The Lebron Thread | 2021 (Pt. 2)

[Kingdibs19]

Why would anyone want Avery Bradley on this team? We can win without him and don’t need to pay as much as Atlanta did for his services.

We’ve had a lot of games without KCP and Caruso who are both superior to Bradley. Throw in minutes for Schroeder, Matthews, THT. PG duties for Lebron and what minutes would be left for him? Vogel isn’t scared to give Kuzma a few SG minutes as well. The last thing we would need is to throw valuable cap space at an undersized SG when we have only so many guard minutes to go around.

The right move would have been to keep Dwight and add Ibaka in place of Trez and Gasol (though I love watching Marc). Think that would have made this team truly unstoppable.

[thebigbird]

James begins the year at the top of the Kia MVP Ladder: https://www.nba.com/news/kia-mvp-ladder-jan-8-2021-edition

There definitely seems to be some momentum for him to win if the Lakers are the top seed and no one else is hugely impressive. I personally would still give him a < 50% chance of winning, just because this season is so weird, but this is an encouraging sign.

The MVP is a narrative award, so it’s definitely positive that he’s starting out at the top. If he has a regular consistent year, and the Lakers are at the top of the West, I think he has a good chance. And really, he just needs to stay in the convo for the first 70% of the season or so because then he should build momentum as he gears up for the playoffs. He’s already at 25/8/8 and he’s not really caring right now.

[Kingdibs19]

Eh Lebron is always at the top of the MVP rankings to begin the season because writers haven’t started the narrative yet that they’re going to with all year regardless of how good Lebron is because giving it to him is boring. As mentioned, MVP is a narrative award. Zach Lowe or some other respected writer will write an article why player X is his early favorite, a few other writers/podcasters pile on and then the narrative becomes a tsunami. Nash, Kobe, D-Rose, Westbrook, Harden, Giannis etc..all narratives. Lebron was better then most of them the years they won IMO.

[KTM_2813]

James begins the year at the top of the Kia MVP Ladder: https://www.nba.com/news/kia-mvp-ladder-jan-8-2021-edition

There definitely seems to be some momentum for him to win if the Lakers are the top seed and no one else is hugely impressive. I personally would still give him a < 50% chance of winning, just because this season is so weird, but this is an encouraging sign.

The MVP is a narrative award, so it’s definitely positive that he’s starting out at the top. If he has a regular consistent year, and the Lakers are at the top of the West, I think he has a good chance. And really, he just needs to stay in the convo for the first 70% of the season or so because then he should build momentum as he gears up for the playoffs. He’s already at 25/8/8 and he’s not really caring right now.

I think that it becomes a narrative award when there's no clear frontrunner. For example, if Curry returns to his 2016 self for the remainder of the season, James likely doesn't have a chance. Conversely, if the Lakers have a 2017-Cavs collapse because James completely loses interest, then he genuinely won't deserve the award. I completely agree with you that if he can just stay in the conversation, he has a good chance. As a fan, I'm hoping he pulls even with Russell and Jordan when all is said and done.

[Greatness]

His raw numbers will start looking better as he plays more minutes, right now his scoring average per 36 is the 4th highest of his career.

[homecourtloss]

His raw numbers will start looking better as he plays more minutes, right now his scoring average per 36 is the 4th highest of his career.

True, but the pace he and Lakers are playing at is also higher than in all his Cleveland years (both stints) and Miami years.

[Heej]

His raw numbers will start looking better as he plays more minutes, right now his scoring average per 36 is the 4th highest of his career.

Man I just want Bron to stay about 27ppg for as long as he can. This should be the team that lets him master his offensive game the most. Bron had Kevin freaking Love on his team and not once in 3 years have I seen him making the hard backcuts on guys to the basket like I see him make with Gasol at the pivot. Bron really didn't respect KLoves game like that smhh

[Dupp]

Embiid is the mvp so far but it’s a very weak mvp year. So many of the candidates are just losing games.

[homecourtloss]

Embiid is the mvp so far but it’s a very weak mvp year. So many of the candidates are just losing games.

Empty arena, regular season defensive intensity means near every game is coming down to open three point shooting variance. Now, most games today come down to this anyway, but there is right this very second, the most game-to-game parity I’ve ever seen. There are three playoff teams currently with losing records (Toronto, Houston, Denver) and two of these teams have superstar offensive cogs (yes, Harden has missed games). There are basically zero “gimme” games.

[yoyoboy]

Embiid, Jokic, and Curry are my three frontrunners right now. I’m not putting too much stock into team record this early in the season, and in a sample size this small a guy can be playing completely out of his mind and still have a losing record. Those three have just played the best individually in my eyes. Bron would probably be 4th.

But yeah weird season so far - expectedly. No one’s really seizing that MVP frontrunner position and narrative yet.

[Cavsfansince84]

Embiid is the mvp so far but it’s a very weak mvp year. So many of the candidates are just losing games.

Empty arena, regular season defensive intensity means near every game is coming down to open three point shooting variance. Now, most games today come down to this anyway, but there is right this very second, the most game-to-game parity I’ve ever seen. There are three playoff teams currently with losing records (Toronto, Houston, Denver) and two of these teams have superstar offensive cogs (yes, Harden has missed games). There are basically zero “gimme” games.

Which is generally always the case early in the season being that the things that really define the playoff and better teams haven't really been fully implemented into teams yet. Things like defensive intensity, rotations, guys dealing with the mental aspect of a full season grind, etc. The first 10 games are always sort of a throw away and then there's also the fact like you said that on any given night nowadays a team can just shoot lights out from 3 and that's it. imo it takes a minimum of 20-25 games to really get an idea of what's what in an nba season and even then there's always 2-4 teams which don't fully get their **** together until the final 20 games and end up a top 5-8 seed.

[donnieme]

Curious to see how Harrell plays against Houston on defense. On paper they are the kind of offense he struggles against. High pick and roll happy ballhandlers and rollmen, guards that attack the rim and a rather large big in Cousins. Not the kind of team schemes can hide him for the entire game. Could say a lot on whether he's actually progressing that aspect of his game

[MisterHibachi]

Gasol is just such a massive person.

[MisterHibachi]

Lakers defense has been great so far, and LeBron has been very active. He's basically ignoring Nwaba and blowing up all the Rockets pick and roll actions.

[dcstanley]

Is it me or is KCP always smoking fastbreak layups?

[MisterHibachi]

This starting lineup is so good. They're not allowing anything at the rim right now.

[MisterHibachi]

Is it me or is KCP always smoking fastbreak layups?

He's always confused about whether he wants to dunk it or lay it up.

[toodles23]

Nice to see the Lakers taking things seriously on defense for once.

[MisterHibachi]

Caruso is doing an incredible job on Harden

[MisterHibachi]

I'm watching the game on the Rockets broadcast, and it's really funny how much these guys complain about superstar calls and flopping.