LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

Year 21

 

Superb game from LeBron - and did not look gassed at all in the 4th despite playing entire 4th.

I think that's also a function of not playign as many minutes in the first 3 quarters versus last year...you can see LeBron has his "burst" back too.

 

Through 2 games

LeBron James on: +29
LeBron James off: -36

Gotta figure out some lineups that make sense when he's out of the game.

 

Seems pretty simple - don't play Hayes/Wood and Gabe/DLO together in the same ffricking lineup.

Have AD/Wood/Rui/Reddish/Gabe or AD/Wood/Rui/Reddish/DLO.

I'm worried about what happens when Vando comes back...I think either Reddish or Prince will need to get squeezed.

 

Year 21. Clutch play after clutch play, you can tell he wanted this one over KD.

 

Game 1: AD went MIA
Game 2: coaching and no offensive organization without him

Both games: improved supporting cast has sucked...a lot.

Troubling for when Bron does eventually miss games this season and then long term when he does retire.

Ham's got to get the supporting cast up to the task or we'll be forced to make a trade I don't want to make in February.

 

The irony of Lebron is that in another rerun of his career he could have probably ended up more like Magic and threaten the all time assist record. HIs first Cavs run the talent was so bad though that it never really had a chance to take off

 

we won games last year with him sitting. i don't get why we're falling apart now as soon as he exits the game. well, i guess i do--the guard play has been junk. but i don't understand why that's been the case.

 

Schroeder won us several games last year with his ability to create off the dribble. I think the focus on shooting has taken away that the Lakers put a ton of pressure on the interior defense of teams. Don't have that guy right now. Reaves looks like he has the usual Team USA hangover and DLo is too poor of a decision maker. Vincent is in the roleplaying 3 and D mold of a PG.

Dennis is not a traditional PG as he'll miss a ton of reads on the PnR but you can definitely trust him to beat pressure and get the offense into an action decisively. Losing him worried me a lot as can be seen from my posting and I frankly still underestimated his loss

 

That's true. Other than Lebron, Schroder was the best Laker at pressuring the rim from the perimeter. Dlo and Reaves don't have that burst.

It's two games though, I have faith they'll get going.

 

Certainly that ^^^. Maybe even more so this:

 

To me LeBron looks better than he normally does this early in the season. He always does well but he just looks smoother. He needs to pick up a few techs to highlight how bad the reffing is against him. It seems like he gets pounded by two or three players on every drive with no call made.

 

His impact at this age makes no sense. He's so freaking good. He drives you crazy with his defense right now, not fighting for boards or loose balls, but man...when you needed him, he delivered.
It's the first time I'm okay for him to coast through the game, bring the responsibility to all the other guys, he's almost 39!!

Amazing 4th quarter really, he's unstoppable in open court. Just amazing

 

Lebron isn't the normal 38 year old human being period. Let alone a 38 year NBA player.

It doesn't get talked about much now, but the guy has spent millions on his training regimen. Hi Tech, very expensive sleep chambers, a team of nutritionists, and private Chefs, a killer offseasn workout game, complete with highly paid trainers.

God blessed him with the genetics, but he's most definitely poured, a substantial amount of resources, into enhancing that blessing. He's more like a 33-35 year old NBA player. I'm really not even surprised anymore. I'm just going to enjoy whatever he has left, (I think it's still a lot).

 

8 turnovers?? 2-6 from the line??? Yuck