'15-16 RealGM Player of the Year Discussion Thread

[Doctor MJ]

however rationally I'm under no illusions given that I've seen LeBron for so many years: This isn't the "true" LeBron while all others are false, and this isn't the "new" LeBron that's figured out how to make everything perfect with these Cavs. It's real, but so is the other stuff, and there will absolutely be important games in the future where LeBron has the same issues again.

On finding the "real" LeBron: Idk if thinking of it as probabilistic helps - If you weigh the expected contribution of LeBron based on the probability "real"/"old" LeBron shows up against tough competition (the best, IIRC, as per ElGee - and his elimination / game 7 numbers and level of play speak for themselves) and the tier below tough competition (either one gets you the win 95%+ of the time)

The issue is that LeBron didn't kick into this mode simply because of the stakes. We've seen in the past that LeBron isn't someone who is capable of flipping that switch in the same way as Jordan or Shaq. He gets in his own head a lot more, which is why some of his worst moment have come with his back to the wall.

If I weight odds, then the odds of LeBron going nuts like he's done here simply based on it being the finals, etc, the odds are very low and absolutely not worth overwhelming the entire season leading up to that.

But, however he got here, LeBron appears to be here now, and that may well be what gives Cleveland its first championship since rock & roll was for teenagers, and that should be a really big deal.

Of course as I say all this, we all have to wait and see what happens in Game 7.

It's not like Kerr to make a major adjustment in Game 7, at least from what we've seen, but as I like to say: There's nothing hard about stopping LeBron or anyone else from scoring, you just have to commit enough man power to it and be okay with other openings. Right now Cleveland is winning largely as a 2-man show in a way that frankly Westbrook/Durant came nothing close to, and they're doing it with a 3rd offensive star who can't seem to get used by the offense. To me they seem like exactly the type of team you'd try to "make someone else beat us".

Granted as I say all this, now that Cleveland has its groove going, the passing & movement looks excellent, which will make it much harder to stop. This is why it's so critical to keep a team from grooving, as any opponent of the Golden State Warriors will tell you. The good news is though that even when Cleveland's team offense looks great, that doesn't mean it looks great in the half-court. If they can minimize fast break opportunities, and go hard on LeBron & Kyrie in the half court, to me the game is quite winnable for them.

[mikejames23]

I voiced this earlier, but Kerr can't look at this team and have regrets on pacing GSW in the RS. If Iggy is actually limited in Game 7, this could get out of hand. Iggy-Dray-Bogut do this together, and if 2 out of 3 team defenders are out, Dray will need some help from I don't know... Ezeli? Speights? Barnes (wherever the heck he is? )?

Anyway, Game 7 at the Oracle is Game 7 at the Oracle. LeBron did his thing twice in a row, and now he's gotta do it 3 times. What would be great for Kevin Love is if he has a big game now, right when it most matters. A special game from 3 point land perhaps? Cleveland would forgive his troubles IMO.

As far as the fouls go, I was actually on Curry's side. They were so iffy that it actually *felt* like the league wanted to see a 7 game series. This, along with the Draymond suspension, adds some fuel to that thought.

On the flip side, and many fans are echoing this - the sense of entitlement for GSW was too strong. They were somewhat arrogant, and Curry absolutely flipping was uncharacteristic when he got fouled out. They simply aren't willing to acknowledge that Cleveland had a shot, and now it's a series.

And I still need to get my hands on the first quarter of this game.

[JLei]

And in that sense, while I say I have no sympathy for Curry, if you're calling fouls like that, you have GOT to cut players slack when they get heated on a call you know you might have been wrong on that will now have a potentially massive effect on the game.

What kind of slack should they cut him? They had to toss him from that game Doc, after he threw his little fit. You can't let players show up refs like that and expect better performances from them.

I agree 100% that refs should only call what they see and not what they anticipate or what a player's body movement suggests might have happened. But this is on Curry 100%. They let a ton of reaches go--they were trying to help him imo. He just wouldn't stop. If I didn't know better I'd think he was looking for a way out of that game in the way we've seen from players before.

That egregious flop that was clearly a block anyways when he hedged out on Bron at the end of the first half that lead to the Dahntay Jones and 1. Obvious foul that went no call because they were trying to help him.

[Doctor MJ]

And in that sense, while I say I have no sympathy for Curry, if you're calling fouls like that, you have GOT to cut players slack when they get heated on a call you know you might have been wrong on that will now have a potentially massive effect on the game.

What kind of slack should they cut him? They had to toss him from that game Doc, after he threw his little fit. You can't let players show up refs like that and expect better performances from them.

I agree 100% that refs should only call what they see and not what they anticipate or what a player's body movement suggests might have happened. But this is on Curry 100%. They let a ton of reaches go--they were trying to help him imo. He just wouldn't stop. If I didn't know better I'd think he was looking for a way out of that game in the way we've seen from players before.

Oh to be clear, I'd have tossed him from the game as well. Speaking mod to mod here, what I mean more is that if I know that my own human fallibility contributed in any way to a situation, I make it a point to try to make sure that permanent consequences are minimized even if I need to do some kind of punishment.

Re: They let reaches go. Bottom line: If as a ref you make the MVP foul out and the last two calls you made turn out to be wrong, you have a problem. Whatever happens to Curry, as a ref, you simply have to perform better than that. I'll also add that an excuse of "Yeah, but I purposefully didn't call other fouls on Curry that I knew he committed." doesn't make you sound more competent.

[toodles23]

Again I have no sympathy for Curry, but you've got a problem when the last two calls against the MVP that led to him fouling out when that basically never happens were flat out bad calls.

If I'm the boss of refs I'm saying "Do NOT take this to mean that you have to give Curry the benefit of the doubt. The issue is that you appear to be regularly blowing the whistle for situations when you don't actually know whether there was a foul, and now on the biggest stage everyone is seeing that."

Or to put it another way: Don't give stars special treatment, and don't swallow the whistle, but you have to stick to making calls you actually see.

The scary thing is that I could see an honest refs saying: "Boss, NONE of us can really see what's going on in those situations, so we've all been doing this are whole career, and it's just that this guy wasn't savvy enough to remember that Curry already had 5 fouls."

And in that sense, while I say I have no sympathy for Curry, if you're calling fouls like that, you have GOT to cut players slack when they get heated on a call you know you might have been wrong on that will now have a potentially massive effect on the game.

This is why I'm in favor of a rule change so that players can't foul out. Refs are human and this problem is unlikely to ever go away, as much as we would like it to. Give them a technical for every foul after the 5th (giving the opponent a chance for 3 points), so they still get penalized, but having a guy essentially ejected from the game when it's so common for one or two of those to be cheap or even flat out incorrect just isn't good for the game.

[Texas Chuck]

Re: They let reaches go. Bottom line: If as a ref you make the MVP foul out and the last two calls you made turn out to be wrong, you have a problem. Whatever happens to Curry, as a ref, you simply have to perform better than that. I'll also add that an excuse of "Yeah, but I purposefully didn't call other fouls on Curry that I knew he committed." doesn't make you sound more competent.

What about when Tristan Thompson fouls out? Or Iggy? Do the last two calls not need to be right in that case? There is no small irony in you wanting better officiating while seemingly calling for a star system. I don't think its possible to have both. Nor do I think it desirable.

And I'm not defending officials when they miss calls. I don't expect perfection, but yeah they really need to get these calls correct. I wasn't talking about them letting other fouls go to justify the fouls they called. But rather trying to keep ownership of this issue where it belongs imo--on Steph Curry. He was playing defense largely with his hands--something we all get taught at the very beginning of our basketball lives not to do. And he continued despite being in foul trouble and despite knowing how desperately his team needs him to stay on the court.

The most important thing is for Steph not to put himself in position for refs to make a bad call especially when the risk/reward ratio is so incredibly poor particularly in that last play that fouled him out. And again, where is Steve Kerr in this? Hey Steph, you got 4 fouls, we need you on the court. Hey Steph you got 5 fouls we need you on the court. Stop F_ing reaching.

[Doctor MJ]

Again I have no sympathy for Curry, but you've got a problem when the last two calls against the MVP that led to him fouling out when that basically never happens were flat out bad calls.

If I'm the boss of refs I'm saying "Do NOT take this to mean that you have to give Curry the benefit of the doubt. The issue is that you appear to be regularly blowing the whistle for situations when you don't actually know whether there was a foul, and now on the biggest stage everyone is seeing that."

Or to put it another way: Don't give stars special treatment, and don't swallow the whistle, but you have to stick to making calls you actually see.

The scary thing is that I could see an honest refs saying: "Boss, NONE of us can really see what's going on in those situations, so we've all been doing this are whole career, and it's just that this guy wasn't savvy enough to remember that Curry already had 5 fouls."

And in that sense, while I say I have no sympathy for Curry, if you're calling fouls like that, you have GOT to cut players slack when they get heated on a call you know you might have been wrong on that will now have a potentially massive effect on the game.

This is why I'm in favor of a rule change so that players can't foul out. Refs are human and this problem is unlikely to ever go away, as much as we would like it to. Give them a technical for every foul after the 5th (giving the opponent a chance for 3 points), so they still get penalized, but having a guy essentially ejected from the game when it's so common for one or two of those to be cheap or even flat out incorrect just isn't good for the game.

I'm open to considering this, but I'm wary. To me the strategic use of fouling on both ends of the floor is the worst thing in the game, and if fouling out wasn't a possibility, I think it gets even worse.

[Doctor MJ]

Re: They let reaches go. Bottom line: If as a ref you make the MVP foul out and the last two calls you made turn out to be wrong, you have a problem. Whatever happens to Curry, as a ref, you simply have to perform better than that. I'll also add that an excuse of "Yeah, but I purposefully didn't call other fouls on Curry that I knew he committed." doesn't make you sound more competent.

What about when Tristan Thompson fouls out? Or Iggy? Do the last two calls not need to be right in that case? There is no small irony in you wanting better officiating while seemingly calling for a star system. I don't think its possible to have both. Nor do I think it desirable.

And I'm not defending officials when they miss calls. I don't expect perfection, but yeah they really need to get these calls correct. I wasn't talking about them letting other fouls go to justify the fouls they called. But rather trying to keep ownership of this issue where it belongs imo--on Steph Curry. He was playing defense largely with his hands--something we all get taught at the very beginning of our basketball lives not to do. And he continued despite being in foul trouble and despite knowing how desperately his team needs him to stay on the court.

The most important thing is for Steph not to put himself in position for refs to make a bad call especially when the risk/reward ratio is so incredibly poor particularly in that last play that fouled him out. And again, where is Steve Kerr in this? Hey Steph, you got 4 fouls, we need you on the court. Hey Steph you got 5 fouls we need you on the court. Stop F_ing reaching.

Fair enough. Like I say, for me it's not about special treatment for a star, it's about the fact that that refs screw up then massively changes the shape of the game due to it happening with a star, and thus a spotlight is shown on however it is that ref actually does his job.

Re: Steph knew he had 5 fouls. True, and Steph continued playing like he did because his team needed a drastic turnaround so he's the one who forced the situations.

I think there's something that really grates me about the fact that Curry leads the league in steals and shoots impossible shots because he is so preternaturally good with being precise with his hands, and then on the big stage it seems to become clear that refs have been essentially hiding the fact that they can't tell whether he's fouling or not.

[toodles23]

I'm open to considering this, but I'm wary. To me the strategic use of fouling on both ends of the floor is the worst thing in the game, and if fouling out wasn't a possibility, I think it gets even worse.

I guess that's possible, but if a coach wants to start intentionally fouling it's already very easy to put a benchwarmer in the game to do the dirty work for him. And really the NBA should look at rule changes to solve that problem anyway, maybe a 3 to make 2 rule for intentional off-ball fouls that would make it unpalatable against all but the Drummond level FT shooters.

[PaulieWal]

As someone who started the "can't have Curry #1 because of injuries" movement, I am going to stick with it and I am NOT going to have Curry #1 on my ballot this year short of him dropping 100 points in game 7.

Even if you completely ignore the missed games and say those don't matter while ignoring the fact that if CP/Blake don't get hurt it's very much possible that the Warriors lose to Clippers, Curry has been meh in the PS. A drop-off in performance from RS is to be expected but Curry has been way too inconsistent. He's having an average to below average Finals IMO which is being masked by the fact that Warriors are still tied for 3-3 and his 3 pointer has been falling. His playmaking has been horrible, defense has been laughable, and the turnovers are confounding.

Also, Curry needs to get mentally tougher. Bad calls are a part of the game. Was last night the first time he got a "bad whistle" in the PS? Every superstar has to deal with games like those. I don't remember LeBron losing his s*** against the Pacers in game 5 and those calls were way more questionable than what happened to Curry last night.

I will say though even as someone who's going to have LeBRon #1 now most likely some of his supporters need to stop acting like this they knew this was coming. Up until game 5 started he had shown no jumper except for game 3 when they were already leading. In game 4 he missed a bunch of open jumpers in the 2nd half. Sure, then LeBRon goes into beast mode and starts hitting his J like it's 2013/2014. Sure this version of LeBron is still the best player in the league over Curry but let's not act like he forgot how to shoot during the RS because "he was coasting".

[PaulieWal]

The issue is that LeBron didn't kick into this mode simply because of the stakes. We've seen in the past that LeBron isn't someone who is capable of flipping that switch in the same way as Jordan or Shaq. He gets in his own head a lot more, which is why some of his worst moment have come with his back to the wall.

Don't agree with this at all. Outside of the 2011 Finals when has LeBron "not flipped the switch like a Shaq or MJ". I mean we all know his worst performance came in that game 4 up 2-1 on the road. When you have been in as many big moments as LeBron you are bound to have some stinkers and once you take out Dallas, how many of them really are there?

[Doctor MJ]

The issue is that LeBron didn't kick into this mode simply because of the stakes. We've seen in the past that LeBron isn't someone who is capable of flipping that switch in the same way as Jordan or Shaq. He gets in his own head a lot more, which is why some of his worst moment have come with his back to the wall.

Don't agree with this at all. Outside of the 2011 Finals when has LeBron "not flipped the switch like a Shaq or MJ". I mean we all know his worst performance came in that game 4 up 2-1 on the road. When you have been in as many big moments as LeBron you are bound to have some stinkers and once you take out Dallas, how many of them really are there?

I think you're being way too loose about what "flipping the switch" means, perhaps because I was unclear about what I myself meant by it. I don't mean playing great, it means playing considerably better than before while ironing out any glaring issues. In the case LeBron what that has to mean is hitting from range and not forgetting about his teammates' capabilities.

[Doctor MJ]

I will say though even as someone who's going to have LeBRon #1 now most likely some of his supporters need to stop acting like this they knew this was coming. Up until game 5 started he had shown no jumper except for game 3 when they were already leading. In game 4 he missed a bunch of open jumpers in the 2nd half. Sure, then LeBRon goes into beast mode and starts hitting his J like it's 2013/2014. Sure this version of LeBron is still the best player in the league over Curry but let's not act like he forgot how to shoot during the RS because "he was coasting".

So yeah, you clearly get what I'm saying I think.

Dude wasn't coasting before, and if he's honest, he's probably shocked at how he's shooting like his old self again now.

I likened Cleveland now to GS in the last series and let me point out something specific here:

With Curry, Klay, and GS, it's been clear for a while now that you need to keep them disoriented. The moment they know what your moves are and the best way for them to respond to it, they don't just get a little better, they turn the corner.

To me what we're seeing from LeBron and the Cavs is the same type of thing. He got comfortable, and then they got comfortable. How did that happen? Well in part because GS made the fundamental challenge so clear in Game 5:

They're short-handed but they can still basically do their thing as long as they leave me open to shoot, and if we lose another game we're done, so I just have to shoot.

Had LeBron missed the first few shots in Game 5 and the Warriors built up a lead by starting hot, I think that's all she wrote. LeBron starts looking worse and worse, the team gets stagnant and starts sniping at each other. That easily could have happen.

But it didn't. LeBron hit his shots, GS struggled. Cleveland got some transition going, and then LeBron got his swiss army knife going and got to a point where he wasn't afraid to use whatever the defense gave him.

it's tough when we're in a thread like this where we try to label precisely how much credit everyone deserves relative to each other, but the reality for me is that LeBron deserves every bit of credit for how good he's playing right now, but using that to erase what came before like it wasn't real doesn't remotely give us an accurate picture of what LeBron is as a player. We talk about how he can "do it all", and that's not really wrong, but the dude really does have important weaknesses that will continue to show up the rest of his career, and not just in the regular season.

[lorak]

In 2013 after Game 7 vs. Indiana, you showed his jumpshooting in elinlmination games and they suggested his jumper tends to be on in these kinds of pressure situations. This was before Game 6 and 7 vs SAS.

Still have that? Did you ever update it? Seems like he did the same thing the last two games.

I don't remember posting that, but I have his shooting splits by zone in elimination games (numbers below include two recent games):

restricted area 67.6 FG%
in the paint non RA 40.5 FG%
mid range 38.9 FG%
left corner 0/2 FG
right corner 3/8 FG
above break 3pointers 33.7 FG%
backcourt 0/1 FG

So it doesn't look like his jumper is better than normally. And if we will not count G6 vs BOS in 2012, when he had 11/16 FG from midrange, then his midrange % is just 34.5.

[HeartBreakKid]

Curry had bad calls(Klay had one or two also)..at the end of the game when they were still down like 15. Now, it is Golden State so double digit leads can go away quickly, but let's be real, the chances of the Warriors winning that game even if Curry did not foul out were very low, let's not try to take away Cleveland out playing the Warriors because of some bad calls when the game was essentially over.

[toodles23]

The issue is that LeBron didn't kick into this mode simply because of the stakes. We've seen in the past that LeBron isn't someone who is capable of flipping that switch in the same way as Jordan or Shaq. He gets in his own head a lot more, which is why some of his worst moment have come with his back to the wall.

If I weight odds, then the odds of LeBron going nuts like he's done here simply based on it being the finals, etc, the odds are very low and absolutely not worth overwhelming the entire season leading up to that.

But, however he got here, LeBron appears to be here now, and that may well be what gives Cleveland its first championship since rock & roll was for teenagers, and that should be a really big deal.

Of course as I say all this, we all have to wait and see what happens in Game 7.

It's not like Kerr to make a major adjustment in Game 7, at least from what we've seen, but as I like to say: There's nothing hard about stopping LeBron or anyone else from scoring, you just have to commit enough man power to it and be okay with other openings. Right now Cleveland is winning largely as a 2-man show in a way that frankly Westbrook/Durant came nothing close to, and they're doing it with a 3rd offensive star who can't seem to get used by the offense. To me they seem like exactly the type of team you'd try to "make someone else beat us".

Granted as I say all this, now that Cleveland has its groove going, the passing & movement looks excellent, which will make it much harder to stop. This is why it's so critical to keep a team from grooving, as any opponent of the Golden State Warriors will tell you. The good news is though that even when Cleveland's team offense looks great, that doesn't mean it looks great in the half-court. If they can minimize fast break opportunities, and go hard on LeBron & Kyrie in the half court, to me the game is quite winnable for them.

With all due respect Doc, I think you're wrong about Lebron not being able to "flip the switch", so much as that's even a real thing that NBA players can do. I'd argue that since Lebron plays a more team oriented game than Jordan, his switch flipping would be less likely to show up in his individual numbers. So that has me looking at his team results, which show his teams winning series after going down many times, probably more than any star in NBA history:

Down 1-0 against the Bulls in 2011, down 2-1 to the 2012 Pacers, down 3-2 the 2012 Celtics, down 1-0 against the 2012 Thunder, down 1-0 to the 2013 Bulls, down 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 to the 2013 Spurs, down 1-0 to the 2014 Pacers, down 1-0 and 2-1 to the 2015 Bulls, and now down 3-1 to the Warriors and coming back to tie the series (even if they lose on Sunday, which is more likely than not, I think it's obvious he and the Cavs have played far better in this series with their backs against the wall)... Even in his first stint in Cleveland he trailed 2-0 against the Pistons before winning 4 straight. That's 9 times, 8 in the last 6 years, with a possible 10th pending the Warriors series.

There's a clear, established pattern here. Coming back from deficits where his team "had their backs against the wall" has happened too many times for it to be simple dumb luck.

[mikejames23]

it's tough when we're in a thread like this where we try to label precisely how much credit everyone deserves relative to each other, but the reality for me is that LeBron deserves every bit of credit for how good he's playing right now, but using that to erase what came before like it wasn't real doesn't remotely give us an accurate picture of what LeBron is as a player. We talk about how he can "do it all", and that's not really wrong, but the dude really does have important weaknesses that will continue to show up the rest of his career, and not just in the regular season.

Out of curiosity, what weaknesses specifically are you pointing to? When his jumper falls, he's out of the world. He was challenged to do that in 2013 and SA paid the price. I pointed out his rather average-below average turnover rate but he even fixed that (!) last game. This is about as good as it gets. Perhaps you want to take a stat based view, but even then he's consistently great in elimination games.

[GSP]

Finals' score tied 610-610 but every game has had a double-digit margin.

What to expect in Game 7?

I think theres a good chance it will be the only close game of the series.

This series has some parallels to the 2013 series. Multiple blowouts through 6 (tho game 4 in this series wasnt a blowout despite the final score). Lebron putting up a near triple double early on despite ppl saying he wasnt playing well due to his jumper. Then his jumper turns on later, like this one. Steph breaking Dannys 3pt record.

[JordansBulls]

The issue is that LeBron didn't kick into this mode simply because of the stakes. We've seen in the past that LeBron isn't someone who is capable of flipping that switch in the same way as Jordan or Shaq. He gets in his own head a lot more, which is why some of his worst moment have come with his back to the wall.

If I weight odds, then the odds of LeBron going nuts like he's done here simply based on it being the finals, etc, the odds are very low and absolutely not worth overwhelming the entire season leading up to that.

But, however he got here, LeBron appears to be here now, and that may well be what gives Cleveland its first championship since rock & roll was for teenagers, and that should be a really big deal.

Of course as I say all this, we all have to wait and see what happens in Game 7.

It's not like Kerr to make a major adjustment in Game 7, at least from what we've seen, but as I like to say: There's nothing hard about stopping LeBron or anyone else from scoring, you just have to commit enough man power to it and be okay with other openings. Right now Cleveland is winning largely as a 2-man show in a way that frankly Westbrook/Durant came nothing close to, and they're doing it with a 3rd offensive star who can't seem to get used by the offense. To me they seem like exactly the type of team you'd try to "make someone else beat us".

Granted as I say all this, now that Cleveland has its groove going, the passing & movement looks excellent, which will make it much harder to stop. This is why it's so critical to keep a team from grooving, as any opponent of the Golden State Warriors will tell you. The good news is though that even when Cleveland's team offense looks great, that doesn't mean it looks great in the half-court. If they can minimize fast break opportunities, and go hard on LeBron & Kyrie in the half court, to me the game is quite winnable for them.

With all due respect Doc, I think you're wrong about Lebron not being able to "flip the switch", so much as that's even a real thing that NBA players can do. I'd argue that since Lebron plays a more team oriented game than Jordan, his switch flipping would be less likely to show up in his individual numbers. So that has me looking at his team results, which show his teams winning series after going down many times, probably more than any star in NBA history:

Down 1-0 against the Bulls in 2011, down 2-1 to the 2012 Pacers, down 3-2 the 2012 Celtics, down 1-0 against the 2012 Thunder, down 1-0 to the 2013 Bulls, down 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 to the 2013 Spurs, down 1-0 to the 2014 Pacers, down 1-0 and 2-1 to the 2015 Bulls, and now down 3-1 to the Warriors and coming back to tie the series (even if they lose on Sunday, which is more likely than not, I think it's obvious he and the Cavs have played far better in this series with their backs against the wall)... Even in his first stint in Cleveland he trailed 2-0 against the Pistons before winning 4 straight. That's 9 times, 8 in the last 6 years, with a possible 10th pending the Warriors series.

There's a clear, established pattern here. Coming back from deficits where his team "had their backs against the wall" has happened too many times for it to be simple dumb luck.

Thing is is that Lebron despite all of his brilliance has been down every year of his career at least 3-2 in a series. Essentially always either having to come back from down in a series even years as the favorite and years he won the title. That is not a good pattern to follow. Hakeem was also in the same situation.

[PaulieWal]

The issue is that LeBron didn't kick into this mode simply because of the stakes. We've seen in the past that LeBron isn't someone who is capable of flipping that switch in the same way as Jordan or Shaq. He gets in his own head a lot more, which is why some of his worst moment have come with his back to the wall.

If I weight odds, then the odds of LeBron going nuts like he's done here simply based on it being the finals, etc, the odds are very low and absolutely not worth overwhelming the entire season leading up to that.

But, however he got here, LeBron appears to be here now, and that may well be what gives Cleveland its first championship since rock & roll was for teenagers, and that should be a really big deal.

Of course as I say all this, we all have to wait and see what happens in Game 7.

It's not like Kerr to make a major adjustment in Game 7, at least from what we've seen, but as I like to say: There's nothing hard about stopping LeBron or anyone else from scoring, you just have to commit enough man power to it and be okay with other openings. Right now Cleveland is winning largely as a 2-man show in a way that frankly Westbrook/Durant came nothing close to, and they're doing it with a 3rd offensive star who can't seem to get used by the offense. To me they seem like exactly the type of team you'd try to "make someone else beat us".

Granted as I say all this, now that Cleveland has its groove going, the passing & movement looks excellent, which will make it much harder to stop. This is why it's so critical to keep a team from grooving, as any opponent of the Golden State Warriors will tell you. The good news is though that even when Cleveland's team offense looks great, that doesn't mean it looks great in the half-court. If they can minimize fast break opportunities, and go hard on LeBron & Kyrie in the half court, to me the game is quite winnable for them.

With all due respect Doc, I think you're wrong about Lebron not being able to "flip the switch", so much as that's even a real thing that NBA players can do. I'd argue that since Lebron plays a more team oriented game than Jordan, his switch flipping would be less likely to show up in his individual numbers. So that has me looking at his team results, which show his teams winning series after going down many times, probably more than any star in NBA history:

Down 1-0 against the Bulls in 2011, down 2-1 to the 2012 Pacers, down 3-2 the 2012 Celtics, down 1-0 against the 2012 Thunder, down 1-0 to the 2013 Bulls, down 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 to the 2013 Spurs, down 1-0 to the 2014 Pacers, down 1-0 and 2-1 to the 2015 Bulls, and now down 3-1 to the Warriors and coming back to tie the series (even if they lose on Sunday, which is more likely than not, I think it's obvious he and the Cavs have played far better in this series with their backs against the wall)... Even in his first stint in Cleveland he trailed 2-0 against the Pistons before winning 4 straight. That's 9 times, 8 in the last 6 years, with a possible 10th pending the Warriors series.

There's a clear, established pattern here. Coming back from deficits where his team "had their backs against the wall" has happened too many times for it to be simple dumb luck.

Thing is is that Lebron despite all of his brilliance has been down every year of his career at least 3-2 in a series. Essentially always either having to come back from down in a series even years as the favorite and years he won the title. That is not a good pattern to follow. Hakeem was also in the same situation.

Without sounding too flippant that means nothing when you are evaluating players and their play on the court. But carry on....