Poll: Who is a better defender, Paul Pierce or Lebron James?

[sully00]

I think that defense is still significant weakness in Lebron's game.  He does a nice job roaming the paint and blocking shots but you can see that he struggles chasing on the perimeter and as well as staying in front of his man one on one.

have to disagree here with regards to small forwards. he actually did a stellar job of keeping pierce in front of him in every game but 7.

against the premier SG's in the league i think he struggles to keep up lateraly, but if i had to pick a weakness in his defenseive game, it wouldn't be staying in front of people, it would be that he tends to get a ton of reach in fouls when he's trying to play lock down defense, mostly do to inexperiance.

to use an overused catch phrase, he's still learning the little "vetran tricks" that guys like pierce and posey know.

I agree his position is SF, most SF's play a slashing game they head to the basket off the dribble Lebron is better at defending that.  It is when his man moves east west on him that he tends to struggle and lose his man.  I think that he will eventually move to PF when the match up dictates as opposed to SG.  He will just be more of a combo forward think Artest or Marion than a player who is going to chase SGs out at the 3 pt line.

I agree, im just not sure it's feasible in the first place to have a SF chase 2's around all games unless their a very elite defender. I mean, lebrons a big guy for a SF, and i can see how he would fit in well as a smaller PF, but i'm just not sure the fact that he can't stay with SG's all night is a knock on his defense.

most SF's aren't asked to cover SG's because of the quickness mismatch.

Actually most SG's and SF's are pretty interchangeable that is what they call swingmen.  Pierce, Carter, Richard Jefferson, Jason Richardson, McGrady, Maggete, Iguodala, even Kobe the list goes on and on.  These guys line up at either spot.  At the moment not only does Lebron play as a swingman he actually plays a bulk of his mins at SG with Wally World at the SF spot.  It creates a great match up advantage for him offensively and leaves him vulnerable on the defensive end.  At the moment CLE is milking him offensively and just trying to deal on the defensive end and frankly it allows them to compete at a higher level than their roster talent dictates.

For Lebron to become a good or great defender and CLE to become an elite team I think they will need to play him as a 3/4.  The addition of Mo Williams will likely make this more possible though CLE will be small in the backcourt instead of a step slow on the wing.

In the end I think that Lebron in the same role defensively as Josh Smith, Marion, and Gerald Wallace may start to look like a much more impressive defensive player, at the same time he will expose himself to more pounding and risk to injury.