The LeBron Thread 2021 Off-Season Edition

[zimpy27]

I'm like 80% sure that DeMar goes to the Lakers for Kuzma..

It's too perfect for both sides.
- Spurs needs starting PF, Pop is a fan of Kuz
- DeMar is a fan of LeBron, is from LA, would likely take a discount to play for Lakers and go for a chip
- Lakers report LeBron and Davis moving to 4 and 5 for playmaker, DeMar is only logical player that would force that to happen.

I think DeMar is an interesting fit at the SF position for Lakers, they don't switch much so he should do better defensively. He has also become a very good playmaker and could easily keep on offense humming while LeBron sits.
The big negative is that he doesn't shoot 3s but he still spaces the floor, you have to be close or he'll dribble into a midrange or drive past you. If Lakers don't have any C's that can't shoot the 3 then it would work.

Caruso, KCP, DeMar, LeBron, Davis -- THT, Duarte, Matthews, Markieff, Gasol

Schroeder goes for nothing and the rest of roster after starting 5 and THT will be minimum contracts or close to.

Even worse spacing and less defense, great. This theoretical "3rd option" should space the floor for AD and Lebron, not the other way around. It's the same reason why signing Trez and trading for Schroder was stupid

I think it gets done but I don't necessarily think it's a good idea. I do think it's ok with Schröder, Harrell, Drummond gone. Not ideal to still have THT though. Hoping they can move him for a back up playmaker/shooter.

[Fadeaway_J]

I don't understand why this DeRozan to the Lakers idea keeps coming up. It's a terrible fit on so many levels, for a player who at his best was "Eastern Conference All-Star" level.

[LikeABosh]

Only reason Derozan should be on the Lakers if he's cheap and accepts a bench role.

Should be looking at guys like Powell, Hardaway, and Porter. ****, I'd even take Batum over Derozan

[SideshowBob]

Space Jam christened our new home theater. MJ scene was my favorite.

[thebigbird]

Since Penlinka hates spacing and thinks he’s building a team for the 1980s I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see them go after Derozan.

Derozan/LeBron/AD/Center

Would be the worst spacing in the league. Bron would have to be the floor spacer lmao.

[falcolombardi]

derozan is not a bad player, if the lakers were a team full of shooters who lacked a playmaker in the rest of the roster i could talk Myself into derozan as a second ballhandler behind lebron (he is not a worse player than schroeder) but the fit is still so-so at best
and i doubt he would be cheap

also i think a second ball handler behind bron is a smaller problem than the lack of shooting

[thebigbird]

derozan is not a bad player, if the lakers were a team full of shooters who lacked a playmaker in the rest of the roster i could talk Myself into derozan as a second ballhandler behind lebron (he is not a worse player than schroeder) but the fit is still so-so at best
and i doubt he would be cheap

also i think a second ball handler behind bron is a smaller problem than the lack of shooting

Yeah he isn’t terrible, he just gets meme’d on pretty harshly due to the LeBronto days. I wouldn’t mind him as a third option if this team was built to LeBron’s strengths. He can score the ball well even though he doesn’t have a 3 ball. But a career 28% shooter from 3 on 1.5 attempts per game is truly the last thing this team needs. The recipe to a good LeBron team is simple - surround him with guys who can let it fly from deep. Get him some Kyle Korvers and JR Smiths to run with. I don’t know why Pelinka has tried reinventing the wheel the past three seasons.

[falcolombardi]

derozan is not a bad player, if the lakers were a team full of shooters who lacked a playmaker in the rest of the roster i could talk Myself into derozan as a second ballhandler behind lebron (he is not a worse player than schroeder) but the fit is still so-so at best
and i doubt he would be cheap

also i think a second ball handler behind bron is a smaller problem than the lack of shooting

Yeah he isn’t terrible, he just gets meme’d on pretty harshly due to the LeBronto days. I wouldn’t mind him as a third option if this team was built to LeBron’s strengths. He can score the ball well even though he doesn’t have a 3 ball. But a career 28% shooter from 3 on 1.5 attempts per game is truly the last thing this team needs. The recipe to a good LeBron team is simple - surround him with guys who can let it fly from deep. Get him some Kyle Korvers and JR Smiths to run with. I don’t know why Pelinka has tried reinventing the wheel the past three seasons.

i would argue most teams in lebron career and even himself at times didnt realize the best way to build around him was NOT surrounding him with worse players that need to take the ball off him

while still stars, people like kyrie amd specially wade were not ideal fit around lebron whose biggest strenght is his ability to lift a offense on his own

defenders, finishers and shooters are cheaper than star scorers that use the ball a lot and their overlap is less with bron

[homecourtloss]

derozan is not a bad player, if the lakers were a team full of shooters who lacked a playmaker in the rest of the roster i could talk Myself into derozan as a second ballhandler behind lebron (he is not a worse player than schroeder) but the fit is still so-so at best
and i doubt he would be cheap

also i think a second ball handler behind bron is a smaller problem than the lack of shooting

Since Penlinka hates spacing and thinks he’s building a team for the 1980s I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see them go after Derozan.

Derozan/LeBron/AD/Center

Would be the worst spacing in the league. Bron would have to be the floor spacer lmao.

I’d take Derozan as a bench scorer on the MLE and maybe not even that if there are better options. He has offensive talent (really good at certain things) that if used correctly might be useful in today’s game, and he’s still bad on defense. 12 seasons played and only ONE in which his team was better with him on court than off, and never in the playoffs.

Last season:

—Had the 6th most Drives per game last year (18.2), shot 52.7% on those drive and the team had score % on 58% of these drives (25th out of 58 players who had 10+ drives per game).

—Scored an impressive 1.20 points per possession in ISO, best in the NBA among those with 2+ possessions per game (44 players) , and one of the highest numbers in the tracking era.

If he was a neutral defender and could decently shoot the three, he could be a key cog on any team, but he can’t and isn’t and there’s a 99%+ chance he has a worse offensive season next year.

[thebigbird]

derozan is not a bad player, if the lakers were a team full of shooters who lacked a playmaker in the rest of the roster i could talk Myself into derozan as a second ballhandler behind lebron (he is not a worse player than schroeder) but the fit is still so-so at best
and i doubt he would be cheap

also i think a second ball handler behind bron is a smaller problem than the lack of shooting

Yeah he isn’t terrible, he just gets meme’d on pretty harshly due to the LeBronto days. I wouldn’t mind him as a third option if this team was built to LeBron’s strengths. He can score the ball well even though he doesn’t have a 3 ball. But a career 28% shooter from 3 on 1.5 attempts per game is truly the last thing this team needs. The recipe to a good LeBron team is simple - surround him with guys who can let it fly from deep. Get him some Kyle Korvers and JR Smiths to run with. I don’t know why Pelinka has tried reinventing the wheel the past three seasons.

i would argue most teams in lebron career and even himself at times didnt realize the best way to build around him was NOT surrounding him with worse players that need to take the ball off him

while still stars, people like kyrie amd specially wade were not ideal fit around lebron whose biggest strenght is his ability to lift a offense on his own

defenders, finishers and shooters are cheaper than star scorers that use the ball a lot and their overlap is less with bron

That’s a good point. The whole “LeBron needs to play off ball more” thing from some people has never made much sense to me. LeBron is a goat-tier offensive player. We want to take the ball out of his hands and put it into a worse offensive player’s hands, why exactly? At this stage in his career it might only be a decent idea because he’s older and it won’t wear him down as much. But really for that role they just need a good ball handler who can bring the ball up the court and then give it to LeBron so he doesn’t have to exert energy doing that.

This team doesn’t need a third ‘star’ anyway. LeBron and AD pack enough offensive firepower together. Given their salary cap situation, moving a bunch of guys to try to acquire a third ‘star,’ especially when the player won’t be a superstar level guy, doesn’t make any sense to me. It’d be way better to go after shooters and wing defenders.

[zimpy27]

derozan is not a bad player, if the lakers were a team full of shooters who lacked a playmaker in the rest of the roster i could talk Myself into derozan as a second ballhandler behind lebron (he is not a worse player than schroeder) but the fit is still so-so at best
and i doubt he would be cheap

also i think a second ball handler behind bron is a smaller problem than the lack of shooting

Yeah he isn’t terrible, he just gets meme’d on pretty harshly due to the LeBronto days. I wouldn’t mind him as a third option if this team was built to LeBron’s strengths. He can score the ball well even though he doesn’t have a 3 ball. But a career 28% shooter from 3 on 1.5 attempts per game is truly the last thing this team needs. The recipe to a good LeBron team is simple - surround him with guys who can let it fly from deep. Get him some Kyle Korvers and JR Smiths to run with. I don’t know why Pelinka has tried reinventing the wheel the past three seasons.

- DeRozan can't play SG anymore, he's an SF or PF type guy now. So Lakers will have to start and end with AD at 5. The report was effectively saying this and it all fits because of that.

- 28% from 3 would be better than what Davis, THT, Kuzma, KCP, Markieff did in the playoffs.

- I'm for DeMar if the rest of the bigs are all 3 shooters.

[falcolombardi]

Yeah he isn’t terrible, he just gets meme’d on pretty harshly due to the LeBronto days. I wouldn’t mind him as a third option if this team was built to LeBron’s strengths. He can score the ball well even though he doesn’t have a 3 ball. But a career 28% shooter from 3 on 1.5 attempts per game is truly the last thing this team needs. The recipe to a good LeBron team is simple - surround him with guys who can let it fly from deep. Get him some Kyle Korvers and JR Smiths to run with. I don’t know why Pelinka has tried reinventing the wheel the past three seasons.

i would argue most teams in lebron career and even himself at times didnt realize the best way to build around him was NOT surrounding him with worse players that need to take the ball off him

while still stars, people like kyrie amd specially wade were not ideal fit around lebron whose biggest strenght is his ability to lift a offense on his own

defenders, finishers and shooters are cheaper than star scorers that use the ball a lot and their overlap is less with bron

That’s a good point. The whole “LeBron needs to play off ball more” thing from some people has never made much sense to me. LeBron is a goat-tier offensive player. We want to take the ball out of his hands and put it into a worse offensive player’s hands, why exactly? At this stage in his career it might only be a decent idea because he’s older and it won’t wear him down as much. But really for that role they just need a good ball handler who can bring the ball up the court and then give it to LeBron so he doesn’t have to exert energy doing that.

This team doesn’t need a third ‘star’ anyway. LeBron and AD pack enough offensive firepower together. Given their salary cap situation, moving a bunch of guys to try to acquire a third ‘star,’ especially when the player won’t be a superstar level guy, doesn’t make any sense to me. It’d be way better to go after shooters and wing defenders.

cause ar some point people saw the value of off ball play with curry and ben taylor and lowe made people realize the value of impacting the game without the ball

and like any trend some people went way overboard with it, i remember peopke unironically saying in 2016 saying that they prefered draymond to lebron

cause while lebron was a better floor raiser, the ceiling of a lebron team or "lebron ball" was "limited" (even in the player conparision board i think)compared to the portability and "ceiling raising"of curry or draymond according to many at the time

at some point i think people thought the future of basketball was all about off ball value and forgot that you still need someone to be on-ball
it got to the point where it felt people judged stars by how well they adapted to the benefit of their sidekicks instead of the other way around

[zimpy27]

i would argue most teams in lebron career and even himself at times didnt realize the best way to build around him was NOT surrounding him with worse players that need to take the ball off him

while still stars, people like kyrie amd specially wade were not ideal fit around lebron whose biggest strenght is his ability to lift a offense on his own

defenders, finishers and shooters are cheaper than star scorers that use the ball a lot and their overlap is less with bron

That’s a good point. The whole “LeBron needs to play off ball more” thing from some people has never made much sense to me. LeBron is a goat-tier offensive player. We want to take the ball out of his hands and put it into a worse offensive player’s hands, why exactly? At this stage in his career it might only be a decent idea because he’s older and it won’t wear him down as much. But really for that role they just need a good ball handler who can bring the ball up the court and then give it to LeBron so he doesn’t have to exert energy doing that.

This team doesn’t need a third ‘star’ anyway. LeBron and AD pack enough offensive firepower together. Given their salary cap situation, moving a bunch of guys to try to acquire a third ‘star,’ especially when the player won’t be a superstar level guy, doesn’t make any sense to me. It’d be way better to go after shooters and wing defenders.

cause ar some point people saw the value of off ball play with curry and ben taylor and lowe made people realize the value of impacting the game without the ball

and like any trend some people went way overboard with it, i remember peopke unironically saying in 2016 saying that they prefered draymond to lebron

cause while lebron was a better floor raiser, the ceiling of a lebron team or "lebron ball" was "limited" (even in the player conparision board i think)compared to the portability and "ceiling raising"of curry or draymond according to many at the time

at some point i think people thought the future of basketball was all about off ball value and forgot that you still need someone to be on-ball
it got to the point where it felt people judged stars by how well they adapted to the benefit of their sidekicks instead of the other way around

The truth is that LeBron moves less than 99% of NBA players on the court per possession. He's elite but he isn't providing movement on offense. Davis isn't much better with movement either.

Another player that can provide scoring and playmaking to add to these guys is ideal for a more dynamic offense (since there's hardly any movement) and provides someone to lead offense while LeBron/AD rest.

LeBron should play off ball more in RS and move on ball in playoffs but still take turns with another scorer/playmaker. Worked very well with Irving in 16 and 17

[homecourtloss]

derozan is not a bad player, if the lakers were a team full of shooters who lacked a playmaker in the rest of the roster i could talk Myself into derozan as a second ballhandler behind lebron (he is not a worse player than schroeder) but the fit is still so-so at best
and i doubt he would be cheap

also i think a second ball handler behind bron is a smaller problem than the lack of shooting

Yeah he isn’t terrible, he just gets meme’d on pretty harshly due to the LeBronto days. I wouldn’t mind him as a third option if this team was built to LeBron’s strengths. He can score the ball well even though he doesn’t have a 3 ball. But a career 28% shooter from 3 on 1.5 attempts per game is truly the last thing this team needs. The recipe to a good LeBron team is simple - surround him with guys who can let it fly from deep. Get him some Kyle Korvers and JR Smiths to run with. I don’t know why Pelinka has tried reinventing the wheel the past three seasons.

- DeRozan can't play SG anymore, he's an SF or PF type guy now. So Lakers will have to start and end with AD at 5. The report was effectively saying this and it all fits because of that.

- 28% from 3 would be better than what Davis, THT, Kuzma, KCP, Markieff did in the playoffs.

- I'm for DeMar if the rest of the bigs are all 3 shooters.

Lakers could actually have beaten the Suns sans AD and with hobbled LeBron with decent conversion on wide-open looks created by LeBron. Game 4, they were +6 with Bron in the game and waited so many open looks. If they went up 3-1, they would have won. Don’t know how the rest of the playoffs goes sans AD but they’re be a tough out if Bron got healthy which is doubtful

[zimpy27]

Yeah he isn’t terrible, he just gets meme’d on pretty harshly due to the LeBronto days. I wouldn’t mind him as a third option if this team was built to LeBron’s strengths. He can score the ball well even though he doesn’t have a 3 ball. But a career 28% shooter from 3 on 1.5 attempts per game is truly the last thing this team needs. The recipe to a good LeBron team is simple - surround him with guys who can let it fly from deep. Get him some Kyle Korvers and JR Smiths to run with. I don’t know why Pelinka has tried reinventing the wheel the past three seasons.

- DeRozan can't play SG anymore, he's an SF or PF type guy now. So Lakers will have to start and end with AD at 5. The report was effectively saying this and it all fits because of that.

- 28% from 3 would be better than what Davis, THT, Kuzma, KCP, Markieff did in the playoffs.

- I'm for DeMar if the rest of the bigs are all 3 shooters.

Lakers could actually have beaten the Suns sans AD and with hobbled LeBron with decent conversion on wide-open looks created by LeBron. Game 4, they were +6 with Bron in the game and waited so many open looks. If they went up 3-1, they would have won. Do t know how the rest of the playoffs goes sans AS but they’re be a tough out if Bron got healthy which is doubtful

Oh yeah, if all teams were healthy then Lakers win the championship. This is the second championship lost due to poor health luck for LeBron.

[Dupp]

- DeRozan can't play SG anymore, he's an SF or PF type guy now. So Lakers will have to start and end with AD at 5. The report was effectively saying this and it all fits because of that.

- 28% from 3 would be better than what Davis, THT, Kuzma, KCP, Markieff did in the playoffs.

- I'm for DeMar if the rest of the bigs are all 3 shooters.

Lakers could actually have beaten the Suns sans AD and with hobbled LeBron with decent conversion on wide-open looks created by LeBron. Game 4, they were +6 with Bron in the game and waited so many open looks. If they went up 3-1, they would have won. Do t know how the rest of the playoffs goes sans AS but they’re be a tough out if Bron got healthy which is doubtful

Oh yeah, if all teams were healthy then Lakers win the championship. This is the second championship lost due to poor health luck for LeBron.

Nets

[zimpy27]

Lakers could actually have beaten the Suns sans AD and with hobbled LeBron with decent conversion on wide-open looks created by LeBron. Game 4, they were +6 with Bron in the game and waited so many open looks. If they went up 3-1, they would have won. Do t know how the rest of the playoffs goes sans AS but they’re be a tough out if Bron got healthy which is doubtful

Oh yeah, if all teams were healthy then Lakers win the championship. This is the second championship lost due to poor health luck for LeBron.

Nets

I'm still not sold on them as a team together. They haven't really played together sadly. But they would be the main threat.

[Dupp]

Oh yeah, if all teams were healthy then Lakers win the championship. This is the second championship lost due to poor health luck for LeBron.

Nets

I'm still not sold on them as a team together. They haven't really played together sadly. But they would be the main threat.

I saw enough against the bucks to think they’re leagues above anyone. Offense is god tier if all 3 are healthy. They nearly won with kd, no Kyrie, basically no Harris and 1/5 of harden.

[Mos_Heat]

I'm like 80% sure that DeMar goes to the Lakers for Kuzma..

It's too perfect for both sides.
- Spurs needs starting PF, Pop is a fan of Kuz
- DeMar is a fan of LeBron, is from LA, would likely take a discount to play for Lakers and go for a chip
- Lakers report LeBron and Davis moving to 4 and 5 for playmaker, DeMar is only logical player that would force that to happen.

I think DeMar is an interesting fit at the SF position for Lakers, they don't switch much so he should do better defensively. He has also become a very good playmaker and could easily keep on offense humming while LeBron sits.
The big negative is that he doesn't shoot 3s but he still spaces the floor, you have to be close or he'll dribble into a midrange or drive past you. If Lakers don't have any C's that can't shoot the 3 then it would work.

Caruso, KCP, DeMar, LeBron, Davis -- THT, Duarte, Matthews, Markieff, Gasol

Schroeder goes for nothing and the rest of roster after starting 5 and THT will be minimum contracts or close to.

Even worse spacing and less defense, great. This theoretical "3rd option" should space the floor for AD and Lebron, not the other way around. It's the same reason why signing Trez and trading for Schroder was stupid

I think it gets done but I don't necessarily think it's a good idea. I do think it's ok with Schröder, Harrell, Drummond gone. Not ideal to still have THT though. Hoping they can move him for a back up playmaker/shooter.

I can see that, Pelinka is definitely not a creative GM. To me their summer is pretty simple:
- keep Schroder's salary slot via TPE/Other player
- bring back THT and Caruso
- get a wing/shooter for TMLE
- get a wing/shooter on the draft
- swap Kuz for something else
Their main move should be at the deadline, not in August

[zimpy27]

Nets

I'm still not sold on them as a team together. They haven't really played together sadly. But they would be the main threat.

I saw enough against the bucks to think they’re leagues above anyone. Offense is god tier if all 3 are healthy. They nearly won with kd, no Kyrie, basically no Harris and 1/5 of harden.

I think 2 plus role players is ideal for them. Adding one more of Kyrie or Harden is going to enhance the offense by less than it detracts from the defense.

They were healthier against Bucks than Lakers were against Suns.

But yeah, Lakers vs Nets in finals would be legendary