The LeBron Thread 2021 Off-Season Edition

[Cavsfansince84]

Someone start the regular season LeBron thread already.

[TroubleS0me]

Someone start the regular season LeBron thread already.

sure

[Greyhound]

I would be ecstatic if the Lakers could pull off a Westbrook for Simmons deal.

Fit wise, I think it would benefit both teams.

But it will never happen.

[thebigbird]

Y’all are blaming Pelinka, but equal blame should be put on Bron and maybe AD as well. There’s no way this roster gets put together without their blessing.

I mean, that's 100% on Lebron and AD. Basically LAL had Hield route and Westbrook routeб and Lebron/AD chose Westbrook. Pelinka just overpaid in the trade like he usually does

I don’t care what the reports say. I’ll never believe that LeBron wanted Westbrook. LeBron is a very smart basketball mind. Their games don’t mesh well. Hield is a perfect LeBron ball player. Great from 3 and loves jacking up shots. I’ll always believe AD wanted Westbrook and LeBron agreed to keep him happy. It’s the same reason why they’ve trotted out a useless center next to AD for the past three seasons. Do you think LeBron really likes not having spacing?

[trickshot]

Look at Caruso diving after loose balls in the bulls game while the Lakers overhyped guys can't even jog to an open shooter in the corner. Bulls need to chill on letting him run offense though. Making defensive play after play,

[GSP]

Wizards made out like bandits getting Kuz, Kcp and Trez for Westbrick

They have a decent team. Gafford is a good athletic young center

[homecourtloss]

Wizards made out like bandits getting Kuz, Kcp and Trez for Westbrick

They have a decent team. Gafford is a good athletic young center

Kuzma would be the third best player on this Lakers team. So would KCP. Iggy looked like he would be the Lakers’ third best player last night.

Westbrook might figure things out a bit, Nunn might be decent, Bazemore is decent. No hood for anyone else. The ceiling is other than in games in Which Russ is making threes (the two or three times it happens a year).

[jalengreen]

God, I loved that 2020 Lakers squad. Some great contributions from Caruso and KCP especially. Team's gonna miss them for sure

[McBubbles]

It’s only one game. Shipping out THT is basically admitting that you don’t believe in any young players and you don’t believe in contending post-LeBron.

Getting healthy is the MO of the season. Everything else including Russ will fix itself until then

Yup. The literal second Lonzo and Ingram were traded and AD arrived any sort of post-Lebron money pinching or general conservatism should have been blasted out the window for 10000% win now moves. AD is injury prone AF and not "that dude" so rebuilding around him after LeBron retires wouldn't make sense.

It's not like you're Utah, you're LA. As much talk as there is about traditional media barriers being broken down players still like the prestige and lifestyle of LA, and as such will go there even when it's ****. It doesn't take much to rebuild the Lakers.

My angry tone isn't directed at you btw lol, just the Lakers management.

[McBubbles]

Y’all are blaming Pelinka, but equal blame should be put on Bron and maybe AD as well. There’s no way this roster gets put together without their blessing.

I mean, that's 100% on Lebron and AD. Basically LAL had Hield route and Westbrook routeб and Lebron/AD chose Westbrook. Pelinka just overpaid in the trade like he usually does

I don’t care what the reports say. I’ll never believe that LeBron wanted Westbrook. LeBron is a very smart basketball mind. Their games don’t mesh well. Hield is a perfect LeBron ball player. Great from 3 and loves jacking up shots. I’ll always believe AD wanted Westbrook and LeBron agreed to keep him happy. It’s the same reason why they’ve trotted out a useless center next to AD for the past three seasons. Do you think LeBron really likes not having spacing?

After hearing some of the (Please Use More Appropriate Word) decisions that player GM's make, I do actually believe it. Magic Johnson, arguably the best offensive player of all time in 2019 elected to just forego 3 point shooting because to paraphrase "The Warriors are the best 3 point shooting team ever, so there's no point trying to beat them with shooting". That's like deciding to run on one leg in a race with Usain Bolt because "he's the best ever at running on two legs, so there's no point trying to beat him with that strategy". Phucking what m8? The objectively good strategy that's been proven to work? Jfc.

He, again, not only arguably the best offensive player of all time but a heliocentric star to boot, thought that putting like 4 ball dominant playmakers on the 2019 Lakers would = really good team playmaking and team offence, cuz the more the merrier, not realising how overlap and redundancy works.

Players, especially the most talented ones who don't need to consider fundamentals because they're already so gifted, know little to nothing about basketball as soon as they step off the court. ESPN and casuals frothing at the mouth to claim X point guard will actually be a great coach or GM when they retire because of their basketball IQ despite EXTREME evidence to the contrary annoys me to know end. They're like flat earthers, no amount of new evidence will change their mind.

It's not even an argument from authority fallacy, because players authority isn't KNOWING basketball, it's PLAYING basketball, yet it's just accepted that if a smart player says something it's gospel. But yeah, sorry for the rant. That's all to say that I actually do believe that LeBron, like other greats before him, could do something really **** stupid instead of something obviously smart.

[trickshot]

Lakers couldn't have asked for a worse 2 game starting schedule. Good passing teams like Warriors and Suns are a matchup nightmare. Most of the new acquisitions are plagued with poor awareness and a low motor. If Bradley and Bazemore don't get 20 minutes each against phoenix I can see the game getting out of hand.

The media meltdown from starting the season 0-2 would be really really ugly. If they thought things were bad after game one they would hate being alive after losing game 2. That's the thing with Lebron teams, they are so extensively covered the gap between two games feels like an entire month of losing. Been pretty critical of Westbrook but from a human angle he's going to have to stay strong while he figures it out.