IG2 wrote:^ Forgot to mention that in my previous post. He was definitely doing a lot of nothing with the ball at the top of the key today. Very Cleveland-like, where he's essentially forcing a switch on the pick n roll and wants to take it 1-on-1 against a big...often in the last 5 seconds of the clock. Not good offense at all, but it's something that will happen a lot any time Miami's(or Cleveland back in the day) offense is not clicking. LeBron takes it upon himself to do a lot of dribbling/decision making. That's one flaw that will remain in his game....the lack of decisiveness after catching the ball. Wade, indeed, is much better when it comes to that. Speaking of him, I found his stat line today misleading. I thought him and Chalmers were pretty much keeping NY competitive in the 2nd half with their bad decision making.
I agree, the major problem is that he becomes too predictable. He has the ball at the top of the key and is dribbling it at a snail-like pace until 5,4,3 and he's still behind the three pointer dribbling. At this point, the defense already knows he's gonna chuck a three or at least a long jump shot, so they're prepared and that leaves LeBron having to take a tough shot. Bad offense, always keep the defense on their toes and guessing. That's where Wade is different, he'll take a lot of bad shots because they'll defend him well, but he's constantly bouncing on his feet and hesitating to keep the defense guessing what is he going to do. That's why he's able to successfully get the defense to bite on those pump fakes even though he's been doing that exact same move at least for 5 years now.
The bigger problem, as far as I'm concerned, is not that Wade handles the ball on the perimeter down the stretch, it's that at the meantime, LeBron is just standing in the corner and not really doing anything in the offense. That can't happen. Conversely, watch how much better Wade is moving off-ball, cutting and getting good position when LeBron is at the point.
Anyway, hope that knee is okay, it's important that he can play without any minor injuries limiting his explosiveness. I wouldn't mind if he sits tomorrow for precautionary reasons.
