Kobe Bryant and All-Time Ranking of Players

[permaximum]

Kobe Bryant's playoff averages are absurdly similar to his regular season averages...

Playoffs: 39.3 MPG, 25.6 PPG, 4.7 APG, 5.1 RPG, 1.4 SPG, 0.7 BPG, 3.0 TPG .448 FG%, .331 3P%, .816 FT%.
Regular: 36.1 MPG, 25.0 PPG, 4.7 APG, 5.2 RPG, 1.4 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 3.0 TPG .447 FG%, .329 3P%, .837 FT%

Also this article that's written after Kobe's final game in sports-reference makes a nice comparison of Jordan, Lebron, Iverson and Kobe in elimination games. Although the author didn't include Kobe's first 2 years for a reason I don't agree, he's the worst one of those 4 in elimination games.

[Mike G]

That article has interesting stats, though. Some shooting% for regular season, playoffs, and these playoff elimination games.

Code: Select all

3fg%      RS    PO    EG
LeBron   .342  .318  .303
Kobe     .337  .331  .301
Jordan   .332  .332  .333
Iverson  .314  .327  .377


FT%       RS    PO    EG
Kobe     .838  .816  .769
Jordan   .838  .828  .757
Iverson  .780  .764  .835
LeBron   .745  .752  .734

http://bkref.com/tiny/2THGQ
RS numbers are up to last PO appearance.

[permaximum]

Kobe Bryant has been labeled as a ballhog throughout his career. Let's find out...

His career usage average is 31.8%. He is the third on this regard. Jordan is the 1st and Wade is the 2nd.
His FGA per 100 possessions is 27.9. He is the third again. Jordan is the 1st and Dominique Wilkins is the 2nd.
His 50 FGA in his final game is a record considering the last 49 years.

Ultimately, is he a ballhog? Not more than Jordan, Wade and Dominique.

[Crow]

There are lots of numbers and impacts to consider. This is just one: career efg%. http://bkref.com/tiny/8PJZF Amongst 41 guys with 20,000 plus points, Kobe'e efg% is at the bottom quartile (i.e. 75% were higher).

[permaximum]

So Crow, you mean being a ball hog is directly related to efficiency, not just pure ball usage and shot attempts?

[Crow]

I didn't take on that matter but being a ball-hog would be determined by usage plus efficiency and to be called a good or bad ball hog you'd want to look at teammate usage - efficiency curves, the actual team offensive efficiency and the efficiency projections for different usage distribution scenarios. I was making a efg% observation. Kobe would look better if you take usage into consideration. Context might cut both ways depending on which set of teammates he was with. Usage and context would affect the apparent impact of every other of those historic scorers too. You probably can't compare evenly context adjusted without a ton of work. You could compare using one universal, average usage - efficiency curve and get a result; but you are still left with different mixes and the knowledge that the contexts were different. Before all this, there is some value to knowing that Kobe's efg% amogst the biggest scorers of all-time ranks at the 25th percentile and not the 50th, 75th or whatever. Only Iverson's was lower for big time scorers who entered with or after Jordan. Anthony is essentially tied with Bryant. Iverson's was the lowest for players entering in 1970 or later. 5 of the 9 before 1970 were below Iverson.

[permaximum]

That's an unexpected answer. It reminded me of Mike G's thread which was titled The Iverson Effect or something like that. But I don't think context or efficiency curves (if it really exists) has anything to do with being a ballhog. However I do agree, they come in handy when we differentiate a good ball hog from a bad one. There have been articles about how Sixers won more when Iverson shot more and how he significantly boosted teammates' efficiency when he was on the floor. Regardless of his league-average efficiency (.518 TS% compared to the league average of .526 TS% in his time), he helped when he was on the floor and even more when he shot more. And with today's rules I think his efficiency would be above average no matter how high his usage would be. We saw the signs of it at age 31,32 and 33 despite he already had started to decline in those years.

So if we go down that route, we have to do some research (like you pointed out) before saying anything about it and I didn't do that kind of research for Kobe. I only know Lakers lost more when Kobe shot more but that's not enough.