The LeBron Thread 2021 Off-Season Edition

[Gooner]

Just compare this LeBron from the Cavs game earlier in the year to the LeBron we saw in this past series to see how much the ankle was affecting him. This game was on January 25th. He didn’t fall off a cliff in four months. It’s the ankle. It’s like watching two completely different players. He needs a long offseason to heal up.

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LeBron is human and he is ageing like everybody else, just accept it . Ankle injury is in the past, he recovered. He made some great shots for the highlight reel in the game 2 against the Suns too, but that doesn't make him young again. That grey beard is there, he is a veteran.

[Dupp]

Injuries were the biggest reason but roster construction was way worse than last year.

[MartinToVaught]

I really need the Nets to lose. The only thing that annoys me more than blind/irrational Lebron hate and Jordan/Kobe idolatry is the undeserved pedestal folks put KD on. He's not even better than Steph but people have convinced themselves he holds a candle to Lebron.

Never mind Steph - he's not better than Giannis, Jokic, Luka, Kawhi, Embiid, etc.

Durant has been on mega-stacked teams his entire career outside of his first two seasons, and he can't do anything without another MVP holding his hand. He's the ultimate frontrunner.

[Baski]

but how frustrating it must be to be a fan of AD.

Is anyone here actually a fan of AD? I mean where's AD own PC Board Thread?
Given his shenanigans with Klutch, how he shuns the spotlight in favor of LBJ, and how he quit on the Pelicans I doubt it. The vast majority are Laker fans or LeBron fans who don't care about AD.

He has fans for sure. But you have to count all Lakers fans in that group once LeBron retires.
In fairness to AD the lack of a PC board thread doesn't mean that much. LeBron is the only guy with an active thread from what I've seen. Once in a while there'll be a thread of another huge player like Curry or Harden who have many many fans, but they never sustain even 5% the volume of posts that the LeBron thread does. I personally haven't seen a KD thread before but we know he has a ton of fans.

A true AD fan would bring up that he's never missed a playoff game until this season and that he's played 75% of each season except this season and the Klutch infected "That's All Folks" season.

I think it's a good point, but even AD would admit that the injury-prone aspect of AD is very hard to ignore. Some of the never missing playoffs games is because a lot of those years there were no playoffs games for him to miss.
75% of games every season isn't exactly an ideal amount you'd want to have to depend on from your franchise centerpiece. The Raptors did it once, but they had the sort of perfect storm that you don't want to have to depend on as a contending franchise.

[PaulieWal]

Don't feed the trolls guys. This guy hasn't posted here in months to a year and comes out of his mother's basement after jerking it 4 times to LeBron's teams failures.

Remember, an ignore feature is on this forum for a reason.

Yeah, this is not acceptable, you can't attack another poster like that no matter what you think they are doing. Use the report function. You know this know by now - responding to trolling or baiting with baiting of your own is grounds for a warning.

[Joao Saraiva]

Maybe it's time to say losing Danny Green was big for the Lakers? His defense last year didn't get enough credit, and weather he is hitting jumpers or not, teams respect him as an outside threat.

I've also not followed Drummond much but man... I guess Pistons fans were right. Despite his rebounding numbers Drummond is a very bad player. His FG% arround the rim is legendary on bad terms, and his defense is worse than Gasol's. Drummond definitely shouldn't belong in Lakers' plans.

Any shooting they can get or playmaking they should move anything (picks, players) except AD and LeBron.

Is Lowry still out there for them to acquire? Raptors will be rebuilding anyway, I guess.

[homecourtloss]

It's like we all forgot that this team started 21-6 before the first AD injury. Then AD missed 31 games, LeBron 27, Gasol 20 and Schroder 11 and they went 21-24 in those games. But it was a disaster waiting to happen. Just 71 days rest between 2 seasons is just not done, especially if it is a season that technically lasted 360 days. The injuries were just a consequence of that. Because of that, other than an aging LeBron, I don't directly see roster problems. Could be better of course, but the long summer is going to do wonders for this hobbling team.

They could have used anther shooter, but I agree - if AD was hurt last year and Bron was less than a 100%, people would have been questioning that team's roster as well.

Before the injured, the team looked really confident and was playing at a high level when locked in. But sooner or later, the lack of shooting was going to hurt. A fully healthy James and AD probably could have helped them overcome poor shooting against all teams other than maybe the Nets.

Last night:

Wide open threes: Lakers 5/20, Suns 8/17
Open threes: Lakers 4/12, Suns 8/14
Total: Lakers 9/32, Suns 16/31

Series:

Wide open threes: Lakers 5.7/17.7, Suns 6.3/13.8
Open threes: Lakers 3.3/12.2, Suns 4.2/13.5
Total: Lakers 30.1%, Suns 38.5%

Pretty big gap to overcome if Lebron and AD aren’t going to be able to impose their will on a series. Their “best game” was a 12/35 in game 5 which was just LeBron in the third quarter in a game that was already lost. They didn’t have a single average shooting game in the entire series despite generating better looks in the series.

[Mazter]

71 days is a lot, look at the other sports, even European basketball and players participating in national team competitions. It's just the nature of the sport, injuries can happen to anyone.

Eurobasket is about 60-75 games max, a euro player barely cracks 1800 minutes. NBA is 75+ and 2500-3000 minutes just for the regular season. As a comparison, This past season lasted 145 days in which teams had to play 72 games. An European team plays this amount of games in a 250 day season. If the Lakers would have made it to the Finals they would have probably played 120+ games in less than a year's time. No NBA team has ever been there, that's about 50+ more games than any Euro team. You are comparing a watermelon with an apple here.

[thebigbird]

Tim Legler is supposed to be one of the rational analysts and even he’s full of ****. The Lakers were 21-6 before injuries took over.

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[MisterHibachi]

Tim Legler is supposed to be one of the rational analysts and even he’s full of ****. The Lakers were 21-6 before injuries took over.

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You don't get the number 1 defense in the league by slacking off. The Lakers played just as hard as any team during the season, just got **** by injuries.

[MisterHibachi]

https://sports.yahoo.com/anthony-davis-on-playing-in-game-6-loss-to-suns-i-dont-regret-anything-163338248.html

“I couldn’t move to my right,” Davis told Yahoo Sports after the Phoenix Suns eliminated them in six games. “That’s why I reacted that way [in the first quarter] when [Devin] Booker drove left and I had to slide to my right. That s*** hurt. There was nothing I could do, but I just wanted to be out there for my team so bad."

Some encouraging news:

“I’m not worried about anything,” James told Yahoo Sports. “I just need rest. I was told that from the beginning. I gave what I had.”

And a vital member of the coaching staff could likely depart this offseason.

The Lakers front office has raved about assistant coach Jason Kidd, expressing how he’s been a phenomenal presence in the organization from his innovative ideas to his communicating skills and to his ability to rally the troops, sources said.

Kidd — who was previously a head coach in Brooklyn and Milwaukee — is expected to interview for the Boston Celtics head coach opening and is expected to be a top target of the Portland Trail Blazers with the anticipation that Terry Stotts will be relieved of his duties after nine seasons with the team, sources said.

Tbh, not sure how Stotts is as an offensive coach, but Lakers desperately need to bring in an offensive coordinator because this season was ugly.

[Mazter]

https://sports.yahoo.com/anthony-davis-on-playing-in-game-6-loss-to-suns-i-dont-regret-anything-163338248.html

“I couldn’t move to my right,” Davis told Yahoo Sports after the Phoenix Suns eliminated them in six games. “That’s why I reacted that way [in the first quarter] when [Devin] Booker drove left and I had to slide to my right. That s*** hurt. There was nothing I could do, but I just wanted to be out there for my team so bad."

For me playing Davis was the biggest mistake. It's better to have a plan A without Davis than focusing on a plan A with him and have to switch to plan B after 5 minutes because he shouldn't have played in the first place.

Tim Legler is supposed to be one of the rational analysts and even he’s full of ****. The Lakers were 21-6 before injuries took over.

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These guys have to jump from one item to another. They probably don't have enough time to do some decent research before they tweet or post something.

[LukaTheGOAT]

Despite the less than ideal outcome, Lebron finishes the PS 3rd in RAPTOR WAR and 5th in RAPTOR +/-
LBJ
WAR-1.9
RAPTOR-13.5
BPM-9.2
Backpicks BPM-4.2

Compared to his opponents

D. Book
WAR-0.6
RAPTOR-1.9
BPM-3.6
Backpicks BPM-2.8

CP3
WAR-0.4
RAPTOR-1.3
BPM-(-0.4)
BackPicks BPM-1.4

*Backpicks BPM has not been updated to include the 6th game.

Plus-minus is generally really high on LBJ, and things he lifted the Lakers pretty heavily, despite he himself not looking amazing. Interested to see how things look going forward.

[GSP]

An underrated part of what the Lakers need to improve is getting a wing defender. Their defense will be great with Vogel but now in 2 playoffs

Harden 29/7/5 on .664ts
Murray 25/7/4 on .631ts
Jimmy 26/10/8 on .658ts
Booker 30/6/5 on .626ts

in retrospect the idea they could beat Brooklyn was a pipe dream. Harden alone was a nightmare for them for 4 games and they only safely won game 4 and 5. First 3 games were incredibly tough for La. Russ was horrible that series and if House didnt get suspended Rockets mightve took 2 games. Now Harden is playing with Kd and Kyrie an the one thing their defense is decent at in switching is tough on Las offense specially if Ad isnt hitting jumpers

[cpower]

Despite the less than ideal outcome, Lebron finishes the PS 3rd in RAPTOR WAR and 5th in RAPTOR +/-
LBJ
WAR-1.9
RAPTOR-13.5
BPM-9.2
Backpicks BPM-4.2

Compared to his opponents

D. Book
WAR-0.6
RAPTOR-1.9
BPM-3.6
Backpicks BPM-2.8

CP3
WAR-0.4
RAPTOR-1.3
BPM-(-0.4)
BackPicks BPM-1.4

*Backpicks BPM has not been updated to include the 6th game.

Plus-minus is generally really high on LBJ, and things he lifted the Lakers pretty heavily, despite he himself not looking amazing. Interested to see how things look going forward.

he is also shooting 56%TS and plays zero defense. he might have a little better impact than Booker and injuried CP3, it does not mean anything. I am interested to see where Lebron sits next season among all the stars in the league, he might not make top 10.

[homecourtloss]

Despite the less than ideal outcome, Lebron finishes the PS 3rd in RAPTOR WAR and 5th in RAPTOR +/-
LBJ
WAR-1.9
RAPTOR-13.5
BPM-9.2
Backpicks BPM-4.2

Compared to his opponents

D. Book
WAR-0.6
RAPTOR-1.9
BPM-3.6
Backpicks BPM-2.8

CP3
WAR-0.4
RAPTOR-1.3
BPM-(-0.4)
BackPicks BPM-1.4

*Backpicks BPM has not been updated to include the 6th game.

Plus-minus is generally really high on LBJ, and things he lifted the Lakers pretty heavily, despite he himself not looking amazing. Interested to see how things look going forward.

Diminished older injured James still was impactful and had a few wide open jumpers fallen in game 1, 4, even last night, the series looks different.

Lakers were -35.5 per 100 possessions with Bron off court

[nzahir]

An underrated part of what the Lakers need to improve is getting a wing defender. Their defense will be great with Vogel but now in 2 playoffs

Harden 29/7/5 on .664ts
Murray 25/7/4 on .631ts
Jimmy 26/10/8 on .658ts
Booker 30/6/5 on .626ts

in retrospect the idea they could beat Brooklyn was a pipe dream. Harden alone was a nightmare for them for 4 games and they only safely won game 4 and 5. First 3 games were incredibly tough for La. Russ was horrible that series and if House didnt get suspended Rockets mightve took 2 games. Now Harden is playing with Kd and Kyrie an the one thing their defense is decent at in switching is tough on Las offense specially if Ad isnt hitting jumpers

Any thoughts on who?

FA: Gay, Batum, OPJ (unrealistic I think but who knows, lot of injury issues)

Trades:
Lu Dort? Don’t see why okc moves him though
Barnes?

[Mos_Heat]

Yeah, that's kinda the problem. They need shooting, wing defense and shot creation. A lot of holes and not a lot of resources

[nzahir]

Yeah, that's kinda the problem. They need shooting, wing defense and shot creation. A lot of holes and not a lot of resources

It’s not impossible though

I think a guy like Kemba or Buddy helps fix shot creation and shooting. Kemba shouldn’t be too tough to get

I listed some decent wing defenders above that are reasonable

Imagine if we could do Dennis and Kuz/Kcp for Kemba
Kcp or Kuz, 1st, 2nds, Alfonzo for Barnes
Re sign AC, THT, Ben for the min
Let Drummond walk
Trez: Not sure if he walks, maybe sigh and trade or opts in

If we can’t get a better stretch 4 than Kieff bring him back for the min

Kemba, Mle for a guard (Batum?), Lebron, AD, Gasol
AC, Ben/THT, Barnes, Trez/vet min lob threat

THT sign and trade maybe?

We have a lot of moves we can make

[JVL]

Yeah, that's kinda the problem. They need shooting, wing defense and shot creation. A lot of holes and not a lot of resources

And positions pretty much all teams are trying to find personnel for.