The LeBron James All-NBA (2nd) and Luka Doncic - 24-25 Thread

[NBA4Lyfe]

Imagine being able to be anything you want in life and deciding to become a James Harden fan.

you should be happy that im actually still watching the nba.. or the clippers in my case. In case you havent kept up with the times the nba right now is bleeding support. The nba invited a wnba player to help all star weekends tv ratings.. That is the nba we are living in

draymond says the other day on his pod that the "big o" must not be watching warrior games, and draymond was getting flamed in his comments section with people saying.. "aint nobody watching the games period" lol

[O_6]

I'm not going to lie, I was worried about the potential disaster of Bronny failing in the G-League. The college stats being so bad. The HS hype being good but not great. So many people out there who enjoy seeing LeBron fail and were ready to pounce on him for forcing the Lakers to draft his son. All over social media, people clowning on Bronny for his early struggles.

There were 3 names whose G-League stats I checked after Bronny was drafted.

Thanasis Antetokounmpo (Giannis' brother)
LiAngelo Ball (Lamelo's brother)
Chris Smith (JR Smith's brother)

With the word nepotism being thrown around so often for this situation, I thought those 3 guys were the most comparable. This is what they did during their first year in the G-League.

Thanasis Antetokounmpo: 12/4/2 on 47/31/66 (.562 TS%) in 29.3 MPG at 22 years old
LiAngelo Ball: 5/1/0 on 40/36/67 (.532 TS%) in 13.2 MPG at 24 years old
Chris Smith: 8/3/2 on 35/25/78 (.464 TS%) in 20.8 MPG at 27 years old

Thanasis lacks skills for his size but he atleast had some strong athletic traits that allowed him to stay above water at that level. Should he be in the NBA? Probably not but it's not completely laughable. LiAngelo and Chris Smith on the other hand are pure 100% cases of nepotism. LiAngelo was a good shooter and Smith had a decent handle but neither guy was anywhere close to being an NBA caliber athlete. Those guys only got a shot because of their siblings. My concern was that Bronny would be like LiAngelo or Smith.

But so far it's been 23/5/5 on 46/43/79 (.595 TS%) in 6 regular season G-League games while showing good defense and clear NBA caliber athleticism. At the very least, I think I can breathe a sigh of relief about Bronny ending up like LiAngelo or Smith.

If Bronny was putting up LiAngelo numbers in the G League, just imagine what the discourse would be like. "It's been a fairly boring week of sports, let's talk about Bronny sucking on multiple ESPN shows" - ESPN exec. Not to mentioned how we'd have it shoved down our throats on social media.

I'm just happy for Bronny, LeBron, the Lakers, and myself lol that Bronny is atleast showing to be a capable G-League player.

20 year old 6'3" combo guard who carries a lean 210 lbs and can jump 40+ inches? I went into this hoping he wouldn't be LiAngelo Ball levels of bad, but now I'm wondering how good he can actually become. Congrats to him for the turn around in performance and perception.

[Homer38]

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[rk2023]

Imagine being able to be anything you want in life and deciding to become a James Harden fan.

you should be happy that im actually still watching the nba.. or the clippers in my case. In case you havent kept up with the times the nba right now is bleeding support. The nba invited a wnba player to help all star weekends tv ratings.. That is the nba we are living in

draymond says the other day on his pod that the "big o" must not be watching warrior games, and draymond was getting flamed in his comments section with people saying.. "aint nobody watching the games period" lol

Who on earth would be sad if you stopped watching? If you feel this better, than leave - run off into ringless obscurity like your idols Harden and r*pist Jameis..

[NBA4Lyfe]

Imagine being able to be anything you want in life and deciding to become a James Harden fan.

you should be happy that im actually still watching the nba.. or the clippers in my case. In case you havent kept up with the times the nba right now is bleeding support. The nba invited a wnba player to help all star weekends tv ratings.. That is the nba we are living in

draymond says the other day on his pod that the "big o" must not be watching warrior games, and draymond was getting flamed in his comments section with people saying.. "aint nobody watching the games period" lol

Who on earth would be sad if you stopped watching? If you feel this better, than leave - run off into ringless obscurity like your idols Harden and r*pist Jameis..

Adam silver is concerned lol, he is now talking about making the nba 10 minute quarters. Cut out LeBron and the cancer that is klutch sports and that is the first step lol

[dcstanley]

LeBron has a losing finals record lol, how is that possible when he has played with by far the most talent by an atg player in the history of the game

It's a whose who of nba talent that he has played with, and now Luka Doncic after playing with arguably the best defensive center/forward in the game lol

Like what are we doing here. The comparison is garbage just off the lakers roster this year lol


Harden has played with kd and kyrie in 21' but harden damaged his hamstring and never been the same since. Even the biggest harden diehards will tell you that as he has yet to make an all-nba selection since that injury


Im talking about Luka and LeBron butting heads. Which if history is any indication that is pretty much a lock lol. Wait for the high leverage games in the playoffs and the lakers lose a game and LeBron tells rob to do something about "Luka" hogging the ball, and Rob tells LeBron and Klutch.. NO! Just watch, it's all great now but just wait for it


Remember we saw how LeBron wanted kyrie traded in 2017 for Eric Bledsoe lol, which was confirmed by cavs gm Adrian griffin lol. All it takes is one confrontation or "disagreement" just watch

Harden has played with KD, Russ, Dwight, CP3, Russ (again), KD (again), Kyrie, Embiid, Maxey, Kawhi, PG and has a grand total of one finals appearance.

all of those teammates after 2021, mean nothing.. as harden was no longer not an mvp level impact player, he was no longer an all-nba level player either.. but of course you already knew that lol


im sure you are gonna mention harden making the all-star team this year, when he is currently having his worst season shooting and turnover wise since his rookie year

bottomline is harden after 2021 was not a star player and theres eveidence since he was no longer voted to an all-nba team

also westbrook during the 2020 season is one of the most flukish box-score number/ZERO impact seasons in league history. let me check real quick. LOL westbrook had a ws/48 of 0.98 lol, and had a total bpm of 1.4.. and this is a guy who was voted to the all-nba team, lol.. harden should have won mvp based of the vorp per game average alone

Harden averaged 21/6/11 on 61 TS% as a Sixer. He certainly played at an all-star level, he just predictably folded in the playoffs as he's prone to do.

[RRR3]

**** talking LeBron when you're a Harden fan has to be the stupidest thing I've seen in months.

[Mos_Heat]

Brutal game

[IG2]

LeBron's gonna remain the team's best player until Luka's conditioning comes a long way. For now he gets gassed really fast.

[jalengreen]

Le4thQuarter

[TroubleS0me]

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[nzahir]

DIssapointing game by Luka shooting wise, but o well

If Gabe or DFS could have made 1-2 of their open 3s, we easily would have won

Idk how Knecht is supposed to be a shooter and is shooting 35% from 3 this year on a TON of wide open looks. And a horrific defender overall

And they were hot from 3

Dallas is a dark horse contender as well once healthy, got a lot of talent

I think we have a punchers chance to win it all this year, especially if a team or two has mini injuries

But I think this summer we will upgrade at C and have 2 bigs (1 more on top of Hayes would be good) and try and upgrade 1-2 of Gabe, Knecht, and Rui (solid overall, not moving for nothing, just a meh fit next to Luka and Bron due to lack of perimeter speed)

[TroubleS0me]

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[Ian Scuffling]

Well, Luka didn't exactly "murder" his old team, but a triple double is nice. The old man was like, "Damn. Guess I gotta win this game for Luka, tonight". Great and efficient scoring 4th quarter by LeOldMan. I know it's only been a handful of games, but Luka needs to get those shooting/efficiency numbers up. I'm sure, he will. Great win, when they shot so poorly from 3 as a team, too.

[The High Cyde]

First time LeBron feels invisible on the court to me, he’s blended in with Luka incredibly well.

[Special_Puppy]

Well, Luka didn't exactly "murder" his old team, but a triple double is nice. The old man was like, "Damn. Guess I gotta win this game for Luka, tonight". Great and efficient scoring 4th quarter by LeOldMan. I know it's only been a handful of games, but Luka needs to get those shooting/efficiency numbers up. I'm sure, he will. Great win, when they shot so poorly from 3 as a team, too.

His scoring was poor, but everything else was great basically.

[EmpireFalls]

Feel like the solution to LA’s offense is quite simple. It is to muck up the early possession offense and then just live with Luka post ups and jumpers. TBH the best defense against them is when you do NOT send help at all costs. Same with LeBron. It’s actually the LeBron playbook Popovich used.

Now that requires two wings who can actually stay with them, but teams like Boston, OKC, etc have that. Luka’s scoring isn’t at the highest level right now. That’s what you need to target. Force him to take 30 shots and 15 pull up jumpers and keep everyone else out of rhythm.

[Ian Scuffling]

Well, Luka didn't exactly "murder" his old team, but a triple double is nice. The old man was like, "Damn. Guess I gotta win this game for Luka, tonight". Great and efficient scoring 4th quarter by LeOldMan. I know it's only been a handful of games, but Luka needs to get those shooting/efficiency numbers up. I'm sure, he will. Great win, when they shot so poorly from 3 as a team, too.

His scoring was poor, but everything else was great basically.

No doubt. I was just expecting, or maybe just hoping for, a 50 point game. LOL...That's the beauty of Luka's game, if he's not scoring he's doing the other things.

[JLei]

Feel like the solution to LA’s offense is quite simple. It is to muck up the early possession offense and then just live with Luka post ups and jumpers. TBH the best defense against them is when you do NOT send help at all costs. Same with LeBron. It’s actually the LeBron playbook Popovich used.

Now that requires two wings who can actually stay with them, but teams like Boston, OKC, etc have that. Luka’s scoring isn’t at the highest level right now. That’s what you need to target. Force him to take 30 shots and 15 pull up jumpers and keep everyone else out of rhythm.

That only looks like it would work in theory because Luka is currently out of shape. This is a player that averaged 34ppg on 62% true shooting last season getting constantly double teamed. Luka can and will score 40+ on good efficiency easily against no help.

Sending no help against the scoring champion isn't exactly a good strategy. He can just bum hunt until he gets the right matchup.

[trickshot]

Feel like the solution to LA’s offense is quite simple. It is to muck up the early possession offense and then just live with Luka post ups and jumpers. TBH the best defense against them is when you do NOT send help at all costs. Same with LeBron. It’s actually the LeBron playbook Popovich used.

Now that requires two wings who can actually stay with them, but teams like Boston, OKC, etc have that. Luka’s scoring isn’t at the highest level right now. That’s what you need to target. Force him to take 30 shots and 15 pull up jumpers and keep everyone else out of rhythm.

hmm yea but how? that's the point of a gameplan, How do you do that? You can't just start from step 2. It's impossible to let players like Luka run rampant without help because they control the flow of the game. It guarantees you're playing at his team's pace. Having multiple wing defenders like the Celtics is straight luck every team wishes. OKC is OKC but they are one of those teams that only guard Luka well on paper, just like the Clippers.