I agree. I don't think that Posey would have matched up nearly as well with Lebron as he did with Kobe, and that was a big part of the Celtics' success.
Terrible swap. Cleveland would have no one to step up at the 3 spot. Sasha Vujacic is not a starting SG in this league.
I really don't know if we can talk about this. They each mean a lot to their respective teams, and I think that a switch could play out as good or bad for either team. Personally, I don't think it makes a difference. You can argue that Posey might not have been as effective on LeBron...but if you watched the playoffs, you would know otherwise. It wasn't necessarily Posey that played LeBron, that entire team focused on him, and they'd have done the same thing against him as a Laker. No one can really stop either of them one on one, and the Celtics realized that, hence why against both the Lakers ancd Cavs they constantly swarmed them with 2 or 3 defenders and forced them in to contested jumpers instead of allowing them to get to the hoop. This type of argument is really irrelevant and the only thing it's going to show is bias towards one individual or another.
The entire Celtics team focused on LeBron... if LeBron was in LA w/ Odom and Gasol I think the Lakers would probably have made it a better series. IDK if they would have won, but give them a whole season together and I think they would be unreal good..
People forget that when the Lakers made their run to the Finals, Odom and Gasol weren't nearly as productive considering Pau was taking a toll at Center which affected the running/rebounding lanes for Odom. Kobe outplayed everyone in the league on an individual level to get to the Celtics, he struggled against Boston but then again so did LeBron at the start of his series as well. Kobe was the hottest player for the majority of the playoffs. Obviously either would be great, and Kobe has to be surpassed at some point due to his noticeable difference in age.
The Lakers would have still lost to the Celtics if you swapped Lebron with Kobe. The Lakers needed Bynum in the series to anchor the interior defense. The Celtics could have locked in on LeBron similar to what they did against Kobe and put the onus on Lamar to beat them. In the Eastern Conference semi finatls, LeBron shot terrible. Game 1 - 11% 2/18 from the field Game 2 - 25% 6/24 from the field Game 3 - 31% 5/16 from the field Game 4 - 35% 7/20 from the field Game 5 - 48% 12/25 from the field Game 6 - 39% 9/23 from the field Game 7 - 48% 14/29 from the field
