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

IG2 · Post #2841 » by **IG2** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 6:01 am

Fugly night for LeBron until he forced some drives in the half-court and finally got some layups. Don't think he makes those 2 late 3's had he not gotten some easy ones prior to that. It's great that he's so confident in the long ball, but it's still not who he is. He needs to look to drive more, no matter how slow he is.

Ballerhogger · Post #2842 » by **Ballerhogger** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 6:14 am

Lebron had great game at the end with monk

Mos_Heat · Post #2843 » by **Mos_Heat** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 6:16 am

Ariza looks cooked. Still early, though

Ballerhogger · Post #2844 » by **Ballerhogger** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 6:27 am

Mos_Heat wrote:Ariza looks cooked. Still early, though

He’s hit few threes but kinda getting back into shape

TroubleS0me · Post #2845 » by **TroubleS0me** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 6:53 am

Read on Twitter

nzahir · Post #2846 » by **nzahir** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 6:56 am

So is Monk earning a playoff rotation spot for you guys? And do you trust him to start or do we need an upgrade at sg

THT played well tonight, hoping he can up his value and we can move him

Currently think I would play:

Russ, Monk, Ariza, Lebron, AD
Nunn, Reaves, Melo, Dwight

Avery/THT next up

Cavsfansince84 · Post #2847 » by **Cavsfansince84** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 6:58 am

falcolombardi wrote:low key i am starting to think lebron is actually going to win scoring title

even his bad games are ending like 30~ points nights, although is bad for lakers chances od, well, doing anythingh in playoffs (championships look impossible) that they need 30 points lebron to even stay afloat

Without AD though that's to be expected. Its not like they have role players they can expect to get hot from 3 and put up 25 on a random night. LeBron scoring 30-35 is good because it means he is involved and taking his shots while being somewhat efficient. Not like he's out there going 13-33 to get his 30 lately.

dcstanley · Post #2848 » by **dcstanley** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 7:15 am

Mos_Heat wrote:Ariza looks cooked. Still early, though

Stanley Johnson, who was out of the league before COVID ransacked the league, is their best wing defender. His absence was noticeable tonight.

dcstanley · Post #2849 » by **dcstanley** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 7:19 am

nzahir wrote:So is Monk earning a playoff rotation spot for you guys? And do you trust him to start or do we need an upgrade at sg

THT played well tonight, hoping he can up his value and we can move him

Currently think I would play:

Russ, Monk, Ariza, Lebron, AD
Nunn, Reaves, Melo, Dwight

Avery/THT next up

If they could move THT and get a real wing, sure. Monk might be able to hold up if surrounded by Lebron, AD, and a third quality defender.

The optimal lineup would probably be:
Monk
THT replacement
Ariza or Stanley
Lebron
AD

But Russ has to start, of course.

Post #2850 » by **zimpy27** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 7:29 am

LeBron after last game "Hey Russ, you were saying that TOs are an acceptable part of the game you play, have you ever thought of focusing on controlling them?"

"I guess I could try."

Post #2851 » by **zimpy27** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 8:57 am

nzahir wrote:So is Monk earning a playoff rotation spot for you guys? And do you trust him to start or do we need an upgrade at sg

THT played well tonight, hoping he can up his value and we can move him

Currently think I would play:

Russ, Monk, Ariza, Lebron, AD
Nunn, Reaves, Melo, Dwight

Avery/THT next up

Ideally, they need someone more reliable at the SF to start. Unless Howard starts.

Based on VORP, the only guys in positive numbers are Westbrook, Monk, Ariza, LeBron, Davis -- Melo, Howard
Revaes is close, Nunn is coming back and Bradley is a good fill in. It really just needs THT+Bazemore to be traded for a backup or starting SF.

RoCo would be a nice add if Blazers go for a mini rebuild.

Post #2852 » by **Slava** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 9:09 am

zimpy27 wrote:
nzahir wrote:So is Monk earning a playoff rotation spot for you guys? And do you trust him to start or do we need an upgrade at sg

THT played well tonight, hoping he can up his value and we can move him

Currently think I would play:

Russ, Monk, Ariza, Lebron, AD
Nunn, Reaves, Melo, Dwight

Avery/THT next up

Ideally, they need someone more reliable at the SF to start. Unless Howard starts.

Based on VORP, the only guys in positive numbers are Westbrook, Monk, Ariza, LeBron, Davis -- Melo, Howard
Revaes is close, Nunn is coming back and Bradley is a good fill in. It really just needs THT+Bazemore to be traded for a backup or starting SF.

RoCo would be a nice add if Blazers go for a mini rebuild.

I don't think Covington is even an upgrade on Bazemore, let alone THT. It'd be nice to have someone that's at least reliable and in the middle of their productive years with the only trade piece left.

Post #2853 » by **Slava** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 9:12 am

McBubbles wrote:
Todeasy wrote:
Slava wrote:
Do you expect the offense to ever get to top 6 or so from near bottom 5 levels that is required to win a championship with Westbrook getting 38 minutes a game? Lakers managed to get to middle of the pack in offensive efficiency in 2020 on the back of an elite transition offense and then built a half court offense on the back of out of character shooting from role players in the playoffs. It also helped that the defense was historically great by nailing every rotation on every possession in a maniacally methodical way. That surely isn't possible with Westbrook and his attention deficiency, so what we see now is about as good as we can hope for at that end.

I don't think a lot of the issues Westbrook faces are compatible with how LeBron and Vogel operate. His free-wheeling nature, lack of attention to detail and inability to focus on every possession is strictly contrary to the level of preparation and execution that Vogel and LeBron seek in the playoffs. Its rather funny because that is the reason why LeBron wanted Rondo so much for so long.

If you're talking about the 2019-2020 season they were far better than just middle of the pack offensively. IIRC they were a top 5 offense before the bubble.

3rd even! 113.0 0RTG behind Mavs and Houston.

The Lakers? They finished the regular season at 11th in offensive efficiency and they hung around 15-20 for most of the season.

Post #2854 » by **zimpy27** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 9:14 am

Slava wrote:
zimpy27 wrote:
nzahir wrote:So is Monk earning a playoff rotation spot for you guys? And do you trust him to start or do we need an upgrade at sg

THT played well tonight, hoping he can up his value and we can move him

Currently think I would play:

Russ, Monk, Ariza, Lebron, AD
Nunn, Reaves, Melo, Dwight

Avery/THT next up

Ideally, they need someone more reliable at the SF to start. Unless Howard starts.

Based on VORP, the only guys in positive numbers are Westbrook, Monk, Ariza, LeBron, Davis -- Melo, Howard
Revaes is close, Nunn is coming back and Bradley is a good fill in. It really just needs THT+Bazemore to be traded for a backup or starting SF.

RoCo would be a nice add if Blazers go for a mini rebuild.

I don't think Covington is even an upgrade on Bazemore, let alone THT. It'd be nice to have someone that's at least reliable and in the middle of their productive years with the only trade piece left.

Covington is having a down shooting year but he's still an elite defender. Best impact metrics on Portland for defense and has the best defensive impact metrics of any wing in the league.

Westbrook, Monk, LeBron, RoCo, Davis would be a strong rebounding/defensive team with some really nice isolation scorers.

Nunn, Reaves, Ariza, Melo, Howard is a solid bench. An upgrade for another wing would be nice.

Post #2855 » by **Slava** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 9:19 am

zimpy27 wrote:
Slava wrote:
zimpy27 wrote:
Ideally, they need someone more reliable at the SF to start. Unless Howard starts.

Based on VORP, the only guys in positive numbers are Westbrook, Monk, Ariza, LeBron, Davis -- Melo, Howard
Revaes is close, Nunn is coming back and Bradley is a good fill in. It really just needs THT+Bazemore to be traded for a backup or starting SF.

RoCo would be a nice add if Blazers go for a mini rebuild.

I don't think Covington is even an upgrade on Bazemore, let alone THT. It'd be nice to have someone that's at least reliable and in the middle of their productive years with the only trade piece left.

Covington is having a down shooting year but he's still an elite defender. Best impact metrics on Portland for defense and has the best defensive impact metrics of any wing in the league.

He's a guy whose advanced metrics always look far better than his impact suggests but the few times I've seen him, he looks past it but that could also be just being on the Blazers, as they are trash dump.

Post #2856 » by **zimpy27** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 9:34 am

Slava wrote:
zimpy27 wrote:
Slava wrote:
I don't think Covington is even an upgrade on Bazemore, let alone THT. It'd be nice to have someone that's at least reliable and in the middle of their productive years with the only trade piece left.

Covington is having a down shooting year but he's still an elite defender. Best impact metrics on Portland for defense and has the best defensive impact metrics of any wing in the league.

He's a guy whose advanced metrics always look far better than his impact suggests but the few times I've seen him, he looks past it but that could also be just being on the Blazers, as they are trash dump.

Yeah Lillard has been fallen off this season and so has everyone besides Covington and Nurkic (who are both FAs at seasons end). Covington could be cheap at the moment because of his perimeter shooting woes so far.

Covington and Kenrich would be great combo. If that's gettable for THT+Bazemore+Pick then it would make Lakers favourites again

Mos_Heat · Post #2857 » by **Mos_Heat** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 9:57 am

Just call Presti and pray he will take Westbrook with 27' pick, swap in 28 and 3 2nd rounders

Post #2858 » by **Slava** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 10:22 am

Mos_Heat wrote:Just call Presti and pray he will take Westbrook with 27' pick, swap in 28 and 3 2nd rounders

Presti will probably take him outright without picks to hit the salary floor and put a decent facade for the tank operation, considering his status there. The problem for the Lakers would be not receiving any pieces they can use. unless they can get something like Favors, Muscala and Williams in the deal.

trickshot · Post #2859 » by **trickshot** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 10:43 am

Mos_Heat wrote:Just call Presti and pray he will take Westbrook with 27' pick, swap in 28 and 3 2nd rounders

OKC has a problem of being too good for a tanking team. They are getting thoroughly outtanked by the others. They aren't trying to risk raising their floor by accident.

Mos_Heat · Post #2860 » by **Mos_Heat** » Wed Jan 5, 2022 10:54 am

Slava wrote:
Mos_Heat wrote:Just call Presti and pray he will take Westbrook with 27' pick, swap in 28 and 3 2nd rounders

Presti will probably take him outright without picks to hit the salary floor and put a decent facade for the tank operation, considering his status there. The problem for the Lakers would be not receiving any pieces they can use. unless they can get something like Favors, Muscala and Williams in the deal.

They will get huge TPE though. So they could use it on someone like Dragic or Eric Gordon. Pelinka would never do it, though. He lacks any imagination with this stuff