LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

Impressive he's doing this with he foot injury and also it's impact on his conditioning is a concern. Not only is he 38 but he was out for a while and unlike a younger guy like Wiggins I think it's going to take longer to get into basketball shape.

Father Time is going to catch up to him and some point but he definitely seemed more explosive, less tired before the injury so hopefully he can just get back to that

 

Good. He won’t take that well to his ego being broadcast like that so we’ll get more effort to prove everyone wrong on his current latest list.

 

Last night (Bulgarian time), I was browsing YouTube... I can't understand why so many people talk nonsense. I would have a hard time believing that the Lakers are any kind of favorite for the title, especially after the last game. Minnesota had a monstrously high three-point percentage! Austin Reaves is absolutely useless... Lebron despite the leveling clutch basket, the last part was already visibly tired. But honestly... without him, the team doesn't know what to do with the f*ckin ball.

Many lessons to be learned after Minnesota's last game!

 

You had me until "Austin Reaves is absolutely useless". Guess you haven't really been following the Lakers.

Back on topic. I would like Bron to do 3 things:
1. Get AD more involved on offense
2. Play defense!!!
3. Shoot less threes.

Maybe also move the ball more, it seems like our offense is stuck in the mud more often than not with him orchestrating while we do have some decent passers out there outside of him. Let's use that to our advantage.

 

I think he was quoting YouTube comments

 

Blasphemy either way!!!

 

i like how the fan/media pendulum swings after each laker game (hell, after each half of the minny game) from "they're contenders" to "they can't beat college teams".

of course we're underdogs against memphis. they've been the second-best team in the conference the entire year and most of them have played together for 2-3 years now. they have one of the best coaches in the game, and we have ham. i think we have a shot, but you wager on the team with the longer history of success (and home court advantage). it's not disrespectful to lebron or the lakers.

anyway, we have to find ways to get away from lebron handling at the top of the key with nobody moving except the occasional ball screener. hell, one of the main reasons you do that is to avoid turnovers, and he still turned it over twice in those situations.

defensively, i've said this a couple times, but i still can't get over how much minny just went right at lebron with great success on that end. it was troubling. like we were playing duncan robinson on that end.

 

What longer history of success does Memphis have? They won a playoff series against another young team in Minnesota last season and got bounced by the Warriors. They lost in the 1st round in the previous season, I'm not sure what's soo special about that, Lebron and AD are a championship proven duo and both are healthy. Honestly considering who is actually available to play for both teams in this series, what are these perceived advantages that Memphis have, that makes them the favorite?

 

two consecutive seasons of 2nd place finishes in the conference with basically the same personnel and system. top five defense two years running. they lost to the eventual champion last year.

lebron and AD were a championship duo 3 full years ago and have an entirely different supporting cast (not just from then, but from 2 months ago). they are both also playing on bad wheels.

we need to manage expectations. we can beat them, but i'm not sure i expect it.

 

Well Memphis without Adams and Clarke, aren't exactly the same team. Unfortunately for them, those two guys being out, takes away some of their ability to contain AD, who has owned them this season. Playing together for some time, doesn't necessarily make them better, they still haven't made it past the second round with their core. The Lakers have the best defensive rating in the NBA after the trade deadline, we have the 2nd best record in the League after the Allstar break, at 17-9 we have the 2nd best record in the West since the trade deadline. Lebron and AD only played 35 games together this season, we are on the ascent IMO. I don't fear Memphis at all, No..that's not some guarantee of success, but it doesn't mean that I should be managing my expectations either.

 

I have to admit after doing some scouting on Memphis I do expect us to beat them. Where I put my biggest trust is our incredible defense when we go into scramble mode. I also expect it to be ugly at times and Lebron is going to irritate me with ill-advised shots and lazy passes. I have learned to accept that he will only play defense a few minutes a game. He is smart enough to cheat and make some defensive plays through the game. Malik is going to have a big series opening the court up for AD. Dennis is also key with his defense. The wild card for me is Dlo. If we get a good series out of him we cruise, if not it will be a dog fight we still win. I believe the pressure is off us now and a free wheeling confident Laker squad is going to be hard to beat.

 

I'm with you... Well I don't expect to sweep Memphis or anything, but I absolutely do not expect to lose that series.

 

I'm thinking six.

 

Lebron James has a playoff career record of 174-92...that's a ridiculous amount of winning. For comparison Kobe was 135-85 Jordan 119-60 and my idol the GOAT Kareem 154-83. This dude has been amazing in the playoffs. He has still some gas left in the tank IMO.

 

I predict Lakers win in 9!!

 

I agree Kareem is the GOAT. I give Lebron lots of respect for what he has done, you can only play who is against you. With that said, he was in a watered down eastern conference for many years. Many of those final appearances there were four teams in the west that would have dominated and come out of the east. There is no way to know but I believe if he had played in the west things would look a lot different. The east was terrible.

 

To be honest, the West in the 80s was even weaker than the east LeBron went up against. Multiple years with only 1 or 2 50 win teams. Conference competition wouldn't be a strong argument for Kareem.

Kobe had it tough though

 

The GOAT can never be a center.