[Highlights] All 205 field goals made by Anthony Davis in the 2020 NBA Playoffs (bubble).
25+ PPG
65+ TS%
All 4 series. Nobody’s ever hit those marks for 3 series in the same run, let alone 4.
And the crazy thing is that he hit 57-42-94 splits in the Finals because Game 6 brought down his averages. Through the first 5 games he was 60-50-100
I’m a big LeBron guy but if there was a playoff MVP award, that’s ADs award in 2020. He was on his way to finals MVP prior to the game 3 ankle sprain.
Ankle sprain + Spo deciding to make him priority no1 on defense.
By Game 2 their entire zone was designed to stop AD from getting the ball even if it meant LeBron and Rondo picking it apart to find open shooters. AD still feasted because he destroyed them on the offensive glass. By Game 3 Spo was having TWO guys dedicated to boxing him out on the offensive glass and a third guy to rebound.
He had 30 pts in the first halves of the first 2 finals games but then they started feeding lebron only during blowouts as the series was way too lopsided without bam and dragic to get lbj fmvp. AD was the best bubble player
They said shooters would get hot in the bubble and AD suddenly having a jump shot is a prime example of this. The amount of heavy lifting the bubble jumpshot is going to do for ADs legacy is incredible
Honestly that’s total bullshit. League wide averages for 3p% and FT% in the bubble were not outliers.
There were a couple of guys you can point to that randomly got hot, sure. But that happens every year, and nobody cares.
How much of Giannis’ legacy is tied to his 2021 run in which he shot 48% from 5-15 ft which completely unlocked his scoring game when teams walled him off at the rim? He shot 33% on those shots in the regular season. 16% in the 2019 playoffs, 38% in 2020, 31% in 2022 and 25% in 2023. If he doesn’t shoot crazy hot from the midrange, they lose that year and people to this day would rationalise that you can’t win a title with Giannis as your best player because of his offensive limitations.
How much of Jokic’s legacy is tied to his 2023 run in which he shot 46% from deep? In his other 5 playoff runs since the start of his peak he’s shot a combined 31.6% from 3, never higher than 38% in any year. Murray shot 40% on 8 attempts per game. Since then in the playofs he’s 32% from deep. If he and Jamal don’t shoot like crazy from deep and they lose to Phoenix, people would still say Jokic’s offense isn’t enough to overcome the liability of having a defense built around a center like him.
The truth is in this parity era, there’s been 5-6 teams that could have won the title every year and it usually came down to which one was healthy and had the best shooting luck. The Knicks just had 3 guys in the playoffs shooting over 45% from deep on high volumes.
Wasn’t your top comment that no one has ever hit AD’s stats in the playoffs before?
Yes, and they also stated that the overall shooting averages in the bubble werent outliers
Funny enough Jamal Murray is another guy who I think has a legacy that rides with the bubble. The examples you chose for Giannis and Jokic don’t resonate with me though, I think those are bad examples.
Jokic is a very solid shooter. You know that
Jokic’s 3p% in the 2023 playoffs is a much bigger overperformance relative to the rest of his prime than AD’s 3p% in the bubble is…
The bubble helped and then hurt the Lakers. I thought they were in a good spot to repeat if not for the injuries the next season. Maybe the injuries don’t happen with such a quick turnaround.
They don’t win a championship without AD playing like he did and he doesn’t have that jumper outside the bubble at any point in his career
Watching this is kind of sad man. Injuries suck. He’s nowhere near as fast, & he probably isn’t able to perform a lot of these turnarounds after all the lower body injuries. He’d probably get hurt trying to replicate the move at 10.06 now.
he’s so disrespected. Even after injuries sapped some of his athleticism he was still a monster on defense in the 2023 playoffs, and averaged 28-16-4 with 1.6 blocks on 67 TS% in his most recent playoffs (2024).
It’s crazy how disrespected he’s become, I guess it’s what happens when he played for the Pels which I think no one really watched and his ring is considered “fake” which is stupid.
Feel like sports discussions believes into memes too much with the way people talk about some players like AD, it’s wild.
It’s also because of this insane obsession with judging players by team “success” as the clear no1 option.
With no regards as to the context of the supporting cast, coach, opponents or even individual performance.
Like apparently averaging 28-10 on 67 TS% and GOAT tier defense for an entire championship run while playing with a bunch of role players and one guy who might have arguably slightly outplayed him is not an accomplishment at all compared to something like Dwight averaging 20-15 on worse efficiency in a Finals run in the East with two other all-stars on the roster because Dwight was “tHe No 1 oPtIoN”
And you guys want to compare Embiid to this man.
Embiid maybe my least favourite player not named K*rie. But up until his injury the year after he won MVP he was genuinely unstoppable
And even the mvp season he didn’t have a performance in the playoffs anywhere near pelican AD dropping 50
Did we all just forget about January Embiid? Embiid was significantly better than AD lmao
One month out of 8 years isn’t making the point you think
Alright, what about the MVP and two second place finishes?
regular season Embiid > AD is a valid take. Playoffs AD clears by a LOT.
The more fair comparison would be comparing with Pelicans AD. I have a feeling Embiid would have also been amazing on that Lakers team
Pelicans were much much worse than the Sixers and in a tougher conference so we have a small sample of playoff Pelicans AD, but he was still much better than Embiid.
In his playoff career in NOLA he averaged 31-13-2-2-3 on 59 TS%, and that’s despite 2⁄3 of his series coming against the Draymond led Warriors defense at their peak. In his sole series that wasn’t against the cheatcode Warriors, he led the Pels to a sweep of the 3rd seed Blazers averaging 33-12-1-2-3 on 59 TS%.
I genuinely think there are like 7-8 playoffs series in AD’s career that are better than any of Embiid’s.
What even is Embiid’s best series? The first round in 2022 is the only playoff series in his career he won 4 games in.
All 5 of his other playoff series were against bad enough opponents / with a good enough supporting cast that they won at least one game without him. I don’t think AD’s ever been on a team that could win a playoff game without him.
This
2020 AD was genuinely playing like the best player in the world for stretches
Then he forgot how to shoot
Didnt forget. He was one of many people with the bubble boost with no fans in the crowd
And he hasn’t made a jumper since