LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

wow middle of night rants

 

Lebron got the sniffles.

 

Simmons thinks its related to spacing. I tend to agree. You watch the Knicks and Houston Finals on yourtube and don't tell me you won't be asking yourself wtf two HOF coaches were doing.

In game 7 Knicks goes on a run when they bring in Greg Anthony and he promptly hit a an open 3. Knick decide to go full bruiser though and Anithny gets subbed for Mason, and some other bruisers Oakley? Houston wasn't much better but they got enough of a hot streak to go. Modern NBA both those teams get obliterated as they would force those brutes onto the perimeter and make them guard in space.

Add in the talent and you have an offensive explosion. Guys like Luka, Lebron, Giannis, Kawhi, Tatum are as big as dudes like Oakley and are as skilled as those teams best players. Guys like Magic and Bird would fit right into this league but at that time there were exceptions with their size plus skill

 

I'm bracing for a pug-fugly performance by us.

 

it was hard enough to watch back then. the oj situation rightfully hijacked it!

i still think strength is an underrated nba attribute. very few guys get by without being strong (it's why i'm not bullish on the ball bros). but yeah, don't think oakley and mason play now. on the other hand, instead of a 15-footer, maybe oakley gets a threeball and he's more like horford now? have to remember that the way the game is shapes training, etc.

maybe lebron, but i think you're selling oakley's physicality short. that dude was strong. no way giannis just puts a shoulder into him on those drives and doesn't end up on his a**. it was just a differently played game in the 90s.

there's just a greater priority on skill and speed now, and that's directly tied to intentional rule changes. steve nash went from borderline allstar to consecutive mvp overnight. we're living in that aftermath. it has lots of positives, but some negatives. i actually really don't like how much the three has been incentivized. the dantoni/harden rockets were worse than watching the 90s knicks, imo.

 

Great post.

 

maybe we should play him 44 minutes if he's going to take games off SMH

 

Reaves need 70 pts

 

To much juice for lebron, side effects

 

maybe Heat brought him his refill

 

Well well well …. nice gritty win with the 2 big guys out.

 

I tend to think the rule changes just put some balance to the league as hand-checking that the Riley 90's teams didn't really exist during lakers/C Bags/pistons runs. Even the Bad Boys didn't really hand-check they were all about making obvious hard/dirty fouls. It was Riley "innovation" to get more out of the less talented teams he had

It just took awhile for a bunch of jocks to realize the match just favored 3's: Nash TS % went up but his numbers weren't drastically that much differedn between Dallas and Phoenis. He took more 3's and Phoenix small ball was really innovative particularly as Amare was a beast - before the knee injuries I don't think I've ever seen a big with as quick of a first step he had.

Also not denying Oakley strengths but he was 6'8 245 - Lebron, Luka, Kawhi, Giannis are all 6'7 and higher and weight 235 to 245 , Tatum is a tall but likely weighs loss but he's put on a bunch of mass lately. All 5 these guys don't need to put a shoulder into Oakley they just go shoot or go around him. I'm not fan of Harden and glad that ball (and frankly Luka ball hasn't won anything) but I'll take that over 90's ball any day of the week. The best basketball I've seen has been the 80' (pre-expansion - teams were aweseome) and over the last 5 years. 90's were the worst (expansion, barely any internationals) team sucked - the rosters on those teams Jordan faced sucked if you take a look at at the talent beyond the HOF guys

 

Amazing

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...d-fewer-10-points-regular-season-16-years-ago

 

That's never good

 

Count how many times he says "I". It may be a record each time.