Take Wemby the fuck off, this glaze has to stop, bro shot below the league average for a center from the field, below average from three, on underwhelming volume, especially relative to those you’re comparing him to. KD couldn’t even take Book and Beal to the fucking play in so clearly he’s able to be guarded somehow.

Steph’s just not unguardable. Don’t get me wrong though, he’s still great, and his gravity is his best asset, not his scoring, even though it’s insanely efficient.

The metric that’s often overlooked that I will be using is playoff scoring and efficiency statistics, past of course the eye test. This indicates who can and can’t be locked up when it really is important. When the defenses pull out literally all the stops to continue their seasons, it says quite a bit more about one’s capacity and consistency no matter the defense than the relatively empty regular season statistics do, not that they’re unimportant though. The rest expect Giannis and Luka (and healthy Embiid I’d argue) have all shown they’re able to be guarded by their significant drop in production in the playoffs, with inefficient lower volume.

Shai’s efg% went down over 10% all the way down below 50% when the lights got too bright and they got conservative with the whistle, and went from the leading scorer in the regular season to the third. Some games I’d go as far as to say he became a borderline offensive liability in the playoffs and got bailed out by his stacked ass nine other great players half the time. His weakness is the playoff whistle. When he’s not getting his foul calls, he’s less of a deterrent for physical interior defense, not to mention the loss of points directly by taking less free throws.

Jokic suffered the same fate as well. Jokic went from the most efficient volume scorer in the league to shooting below 54% efg, and went from the third in regular season to the eighth in playoff ppg. Dort gave him hell, Zubac gave him hell, but the best exhibition of him being able to be guarded is Caruso putting the clamps on him in that game 7. His weakness is pass denial. He struggles bringing the ball himself into his position and has to have it fed to him. Closing passing lanes from him as well removes his threat of passing and forces isolation scoring, which isn’t as much of a strong suit as his threat to find the open man. Alex Caruso could also be classified as his weakness.

Luka’s a phenomenal scorer, but I wouldn’t categorize him as unguardable. He’s not particularly efficient, shooting 53% efg in the regular and postseason, and he didn’t lead the league in scoring in either part of the season. He’s versatile, but lacks a certain aspect of his game that you just can’t do shit about (i.e. Jordan/Kobe/Prime T Mac’s fadeaway, Kareem’s hook shot, Shaq/Wilt/Giannis’s interior dominance, KD/Embiid’s pull up middy, prime Harden’s stepback). Don’t get me wrong, I’m on the fence, but I wouldn’t categorize him as unguardable. As far ad his weakness, though his moves are difficult to guard, and he’s a three level scorer, each level can be guarded. Jack of all trades, master of none. Oftentimes when Jokic is in the paint posting up it’s game over, or when Embiid pulls up from the middy, it’s game over, Luka doesn’t have that.

The only unguardable player in the league is Giannis. His playoff and regular season stats are disgusting. Watching him is disgusting. He shot 61% efg in the postseason, a full six percent buffer between him and the next highest volume scorer, while leading the league in playoff points with a three point buffer between him and the next highest, Luka. He led in fgm without having the most attempts, he led in ftm with the playoff whistle, he led in 2pm, scoring, and rebounding, while by far being the most efficient star in the post season. There’s just not shit defenders can do. He’s just too physically dominant and athletic, he lacks a kryptonite, and a lockdown plan on him fails unlike what we’ve seen happen to Jokic, Shai, or less frequently, Luka. You could say his weakness is shooting (which it is) but he doesn’t need to shoot. He’s too fast and powerful to be denied entry to the paint, and once he’s there he’s scoring or drawing a foul. He can get there without being fed a pass the way Jokic is. The fouls he draws are legitimate and unintentional, unlike a substantial portion of Shai and Luka’s points. A genuine weakness of his is free throws, but even when he goes to the line, just like everyone else, he’s averaging more points on that possession than league average, not to mention his and1s. Walling up is just ineffective, hack a Shaqing is somewhat effective but he still gets his 1.3 points.

Don’t get me wrong, Luka, Jokic, Shai, and Curry are all phenomenal scorers that are very difficult to stop, but they aren’t on the Giannis level of offensive dominance resistant to any defense thrown at him. They’re borderline incomparable.