You can’t win in the postseason if your number one option on offense is a 6’1” guard... Clippers just have too much size and depth. I like Mitchell, but he has to be your #2.
Also, got to give credit to Paul George.... 37pts and 16 Reb in 40 Mins. [dang]...
Isiah Thomas says hi.
One example from 30+ years ago? NBA is a little different now...
Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili in '07 and '14 say hello.
Not that this is really that important, but Ginobili is 6'6".
Lol well Parker still qualifies.
In 07 though Duncan was the Spurs leading scorer. Parker took fractionally more shots, but that team ran through Duncan. By 14, Parker was the lead scorer for them, though Duncan wasn't that far off as a #2 and they did still run most everything through Duncan.
In 16, Irving actually took more shots than James in the playoffs (and did so playing less minutes than James). Irving isn't much bigger than 6'1". Obviously that whole offense was centered around James, but technically Irving took more shots so could be considered the #1 scoring option.
In general though the larger point about small players leading championship runs is pretty sound. The more physical nature of the playoffs wears on the smaller guys more and they are generally less successful. And frankly, if you look at the champions where the unquestioned best player was shorter than Jordan, you really only have the 15 Warriors, the 89 and 90 Pistons, the 79 Sonics, and the 72 Lakers. You could make an argument for the 14 Spurs, the 06 Heat, and the 04 Pistons (the small guy wasn't the unquestioned best or most important player on those teams). That's basically it. Heck until basically the Warriors started their run, a PG making the all star team and being on one of the two Finals teams, happened like 5 times between Curry and Thomas (basically just Payton, Kidd, Stockton, and Parker - and not all seasons they made it from the latter two - Magic as well, but he is big so not exactly the same thing). The last couple of years that has gone back to the old times of the PG on the two Finals teams not also being an all star though Irving, Conley, and Paul are all still alive this year.