LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

The new generation should be ashamed, that a 41 year old, is still a better player than 90% of them. Which speaks to a bigger point, are you willing to put in the work and dedication to get to this level? He shouldn't have to say that he can only do it for 20 minutes a game, no more than a 20 year old, should have to say, that they should be able to do it for 40 minutes. Both should be understood.

 

well if he plays 35 min at such a pace that he's a net negative, you bet there's reason for a conversation. That's terrible for the team, for winning, and for moral. The Lakers do not exist to let a player pad his career stats. We are after wins. Either you are part of a winning culture or you are an enabler.

 

What winning culture did we have in the 7 seasons before James signed here? Come on man..we'd still be a borderline lottery team every season, if he hadn't signed. I don't think the Jeanie/Rob braintrust have a clue TBH.

 

ahh, that's right, you're the move the goal post guy.

I said basically giving half a** effort is bad for team morale and culture. It is. It's indisputable.

You are bringing up past history as if it was relevant to that point at this moment in time. Joining a team many years ago has pretty much zero to do with playing with effort today.

Are you saying Bron gets to act/do/play however/whenever he wants with whatever level of effort he wants, and you give him the fan hall pass due to past efforts and influence on the team?

If so, I can't agree on that. Kobe pretty much sucked in his last season, but you knew what Kobe was about. He had flashes of his former self we all hoped to get glimpses of, but he had an injury that typically ended careers. We got to see him his entire career, and he rewarded us with amazing effort and entertainment until it was no longer physically possible. We forgave it because we wanted our fairytale ending, and we actually got it.

Lebron is a different cat. He jumped super teams in a weak Eastern conference trying to increase his odds, has no loyalty to anyone but himself, has flop compilation videos, etc, etc. Fans in LA will pretty much never put him in the same category as Kobe and forgive poor effort or skillset like we might have forgiven Kobe on his home stretch. We even roasted Kobe and called his play what it was.

If he never came, maybe the team never went anywhere unless it was with other moves, but it won't make me excuse not getting back on defense, blaming others for his missed assignments, etc, etc, but making sure he stays in games long enough to get his stats (That he allegedly doesn't pay attention to)

He's my favorite player, but let's be willing to call a spade a spade.

 

it's completely irrelevant. that won't stop its introduction into the conversation, of course.

 

The Decision was dumb move for the theatrics but he made the right move to leave Cleveland. He's always played hard and lived up to his contract. He didn't walk into a situation where he had one of the greatest owners in sports history, one of the greatest centers of all time, maybe the greatest NBA executive of all time and the greatest NBA coach of all time. I don't think anyone on this forum can with a straight face, list a Cav from his first stint Lebron played with they would consider a really good player.

Kobe himself was going to walk to the Clippers of all teams.

What @Slick2021 is getting at is since he's gotten to shape the effort and numbers have gotten significantly better. All grave diggers posts essentially stopped and that Lebron is well liked by his teammates! I mean I guess Brick didn't like him but even guys we forget about like Zubac and Daniels all said he was a great teammate - in part they know that he is conserving energy so that he can kick it up a notch in the 4th quarter.

 

#enablers

 

Never be another Lebron

 

Lebron got a gift for you with his special dance:





I watched it live yesterday and it was his 123rd triple double. fun game to go to lol

 

Impressive longevity

 

Awwww, so sad.
At least he got to be a member of that Flippers squad who won that award for…

 

You’ve got to give it to LeBron doing what he’s doing at his age is remarkable. For him to still be averaging 22, 7, and 6 at 41 years old is pretty ridiculous.

 

If only basketball were played on one end of the floor.
Scoring is great, but if you have to rely on outscoring your opponents b cause you aren’t able to stop them, you aren’t going to go very far in the playoffs.

 

And that’s LeBron’s fault how? The man is 41 years old. We can’t expect him to be the anchor of our defense like he was last year. It’s not his fault Rob is so bad at roster construction.

 

Right, once he retired as the anchor of our defense, he's become an anchor around Rob's neck with his $52M contract.

Lebron at 41 is still good in spurts which can cloud the judgement of fans. We don't need his playmaking/scoring anymore with Luka and the emergence of HIM. We need athletic wings around those 2 and Lebron no longer has the stamina to provide consistent defensive effort. I can not stress how disappointed I would be if he came back next year. The only realistic scenario where he'd help us is if 1) he agreed to a $15M-$20M contract, and 2) agrees to a bench role, playing 20-25 minutes. Both are unlikely given his huge ego, and he's too respected around the league to be diminished to such a role. Frankly, he's too good (in spurts) for his own good.

Thanks for the ring Lebron, and good luck in Cleveland.

 

I respect both sides of the argument, where I have issues is that Lebron is still better than 90% of the league on both sides of the floor. So if you pay him 30m a year, that’s probably better than giving Grimes or similar RFA’s 20-25m.

 

i said that in another thread. if he wants to to play for 20-25 on a one-year deal, it's going to beat pretty much anything available at that price (plus you'll have another 25 to get another rotation player).

not sure what the front office's thinking is on this, but if it were me, we'd have that conversation very early in the offseason.

i think one issue is that he might not be ready to decide until the season gets closer, and we obviously can't just hold space in the hopes that he wants to (finally) take a pay cut. of course, for him, if he waits too long, the paycut will become steeper anywhere.