LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

yeah, on-court value aside, i definitely will NEVER miss this behavior. ever.

 

Well shoot, did he get permission to change the narrative first. Not cool!!!

 

That’s just wild to say that on defense, LeBron is “better than 90% of the rest of the League.”
The dude only chooses to play defense in the fourth.
He can’t switch fast enough, has no chance against all of the quick players and best of all, complains to the refs when he doesn’t get a call while letting the other team run a five in four fast break.
He’s old, and shouldn’t be expected to play even League Average defense. This is why it’s time to move on and bring in younger, more athletic players to surround Luka and Austin.
He had his time.
It’s over.

 

Bingo!
He is too old.
That’s why you build around the guys who aren’t: Austin and Luka
This team is sorely lacking young, athletic defensive players who can also score a little.
It actually is a bit of “Rob’s fault” for giving him $53 million a season, making it impossible to build a properly balanced team. I’m sure this was a business decision, not a basketball one.
The AD and LeBron duo had run its course years ago and should have been broken up much sooner.
“But, but if these two can just be healthy at the same time during the playoffs…” Year after year after year. They never were after the Bubble Run.

 

I wasn’t clear enough. When taking into account both sides of the ball, he is probably better than 90% of players. Of course there are better defenders, players like Camara, Lu Dort and Herb Jones etc… but LeBron is more valuable than those guys. There are better scorers of the ball, Porter Jr, Norm Powell and Murray, but they don’t really play defense.

When dealing with LeBron, the issue is he is too good in limited minutes - when playing 26 mins - he is still a top 20 player. But he obviously can’t play both sides of the ball for 36 mins a game. So if you can get that for 25m, that’s a positive. In my opinion obviously…

The bigger issue is how do you build a team around Luka, Reaves and Lebron? You probably need two to three standout defenders like a Kessler or Claxton at C and a Watson/McDaniels on the wing (Adou could get there) and a strong guard defender.

Heck I’d kick the tyres on Ajay Mitchell and Claxton in the offseason. Hope we can sign a good defender for the wing spot off the bench.

 

In my opinion, you can’t build a Chip Team around those three.
However, you can around Luka and AR.
Now, if we lived on a different plane of existence and LeBron could reduce his role and his ego, take a massive pay cut, like MLE, then maybe it could work. Even then, he’s still much worse at running an offense than both Luka and AR and always feels the need to “get his,” regardless of whether or not it’s to the detriment of the team.

 

Where is this coming from - I mean if you look at any recent game he totally let's AR run the offense. And he's had to take over certain games like OKC where AR wasn't cooking

 

My guy...Laker lore doesn't start and end with Kobe Bryant. I was a Lakers fan before Kobe was born, Kareem was my favorite player. Folks were complaining that he was too old, made too much money, and needed to retire so Magic could be the man. Laker fans are a fickle, spoiled, what have you done for me lately bunch.

The guys on the team know how hard it is , to just play in this league, and to a man, I garuntee you that not a single one, is complaining about Lebron's defensive effort. He's still a better defender 1 on1 are team defensive wise than Luka or Rui..book that. But I digress

I will always respect the fact, that Lebron chose to step up to the challenge, of bringing my Lakers back from NBA oblivion. He could have went to the Clippers and coasted out the rest of his career. Another funny thing to me, is how Kobe Stans, love hating on Lebron, but somehow develop amnesia, that James brought us home a Championship trophy, after tragically losing Kobe that same year. I always remember Kobe’s statement about Lebron coming here..." If you are a fan of mine, you need to get behind this guy!" Folks remember what they want to it seems. I'm cool with LeBron, I don't think everything he does is great, but I've enjoyed the ride myself.

 

This dude doesn't watch games, he just piggybacks on what other people say.. frequently with righteous indignation!