The LeBron Thread 2021 Off-Season Edition

[Slava]

I don't think THT was gonna help this team win games but this further solidifies how dumb of a decision it was to let Caruso walk.

This overreaction is frankly a bit daft. Its a thumb injury and a two weeks timetable. At worst, he'll miss 2 regular season games.

Agree that people are being unnecessarily pessimistic already, but I haven't seen a timeline for THT reported yet and all speculation seems to be a 6-8 week timetable. Where are you seeing 2 weeks?

My bad, I must be confusing him with Monk , whose timeline is a week or two.

[dcstanley]

I don't really care about pre season, It's just this roster sucks. I don't think they should be the favorites in the West, I would comfortably take the field against them

I don't totally disagree but I think this roster is only marginally worse than last season's. The Lakers were up 2-1 against the eventual Western champs despite sub-optimal performances from Lebron and AD (plus Drummond and Schroeder starting every game). With Kawhi out for most or all of the season, there isn't a single Western conference team I would favor over the Lakers provided Bron and AD are at full health.

[falcolombardi]

this season is a crapshoot anyway, lakers are not the most talented team if fully healthy (unless westbrook randomly becomes 2016-2017 westbrook again) but they have enough top end talent to play vs deeper teams like phoenix or utah (or bucks)

nets are a problem, so is milwaukee and a healthy clippers but none of those teams are failproof in the way the kd/curry warriors were (even healthy nets dont have a draymond in defense, let alone their health and kyrie issues)

i am optimist that if healthy they could at least grind through the likes of denver, utah, warriors and phoenix with sheer davis/lebron talent (healthy clippers may be tougher) go toe to toe with bucks, and maybe beat Brooklyn if their defense vs bucks was a bucks incompetence mirage or they are unhealthy

[homecourtloss]

Only bright spots about this preseason were 1) LeBron’s start in which the defense sans AD locked down the Warriors and the fact that James has only played 17 minutes so far b) AD’s second quarter last night dominating on both ends c) James and AD havent shared the court yet

[nzahir]

Russ and a 1st for Kyrie lol

The original okc big 3 is back and Lebron gets his crazy son back

[trickshot]

Tend not to say much about Caruso because I suspect he would have gone the way of Capela eventually.

Having said that Westbrook isn't this bad. He's a comfortably better player than what he has shown. The only thing is this slow adjusting is why he can go entire playoff series never figuring out what the defense is doing or how to beat it at least.

[zimpy27]

I don't think preseason will mean much. People get caught up every year.

[PistolPeteJR]

You know the season is starting when I can read the "heart-attacks-in-your-posts" in this thread during the preseason lol...

[nzahir]

What are we doing man

We are about to sign Sekou Doumbouya

He sucks at every metric I have looked at and an awful shooter

Just bring in Ennis, Wes, or Rondae Hollis Jefferson (solid defender at the 4 or even small ball 5)

[Slava]

What are we doing man

We are about to sign Sekou Doumbouya

He sucks at every metric I have looked at and an awful shooter

Just bring in Ennis, Wes, or Rondae Hollis Jefferson (solid defender at the 4 or even small ball 5)

Its a 2 way deal and he was 15th pick in 2019. You sound like the sky is falling on your head every day.

[toodles23]

Lebron looking pretty spry out there. Westbrook continues to play like absolute trash and look totally lost.

[MisterHibachi]

AD looks good physically.

[falcolombardi]

how is westbrook defense looking ?

[MisterHibachi]

Who the **** is #38

[MisterHibachi]

Can't tell if Reaves is actually good or if he looks good only because it's preseason.

He seems to legitimately be a positive defensive player, so Vogel will likely keep playing him in the regular season.

[trickshot]

how is westbrook defense looking ?

it's early but it doesn't look like it'll be a problem. He switches off but still has the footspeed to make recovery plays. Granted Curry isn't playing so Warriors offense is a lot less dynamic. Having said that there's one or two guys who give up an open 3 on every other possession. That type of defense won't work against Phoenix or Warriors when splash brothers are healthy.

edit yeah the rate at which Warriors are creating high percentage opportunities with only roleplayers is something else. Their movement is doing a lot of damage. Westbrook isn't the problem btw.

[letskissbro]

Ik it's preseason but Westbrook is about as trash as I expected

[nzahir]

What are we doing man

We are about to sign Sekou Doumbouya

He sucks at every metric I have looked at and an awful shooter

Just bring in Ennis, Wes, or Rondae Hollis Jefferson (solid defender at the 4 or even small ball 5)

Its a 2 way deal and he was 15th pick in 2019. You sound like the sky is falling on your head every day.

I really haven't said much this entire preseason

But Pelinka makes trash move after trash move, not defending this

We have clear defensive needs

[nzahir]

how is westbrook defense looking ?

it's early but it doesn't look like it'll be a problem. He switches off but still has the footspeed to make recovery plays. Granted Curry isn't playing so Warriors offense is a lot less dynamic. Having said that there's one or two guys who give up an open 3 on every other possession. That type of defense won't work against Phoenix or Warriors when splash brothers are healthy.

edit yeah the rate at which Warriors are creating high percentage opportunities with only roleplayers is something else. Their movement is doing a lot of damage. Westbrook isn't the problem btw.

Just got burned by Poole for an and 1 and then gets lost and an entry pass happens over his head for a layup....

We could have had Pope, AC, Hield, and our 1st instead of Russ....

He better step it up

If the project is a failure, by Dec/Jan, trade him

[trickshot]

how is westbrook defense looking ?

it's early but it doesn't look like it'll be a problem. He switches off but still has the footspeed to make recovery plays. Granted Curry isn't playing so Warriors offense is a lot less dynamic. Having said that there's one or two guys who give up an open 3 on every other possession. That type of defense won't work against Phoenix or Warriors when splash brothers are healthy.

edit yeah the rate at which Warriors are creating high percentage opportunities with only roleplayers is something else. Their movement is doing a lot of damage. Westbrook isn't the problem btw.

Just got burned by Poole for an and 1 and then gets lost and an entry pass happens over his head for a layup....

We could have had Pope, AC, Hield, and our 1st instead of Russ....

He better step it up

If the project is a failure, by Dec/Jan, trade him

I saw that. He really lost focus in that quarter. That was ugly. He's the type to spend the whole game oscillating between positive and negative impact.