LeBron four years after his peak was of course way above Kobe four years after his peak, but this is because peak LeBron was way above peak Kobe. The point of the comparison is not that they were ever basketball peers, but that we saw the same dismissal of their impending mortality for a lot of the same reasons.

From 09 through 13 LeBron averaged .30 WS/48, he is well below that now, thus LeBron has declined. Wins Produced tells a similar story, and in each case it’s exacerbated by his declining minutes played. This shouldn’t be read as an attack on LeBron. We all agree that everyone gets old, we’re just slow to pick up on precisely how old someone has gotten.

As for those Lakers, I would definitely take a three and d guy like Matt Barnes over a DeMar DeRozan type if I was building a team around a twin towers offense. Kobe was a terrible fit for that team.