The "Built Around Him" Excuse

[KING CB4]

I see this line brought up a lot when people try defending LeBron's Cavalier teammates. Certain people feel that because LeBron was surrounded by shooters in Cleveland, it cancelled out their severe lack of star talent aside form LeBron. Whats the point of having the "team built around you" when your opponent in every playoff series has the next 3-4 best players after LeBron? Doesn't the fact LeBron won a title and went to two Finals with Wade, put the "built around him" excuse to bed? I never really understood the arguement....

[dyukcs]

Because sometimes you can assemble a really good team that exceeds what you expect from the individual pieces. The Cavs were a good team in that sense, another example would be the 2011 Mavericks. A lot of people feel like Lebron bailed on a great team, and it wasn't as hopeless there as people like to pretend in hindsight.

[No Offense]

I see this line brought up a lot when people try defending LeBron's Cavalier teammates. Certain people feel that because LeBron was surrounded by shooters in Cleveland, it cancelled out their severe lack of star talent aside form LeBron. Whats the point of having the "team built around you" when your opponent in every playoff series has the next 3-4 best players after LeBron? Doesn't the fact LeBron won a title and went to two Finals with Wade, put the "built around him" excuse to bed? I never really understood the arguement....

That's not an "excuse." The Cavs won 127 games in a 2 year span. One guy, no matter how great he is, can do that on his own with scrub teammates.

[Mr Grant Hill]

I see this line brought up a lot when people try defending LeBron's Cavalier teammates. Certain people feel that because LeBron was surrounded by shooters in Cleveland, it cancelled out their severe lack of star talent aside form LeBron. Whats the point of having the "team built around you" when your opponent in every playoff series has the next 3-4 best players after LeBron? Doesn't the fact LeBron won a title and went to two Finals with Wade, put the "built around him" excuse to bed? I never really understood the arguement....

I mean, it's like you've perfecty described the 2011 finals with your "next 3-4 best players" statement - LeBron, Wade, Bosh were all better than everything Dirk got on his team.
Or 1994: Weren't Ewing, Starks and Harper all better than what Hakeem got on his team?
Or 1991: Sure, Pippen was great, but Lakers had Magic, Divac, Perkins and Worthy!

[nmabdi28]

meh , he had alright talent around him nothing special but when it came to when the lost in 09 and 2010 they were just outmatched by the magic and celtics in talent

[Frank Mulely]

He definitely showed some quit in him during the playoffs, that roster wasn't adequate to win a ring but we all saw what happened.

[ZoomCities]

All I can say is that Cavs team with LeBron have the same setup as the 76ers team with AI, except AI didn't win any championship after teaming up with Melo. LeBron did because he was younger, smarter and more of a team player.

[MrSashimiLover]

All I can say is that Cavs team with LeBron have the same setup as the 76ers team with AI, except AI didn't win any championship after teaming up with Melo. LeBron did because he was younger, smarter and more of a team player.

Yeah, it's kind of similar. However, besides the age advantage and superior playing making skill you mentioned, prime Bosh & Wade are significantly better than Melo & any other Nuggets.

[narmerguy]

The Cleveland team was garbage and Mike Brown was garbage. That's really all there is to it.

[IMHO]

if it was really all because of lebron then why didn't he win that many regular season games in Miami?

[JustAwesome]

Or 1994: Weren't Ewing, Starks and Harper all better than what Hakeem got on his team?

Ewing was better than Olajuwon's teammates, but an argument can easily be made for them against Harper and Starks.

[Dupp]

The team had great chemistry and played really well together. A lot of really good role players on those teams but at the end of the day we needed another star or better second option at least. The fact of the matter is no one ever performed in the playoffs when it mattered bar lebron and delonte. Thats just not a recipe for success, even though we were so close to beating the magic in 09. Series could have gone either way. The ben wallace leg break turned out to have a major impact on us failing imo.

[Young_Star11]

They could have done a better job of it but maxed out with the players they did have

Still would rather have him in Cleveland now!

[ricochet]

The Cleveland team was garbage and Mike Brown was garbage. That's really all there is to it.

+1

Certain teams can do all the huffing and puffing in the regular season, but come playoffs it's only the really good teams can do it over seven games. There was nobody on those Cleveland teams that could do zilch come playoffs other than Bron.

[Joao Saraiva]

When you average 38-8-8 in a ECF and still lose it that settles it. Nothing more LeBron could have done.

And the people that defend that roster also used to say Mike Brown was OK for a coach. We're now seeing those Kobe fans that said anything to go against LBJ saying that Mike Brown sucks... aw well.