americaninfidel wrote:y2ktors wrote:Manu, despite playing limited minutes over his career, is also a very productive player that was a great individual talent.
I've always felt like he had both the talent and the tenacity to have been "the man" on another team. It's a testament to his professionalism that he's willingly taken a back seat in San Antonio. Or maybe a testament to his desire to win.
In these "what would Player X have done with a larger role" debates, there's no way to prove anything definitively, obviously. That said, when it comes to Manu, I'm one of the people (and I think I'm in the minority here) who actually thinks that he was in the perfect role and on the perfect team to maximize his talents (similar to Draymond Green in that regard) as opposed to being a superstar who sacrificed individual numbers for the good of the team.
As a rangy, snake-like combo-guard capable of explosive scoring outbursts (and with a knack for drawing fouls and/or flopping), I see the similarities to Dwyane Wade and James Harden. Here's the thing, though: Harden's last year in OKC-- the year he broke out, and was the 3rd best player on his team-- his efficiency was the best of his career (before and after). He shot .491 from the field and .390 from beyond the arc-- both career highs to-date. When LeBron showed up in Miami and Wade's role diminished, his overall numbers dropped but his efficiency sky-rocketed-- he shot over 50% from the field every year LeBron was there save one-- where he shot .497-- and he's never done that any other year in his career before or after.
When Harden and Wade were not the top option, their efficiency went through the roof. Manu has spent his entire NBA career as a 2nd or 3rd option, and he's never been a tremendously efficient player-- .450 / .368 for his career.
Looking at this objectively, it's hard for me to believe that his efficiency would have improved had he been forced to take more shots as a "#1 option." More likely than not, I think he probably would have been a 21-23ppg scorer shooting in the 40-43% range. If that's what a guy is giving you on offense-- and it's not like he's ever been anything more than a marginal defender-- it's hard to for me to say that he's been a self-sacrificing star.
For the record, I'm taking TMac here. For a short stretch, he was pretty much universally considered one of the best players in the game. You can't say that about any of the other guys who are left.
