falcolombardi wrote:lebron lack of portability is why the cavs....defense(?) was bad?
one of the most versátile defensive players of our era lack of -defensive - portability is why a bad defensive roster was bad defensively ?
do you think if lebron left the offense to worse players and became a defensive specialist the defensive improvement would be enough to overcome the offensive drop off? (let alone inprove the team overall) you are asking lebron to be dikembe mutombo or Alonso mourning? cause that is the kind of defensive lift you are asking for
you just said that playing kyrie as the point guard was a bad idea by the celtics and then you criticize lebron for not dedicating to defense and letting kyrie run the offense instead ? who would have ran point guard then? lebron literally let kyrie take -MORE- shots than him despite being a less efficient scorer
do you think jordan would have happyly became a 3rd option behind love and kyrie amd dedicate himself to defense because the team had enough offense?
I don't think it needs to taken to extremes like you're doing here where Lebron all of a sudden becomes the 3rd option.
We saw Lebron's improved defensive effort in 16 in particular raise Cavs defensive ceiling which raised the team's ceiling so there's already precedent for what I'm suggesting.
As I've said previously, I always wondered why Cavs didn't run more sets for Love around the high post like Wolves did. They seemed to have a lot of success doing that. Would this have resulted in a dip in Cavs offense? Yeah, probably. But maybe Lebron being more involved defensively over the course of the season would've turned the tide for their 18th and 21st ranked defense. I don't think he needed to be Mutumbo to do that, just guard more good opposing players.
Jordan was mostly a scorer early in his career. Then in 88 he became one of the best help defenders in the league. But he still guarded guys like Isiah in playoff series. Then in 89 he became more of a PG given his team was lacking play making. Then in 90 he sacrificed having the ball. In 91 Finals, he had to become the PG again because Scottie was preoccupied with Magic. Later in his career, with the Bulls lacking scorers but gifted in play makers he switched back to just being a pure scorer. In 2013, after Nash went down Kobe had to become both the PG for MDA's offense and guard POA every night.
There are lots of examples of superstars changing their roles to suit the needs of the team. We just haven't seen that as much from Lebron, and those 15-18 Cavs teams were an opportunity for him to do something different to make up for a team weakness. At the very least it's an interesting what if even if it wouldn't have worked.
r/iamverysmart tough guy