The Lebron Thread | 2021 & Offseason

[SideshowBob]

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[MisterHibachi]

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Eh.. What do you think of Gallo's defense? Personally, i'm not that big of a fan of it...

I'm kind of worried that Gallo becomes a glorified spot-up shooter if the Lakers get him, because i'm not a big fan of his game outside of that aspect.

Houston threw the smallball at him and he looked fairly pedestrian out there because he's slow and not a good passer. Though playing with Steven Adams and Dort will also do that for you... With AD and LeBron he has much more space to find his spots.

When you consider all of this you ask yourself why not just roll with Kuzma... Similar type of player, but probably better defensively already. You just gamble that he's able to make a step forward offensively as well.

I think his offense would out weigh most of his defensive issues. Kuz is a good defender now, so I won't say Gallo can match him there but the better comparison is versus Kieff I think. Gallo is a much better shooter and maybe that not worse of a defender. But Kieff is super cheap. So idk.

I would prefer Jerami Grant I think, but Gallo's shooting has real gravity and none of those other 3 guys bring the same effect. That kind of shooting can be transformational next to LeBron and AD.

In any case, Lakers should focus on trying to get a CP trade done over everything else before free agency opens.

[Heej]

So I don't really care if athletes are on PEDs, but I've always been skeptical of the LeBron PED claims for a few reasons.

- LeBron has routinely passed Olympic and other international tests since 2004
- LeBron was one of the most athletic high schoolers ever and has taken meticulous care of his body ever since. Just based on that information it's not surprising that age 35 LeBron ended up as maybe the most athletic 35 year old ever
- Just looking at LeBron's body, even at his Miami weight peak, there's really no signs of steroid use. Just ideal genetics.
- LeBron is aware of the effect a positive test would have on his legacy

I don't think any of these alone are silver bullet arguments, but taken together you can see why it's reasonable for LeBron to be the athlete he is at his age without the help of banned substances and why he feels a positive test and this point would outweigh the benefits

But man, when I look into the details of LeBron's 1 month return from tearing his groin, it seems so much more insane than Ray Lewis coming back in 3 months from a torn triceps. Lewis was 37 at the time of the injury, but he was also a shell of himself when he returned and Lewis was proven to be using IGF-1 to aid his recovery

It really should have been a six month season ending injury for LeBron. And LeBron was actually good when he came back, he wasn't 100%, but the team was losing because of coaching, other injuries, and a general lack of talent.

The Olympics are notoriously corrupt when it comes to PED testing. I wouldn't take that with any kind of weight tbh. You can look up doping scandals and come up with several results. And as for PED signs, I'd say the acromegaly in his jawline that we saw with him and Wade are a major indicator and hair loss also comes with PED use. There's probably other stuff that experienced users can spot but I can't eyeball

And damnn lmao didn't the last thread start around Finals time? We blew through that thread

[dynamic duo]

[PistolPeteJR]

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Eh.. What do you think of Gallo's defense? Personally, i'm not that big of a fan of it...

I'm kind of worried that Gallo becomes a glorified spot-up shooter if the Lakers get him, because i'm not a big fan of his game outside of that aspect.

Houston threw the smallball at him and he looked fairly pedestrian out there because he's slow and not a good passer. Though playing with Steven Adams and Dort will also do that for you... With AD and LeBron he has much more space to find his spots.

When you consider all of this you ask yourself why not just roll with Kuzma... Similar type of player, but probably better defensively already. You just gamble that he's able to make a step forward offensively as well.

Having Gallo come off the bench and play a sixth-man scoring role on this team would be really, really good.

[JulesWinnfield]

I don’t know if they can make it work financially with Gallinari but that would be sweet. He’s not only a dead eye shooter which is sorely needed, but he can get his own shot which is something that’s totally lacking on the perimeter outside of Lebron. He’s a legit 6’10”, the Lakers could throw lineups out there where their length just engulfs teams. He’s not the greatest individual defender but he’s not a total liability and with Vogel and AD the Lakers are destined to be a top echelon defense for a while. He’s obviously a good fit offensively with Lebron given his ability to space the floor, but I think he works very well with AD too. He’s a clearly better version of Mirotić who played the best ball of his NBA career in the short time with AD in New Orleans.

[limbo]

Didn't the Bucks DNP Mirotic in the 2019 Playoffs because he was getting skinned on defense?

[JulesWinnfield]

Didn't the Bucks DNP Mirotic in the 2019 Playoffs because he was getting skinned on defense?

I honestly don’t recall, but in either case I don’t see how that’s relevant. Gallo and Mirotić are different players. I’m just saying Mirotić has some poor mans similairites to him and worked exceedingly well on offense with AD in New Orleans, lit the blazers up in the playoffs too averaging 18 on 71% TS on their way to winning the only round Davis won there

[limbo]

Didn't the Bucks DNP Mirotic in the 2019 Playoffs because he was getting skinned on defense?

I honestly don’t recall, but in either case I don’t see how that’s relevant. Gallo and Mirotić are different players. I’m just saying Mirotić has some poor mans similairites to him and worked exceedingly well on offense with AD in New Orleans, lit the blazers up in the playoffs too averaging 18 on 71% TS on their way to winning the only round Davis won there

It's relevant because i fear Gallo could become too much of a defensive liability against certain matchups/teams, exactly like Mirotic did...

Offensively Gallo is good. But if your defense is getting exploited hard because your PF/SF is too slow to rotate and contain quick guys on switches then he's giving back on one side a lot of what he's getting you on the other... In that case his overall value is not that much better than Kuzma/Morris who will give you 15-18 points on offense but won't leave the defense as vulnerable on every possession.

[JulesWinnfield]

Didn't the Bucks DNP Mirotic in the 2019 Playoffs because he was getting skinned on defense?

I honestly don’t recall, but in either case I don’t see how that’s relevant. Gallo and Mirotić are different players. I’m just saying Mirotić has some poor mans similairites to him and worked exceedingly well on offense with AD in New Orleans, lit the blazers up in the playoffs too averaging 18 on 71% TS on their way to winning the only round Davis won there

It's relevant because i fear Gallo could become too much of a defensive liability against certain matchups/teams, exactly like Mirotic did...

Offensively Gallo is good. But if your defense is getting exploited hard because your PF/SF is too slow to rotate and contain quick guys on switches then he's giving back on one side a lot of what he's getting you on the other... In that case his overall value is not that much better than Kuzma/Morris who will give you 15-18 points on offense but won't leave the defense as vulnerable on every possession.

I don’t dismiss those concerns out of hand but I don’t see Gallo as a total liability either. I have confidence that between Vogels game planning and the Lakers rim protection they’re going to field a top tier defense by hook or by crook. When I look at this team right now their clear weakness (or more appropriately their weaker aspect) is the offense. They weren’t a top 10 offense this year. They had a worse offense statistically than literally every single team they played in this playoff run. They were fortunate to not run up against a defense that could make them pay for that, because in an alternate universe I could have seen a better defense bogging things down for them and really changing the complexion of the offseason conversation

[limbo]

I don’t dismiss those concerns out of hand but I don’t see Gallo as a total liability either. I have confidence that between Vogels game planning and the Lakers rim protection they’re going to field a top tier defense by hook or by crook. When I look at this team right now their clear weakness (or more appropriately their weaker aspect) is the offense. They weren’t a top 10 offense this year. They had a worse offense statistically than literally every single team they played in this playoff run. They were fortunate to not run up against a defense that could make them pay for that, because in an alternate universe I could have seen a better defense bogging things down for them and really changing the complexion of the offseason conversation

Fair enough. Although i will finish by saying OKC were actually a very good defensive team last season and Gallo's shortcomings on that end were still eye-piercing when i was watching him defend against Houston in the Playoffs... And this was Houston with no Westbrook (though when it's the bad version of Westbrook you're getting, it's better this way) and a crappy Eric Gordon while Harden was being defended by the best Harden defender in the league... Harden + quick players than can shoot gave Gallo the heebie-jeebies... And the Lakers will probably have to defend multiple of Houston, Dallas, Portland, Denver and Golden State in the Playoffs again. Lakers should be able to 'out-talent' any of them in a series, but i would not be surprised if some of those gave Lakers some problems if they indeed get Gallo and decide to feature him heavily.

[SideshowBob]

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[xb3at band1tx]

Guys in this year's FA that LA can realistically get are gonna be flawed one way or another.

If you can get Gallo for cheap, that would be a huge win even though he's not a good defender.

Lakers are champs for a reason, but it doesn't hurt to make the offense a bit better.

[nzahir]

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Starting to lose more and more respect for Coach Nick, who isn't as smart as he thinks honestly

Why does he dislike Lebron so much? Is he a huge MJ stan?

[therealbig3]

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He's a Warriors fan right?

[Dupp]

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Starting to lose more and more respect for Coach Nick, who isn't as smart as he thinks honestly

Why does he dislike Lebron so much? Is he a huge MJ stan?

Warrior fan. He’s a ****.

[limbo]

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LOL, i don't know why this cracked me up so much

[SHAQ32]

4 teams in 10 years

[KTM_2813]

Over LeBron's last four postseasons (2016-18, 2020) his advanced metrics are a complete joke:

82 games
30.7 PER
62.4% TS
40.0% AST
14.1% TOV
18.4 WS
.271 WS/48
11.1 BPM
10.8 VORP

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01.html#2016-2020-sum:playoffs_advanced

[Heej]

Coach Nick is a big MJ fan that grew up a Bulls fan. His LeBron bias is crazy. It's super evident in his post-game reactions when he's talking with fans, and it seems his channel is a cesspool where a lot of LeBron-haters congregated and commiserated over LeBron winning. Even his responses were just him being sad that LeBron did well.

That dude's helped my bball IQ a little bit (the free FIBA coaching videos is honestly where I'd say 85% of my capacity to break down possessions comes from tho) I gotta give him credit for that; but he's also kind of a joke because he's had controversies about him being super racist as a coach and unsuccessful at the high school level lol.