LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

it's funny that lebron's finals record is about to go to 3-6 but let's be honest. the only finals loss you can really fault him for is 2011

2007-cavs had no one aside from lebron and stood no chance against a spurs team that had won in 03 and 05

2011-choked

2014-carries the heat through the playoffs only to come up short against a historically good spurs team

2015-2018: facing some of the best teams in NBA history, not to mention kyrie getting hurt in 2015

what's crazy is that his finals record could easily be going to 2-7 after this finals had ray allen not saved his a** in 2013

 

432j is correct but Lebron has had too much of a pass when it comes to not speak about how weak the East was and still is .

If you ( rightfully) want to talk about the great teams he had to face in the Finals , you still have to admit it was mostly easy to get there in the 1st place.

The 6 West teams MJ faced in the Finals averaged 61 wins , the 9 Lebron faced averaged 62 wins , the difference isn't as big as some Lebron stans say ....

 

Hall of fame posts by ox. Take that for data.

 

I would still give that title to Bron
Take out KD from the Dubs and Bron from the Cavs and see what happens. Dubs win every game by 30-40 points, all while sitting their starting 5 in the 4th Q.

 

During Kobe's entire career the West was also the dominant conference which "helps" the stat as there were more 50+ teams than in the East. Doesn't change the fact that he still had to beat those teams though. MJ had pretty good competition in the old East, Detroit, Knicks, Shaq's Magic, Indiana, Miami. Lebron's been hiding out in the newer weaker East so long he hasn't been able to accumulate wins against 50+ teams. Doesn't change anything, Kobe had the tougher road he could have gone and hid out in the East too.

 

1st round 2nd round ECF Finals
Lebron 42,40 48,67 54,79 62,03

MJ 41,49 50,51 57,67 61,14


Path to the finals by opponent average wins by round

 

10 of the 11 playoffs series wins during the 08-10 run alone were against 50+ wins teams ...

 

LeBron is great. Statistically he's gonna surpass everyone and sit atop alone. But when I think about it, can we really call anyone the G.O.A.T.? Unless we had some wizardry time machine or magical device to make Jordan play in Kobe's era, LeBron play on Kobe's teams, Jordan play in LeBron's era, Kobe play in Jordan's era, LeBron play in Jordan's era, we'll never know. To a lot of people Magic is the G.O.A.T. Magic would probably have 10 titles by now playing for the Warriors.

Can we really say Stephen Curry is the G.S.O.A.T.? Better than Ray and Reggie at this age?

It'll forever be a round table discussion. In the future some other player is gonna come along and undo every thing all over again. That's what makes it fun, no one will ever know.

 

I'm not sure I follow your logic. You simply can't get swept in the Finals and win the MVP.

Besides, they chose their teammates, either by joining or by a failed attempt at GM'ing. I have no sympathy for LLLLLLebron who pressured the Cavs to sign/trade for players of his choice, only to turn them into scrubs with his ISO-ball. He got what he asked for.

 

I’m not sure I’m interested in signing a free agent to max money if he’s so weak as to get swept in the NBA Finals.

That just doesn’t make any sense.

 

he averaged 27 pts in the playoffs (28 in the finals) while wade played like **** as did most of his supporting cast


basically the same situation as the cavs in this current series. no way you can fault him for 2014. not to mention that spurs team was far better than the heat

and in regards to lebron "cakewalking" to the finals each year, yes, the east has always been weaker than the west and lebron's route to the finals has not been as hard as MJ's or Kobe's. but let's not act like there weren't some really good teams in the east that honestly we don't talk about because lebron dominated them

George/Hibbert Pacers
Horford/Millsap/Carroll/Korver/Teague Hawks
Derozan/Lowry Raps
Big 4 C Bags
Dwight Howard Magic
MVP Rose Bulls
Billups/Wallace Pistons
Kidd/Vince Nets

 

Dude wanted Ky kept... Instead he was traded for #8. Dude wanted DJ at the deadline but got Hood, JC and Nance instead, who barely get up off the bench.

Bron came to a team with Love and Ky and those dudes faced various injuries throughout certain Finals runs, but he did get to the Finals each and every time in the weak east....so LeGM wanting to team up with those guys made sense. JR got a fat extension after they won the chip. That's Rich Paul leveraging Mr. Comic Sans. Plus the Cavs were above the cap, so additional meaningful help wasn't coming had JR walked away as a free agent. TT was a RFA the year Bron came back, so Paul leveraged Gilbert again especially since they went back to the Finals in year 1 of the return. Again, capped out, so if they allow TT to walk, who exactly comes back to replace him without any cap to attract such a player?

This LeGM thing is ridiculously overblown. He paired up with Wade and Bosh, but was Miami some powerhouse before that (I'm looking at you KD)? He paired up with Love and Ky, but that was more about making the best out of redeeming himself of Decision 1...again the Cavs weren't some glamour location.

You brought up cupcake and his stats to justify FMVP in response to my other post. First I have no clue how or why you took my post as some means to justify Bron as FMVP...I was questioning the legitimacy of a dubs dynasty. Secondly, hating Bron to the point of hyping up cupcake's cream filling...seriously bro?

@Lakeshow85 of course I'm going to bring up Bron's stats in Bron's thread...Haha

 

Like I said, I have no sympathy for the Decisions, or redeeming of Decisions as you like to call them, that LLLLLLebron and his boy Rich Paul has made.

I didn't even know that I quoted you. The link was there and I simply used it to show that LeBron has become Durant's biotch for the 2nd year in a row.

 

I'm not sympathizing either...I'm just pointing out how erroneous LeGM is. Hate on the guy all you want....aint no way it's weaker than what cupcake did. And you know it.

 

Once again he doesn’t get a pass. He chose to leave Cleveland, he picked his team. It’s always numbers with him. Should’ve made his teammates better.

The Heat, who had the same roster, beat the Spurs team, who also had the same roster from the previous season (2013). No way you can fault his teammates. If you were able to beat the Spurs, you should have been able to beat them again. The same opportunity presented itself and the “entire” team failed. Yes that includes LLLLLLebron.

Sure there were some pretty decent teams, but they weren’t dominated until he joined up with Wade, Bosh, and the Heatles or the star-forced Cavs.

George/Hibbert Pacers - Not a good team. Only PG. Wouldn’t have made the finals.
Horford/Millsap/Carroll/Korver/Teague Hawks - Check. This was a special year for the Hawks. They really overachieved, but they probably would have made the finals if not for the Cavs.
Derozan/Lowry Raps - Really?
Big 4 C Bags - Okay check.
Dwight Howard Magic - Never beat the Dwight-led Magic. Ruined our Kobe vs Lebron finals.
MVP Rose Bulls - They probably could have made the finals. Thibs got a lot out of his guys that year. Check.
Billups/Wallace Pistons - Check.
Kidd/Vince Nets - That team was horrible.

 

@vasashi17

You mean joining the Warriors? Well that's a culture that started with the C Bags and later inherited by LLLLLLebron, and I've never been a fan of mini-Lebron (Westbrook) either, so I honestly can't fault Durant for leaving.

What I know for sure, is that LLLLLL has no answer for Durant on both ends of the court.

 

Yeah, happy you caught the sarcasm.