LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

Luka out there f***ing off too dude. He's young what's his excuse?

 

Luka isn’t playing well but I think the issue is that LeBron still has a big impact on the tone of the team even if it isn’t his team anymore.

There’s plenty of bad to go around right now from the players to coaches but he and Luka both gotta step up.

 

in several of those clips luka is defending pretty well and battling on the defensive boards. luka's turning it over too much and is in a long-range shooting slump, but i haven't seen him just checking out defensively like lebron has.

problem is that jj's friends with lebron, so the upcoming film session won't be as "uncomfortable" as it needs to be.

 

#disappointed

 

And in several of those clips a few people were just standing around. Ayton our starting center, played 36 min and only had 2 rebounds. Rui only had two rebounds. The oldest player in the league wasn't the only one loafing IMO.

 

no, but he's consistently set a loafing tone for most of his tenure here. and because of his stature (and his personality), he can't be called out on it.

ayton and rui are awkward fits with our stars. both good players with flaws that are the wrong ones for us.

 

Yeah, he needs to go next summer. As of now, we have to deal with it. Can't do much else except possibly stagger is a** without Luka or get Rui the hell out of the starting lineup.

 

I'm going to disagree here professor. Lebron is the oldest player in the League. Luka should be setting the tone energy wise here. Ayton and Rui have to play with more fire too.

I hate the Rockets. but I'm not a blind Homer. I'm going to lose a lot of money this season against the firecrackers if we don't get more length and athleticism at 3-5. They played 6 guys over 25 min, and 4 of them, are 6'11 or better. This is going to be a problem if Rui and Ayton can't bring more energy to the boards. No Lebron wasn't great last night, but were are going to need more fire outta these young dudes, against teams like them, OKC, Sas, Denver etc

Folks keep talking about POA, but I'm not convinced that is really our biggest weakness.

 

I expect him to close things out with us or Cleveland but we will see.

I do think he can definitely play better than he showed yesterday.

Rui definitely should not be starting. Not a knock to him but the lineup clearly isn’t giving us what we need and he’s the odd man out.

 

Yeah, the issue is I think there's a fit issue between him & Luka. Could be the players that are in the starting lineup, but we'll see. Smart is probably going to be taking Reaves place in the starting 5 since Reaves will likely be out. I just think he needs to go this summer period. Rui isn't a fit for sure; however, our best units featured Rui at the 4 when LBJ was out. Go figure...

 

I think the fit with Luka is clunky but can work. But LeBron has to play like he did when he first came back, deferring to Luka, Austin and the rest of the team while still giving effort in other aspects of the game. The decline is there but he can still be productive particularly with rebounding.

He has to understand how much his energy and effort rubs off on the rest of the team though and that’s what bugs me most about his off games. I give him leeway given his age but he has got to play with energy because the rest of the team still feeds off of him.

I think Smart should be starting if he’s healthy.

I think changes to the roster are coming just not sure how fast that is going to happen both with the change in regime and our current options.

 

no one said luka doesn't need to set the tone as well. but lebron doesn't get a pass because he's old. he makes super duper star money right now still. he comes off the bench for the vet min, and you won't hear me whining about him missing a box out here and there or conserving energy in general.

the teams in first and second in the conference play hordes of athletic guards. you're just picking houston (who's basically right on our tier this year) because they fit your bigs narrative. the best teams in the nba right now are hyper athletic on the perimeter. this was also how indy went to the finals last year. if we traded lebron for deaaron fox right now, we're right in the thick of things.