LeBron James, the leading scorer in NBA history, has also built a reputation as an elite playmaker, wowing audiences with his pinpoint passes. But not all of his teammates were impressed by his passing. Shane Battier’s strength of shooting off the catch should have made him a perimeter threat next to the drive-and-kick game of James and Dwyane Wade in Miami. If only the King had been more accurate with passes to the premier 3-and-D forward.
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“LeBron used to throw the ball to my ankles and you know, take me off my shot. Like, LeBron you want triple doubles? Hit me in the chest, I’ll make a shot,” Battier narrated on Draymond Green’s podcast.
The two-time All Defensive team member insisted that his Houston Rockets teammate, Tracy McGrady, was a better passer than LeBron.
“He’s the best passer I ever played with. People don’t give him credit for his passing. He was an amazing scorer, he was explosive and all that but man, he always put it, you know, on time and on target,” said Battier.
“T-Mac never missed a pass, never. That’s the one part of T-Mac that I always say like, you have to give him his flowers. He’s one of the best passers of our generation,” the 2001 NCAA champion added.
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T-Mac possibly benefited from the space created by shooters like Battier. The two-time scoring champion may have been a more enthusiastic passer at Houston because he was coming from a situation (in Orlando) that didn’t present him with that option at all.
Furthermore, Houston’s roster during the McGrady-Yao Ming era lacked a dedicated playmaking guard. This likely forced T-Mac to step up as a creator. Though he might have dropped more pinpoint passes to Battier than James did, McGrady also averaged a career-high in turnovers as a Rocket.
In terms of sheer numbers, McGrady averaged 4.4 assists for his career while James currently boasts an average of 7.4 assists per game.
T-Mac, however, averaged a career-high 6.5 assists in Houston during his first full season with Battier. Then again, Bron has surpassed the 6.5 assist mark 16 times in his career, averaging as high as 10.2 assists per game through a full season.
Based on these stats, it’s hard to argue that any wing player would have been a better playmaker than the King. However, Battier’s argument was not as much about volume as it was about accuracy.
As a catch and shoot scorer, Battier clearly held accuracy in high regard. Pinpoint passes made it easier for him to quickly get into his shooting motion. And McGrady would have been better at providing Battier that.
