Maybe ya'all need to think about it this way.
Put Barkley on the 2007 Cavs instead of Lebron. San Antonio packs the paint and dares him to shoot, so Barkley then....?
Oh, but Barkley will make up for his lack of shooting and beat the zone with his superior ballhandling...no, wait...superior speed....no, wait...height....no...finishing ability....no....???
How would Barkley be able to drive inside on these zones when the zone has worked against Lebron and Barkley is Lebron's inferior in literally every skill and attribute that pertains to driving inside?
Okay, okay, he'll use his strength in fatness to spend 15 seconds backing down his guy....dammit, they made that illegal.
I got it! He'll just draw the defense inside and then pass out to his shooters! Obviously THAT'S where he's better than Lebron.
Wait, let's put him on the 2013 Heat, an actual good team. Game 7, is Barkley hitting 5-10 from three to win the game when San Antonio dares him to shoot? He'd be lucky to go 2-10. Thing is, that series would already have been over in 4, because there is no way that Barkley was extending that series with superior defense. Can you even imagining him jumping up to press guys and then getting back on D, carrying through on all the right switches, and then protecting the rim on top of that?
Barkley was a shorter, slower, fatter, lazier version of Lebron with inferior shooting, defense, passing, ballhandling, and bball IQ. He's not dominating anything in 2017.
barkley averaged 19.2 ppg and 13.5 reb, mason made it over him because he only played in 53 games.
That likely is true, but it doesn't change the fact that Anthony freaking Mason was considered the #2 power forward in the entire NBA with Barkley missing games. Barkley is playing 28 other teams, and his toughest matchup is 33-year-old Karl Malone....then Anthony Mason...and then he has 26 lesser guys to feast against. Think about that.
exactly, what power forwards from today would give barkley any trouble whatsoever? zones? packing the paint? he'd pass to his shooters like he did when he was trying to draw illegal defenses. he'd steamroll his way to the hoop the same way lebron does now cept there'd be less rim protection in front of him and less possibility of someone taking charges because of the restricted area than he faced during his playing days. barkley would eat every single team in this league alive and own the boards.
Barkley is no comparison to Lebron - he's at least three inches shorter, fatter, much slower, not nearly as strong, and not nearly as good a finisher or passer. If even with all those advantages, Lebron has had trouble at times when teams pack the paint, and if he only won championships by playing spectacular defense and making outside shots in the closeout games, then what the hell would Barkley do?
And before you come with "but Barkley was so strong!", you have to explain how he was giving up 20 pounds to Lebron despite a giant layer of fat and no muscle definition. I know that in the "old days", you didn't need to work out or have muscle definition to be strong because there was magic era dust that allowed layers of fat to work like muscle, but come on now.
1980 Jim Hines would have killed 2012 Usain Bolt in the 100m. I know, I know, you think the competition was lesser then, but a 10.25s in 1980 was WAY faster than a 10.25s today.
sure barkley didnt work hard, but this idea that he wouldnt play any defense and be this huge liability is over the top. he averaged 1.5 steals and .8 blocks per game over his career and his defensive metrics werent bad at all even though he wasnt playing on great defensive teams. during the 96-97 season as a 33-34 year old, 100 defensive rating with him on the floor, 2.8 dbpm.
Those defensive metrics were against his weak competition when we've already established that it was a diluted expansion era and his competition sucked. You had a good 6 expansion teams to bump your stats up against with most of the stars spread out across the league. And cherry-picking 1.5 steals and not even a block a game when you're one of the best athletes in a diluted league full of stiffs doesn't show that you can play good defense.
He'd be a liability because he wasn't playing defense back then (by his own admission), and Anthony Mason isn't the #2 power forward in the NBA anymore.
You think Barkley is stopping Lebron? Staying in front of Blake? Giving up 6 inches to Anthony Davis and LaMarcus Aldridge and Cousins and not letting them do absolutely anything they want both over and around him? Chasing Love and Green and Porzingis around on the perimeter (not to mention how ridiculously easy Love and Porzingis would be able to get their shots off over him)? It probably actually would be fun to watch him working on holding off Zach Randolph and Julius Randle banging inside against him because they're built a bit like 3-4" taller versions of Barkley...but we've already covered 10 power forwards right there, and haven't even mentioned Paul Millsap or Jabari Parker or what the hell Barkley is going to do when Durant or Carmelo slides over to the 4.
Here's a stat for you. Right now, Draymond Green is
eighteenth among power forwards in three-point shooting, and Green is a better three-point shooter than Barkley ever was.
Sorry, but today you ain't hiding behind Anthony Mason being the 2nd-best power forward to have to go up against all year.
