The LeBron Thread 2021 Off-Season Edition

[Dupp]

I feel like Westbrook would be great for this team over the reg season because of workload and lessened workload on lebron.

Come playoffs though... yuck

[Mos_Heat]

Schroder >>>> Westbrook as a 3rd option. At least he defends

[Freighttrain]

Schroder >>>> Westbrook as a 3rd option. At least he defends

Did you even see Shröder on the Lakers? He's a terrible fit with LeBron with a poor attitude whenever things don't go his way. He put up donuts in the playoffs. I don't care how good he was defensively, which he was decent at, but I'd rather have the Caruso/KCP combination, so he wouldn't even have the starting position. With Westbrook, we get a guy that can feed lobs to AD at will, create shots for others, is a monster rebounder and his teammates love him, no matter what the fans or media claim. A Westbrook/AD pairing can win us games in the regular season whilst LeBron can finally load manage in the regular season for once. I also think he'll be motivated as hell if we were to match up with the Nets in the finals.

[Mos_Heat]

Schroder >>>> Westbrook as a 3rd option. At least he defends

Did you even see Shröder on the Lakers? He's a terrible fit with LeBron with a poor attitude whenever things don't go his way. He put up donuts in the playoffs. I don't care how good he was defensively, which he was decent at, but I'd rather have the Caruso/KCP combination, so he wouldn't even have the starting position. With Westbrook, we get a guy that can feed lobs to AD at will, create shots for others, is a monster rebounder and his teammates love him, no matter what the fans or media claim. A Westbrook/AD pairing can win us games in the regular season whilst LeBron can finally load manage in the regular season for once. I also think he'll be motivated as hell if we were to match up with the Nets in the finals.

Yeah, but Westbrook is even a worse fit. He's a guy who takes 16-18 shots on 50-52% TS, who doesn't play defense and doesn't move without a ball. He's a great rebounder, but Lakers don't have problems with rebounding. He would help win games in the regular season, but it's not a problem either. With Schroder you at least can hope that his shooting will bounce back, with Russ it's not the case

Schroder vs Westbrook is a false dichotomy anyway. There are a lot of available guards who will fit better

[Freighttrain]

Schroder >>>> Westbrook as a 3rd option. At least he defends

Did you even see Shröder on the Lakers? He's a terrible fit with LeBron with a poor attitude whenever things don't go his way. He put up donuts in the playoffs. I don't care how good he was defensively, which he was decent at, but I'd rather have the Caruso/KCP combination, so he wouldn't even have the starting position. With Westbrook, we get a guy that can feed lobs to AD at will, create shots for others, is a monster rebounder and his teammates love him, no matter what the fans or media claim. A Westbrook/AD pairing can win us games in the regular season whilst LeBron can finally load manage in the regular season for once. I also think he'll be motivated as hell if we were to match up with the Nets in the finals.

Yeah, but Westbrook is even a worse fit. He's a guy who takes 16-18 shots on 50-52% TS, who doesn't play defense and doesn't move without a ball. He's a great rebounder, but Lakers don't have problems with rebounding. He would help win games in the regular season, but it's not a problem either. With Schroder you at least can hope that his shooting will bounce back, with Russ it's not the case

Schroder vs Westbrook is a false dichotomy anyway. There are a lot of available guards who will fit better

I don't think you can make the analysis that Westbrook would be a worse fit or the worse player. He's still better than Shröder. But indeed someone like Lowry, if available, would be the best option. But, that might only happen if he really wants to come here, because other teams could clearly outbid us if they want.

[LikeABosh]

Westbrook is at least a much better playmaker despite the turnovers. I became more and more annoyed with Schroder's ability to make simple passes as the season went on

That's the only nice thing I can say about Westbrook tho

Oh, and the Lakers should absolutely stay away from Dinwiddie. Dude sucks as a shooter but thinks half his FGA should be from 3

[Greyhound]

I feel like Westbrook would be great for this team over the reg season because of workload and lessened workload on lebron.

Come playoffs though... yuck

This could be true, but if his style can preserve LeBron over the course of the regular season, that will benefit the Lakers playoffs push by default.

I think a Westbrook could work on the Lakers depending on Davis playing the bulk of his minutes at center and LeBron playing the bulk of his minutes at power forward.

Let Westbrook do his thing for the first 3/4 of ballgames then put the ball in LeBron’s hand in the fourth quarter.

Westbrook
KCP
* Knock down shooter
James
Davis

I think that lineup would prove better than most suspect.

[falcolombardi]

unrelated but i just realized usa lost against france, the amount of hot takes that people will extrapolar from that single game will be bonkers

lebron is lucky he ended up not going lol, people would ve calling his career ruined already

[trickshot]

Schroder >>>> Westbrook as a 3rd option. At least he defends

Did you even see Shröder on the Lakers? He's a terrible fit with LeBron with a poor attitude whenever things don't go his way. He put up donuts in the playoffs. I don't care how good he was defensively, which he was decent at, but I'd rather have the Caruso/KCP combination, so he wouldn't even have the starting position. With Westbrook, we get a guy that can feed lobs to AD at will, create shots for others, is a monster rebounder and his teammates love him, no matter what the fans or media claim. A Westbrook/AD pairing can win us games in the regular season whilst LeBron can finally load manage in the regular season for once. I also think he'll be motivated as hell if we were to match up with the Nets in the finals.

I don't know about his teammates loving him, Westbrook is about to have his 3rd superstar teammate skip town. One loss with him has stars feeling their careers won't go anywhere. The team casts aren't great but 2 mvps should never feel like a hopeless situation if the 2nd wasn't Westbrook. He probably isn't getting AD many lobs when teams are going under screens and doubling AD to dare him to shoot.

His defense is also bad most nights, AD will have his hands full rim protecting for a guard with this kind of effort. It's the Drummond signing all over again. He had a small iq improvement last season where he scaled back his scoring and kept to playmaking, often racking so many 20 assist nights but the player still isn't a winning package. Steer clear, Lebron is no longer young enough to compensate roster irregularities.

[homecourtloss]

unrelated but i just realized usa lost against france, the amount of hot takes that people will extrapolar from that single game will be bonkers

lebron is lucky he ended up not going lol, people would ve calling his career ruined already

The most astonishing thing is that KD, who is the newly anointed “best player in the world” during these playoffs, was terrible and isn’t catching much flack for the loss. James gets flack for being a teen and and part of the 2004 Bronze medal team.

[Slava]

Tatum has been awful for USA. Is it a downgrade from coach K to popovich in international tournaments?

[falcolombardi]

i am more curious about the anti nba people /euro basketball hipster crowd

they will go hard if usa loses calling nba and its players frauds

also the more nostalgic people will say this didnt happen in the 90's and is all lebron fault for making the league soft lol

[Greyhound]

Schroder >>>> Westbrook as a 3rd option. At least he defends

Did you even see Shröder on the Lakers? He's a terrible fit with LeBron with a poor attitude whenever things don't go his way. He put up donuts in the playoffs. I don't care how good he was defensively, which he was decent at, but I'd rather have the Caruso/KCP combination, so he wouldn't even have the starting position. With Westbrook, we get a guy that can feed lobs to AD at will, create shots for others, is a monster rebounder and his teammates love him, no matter what the fans or media claim. A Westbrook/AD pairing can win us games in the regular season whilst LeBron can finally load manage in the regular season for once. I also think he'll be motivated as hell if we were to match up with the Nets in the finals.

I don't know about his teammates loving him, Westbrook is about to have his 3rd superstar teammate skip town. One loss with him has stars feeling their careers won't go anywhere. The team casts aren't great but 2 mvps should never feel like a hopeless situation if the 2nd wasn't Westbrook. He probably isn't getting AD many lobs when teams are going under screens and doubling AD to dare him to shoot.

His defense is also bad most nights, AD will have his hands full rim protecting for a guard with this kind of effort. It's the Drummond signing all over again. He had a small iq improvement last season where he scaled back his scoring and kept to playmaking, often racking so many 20 assist nights but the player still isn't a winning package. Steer clear, Lebron is no longer young enough to compensate roster irregularities.

He is not ideal but I think he could work in a formation featuring LeBron at the PF and Davis at C.

He would essentially take the place of the non-shooting center that typically lines up alongside Anthony Davis. He can replicate the rebounding while also providing additional play making and ball handling. He will hinder the defense.

Hopefully Davis (playing center) will be able to reach his vast defensive potential and cover for that with a defensive player of the year type season.

———-

Westbrook tends to create a lot of looks for his centers on drop passes, so I do not think he will be as detrimental to Davis’s scoring as Schroder. He has also never played with a non PG ball handler as smart as LeBron. I can envision pick and roll sets between him and LeBron that can be utilized both ways.

For the record I prefer Lonzo.

That being said, Westbrook’s value lies in his ability to do things that will preserve LeBron for the postseason.

That holds plenty value at this stage in LeBron’s career.

…

He would not be my first choice, but in the event he is acquired, I am trying to look at his acquisition from a glass half full point of view.

[Greyhound]

Tatum has been awful for USA. Is it a downgrade from coach K to popovich in international tournaments?

Yes!

[Greyhound]

i am more curious about the anti nba people /euro basketball hipster crowd

they will go hard if usa loses calling nba and its players frauds

also the more nostalgic people will say this didnt happen in the 90's and is all lebron fault for making the league soft lol

The same clowns existed back in 2004.

They are “Americans” that openly root against team USA, choosing instead to side with whatever country their great, great grandparents came from.

The right way, fundamentals, intelligence angles they tends to promote seem to be steeped in code as well.

This definitely rubbed me the wrong way back in 2004.

———-

The one angle for some of today’s hipsters I will cosign is that NBA rules have degraded to a point that it’s not even real basketball anymore. Some of these players appear ill equipped for the way the game is being officiated under FIBA rules.

That I 100% agree with.

However, that does not make me openly root against team USA like some of these clowns are clearly doing.

[LikeABosh]

The Lakers and Sacramento Kings have discussed a deal centered around guard Buddy Hield, sources tell The Athletic. Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma would be involved in a potential package, per sources. The Lakers have received interest from several teams regarding Kuzma, sources said.

Per Charania. Finally something that makes sense

[homecourtloss]

I feel like Westbrook would be great for this team over the reg season because of workload and lessened workload on lebron.

Come playoffs though... yuck

This could be true, but if his style can preserve LeBron over the course of the regular season, that will benefit the Lakers playoffs push by default.

I think a Westbrook could work on the Lakers depending on Davis playing the bulk of his minutes at center and LeBron playing the bulk of his minutes at power forward.

Let Westbrook do his thing for the first 3/4 of ballgames then put the ball in LeBron’s hand in the fourth quarter.

Westbrook
KCP
* Knock down shooter
James
Davis

I think that lineup would prove better than most suspect.

A healthy James and AD playing 5 out will be successful regardless, but I’m not sure how dedicated AD is to that. The Westbrook we saw at the end of the season over the last 23 games is in a vacuum better than anyone on the Lakers, or course, but he would not get to play like that with James on court because the ball in Westbrook’s hands rather James’s = a win for the defense.

Current Westbrook will not make the defense better, will not make the half-court offense better, will not make the transition offense better,

Westbrook’s last 23 games

23/14/14 on 45/33/74 splits. +7.4 per 100 possessions, Wizards -2.6 with Russ off (+2.5 with Beal off).

He defended well during this stretch as opponents shot 8.7% worse from three than average whereas the rest of the season they shot about the same vs. Westbrook’s contests as they did on league-wide contests.

Not sure what role he’d play in the half-court with James on court. With less responsibility, he can focus more on defense perhaps. Strange thing about Westbrook has been his falling off from the free-throw line. Over the First 9 seasons in the NBA, he was an 82% FT shooter and then I don’t know what happened.

In transition, where he’d ostensibly have the most value, he’s always been a poor finisher who throws away points.

2021: 6.0 transition possessions (2nd most), .94 points per possession, 20th percentile
2020: 7.3 transition possessions (most), 1.01 PPP, 29th percentile
2019: 7.0 transition possessions (most), .87 PPP, 12th percentile
2018: 6.7 transition possessions (most), 1.01 PPP, 34th percentile (notice how 2018 and 2020 have the same PPP but Westbrooks’s in a lower percentile in 2020 due to an increase of threes shot in transition and the efficacy of them league wide in addition to random variance from season to season)
2017: 6.8 transition possessions (most), .99 PPP, 31st percentile
2016: 5.9 transition possessions (2nd most), 1.15 PPP, 59th percentile

Now the Lakers have excelled in transition and most of all when James gets the rebounds and initiates transition.

Lakers’ regular season transition game

2021: 15th highest frequency of transition possession, tied for 4th highest PPP [top 10 in frequency of possessions in games James played, top 3 in PPP]
2020: 6th highest frequency of transition possessions, tied for 4th highest PPP

Lakers’ post-season transition game

2021: 2nd highest frequency of transition possessions, 4th lowest in PPP despite James’s 1.31 PPP; basically they missed just about every open transition three they got a chance at. Kuzma, 2 possessions per game, .17 PPP in transition, an all time low mark.

5.8 possessions per game for James, 1.31 PPP
Other 12.5 possessions per game for Lakers, .797 PPP
Total 18.3 possessions per game for Lakers, .96 PPP

2020: 2nd highest frequency of transition possessions, 3rd highest PPP

Lastly, drives to the basket.

57 players last season had 10+ drives per game (most ever by far in NBA history; there were only 26 players in 2014 with 10+ drives per game and a minimum of 25 games played) and Westbrook’s FG% on these drives was 50th out of 57th at 44%. His turnover % was 5th highest.

He could be a plus if he uses his motor on defense, play makes with James off court, play makes with James on court, doesn’t take **** shots, makes FTs, actually converts in transition. The chances that all this happens is really low.

[nzahir]

Westbrook is at least a much better playmaker despite the turnovers. I became more and more annoyed with Schroder's ability to make simple passes as the season went on

That's the only nice thing I can say about Westbrook tho

Oh, and the Lakers should absolutely stay away from Dinwiddie. Dude sucks as a shooter but thinks half his FGA should be from 3

And what about Russ?

If we are getting this version of Dennis again, I think Russ is probably better, but then we need to add shooters

Best case scenario here is Lowry

Say we get Lowry and we can get Derozan for about 10m a year, would you guys want him?

Not the best fit, but great talent for the value. Nice mid range shot for the playoffs

Lowry, Pope, DD, Lebron, AD

[Slava]

Hield makes a ton of sense, he’s also an ex Pelinka client, so Rob did prior background work on him and trusts that.

[LikeABosh]

Westbrook is at least a much better playmaker despite the turnovers. I became more and more annoyed with Schroder's ability to make simple passes as the season went on

That's the only nice thing I can say about Westbrook tho

Oh, and the Lakers should absolutely stay away from Dinwiddie. Dude sucks as a shooter but thinks half his FGA should be from 3

And what about Russ?

If we are getting this version of Dennis again, I think Russ is probably better, but then we need to add shooters

Similar problem, yes. Although Westbrook's distribution of shots doesn't lean as heavily towards the 3 as Dinwiddie's does. ~20% 3pa vs ~40% 3pa. If you can get Westbrook to shoot less then 3 point bricks are less of a problem....until they leave him wide open in the playoffs

I don't want either to be clear