The Lebron Thread

[toodles23]

Despite the lack of aggressiveness, I thought he looked even better physically in this game than he did in the previous one. He looked much quicker on both ends, acceleration looked close to Cleveland level, and he looked faster on that breakaway layup than I've seen him ever be on a Miami break. He was also just all over the floor defensively and his recovery speed looked much better than it typically has.

If his training camp statements are to be believed, he may still not be in regular-season shape, which would explain the game-by-game improvements as he continues to work on conditioning.

Yeah, I was just watching a few of his offensive plays again, and on the play he drew 2 FTs, he absolutely blew by Jordan and would have had an easy layup if not for the intentional foul. Way superior acceleration there compared to anything the last 2 seasons, 2011 Lebron would have handled that drive so differently.

I also liked his turnaround on CP3, he had good balance, form, and follow through. One of his first smooth looking jumpers of the preseason.

Here's a good visual comparison between '11 and '13 Lebron as far as halfcourt acceleration:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bRbHyeaaxs&fea ... cp#t=2m21s (sorry for the poor quality)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ywvthX6oaY#t=0m55s

The difference in speed between those two clips pops right out, in that clip against the Nets he looked like he was running in mud. 100% chance Cleveland Lebron finishes that with an and-1, and if you look closely, I'm not sure he even got high enough to dunk that had Humphries not fouled him.

[SideshowBob]

Game tonight vs Detroit at 7:30. Don't expect much aggression today

[toodles23]

Thoughts on last night's game? I wasn't paying too close attention while watching it, but I didn't see anything that really stood out that much.

[IG2]

Thoughts on last night's game? I wasn't paying too close attention while watching it, but I didn't see anything that really stood out that much.

Same here. He isn't really trying to be a playmaker out there, so it's tough to judge his ability.

[SideshowBob]

Playing again tonight vs. Charlotte. He hasn't played since Thursday, so I expect he's been working on conditioning further.

[IG2]

LeBron's defense has improved, especially 1-on-1. I've never seen him move his feet as well as he has this preseason. I know he's had some high finishes the last few years, but this is the first season I view him as a serious DPOY candidate.

Nothing to say about his play on the other end though. Outside the first couple of games, he has basically tried to do as little as possible on offense. Just standing around and throwing dart passes to 3pt shooters.

[SideshowBob]

LeBron's defense has improved, especially 1-on-1. I've never seen him move his feet as well as he has this preseason. I know he's had some high finishes the last few years, but this is the first season I view him as a serious DPOY candidate.

This is the biggest thing I've seen aside from the renewed mobility and explosiveness, and I noticed this in the Olympics as well. The numbers have shown him as having big-man level defensive impact for the past 4 seasons (he's been about a +2.5-3.0 defensive player since 2009), and an improvement from there puts him in the DPOY discussion for me as well.

We don't get detailed numbers for the preseason, but I'm considering going through the Heat PbP just to see how Miami's performed defensively with him On/Off the floor.

Nothing to say about his play on the other end though. Outside the first couple of games, he has basically tried to do as little as possible on offense. Just standing around and throwing dart passes to 3pt shooters.

Yeah, hasn't been much to see. I'm not expecting much activeness till the regular season starts on that end.

[CJ_18]

He absolutely assaulted the rim on that one 2 hander on the cut to the basket..

and then on that play where he got a technical foul.. he absolutely exploded to the basket full speed from outsider the 3.. just not fair being that big and fast

[toodles23]

LeBron's defense has improved, especially 1-on-1. I've never seen him move his feet as well as he has this preseason. I know he's had some high finishes the last few years, but this is the first season I view him as a serious DPOY candidate.

Nothing to say about his play on the other end though. Outside the first couple of games, he has basically tried to do as little as possible on offense. Just standing around and throwing dart passes to 3pt shooters.

Pretty much this. I'm getting more worried about his jumper by the game though, his percentages have been trash so far in the preseason.

[starvinmarvin17]

If his renewed athleticism holds for the regular season the league is in some serious trouble

[SideshowBob]

And the jumper continues to elude him.

He just showed more agility on that drive at the end of the 1st quarter than he has at any point in Miami. Just didn't finish

[SideshowBob]

Another fantastic explosion to the basket from the top of the floor, right through 3 help defenders in the lane

[SideshowBob]

Posted this in the Heat game thread

http://www.hoopdata.com/splits.aspx?player=LeBron%20James

Lebron's shot from 16-23ft was off pretty much all of last season, barring 4 games in December and March, when he had cut down his volume a tad bit.

Compare this to 2011

http://www.hoopdata.com/splits.aspx?player=LeBron%20James&year=2011

Off in his first month (expected), and a slight dip in January, but otherwise, he was at a best-in-the-league level for the rest of the year (~48% from January onwards, and ~55% after the all-star break).

Furthermore, don't be fooled by his career high 3PT% from last year, that was off quite a bit as well (particularly in the game-to-game consistency department). In his last year in Cleveland, he shot only 33.3% from down-town, but you have to understand that these were not simple catch and shoot shots.

He was assisted on 51.9% of his threes in 2012, and 60.9% in 2011. In 2010 however, he was assisted on just 34.1%

http://bkref.com/tiny/5b8aq

Inside of 27 (!!) feet, he shot 116/327 (35.5%) on threes (34.4% ASTd). That's an eFG% of 53.2%, on largely PULL UP shots. Outside of 27 feet, he shot 13/60 (21.7%), for an eFG% of 32.5%, on basically heat-checks.

He was a VASTLY superior 3 point threat that year (that was his best season from downtown, though the second half of 2009 is about on par), and he was actually an effective floor spacer that year. That's why it was strange to me that he cut down on shooting them, because contrary to popular belief, his 3PT shot threat was actually a positive, not a negative. Cutting them out has reduced the additional spacing effect he has on the team offense (we saw Cleveland put up ~116 ORTGs with Lebron ON the floor in his last two seasons), as well as his own shot creation.

[DMVleGeND]

LeBron jumper looks awful. He only took like 3-4 jumpers from what I saw (one of which was a last second heave), but all his jumpers looked flat.

[IG2]

I think it's safe to say LeBron has regressed to his pre-2009 days jump shot wise, when his mid-range percentages ranged from the mid to high 30's. That's basically what he shot last season, if you ignore his hot start. He tweaked his mechanics at the beginning of last season and it has **** him up. I see 3 problems with his release 1) doesn't put enough legs on his shot 2) too much wrist action 3) is shooting the ball on the way down.

[SideshowBob]

Yeah, I had figured he'd spend the offseason reconstructing his shot, or try to work out the kinks, but looks like he did neither.

[SideshowBob]

I think it's safe to say LeBron has regressed to his pre-2009 days jump shot wise, when his mid-range percentages ranged from the mid to high 30's. That's basically what he shot last season, if you ignore his hot start. He tweaked his mechanics at the beginning of last season and it has **** him up. I see 3 problems with his release 1) doesn't put enough legs on his shot 2) too much wrist action 3) is shooting the ball on the way down.

Yeah, both of those things would result in his shots being short, which was the issue with every jumper he took last night.

It just irks me that he changed his form away from 2010 or 2011. There really was no need to tweak it

[toodles23]

I'm not sure I've ever seen Lebron's jumper this broken. Like, ever. Even during his bad stretches early in his career he wasn't quite THIS bad. He's changing his form on pretty much every shot, and even his FT form looks noticeably different than it's been before.

[Benedict_Boozer]

I think it's safe to say LeBron has regressed to his pre-2009 days jump shot wise, when his mid-range percentages ranged from the mid to high 30's. That's basically what he shot last season, if you ignore his hot start. He tweaked his mechanics at the beginning of last season and it has **** him up. I see 3 problems with his release 1) doesn't put enough legs on his shot 2) too much wrist action 3) is shooting the ball on the way down.

#3 is the biggest culprit. Very observant, noticed he was doing that again.

[IG2]

Odd game by LeBron today. Moved as well in the half-court as he has all preseason. Even made a couple of jumpers, but he was AWFUL in transition and leaping-wise. Like he was afraid to jump high or something. Never seen him blow as many layups/dunks as he did today.