LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

I think this is one of my main issues with the board in general. This team lead by Bron has made it to the 2nd seed in the West, has the best offensive and defensive ranking in the NBA since the Allstar break and have been killing it.

We just played a back to back against 1 team which almost always ends in a split with the teams. We won both. I come in to see some "Doom" from the other teams and some positive chatter about our players who, lets be real, after losing AD really could of crapped the bed defensively but they didn't.

No one on the team is above criticism and LBJ and Luka def had some horrible turnovers in the game. But man, come into threads and you'd think father time was beating this dudes a** and we should take him out to the gravel pit and put one in him to end our misery.

I don't know what all these players/coaches "needs to" do for some but I'll take winning however they get it done especially without key pieces playing.

 

Just give that chemistry another month or so...

 

Well that can’t be right. Barkley and other talking heads said these guys can’t play together.

 

I agree here...nearly cost us the game but I also will give him a break - he has been on fire since the Luka trade and he had his first off game in quite a while. Guy is 40 years old - what he's doing shouldn't even be possible.

 

But one bad game after him showing it as an elite two way player at age 40...

 

Trade filler tbh

 

still didn't really understand what those guys thought would happen. the only reason lebron was on the ball so much here was that we had no other options. well, we had dlo, but lebron hated him, so we never really went heavy there. other than that, it's been reaves or lebron as initiator. but that's not plan A.

even in the clippers games, we only had lebron handling it so much because that was lue's whole gameplan--he wanted lebron iso-ing as much as possible because it's really not his strong suit anymore. but it is definitely luka's.

those two (and austin!) are going to be just fine sharing the floor. because really any of them can play with anyone.

 

I don’t think it’s embarrassing. No one is immune to criticism. LeBron did not play well against the Clippers the other night he is not above being criticized. That’s part of being a Laker.

We criticized Kobe at times so why wouldn’t we criticize LeBron when it’s warranted? We’ve even criticized Luka when he hasn’t played well and he just got here. I’m fair I have given LeBron plenty of praise when he has played great and at an elite level (which is most of the time) but if he doesn’t play well and he’s forcing shots as he was the other night I’m not just going to ignore it because he’s LeBron James.

 

Criticizing for the lack of perfection isn't actual criticism its nitpicking (some could even say hating). You are right, no one is above critique as a whole. We, as fans, watch the game with a critical eye of our fav players and not so fav players.

The Clippers game wasn't great by LBJ's standards but the narrative he "forced" the game is simply incorrect. We were missing 2 key starters and both our big time players (LBJ/Luka) got a ton of turnovers mostly on passes. The man took 17 shots (not counting foul calls) which is low considering he took 21, 21,17, 19, 24 and 22 over the last 6 games. 3 pointers? He attempted 6 which again is normal for him as he took 7,9, 4,4, 8 and 11 over the last 6 games. He only had 5 assist but 8 turnovers (last 6 for TO: 4,4,6,1,11,2) which is def not good but as you can see not actually far off what he has done.

These boys are 10-2 in the last 12 games. They were missing 2 starters and 1 star is finding his way back from injury and his fit with the team. What are we really criticizing? That's the bafflement for me personally.

 

I wasn’t criticizing LeBron because he wasn’t perfect. I was critical because he was taking a lot of bad shots and there were too many times he was pounding the rock when Luka was in the game instead of allowing Luka initiate. The ball needs to be in Luka’s hands more especially at this stage of LeBron’s hands. It only makes the game easier for LeBron, but in this game the ball was in his hands and he was not only taking bad shots he was turning the ball over a lot which hurt our offense.

 

The first thing that struck me was that lebron took zero shots in the first Qrt. Except for the long pass for a dunk from Luka.As I was watching I expected him to be off on his shot from that time forward.He had no rhythm and what I saw was a player searching for that rhythm.Except for his turnovers I had no problem with his game.

 

if only he learned to play better. We might not be a bad team.

 

I know …. he never added other skills to his game for when his athleticism started to go and has been screwed for years because of that.

 

watered down award in a watered down league

not impressive if a 40 yr old can get it while leading the universe in turnovers