The LeBron Thread 2021 Off-Season Edition

[Homer38]

Question - why isn't that **** moron banned? lmao

I don't even mean that he's criticizing LeBron. But stuff like predicting a missed playoffs in 2020, then when confronted that they won the year, says "well they missed in 2019/21". Then when you say he was injured then, he says "well in 2020 they went up against a ton of injuries".

This guy is clearly: a troll trying to rile up Bron fans, and/or legitimately deluded/needs mental help. Everyone's life would be better if this guy were banned, unless it's the only thing keeping them from killing themselves

true

I hate people who are too stubborn and they are unable to admit that they got it wrong ... His takes on Giannis are so bad too and many other things

[Mos_Heat]

Seems like Mathews won't be back, another salary slot(BAE) lost for nothing.

[kayess]

Seems like Mathews won't be back, another salary slot(BAE) lost for nothing.

Source? Can't find it

[falcolombardi]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

is over guys, warriors have the (high ground) lebron destroyer

[Mos_Heat]

Seems like Mathews won't be back, another salary slot(BAE) lost for nothing.

Source? Can't find it

Just a speculation based on the fact that Bazemore took his number

[Dupp]

Celtics Interested In Schroeder. Dunno how they work it. Smart ain’t happening Celtics looking to extend him at like 20 per...

[LikeABosh]

Celtics Interested In Schroeder. Dunno how they work it. Smart ain’t happening Celtics looking to extend him at like 20 per...

The only thing I'm expecting is a TPE. They can use the full MLE on Schroder if need be

[dcstanley]

THT better be good, because if not this roster kinda blows

How would you compare this roster to the 19/20 and 20/21 iterations?

[Mos_Heat]

THT better be good, because if not this roster kinda blows

How would you compare this roster to the 19/20 and 20/21 iterations?

I like 19/20 more:
2 superstars
Playoff rondo
3 solid playoff wings(Green, Caruso, KCP)
Situational bigs(Morris, Dwight)

This year they have 2 superstars(realistic expectation that Lebron will be worse), Westbrook who's enigma and a hodgepodge of shooters. Ariza was pretty mediocre in his last Rocket's run and was flat out bad with Miami. Ellington was a huge liability with Miami as well back in 17/18. We know how Melo's gonna look. Bazemore is fine in theory, but he's low iq player and low volume 3point shooter. Monk has had one good season in the NBA. I guess Nunn is solid for a back up guard.

So it's not a lot. If Ariza is totaly cooked, they don't have big wings at all. IDK, I become less and less optimistic about this roster, the more I think about it

[Homer38]

Read on Twitter

[trickshot]

Just to balance out some of the negativity from the likes of myself this will be the first time Westbrook plays with a defensive quarterback. Not rim protector (AD), am talking defensive quarterback in Lebron. The former can erase breakdowns, the latter can avoid them altogether.

Lebron's directing made the Cavs horrible defense perimeter playable against the pre-KD Warriors highpowered passing. Currently he and Draymond are two of the best defensive conductors in the league. Also why it's pretty scarce to see breakdowns on their side of the floor and also why I favour Draymond as the best defensive player in the league.

Westbrook's off ball defense could take a huge leap having someone tracking the floor. Always thought his footspeed on defense was wasted because of ballwatching and switching off. As long as he isn't ignoring rotations to chase rebounds he could have a career year on that end.

[ShotCreator]

THT better be good, because if not this roster kinda blows

How would you compare this roster to the 19/20 and 20/21 iterations?

I like 19/20 more:
2 superstars
Playoff rondo
3 solid playoff wings(Green, Caruso, KCP)
Situational bigs(Morris, Dwight)

This year they have 2 superstars(realistic expectation that Lebron will be worse), Westbrook who's enigma and a hodgepodge of shooters. Ariza was pretty mediocre in his last Rocket's run and was flat out bad with Miami. Ellington was a huge liability with Miami as well back in 17/18. We know how Melo's gonna look. Bazemore is fine in theory, but he's low iq player and low volume 3point shooter. Monk has had one good season in the NBA. I guess Nunn is solid for a back up guard.

So it's not a lot. If Ariza is totaly cooked, they don't have big wings at all. IDK, I become less and less optimistic about this roster, the more I think about it

Wait until you realize there’s nothing enigmatic about a volume scorer who can’t score, and a volume rebounder who isn’t actually good at defense.

Westbrook hasn’t had a good playoff series, not even run, just SINGLE SERIES, in 5 years.

[Mos_Heat]

How would you compare this roster to the 19/20 and 20/21 iterations?

I like 19/20 more:
2 superstars
Playoff rondo
3 solid playoff wings(Green, Caruso, KCP)
Situational bigs(Morris, Dwight)

This year they have 2 superstars(realistic expectation that Lebron will be worse), Westbrook who's enigma and a hodgepodge of shooters. Ariza was pretty mediocre in his last Rocket's run and was flat out bad with Miami. Ellington was a huge liability with Miami as well back in 17/18. We know how Melo's gonna look. Bazemore is fine in theory, but he's low iq player and low volume 3point shooter. Monk has had one good season in the NBA. I guess Nunn is solid for a back up guard.

So it's not a lot. If Ariza is totaly cooked, they don't have big wings at all. IDK, I become less and less optimistic about this roster, the more I think about it

Wait until you realize there’s nothing enigmatic about a volume scorer who can’t score, and a volume rebounder who isn’t actually good at defense.

Westbrook hasn’t had a good playoff series, not even run, just SINGLE SERIES, in 5 years.

I guess my expectation that he'll adjust a little and won't take as many shots as he usually does

[trickshot]

Don't have anywhere else to leave this but stumbled on the tidbit that before the last 2 weeks of the season Wesley Matthews registered zero made threes in 25 of the first 50 games he played for the Lakers. Didn't register his first make till his 5th appearance going 6/6. AD, Vogel and especially Lebron did wonders with roleplayers frequently underperforming on offense throughout the regular season. Guess the roleplayers also deserve credit for being 2 way players and net positives on defense. That defense really kept the team chugging.

Still think they've overprioritized offensive production this Free agency but can see how they came into it looking to address it.

[Gooner]

Yup, if the offense isn’t very good and the defense isn’t too 5-10....we’re screwed

I really think we would have been fine by doing Trez and Kuz for Hield

Bringing others back

Replace Drummond with Trez

Using mle on a wing like Gay hopefully

Dennis, Hield, Bron, AD, Gasol
AC, Pope, THT, Gay, Dwight
Monk/Wayne? Bazemore? Ariza? Melo, Rookie

Could have maybe tried to upgrade from Dennis with our 1st

I do think the defense can still be elite though

When Russ wants to be, he can be elite on man

Same with Bron, and off ball

Same with AD, on and off ball

Ariza and Bazemore are still positives, especially Bazemore

Nunn is avg as a trailer defender

THT is good on ball, hope he improves off ball

Monk may have some potential with wingspan

Dwight and Gasol do their jobs very well

Melo and Ellington are catastrophe

Honestly the defense looks better than I thought as I wrote this out

Still feel like we could have used a better 3/4 though than Ariza

Batum for mle would have been perfect

Imo Melo was especially unnecessary because it weakens the defense in a position that's already lacking, Lakers already get killed by wings like Paul George.

Could be another Drummond situation where you power through all the warnings to learn the hard way. Hopefully is just replacing Morris in the rotation and will be seeing DNPs every other night. Unless he turns out a revelation where he forges some amazing 2 man game with Lebron in the PnR and catch situations I can see him picking even more DNPs in the playoffs.

Laker fans will be livid when he starts looking AD off, because the thing with Melo is he still has moments of reverting to 2000s hero ball where he doesn't make the extra pass if he hit his last two. On Lebron's team I can see him playing like they're equals. At least Westbrook somewhat matured and became a full facilitator by the end of last season.

Melo is a PF, and a back up one at that. He is not weakening squat on the wing because he is no longer a wing.

What Carmelo Anthony provides is a guy who is not going to be bashful putting up shots created for him off of defenses gravitating towards LeBron and Westbrook.

He is also a big shot maker.

He is aged (and that is a bit of a concern), but you will not have to worry about Melo passing up open shots (not even the big ones).

For the first time in his career Carmelo Anthony will be provided with a situation similar to the type he excelled in during the Olympics. I am not going to paint the man with preconceived biases before a single game has been played. I intend to give him a chance (to see how things go). There will be plenty of time to chastise or praise his acquisition based on his actual performance on this team.

This team could fail, so what.

Don’t go in expecting anything and just see what happens. That is my plan.

PF is a wing position, especially today when you don't really have "power" forwards. Melo is almost cooked, he can still shoot well, but there is no explosiveness anymore, and he never cared about defense to begin with.

[JN61]

I don't see how people think how this is an issue. Give Westbrook responsible of controlling the pace and attacking rim for most of the time, he will make them top 5 fasted paced team in the league if allowed. He makes Davis MVP calibre player as the best inside passing player in the league and when you want LeBron control the ball you make Westbrook attack from the wing, where he has been elite every time he has tasked for it. See early OKC days with harden on the ball and later on with rockets.

[Homer38]

Read on Twitter

[trickshot]

Skip is an idiot but I also think it's true Iggy did the best job on Lebron, but mostly because he was on a team that allowed him to blow his gastank on the defensive assignment. He never played Lebron that well for most of his career, it started on the Warriors where he had no offensive responsibility. If all the good defenders in the league didn't have to work on offense we'd need a dozen All-Nba defensive teams. So yeah fans shouldn't think bad about it because it could only ever happen under anomalous circumstances.

[Greyhound]

Imo Melo was especially unnecessary because it weakens the defense in a position that's already lacking, Lakers already get killed by wings like Paul George.

Could be another Drummond situation where you power through all the warnings to learn the hard way. Hopefully is just replacing Morris in the rotation and will be seeing DNPs every other night. Unless he turns out a revelation where he forges some amazing 2 man game with Lebron in the PnR and catch situations I can see him picking even more DNPs in the playoffs.

Laker fans will be livid when he starts looking AD off, because the thing with Melo is he still has moments of reverting to 2000s hero ball where he doesn't make the extra pass if he hit his last two. On Lebron's team I can see him playing like they're equals. At least Westbrook somewhat matured and became a full facilitator by the end of last season.

Melo is a PF, and a back up one at that. He is not weakening squat on the wing because he is no longer a wing.

What Carmelo Anthony provides is a guy who is not going to be bashful putting up shots created for him off of defenses gravitating towards LeBron and Westbrook.

He is also a big shot maker.

He is aged (and that is a bit of a concern), but you will not have to worry about Melo passing up open shots (not even the big ones).

For the first time in his career Carmelo Anthony will be provided with a situation similar to the type he excelled in during the Olympics. I am not going to paint the man with preconceived biases before a single game has been played. I intend to give him a chance (to see how things go). There will be plenty of time to chastise or praise his acquisition based on his actual performance on this team.

This team could fail, so what.

Don’t go in expecting anything and just see what happens. That is my plan.

PF is a wing position, especially today when you don't really have "power" forwards. Melo is almost cooked, he can still shoot well, but there is no explosiveness anymore, and he never cared about defense to begin with.

Just because big wings are being utilized as power forwards (more and more), that does not make the power forward position a wing position.

A stretch four still has big man obligations on offense and defense.

Defensive slippage in rotational coverage will be expected with Carmelo, however I suspect the Lakers to play more of a funneling into the drop big type defensive scheme with Davis and Howard.

Strong rim protection can do wonders for slow footed defenders who can place their focus on contesting / running players off the three point line and into the shot blocker.

Worst case scenario will still have this team as a top half defense. Top 10 most likely, with a shot at top 5 if Davis realizes his defensive player of the year potential.

[PistolPeteJR]

Skip is an idiot but I also think it's true Iggy did the best job on Lebron, but mostly because he was on a team that allowed him to blow his gastank on the defensive assignment. He never played Lebron that well for most of his career, it started on the Warriors where he had no offensive responsibility. If all the good defenders in the league didn't have to work on offense we'd need a dozen All-Nba defensive teams. So yeah fans shouldn't think bad about it because it could only ever happen under anomalous circumstances.

Iggy’s a tremendous defensive player, but not only did he benefit quite a bit from that energy on D like you pointed out, but also being anchored by the likes of Draymond, and then you add guys like Klay, Bogut, Livingston, etc.