LeBron James

[Cayman13]

Frank, loved your post, makes perfect sense. I like this explanation better, as I feel something is going on with this team behind closed doors. My feeling is if you can package Dion and Haywood's contract for a center and/or defensive wing player, a lot of this will be taken care of. Our bench is just awful tho.

I don't blame LBJ for not killing himself at this point, maybe all those lazy passes are for a "reason" - to prove a point. I've noticed he's said several times "I'm passing to spots where guys should be." All very interesting.

 

[David.]

these conspiracy theories are difficult to read. sure, they just want to be shalacked and embarrassed nationally every other night and have everything about them called into question. they're hiding their good plays to surprise opponents in teh finals. they want this to happen, its all a master plan.

theyre playing poorly. theres no lessons or calculations. they feel like they dont know what the fuck theyre doing and they dont know what the fuck theyre doing.

 

[CHIMOCHIS]

Frank just spit some real shit

 

[KI4MVP]

The thing is LeBron, Kyrie or the combination of the two, need to take over on a night like last night. Hero ball has been so over criticized that the team has gone too far in the other direction. They both shot .500 last night and only took a combined 26 shots while the game got out of hand.

 

[JSS2306]

The thing is LeBron, Kyrie or the combination of the two, need to take over on a night like last night. Hero ball has been so over criticized that the team has gone too far in the other direction. They both shot .500 last night and only took a combined 26 shots while the game got out of hand.

How about some hero defense?

 

[6kiss]

Its hilarious that everything Lebron is preaching, hes not doing! Hes talking about the team being mentally weak? Hes the one that starts getting passive when the team is up 15. Hes the one that starts getting lazy on defense, hes the one that starts settling for jumpshots, and hes the one that just starts standing around the 3 point line. I think everybody on the team is doing a good job except him. Love is not shooting the ball well but hes playing tough, Irving might not be distributing the ball well but hes actually showing effort on defense and hes scoring pretty efficiently for a guard. Im sorry but all these struggles is on Lebron. The best player on the planet should be leading this team and showing good examples. You dont teach a new team by pouting when you dont get calls, being passive, and taking yourself out of the offense to prove a point to the younger guards when they play selfish. Lebron needs to step it up.

 

[kookoo]

Thing that bugs me the most is watching him no look throw the ball into the opposing team players...

 

[JSS2306]

It makes me wonder who we could have picked up on the roster instead of James Jones and Mike Miller.

It's becoming more and more evident that we needed these "situational" players to be actual, legitimate bench players.

Will LeBron coming back actually hurt us in the long run? I don't want to believe that...

 

[CosmoKramer]

Wow. 12 games into the season, who would've thought you'd read something like this on this board. Crazy. LeBron better get his shit together asap.

That's not the word I'd use.

Everyone agreed it was too early to panic after 10 games. But 12 games? Time to lose your shit.

 

[Cavatt]

LeBron is still pissed about the letter. He came back to destroy the franchise.

It makes me wonder who we could have picked up on the roster instead of James Jones and Mike Miller.

It's becoming more and more evident that we needed these "situational" players to be actual, legitimate bench players.

Will LeBron coming back actually hurt us in the long run? I don't want to believe that...

There is a worst case scenario, but for me we lost a lot of assets(picks and depth) for cap space to give LeBron a couple extra million. Would have been nice to keep those and say,"well you are waiting for the cap to go up long term, we can keep some of these assets and user them more wisely if we don't have to get rid of Jack asap, who knows maybe he will look better and we can get something for him." It's just business and would have been better for the team. Having Tyler Zeller as underwhelming as he is, he can thrive in a system and play a role we could use right now.

Just feel now that we lost tons of flexibility with that move.

 

[Zen]

It makes me wonder who we could have picked up on the roster instead of James Jones and Mike Miller.

It's becoming more and more evident that we needed these "situational" players to be actual, legitimate bench players.

Will LeBron coming back actually hurt us in the long run? I don't want to believe that...

Not really even a question worth asking. Adding the best player in the game is never a bad thing. We were on a fast track to nowhere until he decided to come back.

Four years of tanking and 3 number one picks yielded us one legit player, one that will likely be traded and has a terrible attitude, a limited bench power forward and whatever promise you think Andrew Wiggins has (4 years down the road).

Free agents aren't coming here without Lebron either.

 

[Simmy]

Guys there is nothing physically wrong with LeBron James. In the finals, he's cramping up, getting beat by an older, yet much fresher Spurs team..... That had to change James' opinion of these exhibition games.

LeBron is not going balls-to-the-wall while the whole team still has the body language of a tanking team and nobody has any chemistry at all. Why would he?

When James was first here, he established the fact that he could take it to the rack at will, and that became our go-to play (to a fault).

James doesn't want these players to become programmed to defer to him when the going gets tough.

You don't win the finals by giving it to LeBron on every possession of crunch time and telling him to take over. LeBron doesn't want to even try that because (as good as he is) he's not going to single handedly win any-finals series on his own.


With this bunch of groomed losers, LeBron isn't going to establish himself as the go-to guy (again) because in the long run that's not as effective as a Spurs like attack, where everybody shares the ball and you never know who's taking the shot.


Once the losing is out of our blood, once the defense picks up, once we trust the pass and Blatt has a set rotation, "the guy" will be back out there in full force. He isn't going to unnecessarily tire himself and condition these losers with the ultimate "bailout plan". That would be terrible planning for the future and would bite us in the ass in the long run.

I've got my fingers crossed that this is exactly the correct reason for LeBron's passive play. It certainly makes sense given the on-court evidence and can be the only logical answer for his play.

It doesn't entirely explain his lack of defensive attention and focus, but I think to some degree it goes ways in providing reason for what we have seen so far.

The only issue for me at this point, is how this weighs on the team mentally. If this were the case and LeBron deliberately isn't going in takeover mode each night, I wonder if he's outlined this to his teammates? I wonder if they're aware?

Because if I'm playing beside LeBron James and I see some of the things he's been doing in comparison to what I've seen him do years prior, I'm starting to drop my head, worry, and lose confidence in the teams ability to succeed.

The issue with LeBron being the leader and setting the example is just that. If LeBron isn't showing that tenacity for winning basketball, how does the team learn it? He can't have it both ways. And as evidence has it (the games he was aggressive and scoring, the team as a whole looked more fluid, potent and cohesive and as a result were winning games), it's going to be mightily challenging for LeBron to withdraw for the sake of his team learning how to win playing team basketball and setting an example of how to win ball games simultaneously.

One has to wonder that if indeed LeBron is intentionally not being aggressive and taking over games (and reverting to early contested fadeaway jumpers which I'm still confused about?), is this really the best way for the team to grow in the long term, given the evidence? Seems there's a very significant swing on the psychological impact of the team when their leader isn't leading that might be more of a detriment than a catalyst for growth in the long-run.

 

[Adam]

Its one thing to not assert yourself. Then move the ball. Not asserting yourself and pounding the ball is just basically tanking when you have the usage of lebron

 

[Simon]

 

[Ohio]

If he doesn't come out with energy tomorrow...

Someone needs to rip his headband off. That will get him going.