LeBron James' Teams Have Traded 118 Players And First Round Picks

[ScrantonBulls]

That Westbrook trade that he pushed for was his finest work yet, a real doozy.

Two turnover maestros jockeying for the PG with very few shooters. Lol.

Somehow it was Pelinkas fault tho….

Have we ever heard that Pelinka wasn't in on it to? I don't recall reading a report saying it was definitively LeBron and AD. It was Pelinka's choice in the end.

[Prince187]

If we didn’t live in clown world LeBron would have the reputation of being an awful teammate

[infinite11285]

https://fadeawayworld.net/lebron-james-teams-have-traded-118-players-and-first-round-picks-while-michael-jordans-team-traded-only-35



This is a staggering amount of trades his teams have done. As the article points out, some of it can be attributed to his longevity, but not all of it. Just about every year he has shipped off teammates or draft picks, and it's about to happen again this season. If he is really the GOAT, why does he constantly need the most help of any player, ever?

What 7 to 8 players/picks were traded LeBron's rookie season? Also, what 10-11 trades/picks did the Heat move off in 2010-2011?

There appears to be a lot of context missing here.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2004_transactions.html
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2005_transactions.html

Only 5 were traded that year, and only 4 the next. I'm assuming the others are wrong too based on the first 2 seasons. But who cares about facts when it comes to players we don't like, amirite?!

That article is from a click bait garbage sports site. It's incorrect and really doesn't deserve a thread.

Aside from the data being wrong, I don't understand the premise of what’s being implied. Championships were won, so what's the problem? Further, teams tend to hold onto value, whether it be picks or players. So higher turnover is an indication of lower roster quality and/or management.

[MavsDirk41]

Two turnover maestros jockeying for the PG with very few shooters. Lol.

Somehow it was Pelinkas fault tho….

Have we ever heard that Pelinka wasn't in on it to? I don't recall reading a report saying it was definitively LeBron and AD. It was Pelinka's choice in the end.

From what i remember James and Davis met with Westbrook over the summer and then approached/pushed Pelinka into trading for him. Pelinka could have said no but either way all 3 need to eat that one, not just Pelinka.

[ScrantonBulls]

What 7 to 8 players/picks were traded LeBron's rookie season? Also, what 10-11 trades/picks did the Heat move off in 2010-2011?

There appears to be a lot of context missing here.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2004_transactions.html
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2005_transactions.html

Only 5 were traded that year, and only 4 the next. I'm assuming the others are wrong too based on the first 2 seasons. But who cares about facts when it comes to players we don't like, amirite?!

That article is from a click bait garbage sports site. It's incorrect and really doesn't deserve a thread.

Aside from the data being wrong, I don't understand the premise of what’s being implied. Championships were won, so what's the problem? Further, teams tend to hold onto value, whether it be picks or players. So higher turnover is an indication of lower roster quality and/or management.

I think the premise is "LeBron is bad because 1. He forces teammates to be traded, and 2. He's had it easy because his teams trade teammates a lot." The second you use a little context and thinking, you can see it's poorly thought out. Just anotherly thinly-veiled hate thread, as if we needed any more.

[Jersey Generals]

How is the data wrong? It says in 2003/2004, the Cavs traded 7 players and picks.

1) They traded Jones to the Celtics: 1
2) Traded Davis, Stewart, Mihm, and a pick: 4 (5 cumulative)
3) Traded Miles: 6 cumulative
4) Traded a first round pick: 7

2004/2005 is wrong, however. It should be 7, so they went less than it should have been according to their rules.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

I mean it’s a lot but it tends to work. The trades lead to a WCF spot last year. The AD trade got them a championship. The Cavs **** in 2018 got them to the finals. I mean that was more of a wild run by LeBron in the playoffs. It tends to wield good results unfortunately

The AD trade was great. The JR Smith trade was good. I honestly can't remember any other very good trades by GMs of LeBron teams.

If Rob Pelinka stood pat after winning the title, the Lakers would be rolling with:
C Anthony Davis
PF Jaden McDaniels / Kyle Kuzma
SF LeBron James
SG Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
PG Alex Caruso / Talen Horton-Tucker

The Lakers won a title, and then their GM decided to destroy the team to prevent them from ever competing again for some unknown reason. Absolute insanity.

Even the supposedly great trade last year, they could have made a reasonable trade for Conley + Nickeil Alexander-Walker, but they ended up turning it into a loser by sending those guys to Min for Russell and change, then overpaying Vanderbilt who has no offense, the side of the ball they're weakest. It only seemed good in the momenet due to how depleted the roster was, any move to take on salary and trade their 1st would have given them a boost, but it was basically a sugar high, none of the players they got were long term solutions for anything.

[infinite11285]

How is the data wrong? It says in 2003/2004, the Cavs traded 7 players and picks.

1) They traded Jones to the Celtics: 1
2) Traded Davis, Stewart, Mihm, and a pick: 4 (5 cumulative)
3) Traded Miles: 6 cumulative
4) Traded a first round pick: 7

2004/2005 is wrong, however. It should be 7, so they went less than it should have been according to their rules.

Wasn’t Jones traded the summer before James’ rookie debut?

[Flash4thewin]

Were they still a rebuilding team after reaching the Finals in 2015?

Finals = rebuilding?

Because during the middle two years in Miami, there were two pieces moved, while during the middle two years in Cleveland, there were fourteen pieces moved.

It's not fiction. LeBron was on one year deals so he could make the team do his bidding. (Also so he could get the bleep out of Cleveland and go somewhere he wanted to be as soon as he got them a championship and saved face for The Decision.) Miami simply didn't let him guide their decisions. If they had, as we know, Spoelstra would've gotten the axe like David Blatt.

Takes more than a year to restructure and they changed coach in 2015-16 season. Change of coach came with new system and needed new players.

Riley has denied the rumor that LeBron wanted spoelstra traded. After 8-9 start in 2010-11 there were questions about whether Spoelstra was the right guys for the job, that's about it. No one has said LeBron had any desire to get Spoelstra fired. He reportedly asked Pat Riley if he wanted to coach again. That's about it?

Sports Illustrated Headline:

"Pat Riley Details How LeBron James Wanted Erik Spoelstra Fired in 2010

James requested a coaching change after just 17 games his first year with Miami Heat"

https://www.si.com/nba/heat/miami-news/pat-riley-details-how-lebron-james-wanted-erik-spoelstra-fired-in-2010

Riley is quoted from his own book that James asked him if he "got the itch" and Riley "knew what he meant." I.e., coach this team, i.e., replace Spoelstra with yourself.

Riley would deny it after the fact because airing your star players' dirty laundry is the definition of bad business in the NBA. 95% of them have things that they'd prefer to be kept hidden, and if you go around airing that stuff, then 95% of them are going to steer clear of your franchise. It's not complicated.

To be fair and even with hind sight he was 100% right. Remember Spo back then was not the Spo of today. Had Pat taken the reign we win year one against the Mavs. Equally important Pat and him actually build a real relationship similar to Phil and Kobe. Kobe only listened because Phil won, he has that gravitas compared to Spo who at that time had never won anything, was never an NBA player etc. Spo is a very good coach today almost a decade later but im sure Pat regrets not taking over.

[oversteerdawg]

Wanted to also say thats there's nothing wrong with him being limited. He's still a top 10 player of all-time and one of the most dominant players ever. He just needs extremely talented shooters around him to open up the floor in order for him to maximize his best assets (usually at the expense of other solid NBA players), keep his FG% looking decent, and win.

If he doesn't have this, he'll still get his numbers and percentages, but it won't affect winning. Take a look at this season as an example.

This season? As in the season where the man is the oldest player in the league? Somehow I feel like 28 year old LeBron might still be effective on this season's Lakers.

[Goomba3666]

Wanted to also say thats there's nothing wrong with him being limited. He's still a top 10 player of all-time and one of the most dominant players ever. He just needs extremely talented shooters around him to open up the floor in order for him to maximize his best assets (usually at the expense of other solid NBA players), keep his FG% looking decent, and win.

If he doesn't have this, he'll still get his numbers and percentages, but it won't affect winning. Take a look at this season as an example.

This season? As in the season where the man is the oldest player in the league? Somehow I feel like 28 year old LeBron might still be effective on this season's Lakers.

11 years ago? 2013-2014 finals, his team got blasted by the geriatric Spurs and a sophomore Kawhi by a Finals record margin before him bolting to Cleveland.

28 year old Lebron just wouldn’t be in Western Conference as he knew better.

[Iwasawitness]

https://fadeawayworld.net/lebron-james-teams-have-traded-118-players-and-first-round-picks-while-michael-jordans-team-traded-only-35



This is a staggering amount of trades his teams have done. As the article points out, some of it can be attributed to his longevity, but not all of it. Just about every year he has shipped off teammates or draft picks, and it's about to happen again this season. If he is really the GOAT, why does he constantly need the most help of any player, ever?

Who the hell made this graph? Where are they getting their facts from?

44 players traded in his second stint with Cleveland? The 13 they're pulling out of their ass from the four years in Miami is more accurate. None of these numbers are anywhere close to being correct.

This is a very obvious troll thread designed to bring in every gullible person desperate to bash LeBron because they aren't smart enough to realize this is full of ****.

Man has done everything he has possibly could from team hopping to trading half the roster every season to get to 4 rings in 21 seasons.

I haven't posted here in awhile....I see nothing has changed though with the typical Lebron defenders with the most replies in this thread defending their King!

Interesting article, but ultimately can be summed very simply.

The amount of movement Lebron's teams do for him is more of a product of him being extremely 1-dimensional albeit the best 1-dimensional player in NBA history.

He's pretty much a mobile/perimeter version of Shaq. Dominant, physical, great, but obviously needs a WIDE open lane in order cleanly to barrel over the defense for easy buckets.

Case and point.

That Westbrook trade that he pushed for was his finest work yet, a real doozy.

This one doesn't count because it's 100% correct and MavsDirk actually puts thought into his posts. We KNOW for a fact LeBron was fully behind the Westbrook trade and we all know it was a disaster. That one is entirely on him and only him. I doubt AD would've went along with it if LeBron hadn't pushed for it.

11 years ago? 2013-2014 finals, his team got blasted by the geriatric Spurs and a sophomore Kawhi by a Finals record margin before him bolting to Cleveland.

28 year old Lebron just wouldn’t be in Western Conference as he knew better.

It is 2024 and there are still people trying to push the idiotic "the 2014 Spurs were old" narrative. The 2014 Spurs were the best team Duncan ever played on and are a top 15, if not top 10 all time great team. Not to mention, LeBron was the best player in that series for both teams, but I can't wait for you to not reply to this because you're "saving your energy".

[WillyJakkz]

That's what comes with playing with the GOAT!

If you can't do your job you gotta go.

ya damn right!

I'm not sure what this is trying to prove... Seems like much ado about nothing, if he began his team with competent management that somehow was able to draft an all-time great that took all major defensive assignments then his team would have had to trade less players... Similarly if he was on a team with one of the most dominant bigs of all time from the jump there also would have been less player movement...

This is the first thing that popped in mind.

That graphic is so skewed.

One guy started with Ricky effin' Davis and Darius Miles. One guy started with Orlando Woodridge then got near the end Ice Man. One guy had Shaq Nick Van Exel Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell. And one guy had Monta "got it all" Ellis.

One guy had Carlos Boozer Jeff McGinnis Boobie Gibson drafted to the team. One guy had Scottie Pippen Horace Charles Oakley Grant BJ Armstrong Toni Kukoc drafted to the team. One guy had Derek Fisher Sasha Vujacic DeVean George Andrew Bynum Rony Turiaf Julius Randle Brandon Ingram DLo drafted to the team. One guy had Klay Thompson Draymond Green drafted to the team.

This should be all of the information we need to see who started with what and why the changes had to be made in each individual situation.

[oversteerdawg]

Wanted to also say thats there's nothing wrong with him being limited. He's still a top 10 player of all-time and one of the most dominant players ever. He just needs extremely talented shooters around him to open up the floor in order for him to maximize his best assets (usually at the expense of other solid NBA players), keep his FG% looking decent, and win.

If he doesn't have this, he'll still get his numbers and percentages, but it won't affect winning. Take a look at this season as an example.

This season? As in the season where the man is the oldest player in the league? Somehow I feel like 28 year old LeBron might still be effective on this season's Lakers.

11 years ago? 2013-2014 finals, his team got blasted by the geriatric Spurs and a sophomore Kawhi by a Finals record margin before him bolting to Cleveland.

28 year old Lebron just wouldn’t be in Western Conference as he knew better.

Winning the title the year before and following it up by making the finals and losing to an ATG team isn't my idea of won't affect winning"

[Goomba3666]

This season? As in the season where the man is the oldest player in the league? Somehow I feel like 28 year old LeBron might still be effective on this season's Lakers.

11 years ago? 2013-2014 finals, his team got blasted by the geriatric Spurs and a sophomore Kawhi by a Finals record margin before him bolting to Cleveland.

28 year old Lebron just wouldn’t be in Western Conference as he knew better.

Winning the title the year before and following it up by making the finals and losing to an ATG team isn't my idea of won't affect winning"

That ATG team was pushed by another geriatric team in the first round by the Mavericks in 7 games.

That ATG team was knocked out the first round last year by the Clippers. Lol.

[Lalouie]

he doesnt fit with teams.
teams have to fit with him
that is why there is always an initial shuffling of rosters until he gets what he wants

[shrink]

I think you should have included the word “successfully” in your title.

[VanWest82]

I hope at some point someone writes a book about all the deals LeGM tried to pull off but couldn't in his first Cavs tenure just to disprove the point of how well behaved he was during that part of his career. Lebron himself has even admitted to painstakenly trying to convince numerous players to come to Cleveland, and that those unsuccessful attempts were what motivated him to take his talents to south beach to win not one, not two, not three, not four, not five...

The exact number of players and picks traded isn't actually that important. We all get what what's been going on here.

[The Explorer]

The thing with Lebron is its as if he is has a right to have the best players and win championships, ignoring that everyone has to earn a championship. I don't see Jokic or Doncic or Antetokounmpo throwing their teammates under the bus and trading half their roster every couple years. They and other stars of the past like Jordan worked with what they had and improved their leadership internally. Lebron team hopped, fired coaches, traded players, worked with Klutch to force stars to his team to always be in the perfect position just so he could be in the (fake) goat conversation. And when his LeGM moves don't work, there's always a scapegoat. David Blatt, Luke Walton, young players, AD, Vogel, Ham, Westbrook all scapegoated solely for the Chosen one's sake.

[MrTribbiani]

LBJ haters are weird as hell for trying to act like this is a bad thing. I personally admire LBJ for wanting to win instead of being complacent and too afraid to take risks.

You can't win in life without taking risks.