The Lebron '20 Thread (Pt. 7)

[MisterHibachi]

Murry only scored 32 points? Felt like that was a 40 points game

[homecourtloss]

Jamal Murray when defended by LeBron in this series:

1-6 FGs, 1 TOV, 0 FTs

[Firebird1]

Nice job by LeBron James defending Murray.

[Homer38]

Rondo was huge when LBJ was on the bench in the 3rd quarter

Read on Twitter

[Homer38]

Read on Twitter

[Greatness]

Murry only scored 32 points? Felt like that was a 40 points game

I thought the same thing. Shocking that he "only" scored 32 feels like he never misses a shot. He made legit 3-4 layups/shots last night that would be on the career highlight reel for most players.

[CKRT]

It's kinda crazy that they aren't spamming that LBJ / AD pick and roll in the 4th quarters, it's like they are trying to avoid it lol

Better come out in the finals

Curry/KD PnR Part Deux

[Pelly24]

LeBron would be a great in-game coach tbh. He's the one that asked for the assignment on Murray, and iirc he was the one who told Spo to put Norris Cole on Lance Stephenson all those years ago vs the Pacers when Lance was being a difference maker in the series.

For me that's what differs him from the rest in "the best player of the world" narrative. Statistically he can't carry the load anymore in his 17th season at 35 like he did in the past. But the way he leads and coach both on and of court is what a lot of this other superstars are and were missing. It's been said a couple of times, but he is on his way to lead his 5th different set of teammates to the Finals. It like you give him whatever, he makes it works. Switch him and Kawhi this season and Clippers would be still in one way or the other and the Lakers might even be out already.

It's sort of LeBron's ultimate intangibe trump card. By 2018 he literally had it all. The IQ, top 3 athlete, the defense when needed, the stamina/motor, the passing and on top of all that, he had the elite shot-making/GOAT_level scoring in the playoffs. Now he's fallen to just "very good/elite scorer" with this lack of spacing*, but he's still 85-95% of everything else, with enhanced IQ and understanding.

[Ursusamericanus]

So I just realized that KAJ won four of his six rings at age 35+ (1982, 1985, 1987, 1988). No doubt because of Magic, Worthy, and others.

Anyone else reckon LeBron might be able to do something similar? Reel off a few more if he takes a step back and AD takes the keys? Perhaps if they can re-tool effectively in the offseason? I do think they'll win this year but wondering about 2021 and beyond too. Not to get ahead of ourselves, it's just amazing how KAJ had that flurry of additional rings so late in his career.

[coastalmarker99]

So I just realized that KAJ won four of his six rings at age 35+ (1982, 1985, 1987, 1988). No doubt because of Magic, Worthy, and others.

Anyone else reckon LeBron might be able to do something similar? Reel off a few more if he takes a step back and AD takes the keys? Perhaps if they can re-tool effectively in the offseason? I do think they'll win this year but wondering about 2021 and beyond too. Not to get ahead of ourselves, it's just amazing how KAJ had that flurry of additional rings so late in his career.

Agreed its possible for Lebron if they were able to get a player like oladipo or get better shooters then the Lakers next year might be even better then they were this year.

Kareem was very lucky to win 4 past 35 as one the Lakers played in the worst conference ever look at the team's La played on their road to the finals in 1987 and it is not that very impressive and they faced a banged-up Celtic team as well in the finals which is why I think the 1987 Lakers are overrated as a team

Two only a foul call in 1988 saved the Lakers from that year in 6 to the bad boy pistons

Three what if Len had never died does La even win a ring past 1985 if that's the case.

And Four if the Rockets had not fallen apart after beating La in 1986 due to drugs and other things they could have challenged La in the west from 1987 to 1989.




Wilt could have done it with the Lakers as well if they only had kept Goodrich over a washed-up Baylor in 1968 the Lakers from that era would have most Likely won in 1969 and 1970 and maybe in 1971 if West stays healthy that year giving Wilt 5 rings.

[Homer38]

Read on Twitter

[JulesWinnfield]

If Lebron wins this title, does he enter a stage of his career where basically everything is gravy? Because it’s sort of unprecedented the standard he is held to in his 17th year. We know he’s going to get crushed if they won’t win it all this year. We didn’t hold Kobe to this standard in 2013, we celebrated him leading the Lakers to an 8 seed before getting hurt on a team that was the betting favorite to win a title. We didn’t hold KG to this standard in 2013. We didn’t hold Duncan to this standard in 2015 (or ever). If Lebrons teammate wins finals MVP in his 17th year there’s gonna be a lot of talk. Imagine doing that to Duncan in the 2014 finals. We didn’t hold Shaq to this standard in 2010 when he teamed with Lebron. His amazing ability to continue to play at such a high level at this advanced stage works against him in a lot of ways. I’m looking forward to the day when he enters the stage where this immense microscope is he is constantly under relents, and any accomplishments are just celebrated as total house money. I’m not holding my breath

[Doctor MJ]

So I just realized that KAJ won four of his six rings at age 35+ (1982, 1985, 1987, 1988). No doubt because of Magic, Worthy, and others.

Anyone else reckon LeBron might be able to do something similar? Reel off a few more if he takes a step back and AD takes the keys? Perhaps if they can re-tool effectively in the offseason? I do think they'll win this year but wondering about 2021 and beyond too. Not to get ahead of ourselves, it's just amazing how KAJ had that flurry of additional rings so late in his career.

Yup. Given how well the pairing with AD is, and how LeBron is now successfully drawing in talented malcontents with gigantic egos and they are performing for him, there's good reason to think this team will be a contender for the foreseeable future. Not predicting any number of titles, but they should at least be dangerous.

Re: Kareem...amazing flurry. I mean it is indeed amazing that Kareem happened to team up with a superior offensive player and leader after his best years were over and the results were so much stronger than what you could expect from a Kareem-led team.

Don't mean to throw a ton of shade Kareem's way as I consider him a GOAT candidate, but no one would have ever called anything Kareem ever did "Showtime" unless he were writing a book about Magic and titled it that.

[Doctor MJ]

If Lebron wins this title, does he enter a stage of his career where basically everything is gravy? Because it’s sort of unprecedented the standard he is held to in his 17th year. We know he’s going to get crushed if they won’t win it all this year. We didn’t hold Kobe to this standard in 2013, we celebrated him leading the Lakers to an 8 seed before getting hurt. We didn’t hold KG to this standard in 2013. We didn’t hold Duncan to this standard in 2015 (or ever). We didn’t hold Shaq to this standard in 2010 when he teamed with Lebron. His amazing ability to continue to play at such a high level at this advanced stage works against him in a lot of ways. I’m looking forward to the day when he enters the stage where this immense microscope is he is constantly under relents, and any accomplishments are just celebrated as total house money. I’m not holding my breath

The Jordan comparison makes things different. None of those other guys were actual GOAT contenders, LeBron is, and if I were LeBron I'd be looking to pour in more accomplishments to swing as many over to my side of the argument as possible, presuming I cared about such things (which I think LeBron absolutely does).

For the record, it's possible I'll rank LeBron over Jordan by the end of the Bubble, so more longevity may not be something that I actually need, but some will need it.

[LukaTheGOAT]

I know some people are concerned with some of Lebron's offense but I wonder if it would be greatly better if he slacked a bit defensively. For example

2017 PS:
1.64 DPIPM (6.23 DRTG On/Off)

2018 PS: -1.38 DPIPM (-6.84 Defensive Rating On/Off,which is flukey bad)

2020 PS: 2.15 DPIPM (7.47 DRTG On/Off), while AD has a 1.87 DPIPM...yes Lebron is beating AD in DPIPM people.

The fact of the matter is, that Lebron seems to be as close to his 2016 version on defense as we've seen. His load is less on offense and we are seeing what he can do more fully engaged on defense. He is more valuable on defense to the best defensive team in the league than he was to those 2017 and 2018 Cavs teams ranged from mediocre to HORRIBLE on defense. It is more difficult to improve on already a great defensive team but Lebron is indeed doing it. He is 3rd in the PS in DPIPM and has played more minutes than the 2 guys ahead of him. He is #1 in DPIPM out of remaining players in the PS.

Then you add in that he is #2 in OPIPM (behind only Donovan Mitchell), and I can't complain too much.

A lot of people kind of thought Lebron was done being a force on defense, and it wasn't just casuals, but some truly elite and educated minds on this forum and on twitter.

Perhaps Lebron should focus doing more offensively, as perhaps the Lakers being already a strong defensive team, would reap the benefits of his improved offense? Thoughts?

[RCM88x]

Lakers defense has been what's hurt them in this series, not their offense.

As for continued success, I don't see it. The rest of this roster is pretty not great and basically everyone is on short deals and won't be there long term. Sure they have flexibility but getting good contributing players below market value will be required and is already extremely tough to do.

[xb3at band1tx]

Lakers defense has been what's hurt them in this series, not their offense.

IDK, Lakers are playing as well on defense as they possibly can, their offense can go stagnant at times.

[thebigbird]

So I just realized that KAJ won four of his six rings at age 35+ (1982, 1985, 1987, 1988). No doubt because of Magic, Worthy, and others.

Anyone else reckon LeBron might be able to do something similar? Reel off a few more if he takes a step back and AD takes the keys? Perhaps if they can re-tool effectively in the offseason? I do think they'll win this year but wondering about 2021 and beyond too. Not to get ahead of ourselves, it's just amazing how KAJ had that flurry of additional rings so late in his career.

I don’t know but that’d be incredible if it happened. Never knew that about KAJ. Idk if they placed as much emphasis on rings back in the day, but if they did I imagine he would’ve been getting a lot of the criticisms that Bron gets now back then before he won those 4.

[JulesWinnfield]

It’s tough to predict what this era holds for Laker basketball beyond this year mostly because you can’t predict what happens with Lebron. He could be a top 5-10 player for 3 more years or this could be his final season as a top 15-20 player. We can’t just project his rate of decline and expect it happens as gradually as it has to date going forward. Its likely to happen much more suddenly. All it takes is one nagging injury, doesn’t even have to be major, and the body doesn’t respond the way it did when he was 25, and then that’s that. A hamstring he just can’t quite get past... a calf strain. These things can derail the careers of guys at this age.

As long as they have a ballpark version of current Lebron teamed with AD they are going to be on the contender short-list. Obviously odds are bolstered by surrounding moves

[trickshot]

No one is being given credit because of all the ref talk but how big was Dwight yesterday? No coincidence he starts and Jokic's impact is limited in the first half. Last night would have been a crapshow for the Lakers if Jokic was allowed to give Murray any more help than he got. He should have been moved to the starting lineup ages ago with Mcgee being his backup in foul trouble