LeBron James 2021-22 Regular Season Thread - Part ?

[The Explorer]

Re-name this thread to a 2022 Lakers thread, because outside of the last day with this scoring record, there's barely been any talk of LeBron James the player in this thread.

[falcolombardi]

I wish LeBron had his prime in a league that had this much spacing when he was playing.

Giannis is playing in a legitimate 5 out line-up this season (where his center is shooting 42% from 3 on 4 attempts a game) in a league where the average TS% is 56.0. He is shooting 60.5% on 14.5 2PA per game.

A 37 year old Lebron right now with **** line-ups and a myriad of injuries is shooting a superior 62.8% on 13.2 2PA per game. He's also shooting 76% around the rim on 8.1 attempts per game to Giannis's 77.5% on 8.1 attempts per game.

2013 Lebron was playing in a 3 out line-up (with a complete non shooter at the 2 and a long mid-range shooter for spacing at the 5 lol) in a league where the average TS% was 53.5. He shot identical 60.2% on 14.5 2PA per game.

A 33 year old Lebron in 2018 in a similar but not yet quite as good league environment as right now (who also played with a Wade and Rose backcourt for part of the season and Klove out for 23 games) shot 60.3% on 14.2 2PA per game.

A prime Giannis right now is averaging 29.0PPG on 62.3TS%. 37 year old Lebron is averaging 29.1PPG on 62.0TS%, whilst getting 5.4 less free throws a game.

Put 08-14 Lebron in the 2019-2022 NBA and the league gets **** so hard it's not even funny.

that is not the main issue as much as people perception that he played in that kind of league

ask average people which league had more scoring amd efficiency, the late 80's/early 90's of jordan peak or the 08-16~ period of lebron peak

99% will get the answer wrong and say lebron beneffitted from a much higher scoring amd higher efficiency nba when is actually the opposite by a slight Margin

[tone wone]

Pro tip.. when Lebron starts shooting those set-shots from 3 (where he barely jumps) its gonna be long night for the rest of his jumpers.

That's a sign that the rhythm and timing of his shot is all off. Its a catch-22, he must shoot like 50% on those set-3's but once he starts taking them he can't buy a regular jumper.

I swear, I could make 7-part documentary on Bron's jumper and FT shooting. All the highs and lows and weird quirks. The wild swings from obnoxiously confident to no confidence at all

[TroubleS0me]

it will be rewarding when LBJ passes Kareem in reg.season points

[Greyhound]

Lebron has -6.6 net rating since January 1st.

He also missed close to two weeks.

In games played, Vogel has taken to sabotaging him with those god awful LeBron at center (with the bench) lineups.

Very rarely has that lineup not been a negative of late. Howard no longer plays, Jordan no longer plays (though I get that one).

Just one center on the court could make a world of difference with those lineups. The offensive glass has been their biggest weakness.

Those lineups were OK back when Melo was at the 4 (because it had offensive punch and outside shooting). Since Melo has been out that lineup has been an unmitigated disaster.

Westbrook was also a part of that unit, but Vogel has removed him. LeBron, Melo and Westbrook were the featured players in that small lineup back when it worked.

Vogel has abandoned all of that and he has yet to adjust to the loss of Melo.

Needless to say, Vogel has been a problem.

[McBubbles]

I wish LeBron had his prime in a league that had this much spacing when he was playing.

Giannis is playing in a legitimate 5 out line-up this season (where his center is shooting 42% from 3 on 4 attempts a game) in a league where the average TS% is 56.0. He is shooting 60.5% on 14.5 2PA per game.

A 37 year old Lebron right now with **** line-ups and a myriad of injuries is shooting a superior 62.8% on 13.2 2PA per game. He's also shooting 76% around the rim on 8.1 attempts per game to Giannis's 77.5% on 8.1 attempts per game.

2013 Lebron was playing in a 3 out line-up (with a complete non shooter at the 2 and a long mid-range shooter for spacing at the 5 lol) in a league where the average TS% was 53.5. He shot identical 60.2% on 14.5 2PA per game.

A 33 year old Lebron in 2018 in a similar but not yet quite as good league environment as right now (who also played with a Wade and Rose backcourt for part of the season and Klove out for 23 games) shot 60.3% on 14.2 2PA per game.

A prime Giannis right now is averaging 29.0PPG on 62.3TS%. 37 year old Lebron is averaging 29.1PPG on 62.0TS%, whilst getting 5.4 less free throws a game.

Put 08-14 Lebron in the 2019-2022 NBA and the league gets **** so hard it's not even funny.

that is not the main issue as much as people perception that he played in that kind of league

ask average people which league had more scoring amd efficiency, the late 80's/early 90's of jordan peak or the 08-16~ period of lebron peak

99% will get the answer wrong and say lebron beneffitted from a much higher scoring amd higher efficiency nba when is actually the opposite by a slight Margin

I was meant to comment on that actually but it slipped my mind.

Was also meant to make a post about how loads of players in the 90's had godly 2 point percentages despite allegedly being the more difficult era to score in. Still need to get round to that.

[Greyhound]

Re-name this thread to a 2022 Lakers thread, because outside of the last day with this scoring record, there's barely been any talk of LeBron James the player in this thread.

What is this?

The LeBron thread has always covered all things in his orbit, ranging from the players he plays with, the team he plays on, positional comparisons (both current and historical), trade rumors and current events, along with game day analysis.

This seems like the standard LeBron thread to me.

It would probably look exactly the same if you were playing for the Sacramento Kings.

[zimpy27]

I really like what I saw from Reaves on his defense of Curry. I wonder if Reaves could take the full time POA defender role?
I'd love to see Bradley just used for matchups and not used consistently.

Westbrook, Reaves, LeBron, Davis could be the 4 and you add Bradley if opponent is more guard dominant or Ariza/Johnson if more wing dominant. Monk can be used if big dominant.

[trickshot]

Is it kind of dumb that the regular season all time record is more popular than the combined all time scoring record? I know the latter is impacted by team success but it's not like the former isn't also affected by a ton of career factors and luck factors that differ between each player. Who decides what form of longevity is purer when they are both naturally discriminatory?

[falcolombardi]

I wish LeBron had his prime in a league that had this much spacing when he was playing.

Giannis is playing in a legitimate 5 out line-up this season (where his center is shooting 42% from 3 on 4 attempts a game) in a league where the average TS% is 56.0. He is shooting 60.5% on 14.5 2PA per game.

A 37 year old Lebron right now with **** line-ups and a myriad of injuries is shooting a superior 62.8% on 13.2 2PA per game. He's also shooting 76% around the rim on 8.1 attempts per game to Giannis's 77.5% on 8.1 attempts per game.

2013 Lebron was playing in a 3 out line-up (with a complete non shooter at the 2 and a long mid-range shooter for spacing at the 5 lol) in a league where the average TS% was 53.5. He shot identical 60.2% on 14.5 2PA per game.

A 33 year old Lebron in 2018 in a similar but not yet quite as good league environment as right now (who also played with a Wade and Rose backcourt for part of the season and Klove out for 23 games) shot 60.3% on 14.2 2PA per game.

A prime Giannis right now is averaging 29.0PPG on 62.3TS%. 37 year old Lebron is averaging 29.1PPG on 62.0TS%, whilst getting 5.4 less free throws a game.

Put 08-14 Lebron in the 2019-2022 NBA and the league gets **** so hard it's not even funny.

that is not the main issue as much as people perception that he played in that kind of league

ask average people which league had more scoring amd efficiency, the late 80's/early 90's of jordan peak or the 08-16~ period of lebron peak

99% will get the answer wrong and say lebron beneffitted from a much higher scoring amd higher efficiency nba when is actually the opposite by a slight Margin

I was meant to comment on that actually but it slipped my mind.

Was also meant to make a post about how loads of players in the 90's had godly 2 point percentages despite allegedly being the more difficult era to score in. Still need to get round to that.

defense got so good in the 2000's they had to change the rules to being scoring back to 80's and 90's level

somehow this doesnt clue people thst defense got better than the 80's and actually makes them think the opposite

i wonder if most people think good defense is just how rough and physical you are and not how good you are at making the other team score less

[trickshot]

that is not the main issue as much as people perception that he played in that kind of league

ask average people which league had more scoring amd efficiency, the late 80's/early 90's of jordan peak or the 08-16~ period of lebron peak

99% will get the answer wrong and say lebron beneffitted from a much higher scoring amd higher efficiency nba when is actually the opposite by a slight Margin

I was meant to comment on that actually but it slipped my mind.

Was also meant to make a post about how loads of players in the 90's had godly 2 point percentages despite allegedly being the more difficult era to score in. Still need to get round to that.

defense got so good in the 2000's they had to change the rules to being scoring back to 80's and 90's level

somehow this doesnt clue people thst defense got better than the 80's and actually makes them think the opposite

i wonder if most people think good defense is just how rough and physical you are and not how good you are at making the other team score less

Imo the biggest sign of a fake oldhead or tryhard is when they group the 80s and 90s together. Even if you never watched a 80s game you don't actually need to dig too dep into the numbers to see just how wildly different the eras were. 80s jumps out of every page, it's that unique. 90s was carried by Jordan and his bulls, an incredibly overrated era because of his individual talent. The absence of a competitive rivalry wasn't just because the Bulls were an excellent team. The best eras had both iconic teams, rivalries and individual talents. People also never mention how expansion drafts literally water down competition. Like not even subjectively, it literally objectively does exactly that.

[falcolombardi]

I was meant to comment on that actually but it slipped my mind.

Was also meant to make a post about how loads of players in the 90's had godly 2 point percentages despite allegedly being the more difficult era to score in. Still need to get round to that.

defense got so good in the 2000's they had to change the rules to being scoring back to 80's and 90's level

somehow this doesnt clue people thst defense got better than the 80's and actually makes them think the opposite

i wonder if most people think good defense is just how rough and physical you are and not how good you are at making the other team score less

Imo the biggest sign of a fake oldhead or tryhard is when they group the 80s and 90s together. Even if you never watched a 80s game you don't actually need to dig too dep into the numbers to see just how wildly different the eras were. 80s jumps out of every page, it's that unique. 90s was carried by Jordan and his bulls entirely, an incredibly overrated era because of his individual talent. The best eras had both iconic teams and individual talents. People also never mention how expansion drafts literally water down competition. Like not even subjectively, it actually literally objectively does exactly that.

stylistically it changed a lot bit you may be surprised to know thst scoring for over half the 90's was as high as the 80's

my theory without dipping further is that more teams kept following the blue prints laid by the knicks and it created a era of improved defense across the board

kinda like the teams that followed the small ball and 3-ball trends set by rockets or warriors ushered the offense explosión of the late 2010's

edit: dont forget "i Miss the era of parity amd no superteams" when referring to the 80's and 90's

[trickshot]

defense got so good in the 2000's they had to change the rules to being scoring back to 80's and 90's level

somehow this doesnt clue people thst defense got better than the 80's and actually makes them think the opposite

i wonder if most people think good defense is just how rough and physical you are and not how good you are at making the other team score less

Imo the biggest sign of a fake oldhead or tryhard is when they group the 80s and 90s together. Even if you never watched a 80s game you don't actually need to dig too dep into the numbers to see just how wildly different the eras were. 80s jumps out of every page, it's that unique. 90s was carried by Jordan and his bulls entirely, an incredibly overrated era because of his individual talent. The best eras had both iconic teams and individual talents. People also never mention how expansion drafts literally water down competition. Like not even subjectively, it actually literally objectively does exactly that.

stylistically it changed a lot bit you may be surprised to know thst scoring for over half the 90's was as high as the 80's

my theory without dipping further is that more teams kept following the blue prints laid by the knicks and it created a era of improved defense across the board

kinda like the teams that followed the small ball and 3-ball trends set by rockets or warriors ushered the offense explosión of the late 2010's

edit: dont forget "i Miss the era of parity amd no superteams" when referring to the 80's and 90's

Yes, no doubt, the change didn't come the exact day of Jan 1st 1990, there was transition but it came and was rather sizable from the early to mid 80s. All these guys had their career highs in the 80s breakneck sped game. Although I'm not sure about it being over half the decade. Are you referring to pace, scoring or both?

Agree the parity thing is also exaggerated. The 90s was the Bulls and everyone else fighting equally to lose to them. No disrespect to Jordan/bulls fans reading this since I'm also saying you were better than your decade.

[picko]

Imo the biggest sign of a fake oldhead or tryhard is when they group the 80s and 90s together. Even if you never watched a 80s game you don't actually need to dig too dep into the numbers to see just how wildly different the eras were. 80s jumps out of every page, it's that unique. 90s was carried by Jordan and his bulls entirely, an incredibly overrated era because of his individual talent. The best eras had both iconic teams and individual talents. People also never mention how expansion drafts literally water down competition. Like not even subjectively, it actually literally objectively does exactly that.

stylistically it changed a lot bit you may be surprised to know thst scoring for over half the 90's was as high as the 80's

my theory without dipping further is that more teams kept following the blue prints laid by the knicks and it created a era of improved defense across the board

kinda like the teams that followed the small ball and 3-ball trends set by rockets or warriors ushered the offense explosión of the late 2010's

edit: dont forget "i Miss the era of parity amd no superteams" when referring to the 80's and 90's

Yes, no doubt, the change didn't come the exact day of Jan 1st 1990, there was transition but it came and was rather sizable from the early to mid 80s. All these guys had their career highs in the 80s breakneck sped game. Although I'm not sure about it being over half the decade. Are you referring to pace, scoring or both?

Agree the parity thing is also exaggerated. The 90s was the Bulls and everyone else fighting equally to lose to them. No disrespect to Jordan/bulls fans reading this since I'm also saying you were better than your decade.

In 1988-89 pace was still at around 100 possessions per game. By 1994-95, that had declined to around 93 possessions per game. Pace hovered at or below that level until 2013-14 (94 possessions per game). It gradually increased from there, reaching 100 possessions per game in 2018-19.

Basically all of LeBron's athletic prime took place during an extremely slow paced era. Thankfully, only his rookie season took place in the NBA dark age, from 1998-99 to 2003-04, when both pace and offensive rating were dreadful.

[falcolombardi]

Imo the biggest sign of a fake oldhead or tryhard is when they group the 80s and 90s together. Even if you never watched a 80s game you don't actually need to dig too dep into the numbers to see just how wildly different the eras were. 80s jumps out of every page, it's that unique. 90s was carried by Jordan and his bulls entirely, an incredibly overrated era because of his individual talent. The best eras had both iconic teams and individual talents. People also never mention how expansion drafts literally water down competition. Like not even subjectively, it actually literally objectively does exactly that.

stylistically it changed a lot bit you may be surprised to know thst scoring for over half the 90's was as high as the 80's

my theory without dipping further is that more teams kept following the blue prints laid by the knicks and it created a era of improved defense across the board

kinda like the teams that followed the small ball and 3-ball trends set by rockets or warriors ushered the offense explosión of the late 2010's

edit: dont forget "i Miss the era of parity amd no superteams" when referring to the 80's and 90's

Yes, no doubt, the change didn't come the exact day of Jan 1st 1990, there was transition but it came and was rather sizable from the early to mid 80s. All these guys had their career highs in the 80s breakneck sped game. Although I'm not sure about it being over half the decade. Are you referring to pace, scoring or both?

Agree the parity thing is also exaggerated. The 90s was the Bulls and everyone else fighting equally to lose to them. No disrespect to Jordan/bulls fans reading this since I'm also saying you were better than your decade.

i meant offensive ratings were generally stable from like 1980 into 1997 then again from 2005-2016~

they osscilate between 106-108, the period inbetween is when it got lower (as low as 102)

after 2018 they touched 110, in 2021 they spiked to 112 and came back to 110 this year (the new normal seemingly)

before the 80's explosión for offense, offensive rating were as low as the "dark ages" to much lower

[trickshot]

stylistically it changed a lot bit you may be surprised to know thst scoring for over half the 90's was as high as the 80's

my theory without dipping further is that more teams kept following the blue prints laid by the knicks and it created a era of improved defense across the board

kinda like the teams that followed the small ball and 3-ball trends set by rockets or warriors ushered the offense explosión of the late 2010's

edit: dont forget "i Miss the era of parity amd no superteams" when referring to the 80's and 90's

Yes, no doubt, the change didn't come the exact day of Jan 1st 1990, there was transition but it came and was rather sizable from the early to mid 80s. All these guys had their career highs in the 80s breakneck sped game. Although I'm not sure about it being over half the decade. Are you referring to pace, scoring or both?

Agree the parity thing is also exaggerated. The 90s was the Bulls and everyone else fighting equally to lose to them. No disrespect to Jordan/bulls fans reading this since I'm also saying you were better than your decade.

In 1988-89 pace was still at around 100 possessions per game. By 1994-95, that had declined to around 93 possessions per game. Pace hovered at or below that level until 2013-14 (94 possessions per game). It gradually increased from there, reaching 100 possessions per game in 2018-19.

Basically all of LeBron's athletic prime took place during an extremely slow paced era. Thankfully, only his rookie season took place in the NBA dark age, from 1998-99 to 2003-04, when both pace and offensive rating were dreadful.

Yep and also a terribly spaced one. One of the biggest myths is he played his career in pace and space. The 2000s Cavs were running Varejao/Gooden/Ilgauskas at pf/c. Mike Brown was also a very traditional defensive coach with the cavs. The first decade of his career it was normal to have two plodding non-shooting bigs in the frontcourt. 5 out smallball became the norm after he joined Miami by which point he was 10 years in. 07 finals in particular had one team crack 100 points only once in the entire series. Both teams only scored above 90 points once each in the entire series. If the Cavs didn't make the finals it would have been the pistons, another gritty team. Grit and grind era. Fans also trashed the product regularly.

[McBubbles]

I was meant to comment on that actually but it slipped my mind.

Was also meant to make a post about how loads of players in the 90's had godly 2 point percentages despite allegedly being the more difficult era to score in. Still need to get round to that.

defense got so good in the 2000's they had to change the rules to being scoring back to 80's and 90's level

somehow this doesnt clue people thst defense got better than the 80's and actually makes them think the opposite

i wonder if most people think good defense is just how rough and physical you are and not how good you are at making the other team score less

Imo the biggest sign of a fake oldhead or tryhard is when they group the 80s and 90s together. Even if you never watched a 80s game you don't actually need to dig too dep into the numbers to see just how wildly different the eras were. 80s jumps out of every page, it's that unique. 90s was carried by Jordan and his bulls, an incredibly overrated era because of his individual talent. The absence of a competitive rivalry wasn't just because the Bulls were an excellent team. The best eras had both iconic teams, rivalries and individual talents. People also never mention how expansion drafts literally water down competition. Like not even subjectively, it literally objectively does exactly that.

It's funny as well, it's always the oldheads / alleged oldheads that say things like "I've be watching duh game for duh past 30 yearz kid so I think I know what I'm talking bout " that clearly have no clue wtf they're talking about constantly have the most objectively incorrect takes lmao.

One of the most textbook examples of this is "Hmph, Jordan won DPOY in an era where it was actually difficult for perimeter players to win it " despite the fact that 71% of the DPOY awards in the 80's went to perimeter players and the only time a point gaurd ever won the award it was in the 90's

Are all sports fans as dumb, or at least as historically and factually incorrect as most NBA fans btw? I don't follow many other sports so I'd be curious to know because the discourse in the NBA community is **** horrible. The fact that 99% of NBA fans still think FG% is a measure of efficiency attests to this.

[Freighttrain]

Insane

Read on Twitter

[Greyhound]

The NBA comes out with some BS end of game report where apparently LeBron benefited from several missed calls.

In a game/ month in which they have intentionally been shafting him on calls.

LOL

The NBA is such a rag of a league. NBA league office/ refs in open war with a player is simply comical. Got to put that uppity loud mouth “in his place”.

Maybe they can parlay this into giving him even less calls, somehow.

[TroubleS0me]

Re-name this thread to a 2022 Lakers thread, because outside of the last day with this scoring record, there's barely been any talk of LeBron James the player in this thread.

we talk about LBJ & anything associated with him