LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

wife: can you come to bed already?

me: yeah the game is almost over


OT for three games in a row


me:

 

I agree, but that baseline fall away shot he badly missed after taking too long to take it... ugh

 

The one where Dort lept blocking his face with his palm? It was a bad shot but I think LeBron was expecting to drive by him but Horford zoned him out so LeBron had to improvise at the last second. In late game situations, it doesn't make much sense to have LeBron at the baseline. Not a great place to see the entire floor and not beneficial to LeBron since he can't attack the rim as easily and dish out to a wide open shooter if he needed to. He's better positioned to be at the top of the key.

 

Completely agree but much better if everyone else steps up. It's entirely possible for LeBron to have to only play 28-30 minutes per game and the Lakers still win. I think Vogel trusts LeBron enough to be honest and let him know if he wants to sit out. I'm sure they have those discussions every game. If LeBron says he's okay, we fans gotta trust that.

 

I really would like him down to 30 MPG in non OT games, so 34-35 including OT, we're deep enough.

BUT I'm not particularly concerned with 43 against a shorthanded OKC because he didn't play D for at least 39 of those minutes, crossed the 3 point as few times as possible, and coasted for most of it. I think a 32 minute battle against a contender is much more exhausting for him.

 

Unfortunately for him, AD is the one made of glass. I'm sure the plan was to rest Lebron but it's the dude in his prime who needs rest. It's easy to say rest Lebron but not with AD out and the Lakers fighting for homecourt advantage What can you do?udleyshrug:

 

It makes me so happy when the refs review a call and take a long time doing so. I'm just thinking in my head, man, LeBron is getting some much needed rest because of it.

 

Yeah but it's also on guys to play better as well. Kuzma and Trezz have stepped up but Schroder, Kieff, and KCP haven't been playing that well lately. Plus, no AD and Caruso = 50 minutes of high level production. Frank can only do so much. He can't force guys to make shots which the Lakers haven't been making lately.

 

I think we need to be winning as many close games as possible. We don't want a situation like 2013 (Kobe Archilles) where an aging superstar is forced to play heavy minutes in the second half of the season. That's when they become really fatigued, playing catch-up with the pressure mounting. I'd rather have Lebron rest and coast in April than now. We can ill-afford to throw away winnable games this soon in the season.

 

But I don’t think we project to be in a situation like that 2013 season. We were pretty mediocre that entire year, so that last stretch where we rode Kobe to the ground, we had a big hole to claw out of just to get the 8th seed.

Right now we’re 36% done with the season and already have a solid cushion in the standings ahead of most of the West. Say we hypothetically did throw away some of these mid-season games to prioritize resting Lebron. Then at the end of the year we’d worst case be fighting for the 4th or 5th seed instead of a top 3 seed? In a year where we’re still unlikely to have any significant home court advantage?

Point being, I think we’re too good of an overall team to EVER really be in a position where we have to play Lebron 40+ minutes in multiple consecutive games during the regular season.

Given that this recent stretch was kind of fluky with the OT’s, I’m not too worried about it and trust that Vogel will know not to burn out Lebron. But I’m all on board with sacrificing some of these mid-season games to rest Lebron when appropriate.

For example, I wouldn’t mind one bit (and actually think it would be a good idea) if we sat both Lebron and AD against Memphis. Would that significantly increase our chances of losing? Sure. But I don’t really care that much if we lose a mid-February game to the Grizzlies. And I think there’s a solid chance the rest of the supporting cast rises to the occasion and we win anyways.

 

Well I think it's one thing to rest our stars for entire games, but it's another to restrict Lebron's minutes in OT when it's clearly a win/lose situation.

With AD still injured and the COVID protocol messing with any team's fortunes, we can't get complacent with a mere 3-4 game cushion with 60+% of the season still remaining. It speaks volume that we couldn't beat the 2 worst teams in the league in regulation.

Having said that, Lebron needs to sit out for this upcoming Memphis game. I'm not sure if he's OK with that though.

 

He's gunning for the MVP, and he deserves to win it

 

They'll give it to Embiid.

 

i'd say jokic most likely

 

They'll give it to Embiid and then when Embiid underperforms in the playoffs and chokes, they'll ask themselves why they voted for Embiid as LeBron proceeds to win the championship. They will then promise to vote for LeBron next season and the same thing will happen. Some player will have a great regular season and then get exposed in the playoffs and we're stuck asking ourselves, how the hell does LeBron keep getting robbed. It's funny that he's been universally recognized as the best player for at least 6/8 years and hasn't won a single regular season MVP in that same 8 years. It's about time for the league to start updating the awards... Best player, as voted by other players+coaches when the season ends. MVP is becoming an absolute joke. Now they're trying to push Jokic as the MVP when Denver is barely winning half their games. Are you kidding me?