👑 The LEBRON JAMES Thread 👑

[kfkilla]

Much respect to Bron for his interview with ESPN having the Lakers back. Wasn’t expecting that. Good on him.

[miggz23]

Lebron probably plays for another 3 years... His farewell tour will be playing with his 2 sons.

[Robblake]

[levon]

He's a god tier player.

[Reds622]

Some of the fools around here, and one particular Clippers fan, advocated not to sign this guy and let him walk.

They should wear that take IN SHAME.

Ridiculous.

[Snipes]

[Cyberfreak444]

He's still a monster. As is AD.

The thing with LeBron is that he can no longer dominate consistently in the regular season (even though he's still good enough to make third team All NBA). But he's shown that for playoff series (he was great in both of the last two postseasons) and tournaments (IST and Olympics), he can still be a top tier player.

So what the Lakers need to do is to give him the support around him to get through the regular season. And it's very obvious what kind of support he needs in the regular season: athleticism, length, and defense. In the regular season, he isn't going to expend the energy to do things like dominate the glass or play as the weakside rim protector the Lakers have so often asked him to be recently. We've seen that he can do that in the playoffs, but to get to that point, the Lakers have to play guys that can provide that athleticism and defense.

This means playing more Vando type of players in the regular season. And even playing him more with two bigs, which allows him to play more at the three defensively (every advanced stat shows he's still a great man to man defender) instead of as weakside rim protector (where he struggles especially when he isn't going all out).

Once the playoffs come, if using Vando or a second big with AD becomes untenable from a spacing perspective, the Lakers can have LeBron fill those gaps. He has shown he can do that in the playoffs. But to ask him to do that in the regular season is asking for trouble. This is one of the biggest areas where Darvin Ham failed the Lakers when he frequently not only had LeBron as the weakside rim protector but he often had him play with three unathletic guards. Hopefully, JJ won't make the same mistake.

[wolfpaclaker]

Really frustrating see Lebron play point on the USA team but then always cater to playing SG/SF on offense for us. Just so he can get easier scores.

We won in 2019-20 with him being the primary PG.

Unfortunate no one on the Lakers sees this. We need 3&D wings and defensive guards that are athletic around AD/Bron. We need to sub a 5 in for a small and vice versa.

The AD/Bron/Rui/Reaves/DLO lineup does none of that, just enables good offense through a lot of talent. It will get you RS wins but not titles or even a contender. Such a shame. Wish we had that light bulb moment where we see how any Lebron team is a team that plays off Lebron, not Lebron playing off lesser weaker PGs.

Lebron is way more effective for us giving us 20 points, 10 assists than he is 27 points and 7 assists. You can always rest Lebron and play him less minutes allowing DLO/Reaves be more PG/assertive like then.

[levon]

[miggz23]

[wolfpaclaker]

He did it when we had less firepower in 19-20. 3rd option was KCP. Sometimes Kuz off the bench.

If we he played that way on this team, easily we could restrict his minutes to 30. However the scoring opportunities for DLO, Reaves, Rui all increase.

The way we use the role players also changes. For example say Max Christie proves his defense is more effective than DLO or Austin next year. Since Lebron is your guy setting the table, you can make a change like that.

Say the Lakers had accomplished the Klay/DLO swap they wanted to make in the offseason. We would have had to play Lebron as PG in that scenario on offense .....

[manlisten]

I know it doesn't seem like it but LeBron is human. Do you really want a 40 year old having so much responsibility over the course of an 8 month season? And expect him to have anything left when it really matters in the playoffs? The Olympic games are a mirage that shouldn't really be used to evaluate an NBA roster or season.
_________________
It was reminiscent of one of those Most Interesting Man in the World advertisements: "I don't always shoot 6-for-28 from the field, but when I do, I become the youngest player in league history to score 28,000 career points."

[wolfpaclaker]

I am curious to know what the plan would have been had they gotten the DLO/Klay swap they tried for. If Klay chooses you and DLO is acceptable return for Warriors (neither of those things were the case) then your post-Klay roster is basically the same team just with DLO out and Klay coming in.

It leaves us with Gabe as our starting PG, but since Reaves starts, likely you would have seen an issue where neither Reaves or Klay is a PG, and neither is Gabe on offense, a starting level PG.

Lebron in that scenario absolutely becomes the PG/floor general. Klay, Reaves, Rui, AD all play off the playmaking created by Lebron. Even last year, Ham flirted with the idea of bringing DLO off the bench. This enforced Lebron as the team's PG again. We just didn't have a good consistent thought out plan about how to go about it on offense/defense. For example when his running mates were KCP/Caruso or KCP/Green or Bradley/Green, you knew they would be taking the defensive assignments. Could Max Christie step in and do that?

Of course, I'm not saying I wanted a DLO/Klay swap. I'm just saying that I believe we were facing that scenario with a Klay trade anyway. There's a lot of talk about Lebron breaking down as a PG. I don't agree. His best season as a Laker came at PG. He's been a better scorer in other seasons, but the team played it's best basketball when the highest IQ player, the best playmaker on the team has the ball to control the flow of the game.

[ribeye]

Anyone notice that LeBron is doing pretty well at the Olympics?

Of course, we all have. But do any wonder who was leading the team in PPG, APG, RPG and FG% through the quarterfinals? Yep, Mr. James. That would be LeBron Raymone James, nearly 40 years old. He is likely second in scoring now that Steph had his great game yesterday.

I'll say it again, while I agree that Michael is the GOAT due to his peak performance, I contend that LeBron has had the greatest career of any NBA player, and is neck and neck with Kareem for greatest basketball career.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/usa-basketball-cumulative-box-score-stats-olympics/43c40517a8b36f7309322255
_________________
Hey Doge, ever hear of “measure twice, cut once?” It is not cut first and measure later.

[defense]

[ribeye]

[MJST]

[Inspector Gadget]

If LeBron wins the Gold and leads the Lakers to a championship next year there will not a debate on who the GOAT is for a very very long time

[MJST]

[levon]

LeBron's a better basketball player than Jordan was, and the best to have ever played so far. One day, someone will surpass him. "Greatest" talk is all about aesthetics and favoritism. Best: LeBron, and I'm not sure it's that compelling a competition anymore. He started off playing shooting guard, became a point forward, won his last title as a point guard leading the league in assists, was an elite defender in his prime, a neutral impact defender in his 21st season, and can even play 5 now in the post shile shooting 40% from 3 on high volume. He's literally done everything as a basketball player. It's over.

[levon]

I think the one guy theoretical player that can dethrone LeBron is a 6 11 player who can dribble and move like Bron while still having the physicality, because in theory he can truly play defense at the 5 in his twilight years. Think bulkier Durant that can actually playmake at an elite level and last 23 years in the league. Lmao

[miggz23]

[miggz23]

[mad55557777]

[venturalakersfan]