Los Angeles Lakers: A real LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard comparison
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors ran their offenses through these two. This one is not close, though.
LeBron James’ game comparisons have changed from Michael Jordan (Thankfully!) to another Lakers icon, Magic Johnson. Now that’s more like it. No one in the NBA can control an NBA game in all aspects like LeBron James.
But in the social media-driven, “What have you done for me lately?” era the NBA is in now, Kawhi Leonard put on a show in the NBA playoffs last year. Who’s better? It depends on what a fan goes by, the entire body of work of LeBron or the potential of Kawhi going into his prime.
Kawhi Leonard:
What hurts Kawhi Leonard, in this case, is his playmaking skills will be overlooked based on the credit the Gregg Popovich system receives. For the first seven years of Leonard’s career, he was amazing and his Spurs defeated the LeBron-led Heat back in 2014. If it was not for Ray Allen and his miraculous 3 point shot to save the Heat the year before, Leonard’s Spurs could have gone back to back.
The presence of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and the Spurs system will leave Kawhi’s playmaking overlooked.
As good as Kawhi was last year with the Raptors, by showcasing his overall game, LeBron James will take this round easily.
LeBron James is one of the greatest passers ever, and like his former boss Magic Johnson, he is a willing passer and makes the most difficult passes seem easy.
LeBron’s greatest strength is controlling the pace of the game with his passing ability. It seems everyone is fixated on James’ climb up the all-time NBA scoring list. How about the guy is in the top-10 in assists?
For that reason and that alone, this one is not close. LeBron James is a better playmaker than Leonard who prefers to score.
Better playmaker: LeBron James