The Lebron '20 Thread (Pt. 7)

[MisterHibachi]

It's pretty funny that the Warriors dynasty got started 12 years after LeBron was drafted, and he still outlasted them. I can't wait until next year when Bradley and Caruso put Steph and Klay in a straitjacket.

[Anthony Davis]

Lmao...don't let Denver trick y'all. I'm hype. Ima eat that ASS this series. Over in 5 games. BOOK IT. We gettin this 'chip for KOBE!

I told y’all motherlovers this would be over in 5 right?! Next series will be in 6......Lakers gonna be the champs ONCE AGAIN!

[SideshowBob]

Lmao...don't let Denver trick y'all. I'm hype. Ima eat that ASS this series. Over in 5 games. BOOK IT. We gettin this 'chip for KOBE!

I told y’all motherlovers this would be over in 5 right?! Next series will be in 6......Lakers gonna be the champs ONCE AGAIN!

Best of luck AD. You got this.

[Ursusamericanus]

Lmao...don't let Denver trick y'all. I'm hype. Ima eat that ASS this series. Over in 5 games. BOOK IT. We gettin this 'chip for KOBE!

I told y’all motherlovers this would be over in 5 right?! Next series will be in 6......Lakers gonna be the champs ONCE AGAIN!

I'm genuinely starting to think this is actually AD.

[MisterHibachi]

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[SideshowBob]

Last 3 EC Playoffs (16-18)

31/9/8/2/1 on 62% TS

Last 3 Finals (16-18)

32/11/10/2/2 on 60% TS

[Doctor MJ]

I don't see the argument for 1992 over 1991.

Why are you more impressed?

As a player I don't think Jordan was much different in those two seasons. But in 1992 he played against better teams and played in more crucial games where a loss could have changed the series (or the Bulls could have even been eliminated), all while playing roughly as well as he did in 1991. But this is getting a bit off-topic.

I'll just jump in here and say that I'm not all that big on questions like this and tend to defer to what I know resonates most with traditional notions of dominant achievements. So I'd probably default to '90-91, but think that you're largely talking about the same player in '91-92 with a bit more experience. I'll say though that it's possible there's something important that I've forgotten about that could change my mind in one direction than another.

What's definitely the case is that the '91-92 Bulls were a better regular season team than the '90-91 Bulls and played in playoff series all through the East focused on stopping Jordan, whereas in '90-91 it really felt like all the opponents just broke apart when they hit the Bulls, in subsequent playoffs the Bulls would never have that easy a time again. I don't think the explanation for that is that the first Bull champions were the best team of the bunch. So I think you could make a real argument that the real accomplishment of the Bulls is there ability to be able to maintain their edge once all the firepower in the league was geared toward them beginning with the '91-92 season.

But as I say that, I think that winning the title had more of an effect on the rest of the Bulls than it did on Jordan. He was able to play with strong confidence seemingly from the get-go. I think when you see a champion come back the next year even stronger, what you're often seeing is all the guys who had doubts before operating with a clarity they never had before, and so even if I think '91-92 is the greater team accomplishment, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the greater year for the ever-fearless leader.

[Doctor MJ]

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I think it's possible we'll end up considering the durability of LeBron's body given his size to be as much of an outlier as anything else about him.

[Doctor MJ]

Jesus Christ there are Hall of Famers drafted 4-7 years after Lebron who likely will never be better than him till they retire. Insane

Great observation.

[Doctor MJ]

Jesus Christ there are Hall of Famers drafted 4-7 years after Lebron who likely will never be better than him till they retire. Insane

Reminds me of Federer. Sure there were years where Djokovic/Nadal were better... But when he was healthy, up to like a year and a half ago, he's always been better when you take into account all surfaces

As a Federer homer I love hearing you say that, but I was actually thinking of 4 players from tennis:

Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and Serena.

We've gone through generations of players who rose after them and then peaked and died like a stinging bee.

I think that whenever we notice something like this within a sport, there's something that really needs to be analyzed that goes beyond the talent and character of the athlete in question.

Not to take anything away from any of those athletes who have surfed the wave of a new generation with adroit mastery though, and I'll note that LeBron stands out like this as a lone outlier at present. We'll have to see if he's a physical anomaly or if this is just the most significant harbinger of a new normal for the sport for players who have the particular talents that age really well.

[Doctor MJ]

It's pretty funny that the Warriors dynasty got started 12 years after LeBron was drafted, and he still outlasted them. I can't wait until next year when Bradley and Caruso put Steph and Klay in a straitjacket.

Count me among those who is hoping that the Warriors have another chapter worth telling, but I'll certainly say that if it turns out that whatever they come up with just isn't competition for these Lakers, then the relationship between LeBron and the Warriors may end up being the signature story of his "Last Dance", and it will be a hell of a compelling story to tell.

[Cavsfansince84]

Jesus Christ there are Hall of Famers drafted 4-7 years after Lebron who likely will never be better than him till they retire. Insane

Reminds me of Federer. Sure there were years where Djokovic/Nadal were better... But when he was healthy, up to like a year and a half ago, he's always been better when you take into account all surfaces

Don't want to derail the thread by discussing this too much but imo a big part of Federer's longevity has been his ability to adapt to some degree. I think Nadal definitely had a period where he was as good or better than Federer on all surfaces for a few years and then Federer went 3-4 years without winning a major and then Djoker upped his game and dominated in spurts while Federer did things like use tighter strings and rededicated himself and had another spurt where he won 3 majors and looked like the top player again. So I don't agree that he was always the best over the last 18 years or so but his ability to stay healthy and in great shape allowed him to always be there and capitalize when other guys weren't there mentally or were injured.

[DatAsh]

Lebron has been at this so long that he was literally introduced to us by a magazine lol. Think about how archaic that is in the current media landscape. That Sports Illustrated cover is when he first creeped into our collective consciousness. I still recall it vividly, some of the gushing quotes from league execs and players that made him sound like a fairytale 15 year old. I think Danny Ainge said something like he would trade all but about 5 players in the whole league to have Lebron and his future, and he was 15. You couldn’t wait to see what this was all about. But you couldn’t just run to YouTube and see tons of Lebron clips like you would with Emoni Bates. You’d see a clip here or there from a random site, usually from a news story about him.

When his high school games started being televised by ESPN they felt like events, NBA players in attendance.... The whole introduction was unlike anything we had ever seen and quite frankly can’t be replicated again in today’s world

Even crazier is that he somehow managed to live up to that ridiculous hype.

[trickshot]

It's pretty funny that the Warriors dynasty got started 12 years after LeBron was drafted, and he still outlasted them. I can't wait until next year when Bradley and Caruso put Steph and Klay in a straitjacket.

Count me among those who is hoping that the Warriors have another chapter worth telling, but I'll certainly say that if it turns out that whatever they come up with just isn't competition for these Lakers, then the relationship between LeBron and the Warriors may end up being the signature story of his "Last Dance", and it will be a hell of a compelling story to tell.

Count me out. Those guys are a nightmare and now they're recruiting Giannis. It's all fun and games till Giannis is bearing down on Kuzma 4 on 3. They are too good at team building

[MisterHibachi]

I just realized both Miami and Boston are basically running 7 man rotations. Miami is only playing Bam as the real big guy, with KO kinda out of the rotation, and Boston is playing Theis and sometimes Kanter. That can't be sustainable against the Lakers physical front court. I don't think Bam can last 7 games against AD/Dwight (don't really wanna put McGee here lol), and Boston is looking even worse in the front court.

[Heej]

It would be delicious to see LeBron and AD be a perennial terror to the Warriors every year in the playoffs as payback for the bad breaks the last few years. The Giannis talks are frightening though. If any team can pull that off it's the Warriors. Curry is a supremely underrated recruiter. There's something about him that guys want to play WITH as opposed to LeBron whom guys want to play FOR. Him and Giannis would instantly be the GOAT duo and GOAT PNR pairing imo. The synergy is just too insane because even if you switch it you can't really build a wall against Giannis when Klay and Steph are on the floor.

That being said, as someone who just knows Federer is the GOAT but doesn't know much about tennis other than that, the discussions of the nuances of what's made him dominate for so long is fascinating to read. So more of that please cuz imo we've got plenty of time before LeBron plays again and I'm sure there's a lot of parallels you can draw between the 2 greats.

Aside from that I really wonder if the 20s are gonna be the next Golden Age of big men. Cuz let's face it, size is always the primary advantage in a sport like basketball and big bodies that can move fluidly are always going to have the advantage. Sports, and humanity in general, is very cyclical in nature so I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Curry revolution having been given a generation to marinate produces a slew of ultra skilled big men that shape the face of the NBA championship metagame. We're already seeing it kinda start with AD and Jokic here basically just overwhelming 5s and really setting the tone for a series by forcing teams to adjust to them rather than vice versa.

Cuz wings will be wings, you're gonna live with what you got to an extent; but it seems like the shape of how a series' lineups and scheme adjustments will go are outlandishly impacted by big man personnel.

[MisterHibachi]

It would be delicious to see LeBron and AD be a perennial terror to the Warriors every year in the playoffs as payback for the bad breaks the last few years. The Giannis talks are frightening though. If any team can pull that off it's the Warriors. Curry is a supremely underrated recruiter. There's something about him that guys want to play WITH as opposed to LeBron whom guys want to play FOR. Him and Giannis would instantly be the GOAT duo and GOAT PNR pairing imo. The synergy is just too insane because even if you switch it you can't really build a wall against Giannis when Klay and Steph are on the floor.

That being said, as someone who just knows Federer is the GOAT but doesn't know much about tennis other than that, the discussions of the nuances of what's made him dominate for so long is fascinating to read. So more of that please cuz imo we've got plenty of time before LeBron plays again and I'm sure there's a lot of parallels you can draw between the 2 greats.

Can the Warriors even get Giannis without giving up Klay?

But in any case, LeBron probably has one more year after this to win before Giannis teams up with Luka after 2021 and shuts the league down for 5 years.

Aside from that I really wonder if the 20s are gonna be the next Golden Age of big men. Cuz let's face it, size is always the primary advantage in a sport like basketball and big bodies that can move fluidly are always going to have the advantage. Sports, and humanity in general, is very cyclical in nature so I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Curry revolution having been given a generation to marinate produces a slew of ultra skilled big men that shape the face of the NBA championship metagame. We're already seeing it kinda start with AD and Jokic here basically just overwhelming 5s and really setting the tone for a series by forcing teams to adjust to them rather than vice versa.

Cuz wings will be wings, you're gonna live with what you got to an extent; but it seems like the shape of how a series' lineups and scheme adjustments will go are outlandishly impacted by big man personnel.

I'm with you on this. I feel like the Western Conference is gonna load up on big men now knowing they'll have to deal with AD and Jokic in the playoffs every year. Lakers dominating the Houston series as they did and Jokic dominating the Clippers as he did I think is really going to influence team building philosophies for the next decade. When you have talented big men who can't be played off the floor and present a constant mismatch, you really have a trump card that can change the whole league. Could likely lead to Gobert getting a big max contract, and perhaps KAT and Embiid being some top dogs down the road too. I bet a western conference team trades for Embiid per this philosophy.

[SideshowBob]

Giannis to GSW is probably exactly the motivation needed to drive LeBron to another 16>17>18 improvement curve.

[Heej]

It would be delicious to see LeBron and AD be a perennial terror to the Warriors every year in the playoffs as payback for the bad breaks the last few years. The Giannis talks are frightening though. If any team can pull that off it's the Warriors. Curry is a supremely underrated recruiter. There's something about him that guys want to play WITH as opposed to LeBron whom guys want to play FOR. Him and Giannis would instantly be the GOAT duo and GOAT PNR pairing imo. The synergy is just too insane because even if you switch it you can't really build a wall against Giannis when Klay and Steph are on the floor.

That being said, as someone who just knows Federer is the GOAT but doesn't know much about tennis other than that, the discussions of the nuances of what's made him dominate for so long is fascinating to read. So more of that please cuz imo we've got plenty of time before LeBron plays again and I'm sure there's a lot of parallels you can draw between the 2 greats.

Can the Warriors even get Giannis without giving up Klay?

But in any case, LeBron probably has one more year after this to win before Giannis teams up with Luka after 2021 and shuts the league down for 5 years.

Why can't they just trade a package of Andrew Wiggins and a f***load of picks. He makes more than Giannis anyway right.

Lmaooo yesssss Team Euroooo. Don't sleep on it!! I wanna see that lmfaoo

[Slava]

Maybe its the presence of LeBron, Dwight, AD and Kidd all on the same team with some ultra professional veterans both on the team and the coaching staff but the entire vibe of this Lakers team reminds me of the redeem team from 2008.