Steve Nash has only been a Laker a month, yet there have already been countless articles suggesting that he would tip the scales in favor of the Lakers over the reigning champion Miami Heat.
The reason why is due to one of the more pointless methods of determining the quality of a team: the player-by-player breakdown. We've all seen this. Player A is better than Player B; therefore, Player A's team has a tremendous advantage over the team of Player B, and so forth.
Analysts are reasoning that since Steve Nash > Mario Chalmers, Kobe Bryant > Dwyane Wade (although I think that's seriously debatable at this point), Andrew Bynum > Joel Anthony, and Pau Gasol > Chris Bosh (I would argue that one as well), that the Lakers clearly have the edge.
Despite how unsuccessful it has been in recent years in predicting the victor in a playoff series, (how many people picked the Thunder to win the title because they assumed Oklahoma City would win the point guard, center and bench match ups?) it remains the method of choice in breaking down teams.
Here are four flaws with this way of comparing teams:
1. It places too much emp ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Robert Felton
Wade vs. Kobe: Why Player-Player Breakdowns Are Useless in Judging Teams
August 4th, 2012 by Robert Felton Leave a reply »
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