LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

Jesus you guys are tough on the dude. We were 4th in the West before injuries slaughtered us.

Is there a stat on missed games per team? We have to be way up there.

Next year you'll all be praising him after he's had his first rest in a decade and we actually build a team around him.

 

If Kyrie leaves Boston, which seems super likely, Boston won't include Tatum for AD. We're in the driver's seat with AD officially in "pre-agency", and this time we can play hard ball. We CAN get AD and save one of the young guns. We can round out the roster with the cap space and make a run.

If the Warriors lose Durant, the West is open. No one would scare me with LBJ and AD. Bring the ruckus

 

IMO, anyone that thinks LeBron is ending his career in permanent mediocrity is insane. He can't take the L on leaving the Lakers so quickly. He'll make it work here.

 

Bro, he already believes he's the GOAT. He didn't come here for basketball...he came here to retire annd that's been fairly evident.

Even if we really DID come here for basketball...he has lost a step defensively and can't carry a team like he did before.

We're screwed unless another star player comes here and we aren't giving up the entire farm to get that superstar

 

Didn't we just try to give up the entire farm for that superstar?

 

Which is possible now that the Pelicans shot themselves in the foot by not accepting the Godfather offer.

Basically I just don't buy AT ALL that LBJ is just retiring here. That would mean he came to LA to live and work post career. I'm sure he doesn't want to be in LA as the guy who couldn't make any noise as a Laker. He's smarter than that.

 

Yeah, he came to put the lakers back on the map. Tick tock.

 

He more concerned about the gram tbh

 

#fakenews

 

Find someone to love you the way Lebron loves Lebron lol

 

I love this line of thinking... but although we were 4th seed we were also like 2.5 games out of the 10th seed, and we had a relatively easy schedule up until that point. Lakers always have a lot of tough road games after the New Year.

Not saying we would've still been this bad if LeBron didn't get injured, but it's not like we were solidly a HC team for the 1st round by any means. This team just wasn't coached well and wasn't constructed well based on the way we were trying to play. The vets ended up regressing back to their "average" play, young guys didn't develop as much as we wanted, Luke was lost, and ultimately a LeBron injury just exposed what was brewing under the surface.

 

Yeah, and there were flashes of greatness, but my hopes of being a top 3-4 seed came crashing down as the season progressed way before we got hit by injuries.

Let’s not forget we started 0-3 and probably 6-7 games of the first 12-15 games early on were lost due to his missed free throws, not closing games out, and bad decisions. He came here to be the superstar. Superstars takeover and close games. It was not for the young guys to close games. He was supposed to show the kids how to close.

He’s the leader. The team goes as he goes. Why do you think the team sucked at free throws, was horrible on defense, and would constantly lack the fire to beat the teams we were supposed to beat. They were following the leader. Lebron didn’t come to win, he was never about winning. He’s about stats, numbers, and accolades. If we never make the playoffs the rest of his contract but he passes Kareem in points, he’ll be satisfied.

If we trade him now for somebody who actually wants to win, then we can have a shot at competing in the next 3 years. I have no faith that Lebron will be the one to do it.

 

No .Not close

As of March 1st...

Look at Denver and Houston

 

Do tell. How is a self made billionaire not smart? He's made almost all the right moves in his career. He was basically the child star who never slipped up. It's actually incredible he's never really screwed up.

 

interesting.

i'm not sure i love the lost-ws metric. i'd have chosen something else, like maybe average mpg when available, or VORP--which is the most relevant here because it matters how bad the replacement is.

there are also some things that are hard for stats to capture, like the fact that when houston lost paul, they had another allstar to carry them. and when they lost capela, faried fell in their laps and basically did the exact same thing. meanwhile, we lose ingram, and it's kcp. we lose lonzo and/or rondo and it's...???

i think injuries kept us out of the playoffs. it absolutely does NOT excuse the terrible management that made us so susceptible to such effects, though.

 

Wcsoldier, I feel for you cause you stated you flew out to LA and paid for 4 non-competitive games...I hope the Lakers can compensate you in some manner for it.

But in terms of injuries, I still find it difficult how fans can blame anything more than how health has impacted our season.

Denver can attribute lost games to Porter being out for the year, IT and Barton being out for nearly 2/3rds of the year...but those are tertiary players. If you look at their top 4, it's Harris and Milsap that have accumulated for the bulk of games (about 35) that were missed when you include Joker and Murray. Denver's best 2 players missed a total of 6 games this season...Joker missing only 1.

Houston had their best player carry the team with CP3 and Capela out.

Aside from healthy scratches like Moe, Zu, Lance and Beas (who was psychologically not there), the Lakers top 4 guys have missed a total of 60+ games with our best player missing almost 20. Then consider that a groin injury is one that lingers and you just know that Bron wasn't 100% even when he returned. A key tertiary player in Hart is also playing hurt. Then consider Rondo missed nearly half the season, so our key playmakers (in Zo and 'Do) to have Bron play more off ball to help monitor his health, have missed a total of 54 games out of 67 games this year. Zo's first ankle injury occured on Nov 9th...not even 3 weeks into the season. A few days later (Nov 14), 'Do goes down with his hand injury. A couple weeks later (Nov 28), Zo reaggrivates the same left ankle. Y'all don't think that attributed some towards Bron's injury in having him handle more onball duties?

This isn't a theory...key injuries to our key players led us into the s*** we're currently in. We lost to bad teams multiple times, but so too have the dubs and and eastern favs, the Raptors. We never developed any semblance of team chemistry, cause we never really had a full roster that could play together for lengthy portions of the calendar to develop that chemistry.