LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

When his 3 ball isn’t falling, his game is limited to layups, dunks, and wishful thinking fade-aways.

pretty crazy to think that will end up giving him the all-time scoring record, but it’s not inaccurate. His size, agility, and strength at the small forward position has always been a very unfair advantage, and he has made the most of it.

 

He just needs to adopt the Karl Malone old man game from now on but that includes midrange pops and remarkable free throw percentage

 

his whole career, i thought that's what he'd do for the last 5 years of it. just set up shop from the elbow and run the offense as a malone/jokic type. but he pivoted completely to basically a james harden type role (pound ball, shoot bad threes, hope enough go in, occasionally hunt a fta). i get how it preserves the body, but i don't think it will help him win another ring.

anyway, his midrange shot never developed enough to really allow for this transition.

 

I agree, never know when it isn't going to show back. The question I and many others seem to have if for a player that is supposed to be extremely high basketball IQ why doesn't he adjust? If he would buy in with what Ham is trying to do and play team ball he would be scoring just as much and it would be much easier for him and the team. His pounding the ball and taking bad shots says one of two things to me. He is either playing selfishly again or his IQ isn't as high as we have been told. His play stands out this year as he is the only selfish player I see out there. The Russ situation last season deflected from Lebron's play but with Russ playing high level team ball the spotlight is on Lebron. I have faith in Ham to fix this but it is a huge challenge. I don't believe any of them will say anything but his teammates have to hate this. I know I would. Lebron has been great for a long time but for me the game is so much more enjoyable to watch when he isn't in it. For all his talk Lebron is refusing to let this be AD's team. Which is unfortunate as AD is playing so well.

 

Having two all star level teammates will allow him to hide these limitations a little longer, but he does need to expand his game if he wants to play longer and have Bronny join him. I just don't know that he can expand his game in the areas needed to go from bully to more finesse.

I see a LOT of blocks in his future. When he's on offense.

 

To be fair I think he’s pretty much gone along with Ham’s system which is quite different from how he’s always chosen to play. Even after the third or 4th loss when he announced HE was going to (have to) be more aggressive he didn’t come out and immediately start the ball pounding ISO stuff. Where it unexpectedly all of a sudden reappeared, in a game where he clearly looked like he was fatigued / not feeling 90-100% …. was in that 4th quarter where if he’s as smart as advertised and not trying to simply play Hero ball …. he should have let (and assisted them in doing so) the players who were feeling it more than him for sure that game, shooting the ball especially, continue to do so.

 

Maybe he has and is just getting older like we all do. The offense just seems clunkier when he is out there with a lot more forced shots at the end of the shot clock. Could just be my imagination. No stats to back this up just the eye test.

 

To be fair, 1 on 1 skill hasn't carried anyone in year 20. All of Lebron's peers and comparable talent have been retired or completely washed at this point in their careers. Kobe, MJ, Malone, Shaq his entire draft class etc. He's in pretty unprecedented territory.

And with regards to Luka. He has a great first step which helps. Lebron's first step had been gone for years and he absolutely does have to rely on his strength. He still finishes at a good clip inside bit his jump shot is just gone.

 

Last year he was at least scoring incredibly efficiently so there wasn't much that could be said considering the supporting cast. This year it's been a struggle and it has to change as this is a results driven league. And with regards to Davis, he happily defers so that's also on him. To be honest I don't even think the offense can run through Davis as he's strictly an at rim scorer. It's hard for him to be the man when he doesn't have any semblance of a jumpshot any more. he's strictly reliant on Dunks, lobs, lay-ups. That's why I'm still on board for Irving.. He can be the one one scorer this team desperately needs. But he's crazy..

 

luka's also got the weird harden talent of being able to stop momentum and maintain body control. he also just has incredible eye-hand coordination, which is probably one of lebron's only "normal-level" abilities.

 

I have had some reservations about AD being our number one guy but after Coach Ham has us playing elite defense and the way he handled the Russ situation if he says the offense should run through AD I'm not going to argue. He already made me look foolish once...lol. I'm not sure Irving is the solution but he is definitely a talented guy.

 

AD has to step up and take it. If Lebron wants to Iso up top AD should say nah bro give it to me.. But instead he passes it to Lebron like a hot potato. And Darvin Ham is letting it happen. We'll see if it changes.

 

Lebron had a meh game but honestly where were are the Lakers going to get 1/2 court points? Russ's inability to hit the 3 takes him out of the equation.
AD's biggest weakness remains his inability to handle doubles and as I've pointed ad nauseam the team roster construction hurt him more then anybody else.

We're stuck with Lonnie or Reaves creating offense which I don't think anyone trusts right now - I actually think Schroeder similar to guys like Barea and Van Fleet can help with this but it's the biggest reason you still need to move Russ

 

As said on the LFR pod last year, LeBron's go-to pitch has always been to slow the game down in the 4Q. Unfortunately he doesn't want to acknowledge that it's not near as effective in year 19 & 20. If he absolutely has to stall the offense, it needs to happen much later.

According to Cranjis, LeBron's shot making at the rim is still elite (top 5), so I'll just assume that the threes will eventually fall.

 

He needs to stop taking fadeaways, forever.

 

funny how they feel the need to specify non covid

 

LeBron James sucks donkey balls. That is all.

 

shooting percentage is down about 10% from last year. Time to recognize he's near the end. If he's not making a layup, or a 3, he's limited. Since the 3 isn't falling, he's simply an amazing all around player. But he needs to recognize he's no longer the "Go To" player he thinks he is in his mind. That's ok. Happens to everyone.

Hopefully he adapts and makes others around him better vs just focuses on trying to get the scoring record. It will be pretty meaningless if he is shooting 39% from the field and we're losing.



playing nearly 37 minutes a game is probably a pretty bad idea in year 20.