Over the course of his career Lebron James has been one of the best players of all-time. The NBA’s best player title seemed to go back and forth between James and Kobe Bryant. That is until Kobe Bryant’s Laker teams started to fade in the early part of the decade.
The mantle definitely seemed to shift to Lebron James by that point. Sorry Stefan Curry, James has been the undisputed NBA best player the last 5 years, but another shift seems to be on the way.
A bunch of betting sites listed at SBD all have odds saying the NBA Championship is going to LA in 2020. Whether it’s the Lakers or the Clippers raising the Larry O’Brien trophy remains to be seen, but if James can lead his team to the title, it will be tough to supplant him as best player in the league.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a couple of players that are ready to take over.
Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo is second in the league in scoring averaging over 30 points a game. The Bucks currently have the NBA’s best record and are the Lakers biggest championship threat. Some have already said Antetokounmpo has overtaken James, but I’ll reserve judgement until I see who takes the title.
Let’s not act like Lebron’s near 25 point per game average and over 10 assists a game isn’t impressive.
If it’s not Antetokounmpo, who threatens James it is the LA Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard. The Clippers have settled into one of the top 3 teams in the West, and Leonard just won a title last year for the Toronto Raptors.
To be honest to be names the NBA’s best player, I think you need have a NBA title on your resume and Leonard already has one. That is something that Giannis, despite his incredible physical gifts, doesn’t have yet.
Leonard’s stat line has him averaging more than 25 points a games, plus almost 8 rebounds and 5 assists.
We’ll also have to monitor Lebron’s groin injury, as that will factor into the LA Laker’s season, but we’ll assume the James will be fine by the playoffs.
That’s where James stake claim that he’s still the NBA’s best or where Antetokounmpo or Leonard take the best player torch from James.
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