The LeBron James - 21-22 Regular Season Thread - New Thread Soon Part 2

nzahir · Post #561 » by **nzahir** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 5:27 am

Need to see how we look with Nunn, THT, and Ariza

If the defense is not even avg, need to see some trades

Post #562 » by **Slava** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 11:42 am

Imagine this team with Chicago's guard rotation of Ball/Caruso.

Mos_Heat · Post #563 » by **Mos_Heat** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 11:51 am

Davis and James are playing very lazy defense

NRSV · Post #564 » by **NRSV** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 1:37 pm

LeBron is very dependent on using that off hand to push off and create space now. He may not get the calls at the rim, but he certainly gets a lot of leniency in that regard.

JLei · Post #565 » by **JLei** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 2:15 pm

Russ's offensive rebounding yesterday was very exciting to see. That's a piece of off ball value he can unlock and do something while he is clogging up the spacing for AD and Bron. If you are going to make the shots harder for them you can help by getting the offensive rebound.

And him recognizing that gap he is slipping in for the offensive boards a few seconds earlier is a cut for a dunk/ layup which Bron will find him. There's steps in Russ being able to fit with these guys and that's exciting to see.

They will need to adjust a bit on transition defense and send the wings back early (killed them a bit yesterday) but it's not like Russ is amazing at transition defense. He has more value crashing the glass and cutting IMO.

This team still has a lot to figure out and will take a while especially as they get people back. Seeing steps of where they could eventually be is what you are hoping for in these games. The play will be extremely uneven (will look great and look **** in the same quarter) for a while.

MartyConlonOnTheRun · Post #566 » by **MartyConlonOnTheRun** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 2:37 pm

Fadeaway_J wrote:This is supposed to be the easy part of the schedule...

If you would've told me two years ago LBJ would still be this good, I wouldn't think there was any they wouldn't be clear favorites. I dont know what I would've done, but to have him and AD locked up but not to get any better on the rest of the roster is a failure.

Post #567 » by **Fadeaway_J** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 2:49 pm

donnieme wrote:All these games have actually contained good to great offensive showings but when lottery teams can hang 120 on you every night no win is comfortable. Before the Nets tweaked their D (no help from DJ's useless corpse) they gave 140 to the Wizards and 120 to the Cavs. Their stars were even playing at an MVP level but they could never win comfortably.

Bad defense shows up on 100% of the possessions, good offense shows up less than half the time depending on how efficient you shoot. It only counts when you make the shot. You need both to raise your floor and ceiling. If the problems persist after Ariza and THT return I'd substantially rework the cast around Lebron, AD, Westbrook and Carmelo.

Hard to do that with a roster full of minimums...

Mazter · Post #568 » by **Mazter** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 2:53 pm

So the guy is turning 37 next month and here we are dissecting his game like he still has to get better, like he still has anything to prove to anyone. AD is the one who has to grow the hell up and start proving he is capable of taking Lakers leadership over when LeBron retires.

Personally I'm more interested now in his longevity achievments:
Steadily on pace now to overtake Karl before the end of this season in the points department. Kareem could be next in 22/23.
Will probably reach a triple quintuple (or whatever name you want to give it) this season.
He might break Malone's record for scoring average at 37+.

LukaTheGOAT · Post #569 » by **LukaTheGOAT** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 5:16 pm

Mazter wrote:So the guy is turning 37 next month and here we are dissecting his game like he still has to get better, like he still has anything to prove to anyone. AD is the one who has to grow the hell up and start proving he is capable of taking Lakers leadership over when LeBron retires.

Personally I'm more interested now in his longevity achievments:
Steadily on pace now to overtake Karl before the end of this season in the points department. Kareem could be next in 22/23.
Will probably reach a triple quintuple (or whatever name you want to give it) this season.
He might break Malone's record for scoring average at 37+.

You aren't necessarily wrong but I believe some people still have hopes for another title. I think if there was no such thing as a MJ, people might not care as much about more titles, because then it would be easy to say "LBJ has the most Finals MVPs ever." But there seems to have been increased importance placed on titles with MJ...furthermore, LBJ said he is hungry to win again at the highest levels as well.

falcolombardi · Post #570 » by **falcolombardi** » Wed Nov 3, 2021 5:34 pm

LukaTheGOAT wrote:
Mazter wrote:So the guy is turning 37 next month and here we are dissecting his game like he still has to get better, like he still has anything to prove to anyone. AD is the one who has to grow the hell up and start proving he is capable of taking Lakers leadership over when LeBron retires.

Personally I'm more interested now in his longevity achievments:
Steadily on pace now to overtake Karl before the end of this season in the points department. Kareem could be next in 22/23.
Will probably reach a triple quintuple (or whatever name you want to give it) this season.
He might break Malone's record for scoring average at 37+.

You aren't necessarily wrong but I believe some people still have hopes for another title. I think if there was no such thing as a MJ, people might not care as much about more titles, because then it would be easy to say "LBJ has the most Finals MVPs ever." But there seems to have been increased importance placed on titles with MJ...furthermore, LBJ said he is hungry to win again at the highest levels as well.

honestly i think the people who prefer jordan over rings wouldnt change even if lakers won the the next 2 rings with lebron getting fmvp in both

most people who use rings arguments or team loyalty arguments or "no superteam" argument actually dont prefer players strictly because of those thinghs, they just happen to be thinghs their favorite player has in their side

if lebron got to 6 rings the argument would shift yoward "he did it by handpicking/"colluding" for superteams, or "jordan did it in much less time and could have has 8or 9 if not for how retiremenrs" or "nobody else won when jordan was at his prime"

MisterHibachi · Post #571 » by **MisterHibachi** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 6:36 pm

Read on Twitter

Mos_Heat · Post #572 » by **Mos_Heat** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 6:55 pm

Seems like he's never been the same after that ankle injury

nzahir · Post #573 » by **nzahir** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 7:17 pm

Mos_Heat wrote:Seems like he's never been the same after that ankle injury

Really feels like last year was his best shot at the mvp.....sigh

I don't want him to push it; this is why we got Russ

I hate our wing depth rn, really need to sign a 3/4

Looks like Dwight and even Ellington should be in tonight

ZERO EXCUSES TO LOSE TONIGHT

falcolombardi · Post #574 » by **falcolombardi** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 7:20 pm

nzahir wrote:
Mos_Heat wrote:Seems like he's never been the same after that ankle injury

Really feels like last year was his best shot at the mvp.....sigh

I don't want him to push it; this is why we got Russ

I hate our wing depth rn, really need to sign a 3/4

Looks like Dwight and even Ellington should be in tonight

ZERO EXCUSES TO LOSE TONIGHT

2020* of giannis didnt have a historical regular season or the bucks didnt win so many games it would have gone to lebron

that season compared to 98 jordan. is one of my go to examples of how arbitrary accolades are, for almost all intenta and purposes it probably was a superior season to jordan at the same age but one won the mvp and the other didnt (also because the late 90's were a relatively weaker era imo*)

same as jordan 88 dpoy and the probably superior 2nd dpoy place lebron seasons in 2009 or 2013, one is used in goat arguments and the other is not

Mos_Heat · Post #575 » by **Mos_Heat** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 7:30 pm

So he's gonna miss around 5 games, not sure this team will have a positive record in a week

MisterHibachi · Post #576 » by **MisterHibachi** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 7:32 pm

Mos_Heat wrote:Seems like he's never been the same after that ankle injury

Yeah, his mortality is starting to show.

MisterHibachi · Post #577 » by **MisterHibachi** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 7:38 pm

Mos_Heat wrote:So he's gonna miss around 5 games, not sure this team will have a positive record in a week

I would still favor them tonight, maybe against the Blazers as well, but definitely not against the Hornets and Heat. Best case scenario they go 2-2 over the next week. They could win against the Wolves without him too, but hopefully he's back by then.

toodles23 · Post #578 » by **toodles23** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 7:40 pm

MisterHibachi wrote:

Read on Twitter

I'm starting to wonder if we're on the precipice of a steep decline from Lebron. Not only is he picking up a lot of injuries but the recovery time seems much longer than it used to be.

Post #579 » by **zimpy27** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 7:40 pm

Mos_Heat · Post #580 » by **Mos_Heat** » Thu Nov 4, 2021 8:09 pm

MisterHibachi wrote:
Mos_Heat wrote:So he's gonna miss around 5 games, not sure this team will have a positive record in a week

I would still favor them tonight, maybe against the Blazers as well, but definitely not against the Hornets and Heat. Best case scenario they go 2-2 over the next week. They could win against the Wolves without him too, but hopefully he's back by then.

Sound like he's gonna miss around 10 games