LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

yeah, on-court value aside, i definitely will NEVER miss this behavior. ever.

 

Well shoot, did he get permission to change the narrative first. Not cool!!!

 

That’s just wild to say that on defense, LeBron is “better than 90% of the rest of the League.”
The dude only chooses to play defense in the fourth.
He can’t switch fast enough, has no chance against all of the quick players and best of all, complains to the refs when he doesn’t get a call while letting the other team run a five in four fast break.
He’s old, and shouldn’t be expected to play even League Average defense. This is why it’s time to move on and bring in younger, more athletic players to surround Luka and Austin.
He had his time.
It’s over.

 

Bingo!
He is too old.
That’s why you build around the guys who aren’t: Austin and Luka
This team is sorely lacking young, athletic defensive players who can also score a little.
It actually is a bit of “Rob’s fault” for giving him $53 million a season, making it impossible to build a properly balanced team. I’m sure this was a business decision, not a basketball one.
The AD and LeBron duo had run its course years ago and should have been broken up much sooner.
“But, but if these two can just be healthy at the same time during the playoffs…” Year after year after year. They never were after the Bubble Run.

 

I wasn’t clear enough. When taking into account both sides of the ball, he is probably better than 90% of players. Of course there are better defenders, players like Camara, Lu Dort and Herb Jones etc… but LeBron is more valuable than those guys. There are better scorers of the ball, Porter Jr, Norm Powell and Murray, but they don’t really play defense.

When dealing with LeBron, the issue is he is too good in limited minutes - when playing 26 mins - he is still a top 20 player. But he obviously can’t play both sides of the ball for 36 mins a game. So if you can get that for 25m, that’s a positive. In my opinion obviously…

The bigger issue is how do you build a team around Luka, Reaves and Lebron? You probably need two to three standout defenders like a Kessler or Claxton at C and a Watson/McDaniels on the wing (Adou could get there) and a strong guard defender.

Heck I’d kick the tyres on Ajay Mitchell and Claxton in the offseason. Hope we can sign a good defender for the wing spot off the bench.

 

In my opinion, you can’t build a Chip Team around those three.
However, you can around Luka and AR.
Now, if we lived on a different plane of existence and LeBron could reduce his role and his ego, take a massive pay cut, like MLE, then maybe it could work. Even then, he’s still much worse at running an offense than both Luka and AR and always feels the need to “get his,” regardless of whether or not it’s to the detriment of the team.

 

Where is this coming from - I mean if you look at any recent game he totally let's AR run the offense. And he's had to take over certain games like OKC where AR wasn't cooking

 

My guy...Laker lore doesn't start and end with Kobe Bryant. I was a Lakers fan before Kobe was born, Kareem was my favorite player. Folks were complaining that he was too old, made too much money, and needed to retire so Magic could be the man. Laker fans are a fickle, spoiled, what have you done for me lately bunch.

The guys on the team know how hard it is , to just play in this league, and to a man, I garuntee you that not a single one, is complaining about Lebron's defensive effort. He's still a better defender 1 on1 or team defensive wise than Luka or Rui..book that. But I digress

I will always respect the fact, that Lebron chose to step up to the challenge, of bringing my Lakers back from NBA oblivion. He could have went to the Clippers and coasted out the rest of his career. Another funny thing to me, is how Kobe Stans, love hating on Lebron, but somehow develop amnesia, that James brought us home a Championship trophy, after tragically losing Kobe that same year. I always remember Kobe’s statement about Lebron coming here..." If you are a fan of mine, you need to get behind this guy!" Folks remember what they want to it seems. I'm cool with LeBron, I don't think everything he does is great, but I've enjoyed the ride myself.

 

This dude doesn't watch games, he just piggybacks on what other people say.. frequently with righteous indignation!

 

The problem isn't LeBron.

It's the fact that Luka, Reaves, AND LeBron aren't good defenders.

So now you have three players whose highest value is playing with the ball all having redundant skillsets and none are particularly good at off-ball with them just ball-watching or waiting for something to happen.

It'd be different if say, Luka was Kawhi and Reaves was Paul George. That'd be a better fit for LeBron's skillset because LeBron will control the offense and then you have two elite off-ball talent in Kawhi/PG who can score and then defend on the other end.

LeBron is better than AD but AD would have been a better fit. And so would many other players. Not because LeBron isn't a great player but he's just too old to make drastic changes to his game to fit the other two and your other two stars are 27, it's easy to scapegoat LeBron here because you're obviously going to prioritize the younger stars.

I honestly don't see him going to Warriors or re-signing with the Lakers. I think he wants the power and control of an organization, won't get that with either of those teams, and would prioritize a move to Cleveland where he would undoubtedly be heralded as the leader of that team.

 

he's going to cleveland, and i'm guessing it was decided last summer. tbh, had we given him the 1+1, i still think there was a non-zero chance he was going to demand a trade to cleveland anyway.

but you have to forgive fans for not being super patient with a star player who spends a lot of time pointing out that we're not that good.

whatever, it's a purgatory season of sorts, and it behooves lebron to show out a bit from this point forward if only to ensure that we don't look substantially better after he leaves. so in that case it's a win/win for me.

 

Lebron, Lebron, Lebrooooonnnn!!!

 

Saying that anyone is “scapegoating LeBron” is unfathomably dishonest.
I don’t need to reiterate all of the off court stuff he’s done to take shots at the FO so he can get what he wants, since day one of coming here.
He does not fit with Luka, and Luka and AR are the present and future. LeBron is the past.
All that aside, If you love someone, set them free! We have too much love for LeBron to not give him what he wants.

 

yeah, i get why lebron supporters would say he's still producing and that if the team were constructed differently, his flaws wouldn't be as big a deal. but...he's over 40 and gets paid over 50. it's hard to build around that. hell, even he and rich paul have basically (tacitly) admitted that, despite their press grumblings.

it's an awkward situation for everyone. make the best of it, then move forward.

 

lol
LeBron says he gave up eating chocolate chip cookies after missing the beginning of the season

On top of giving up wine, Bron gave up cookies to 'give himself the best opportunity to get back'

(Via
@mindthegamepod
)

 

sounds dumb, but the amount of sacrifice it has to take to play nba basketball at 40 must be incredible. i'm in my 40s, and at this point 5 intense minutes of full court play might actually kill me, lol. and i'm not in bad shape, relatively speaking!

 

^ so true. Im 45, if i go and play ball for 45-60mins. im dying for the next 3-5 days. And i mean, DYING. Being old sucks donkey balls, what Bron is doing really is amazing.

 

Yeah. As an adult, once the first number in your age becomes a 4 everything changes. I did my normal super bowl routine of beer, wings and pizza last week and felt like it threw me off the entire week. I can't imagine trying to stay in that kind of shape all year much less compete with guys half my age, night in night out.

 

Beyond that, the LeBron era is likely closing here as I do think he's strongly leaning toward closing things out with Cleveland. There is some chance he returns though. It will be an interesting summer for multiple big names on the team and in the front office.

 

I love that he came here; I love the championship he brought. I thought he carried us through Kobe's death; he was a real leader. It was an emotional time. But I think the chapter has closed. It always was; I wish it could conclude with him retiring as a Laker, but it just doesn't look like that's the case.

Both sides need to move on, IMO.