LeBron is officially the best player in the NBA

[L&H_05]

Even minus the jumper... Kobe or as they call him "The best player on the planet" (with a jumper) went out like a complete punk tonight...

Couldn't believe his game... Never attacked tonight, and just gave up... LBJ did everything in his power to win game 7 on his own basically...

[Rise Against]

I was expecting Kobe to put a little more effort into the game.. But I do have to agree that LeBron performed better against Boston than Kobe did, not stat wise but on the impact of the game. Not to mention, Kobe had the better supporting cast going into the playoffs as well as a hall of fame coach..

[calibanPK]

Yeah but Boston played down to their opponents in the Semis, they only stepped it up in ECF's.

[the edge]

Wrong, Cleveland is the team that plays down to the opponent. I would think that most fans and the Celtics theirselves would say Cleveland was by far the toughest team they had to face on the road to the championship. In a way that dont mean crap, but it just goes to show that with Lebron, on any night the Cavs have a great chance to win.

About this thread, we always ask the question at work; your a GM, with your first pick who do you take to start your franchise? 99% of the time it is Lebron. Yea a couple people mentioned Wade a couple years ago, and Kobe is always brought up and Chris Paul is starting to get some run. But ever since LBJ has entered the league, it has been his goal to be a champion, and the best. (Also an icon!) He continues to work on his game. Without whining about his Coach, GM and teammates.

Last year it was D, and leadership.

And if he works to up his free throw % and mid range game, you throw in a couple or 4 titles and he could go down as thee best.

[TheOUTLAW]

I assume that Caliban was just mimicking those posters to always downplay any Cavalier accomplishment. Fact is the Cavs played the Celtics even during the season and actually won the only game where both teams were full strength. It's funny to me that people always say how teams play badly when they play the Cavs but they seldom seem to give the Cavs credit for making that happen. Even some Cavs fans seem to avoid giving Brown any credit for making this collection of misfits a pretty formidable squad to compete against in the playoffs.

[Icness]

So does this Finals help convince some of y'all that the Cavs as currently constituted are legit title contenders? We were basically one bad possession away from sending the Celtics packing and our superstar is getting better. The Cavs play the kind of team defense that makes other teams look bad, just like the Celtics and Spurs, the only teams I'm not positive the Cavs would beat in a 7-game series right now.

Imagine in Lebron works on that mid-range runner and more consistency at the FT line. He adds something to his game every summer, why not one of those? I can taste the title already

[B Mac]

I think with LeBron regardless of who else we have on the team we always have a shot to win a title, but I want more than just a shot. Realistically, LeBron doesnt neccesarily need a second banana to win it all, but that doesnt mean we still cant give it to him and make everyone's life a little easier. While the team is so close, there is no reason why we cant upgrade a few positions.... most notably SG and PF.

Lets face it, Wally was useless here. Had he been able to play even close to what he had throughout the rest of his career who knows how far we could have gone. The one promising thing to note though was that Wally's defense was nowhere close to being a weakness for this team. This is great news because it means that not only can Coach Brown get even the worst of defenders to play well, it also means our defensive system can support someone else who isnt known as a good defender (cough Redd cough). Also we have pretty much zero low post precense on this team. We've got to find a way to bring in someone who is a legitament threat in the low post. That doesnt mean a Brand, O'Neal, etc... and it doesnt even mean a starting caliber guy, but someone... anyone, who can score with their back to the basket. If you look at the Celtics they had at least 3 guys that could do this, and outside of KG the other two are nowhere near stars. We can find someone like this realatively easy... it just needs to happen. This needs fixed, badly.

I really dont think a major overhaul is neccesary though. Obviously its likely that AV is going to be moved so hopefully he can be packaged to bring back one of those two pieces. Also Wally will probably be moved at some point this season so hopefully we can put together a package to bring in a SG that can make plays. We do those two things and I think we are easily the best team in the NBA, whereas right now we are simply one of the best.

[TheOUTLAW]

It really is impossible to explain why Wally's shooting was so terrible for the Cavs. This is a guy that's always been a good shooter and really should have responded well to the number of wide open shots he received. I think I am just going to attribute it to bad luck for the Cavs regarding jump shooters that they trade for (others will inevitably blame it on LeBron). For some reason it seems to always take jump shooters (Gibson notwithstanding) several years to get used to playing on the Cavs and this actually predates the LeBron years. That being said, I expect Szczerbiak to play better this year for 2 reasons. He's playing for another contract and he's had an opportunity to get a bit more used to playing with the Cavs.

[wardevil]

Lebron's finals performance was pathetic, against a lesser defense he consistantly choked. To get swept in the finals and yet talk down Kobe, who lost in 6 games, shows just how delusional Cav fans are. The only thing Lebron has over Kobe is youth. Lebron will never be in the same class as Jordan, neither will Kobe!

[TheOUTLAW]

I marvel at how sensitive Kobe fans are. Fact is, this is a Cavs board and frankly it's kind of expected for us to be more pro LeBron than pro Kobe. That being said your argument is at best weak. Maybe the Spurs defense is inferior to the Celtics. But that is truly debatable. I think it would have been better to argue that Kobe had a better series against the same defense than LeBron. But that really isn't true. Fact is, Kobe deferred alot more than LeBron did because Kobe had better players surrounding him. Not to mention, the Cavs actually took the Celtics 7 games rather than 6 and that was with what just about everyone would argue are inferior teammates. (oh, and didn't lose by 39 in any game much less the deciding game). Heck, what annoys me most about the Cavs/Celtics series is that the Cavs actually outscored the Celtics over the entire series. But I digress. Fact is, while LeBron started out the series against he Celtics poorly he got better as the series went on and he could adjust. It was largely the opposite for Kobe.

[B Mac]

Lebron's finals performance was pathetic, against a lesser defense he consistantly choked. To get swept in the finals and yet talk down Kobe, who lost in 6 games, shows just how delusional Cav fans are. The only thing Lebron has over Kobe is youth. Lebron will never be in the same class as Jordan, neither will Kobe!

First of all, calling the Celtics defense better than the Spurs is very questionable. Since there is no way to prove it one way or the other we will move on, but using it as an argument for either side is a joke.

Now on to the next problem with your argument... Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom. Both of those guys would EASILY be the second best player on the Cavs. Throw in Vujacic, Fisher, Radmonovic, Turiaf, and Farmar? LOL Want to know who LeBron played with in the finals last year? Z who averaged less than 9 points a game. A just emerged Daniel Gibson. Drew Gooden who is as dumb as can be. A hurt Larry Hughes who only played in a game and a half. Sasha Pavlovic who struggled to see minutes this year. Anderson Varejao, Donyell Marshall, Eric Snow, Damon Jones, and Ira Newble. Man, I wonder why LeBron couldnt do more with those guys... The very fact that LeBron somehow managed to get us to the Finals alone is mind boggling. So you managed to win 2 games... big deal, you still got your ass kicked pretty much the entire series. The Cavs at least kept each game close against the Spurs and had our second best player (Hughes) not been playing on a broken foot who knows if we could have managed a win or two.

Celtic fans and players themselves are saying the Cavs were the best team they faced in the playoffs, and your second and third best players would still easily be our 2nd best player. Honestly every single starter besides the SF spot would start on the Cavs and even Farmar and Vujacic would likely start here as well. LeBron is just that good that he can take such lesser talent so far. Do you really want to argue on talent and who's doing more with less?

[Rise Against]

B Mac is on a roll. Basically, I am agreeing with everything that he mentioned.. If Mike Brown can get Wally to play defense, then there is no doubt that he is able to make Redd at least play average defense. Just give LeBron a consistent secondary scorer, and we'll be a strong championship contender for many years to come.

[cavsfan_osiris]

Even minus the jumper... Kobe or as they call him "The best player on the planet" (with a jumper) went out like a complete punk tonight...

Couldn't believe his game... Never attacked tonight, and just gave up... LBJ did everything in his power to win game 7 on his own basically...

I agree totally.

There is no debate about it now after Kobe's horrific play against Boston. LeBron struggled against Boston also, but had much more of an impact and did more against them with less around him. As you said even without the jumpshot LeBron is now confirmed better than Kobe and the best player in the NBA.

[prekazi]

Lebron's finals performance was pathetic, against a lesser defense he consistantly choked. To get swept in the finals and yet talk down Kobe, who lost in 6 games, shows just how delusional Cav fans are. The only thing Lebron has over Kobe is youth. Lebron will never be in the same class as Jordan, neither will Kobe!

Actually the only thing Kobe has over LeBron is jumpshot and experience.

[eyejayem]

The Kid is 23 and no one has ever been this good at 23. Now whether he gets better or not is what needs to be answered.

[Ojmayo]

Dictionary:


Lebron James:"Best basketball player in the world"