doesnt go after the ball as hard either. My other choice would be tracy mcgrady, he doesnt raise his team up to the defensive level it needs to be, and is uninspiring to watch on D.
If you're talking about the gab between a player's offensive excellence and defensive liabilities, both James and McGrady are not good choices. Yes, they're not Ron Artest-like defenders, but they're very athletic and have shown at different times that they can D up with the best of them. I've seen T-Mac play lockdown defence on Vince many times, and in last year's first round matchup, he played excellent defence on Nowitzki, despite the 5 inches of height Dirk has on him. In LeBron's case, he's still very young, yet he improved tramendously on his first year at the defensive end. And he still challenges shots and tries to play defence. There are much worse defenders in the league than those two. Again, if you're comparing a superstar's offensive skills to his defensive disabilities and looking for the biggest gab, I think Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash would top that list. Honorable mentions: Paul Pierce, Jalen Rose, Wally Scszerbiak, Sam Cassell, Yao Ming, Jamaal Crawford, Stephon Marbury, and Tony Parker.
T-Mac is a terrible choice. He's one of the offensive superstars that DOES play good defense, along with Kobe, KG, Duncan, and a few others. I think my choice would be Steve Nash. You don't see an MVP that can't play D everyday.
You can't call a player a "superstar" without him playing good defense. A superstar is a player that separates himself from the other players in all aspects of his game, which means he should be playing good defense. My pick for a star that has a good offensive game but a bad defensive game would be Antawn Jamison. He's been like that ever since he was at North Carolina but that's the type of player he is, he uses most of his energy on offense and has nothing left on defense. Jamaal Crawford and Jalen Rose definitely play some bad defense too, but my obvious choice was Jamison.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting kobimel:</div><div class="quote_post">I think my choice would be Steve Nash. You don't see an MVP that can't play D everyday.</div> That might not exactly be true, for example 1992-93 - Charles Barkley, Phoenix 1989-90 - Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers 1988-89 - Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers 1986-87 - Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers 1981-82 - Moses Malone, Houston 1982-83 - Moses Malone, Philadelphia 1978-79 - Moses Malone, Houston But i guesss for right in terms of most recent mvps. Anway back would u consider Ray Allen?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting NaKz:</div><div class="quote_post">That might not exactly be true, for example 1992-93 - Charles Barkley, Phoenix 1989-90 - Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers 1988-89 - Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers 1986-87 - Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers 1981-82 - Moses Malone, Houston 1982-83 - Moses Malone, Philadelphia 1978-79 - Moses Malone, Houston But i guesss for right in terms of most recent mvps. Anway back would u consider Ray Allen?</div> Moses wasn't a terrible defender. Except for the 1980-81 season where he played on a mildly strained knee. In some games (4th quarters) during this season, he'd be pulled out of the game where he has 30+ points just because he can't contain his man. But for the rest of his career, he wasn't that bad defensively. As for Magic, it's pretty obvious. He was a 6'9 point guard who was matched up against 6'0-6'3 fast PG's night in night out, so the quickness disadvantage made him seem like a bad defender, but he's not "terrible" either. As for Sir Charles, he just didn't try defensively. You could see that. He knew it'd take a massive effort for a 6'4 power forward to contain and stop the 6'10/6'11 forwards consistently, so he'd just slack off and save his energy for the other end, not an execuse though.
Tmac is a bad choice, he was actually an above average defender as a whole last season, and when he put full effort, very good. In 03-04, he wasn't trying on defense, and was terrible, but that was because of frustration at his teams lack of sucess. Lebron is pretty bad man to man defender, but you do have to give him props for his ability to play the lanes. He has the quickness, speed, and length to get at balls many can't get at, and it seems like he always scores when he get's a steal because he's so quick down the court, and can finish imphatically. I would say overall, you could maybe put him in the list, but not at the Top. Dirk has actually improved, and I wouldn't put him on these lists anymore, he's a pretty average defender now. Nash would probably be #1 as a superstar who can't defend, defense is just not his thing. Next I would go with Peja Stojakovic who though showed some improvement went back to being an attrocious defender. Amare Stoudamire after the overatting of his defense by analysts in the Western finals is not a good defender. His best defensive effort comes from athletic shot blocking, but he's a lazy man to man defender, and let's a lit of easy penetration go unchallenged, even when he's not in foul trouble. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Paul Pierce</div> Pierce isn't a bad defender, he's actually about average, maybe a little above. I know their were some rumblings about his defensive effort last season, but he's a fairly good defender.
IMO I think Steve Nash. When I was watching the western conference finals, I was just shocked on how much defense Nash played. Parker blew by him and got layups so many times in that series.
wow tmac (im gonna say it again) was a horrible choice hes the reason the dirk is not gonna be that big of an offensive threat tmac locked him down in finals every one of the 7 games the commentators were like tonite is dirks break out nite he never shined b/c rocekts lack of PF put tmac on him. dallas' other players like stackhouse and terry and finley beat the rockets now teams know how to gaurd drik by putting some1 mire anthletic on him
Steve Nash... The guy is an offensive genius... But he's like a Hip-Hop fan at a Green Day concert when it comes to defense... Peja is definitely the runner up. He's the second best shooter in the league, but can't play defense worth a crap. You'd think a 6-10 SF could get quite a few blocks... But then again, Yao Ming is 7-5 and only averages two a game...
^Since when does anybody use bpg to accurately measure a Small Forward's defensive capabilities? It never has and never will be. BPG is more accurated used on PFs and Cs, not SFs. Also why is Yao's name even brought up? Stop hatin on the guy.
yao cant be that bad of a defender if he lowers shaq's rebound and ppoints every time he plays him. shaq almost never gets his double double when he plays yao
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting SupraJames:</div><div class="quote_post">^Since when does anybody use bpg to accurately measure a Small Forward's defensive capabilities? It never has and never will be. BPG is more accurated used on PFs and Cs, not SFs. </div> It was just an example... Calm down. In addition to that, Peja can't steal and can't rebound defensively. Not to mention he gets shook by any SF with speed. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Also why is Yao's name even brought up? Stop hatin on the guy.</div> Oh cry me a river, please.
The answer to this is Steve Nash and Ray Allen (if you consider him a superstar) easily. Neither of them play any defense what so ever.
Ouch, how can you not consider Ray Allen a superstar? He's only hands down the best shooter in the league. Plus he's in the top 3 SG's in the league; in the company of Kobe and T-Mac...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting DocBlaze27:</div><div class="quote_post">It was just an example... Calm down. In addition to that, Peja can't steal and can't rebound defensively. Not to mention he gets shook by any SF with speed.</div> That's a better argument than your previously lame SF bpg argument. Good job. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting DocBlaze27:</div><div class="quote_post">Oh cry me a river, please.</div> Was that really necessary? All I said was stop hating on the guy.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting SupraJames:</div><div class="quote_post"> Was that really necessary? All I said was stop hating on the guy.</div> No, it probably wasn't. But people get so offended when I come through with a stat that doesn't favor their favorite players. You don't see me defending Ray Allen's defense or anything... I just get fed up with it, that's all.
I'd consider Ray a big star. For god sake, he has a leading role in a movie!!! Stardom isn't about skill, but popularity. So i think Ray is a star with awesome offensive ability, but tends to sleep on defense. That being said, I still lvoe the guy!!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TmacGarnett:</div><div class="quote_post">yao cant be that bad of a defender if he lowers shaq's rebound and ppoints every time he plays him. shaq almost never gets his double double when he plays yao</div> I searched 6 games 2 this season -- couldn't find any from last season 5 from the 02/03 playoffs Shaquille: 5 double doubles/2 non dd As for the topic on hand, it is easily Steve Nash.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The answer to this is Steve Nash and Ray Allen (if you consider him a superstar) easily. Neither of them play any defense what so ever.</div> Ray Allen isn't really a bad defender, he's actually fairly decent...
