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LeBron James

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Chris Parker said:
LeBron's bad 3shooting is MAINLY (imho) because he handles the ball so much these days (increasing by necessity but also by choice) that he isn't getting very many rhythm threes like he might during the regular season when they are fastbreaking more, or when the halfcourt defenses are so attentive.

In short, he's shooting terribly from 3 because he takes them when he's tired rather than attacking the basket, and because he rarely takes good ones. I would not be surprised if you told me 27 of those 62 (prior to 4, I don't know the current count, but 10-62 is my thought) 3 attempts were reasonable and say he hit 8 of them, and 35 of them were atrocious and he hit 2.

I'd say, "that sounds about the size of it."
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I wonder if him being beaten up physically may also be a part of it. You can mentally power through pain with larger motor skills, like those involved in rebounding, without showing much of a drop in effectiveness, but the little involuntary twitches that come from doing something that is painful may be enough to throw off finer motor skills like a shot.

Bottom line is that I don't expect his shooting to magically improve in the Finals. If he dominates, it'll be with rebounding, passing, banging away down low, defense, and attitude.

But a resurrection of his shooting is probably not going to happen even with Kyrie back.
 
Hopefully the days of rest help Kyrie so he can handle the ball more and Lebron can shoot his shots off a catch and shoot situation instead of dribbling into 3's etc. I might also just help his legs to have some days off to get his shot right everything has been on target but short from him from 3 for about 2 or 3 weeks now.
 
rodalpherson said:
Golden State is better than that OKC team was at the time. Obviously now if they had a health quatro of Westbrook-Harden-Durant-Ibaka all in their primes they'd have been a force unseen in NBA history, but back then they were still raw.
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Do not agree with this.. this GS team is every bit as formidable as that OKC team. To me the question is, is this Cavs team ready to duplicate what that Heat team did? I'm less sure about that, but very hopeful
 
MH32246 said:
Hopefully the days of rest help Kyrie so he can handle the ball more and Lebron can shoot his shots off a catch and shoot situation instead of dribbling into 3's etc. I might also just help his legs to have some days off to get his shot right everything has been on target but short from him from 3 for about 2 or 3 weeks now.
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Well, if LBJ is taking a lot of outside shots, that's probably not a good look for us anyway. Best case for us is LBJ posting up his man, and either scoring himself, passing out to a 3 point shooter, or hitting TT/Moz cutting to the basket when the double team comes.

If he's bombing away from outside a lot, that's giving away perhaps his biggest offensive mismatch.
 
He can take as many threes if he wants if he shooting like how he did against Bucks in 2009!
 
The Human Q-Tip said:
Well, if LBJ is taking a lot of outside shots, that's probably not a good look for us anyway. Best case for us is LBJ posting up his man, and either scoring himself, passing out to a 3 point shooter, or hitting TT/Moz cutting to the basket when the double team comes.

If he's bombing away from outside a lot, that's giving away perhaps his biggest offensive mismatch.
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He still has to keep the defense honest. It was a struggle for LeBron not taking the jump shot the first few games against the Spurs in 2013.

If he's got Barnes or Iggy guarding him then yes he needs to attack the rim. However, I expect when Green is guarding him to use the Boris Diaw defense. People may laugh at that now but he was quite effective sagging off of him and letting him shoot jumpers.

The issue for LeBron isnt shooting open jumpers. Its when he dribbles for 15 seconds and fires up a bad jumper, or when he pauses for 5 seconds and then shoots a jumper.

He needs to shoot in rhythm.
 
Gus Zing said:
He still has to keep the defense honest. It was a struggle for LeBron not taking the jump shot the first few games against the Spurs in 2013.

If he's got Barnes or Iggy guarding him then yes he needs to attack the rim. However, I expect when Green is guarding him to use the Boris Diaw defense. People may laugh at that now but he was quite effective sagging off of him and letting him shoot jumpers.

The issue for LeBron isnt shooting open jumpers. Its when he dribbles for 15 seconds and fires up a bad jumper, or when he pauses for 5 seconds and then shoots a jumper.

He needs to shoot in rhythm.
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I agree about needing to shoot in rhythm if he's going to be shooting. I just think LBJ in the post is the one mismatch for which there really is no answer, and I hope it is a major part of our offense.
 
I don't think he should jump shoot. It's better to pass to other players (like JR smith or Delly) than taking a 35% 2pt shot.
 
LeBron said that he's been using the time off to work very hard on his jump shot and get healthy.
He's playing a shooting game like he does after every practice lately shooting 3s. He was playing JR Smith and had this beautiful moment: Smith is an absurdly smooth shooter in the corner at one point he didn't even jump and hit all four. He throws it up like it's nothing at all. James is all grunt repetition and sweat. Finally he yells after missing and says, "I have to concentrate like a motherfucker and you're just fooling around. It's bullshit."
 
Not sure whether to put this in Lebron's thread or Kyrie's thread, but in his post-practice interview today Kyrie gave a really heartfelt tribute to Lebron as a leader. Starts at 7:35 in his interview and goes to the end:

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/postgame-kyrie-irving-may-29

Nothing we didn't know really but the sincerity is really evident.
 
Chris Parker said:
LeBron said that he's been using the time off to work very hard on his jump shot and get healthy.
He's playing a shooting game like he does after every practice lately shooting 3s. He was playing JR Smith and had this beautiful moment: Smith is an absurdly smooth shooter in the corner at one point he didn't even jump and hit all four. He throws it up like it's nothing at all. James is all grunt repetition and sweat. Finally he yells after missing and says, "I have to concentrate like a motherfucker and you're just fooling around. It's bullshit."
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JR is just pure shooting talent. Lebron was never that guy, he's worked for his jumper. Its like comparing musicians who just have it and one's who have to practice their asses off.
 
Chris Parker said:
LeBron said that he's been using the time off to work very hard on his jump shot and get healthy.
He's playing a shooting game like he does after every practice lately shooting 3s. He was playing JR Smith and had this beautiful moment: Smith is an absurdly smooth shooter in the corner at one point he didn't even jump and hit all four. He throws it up like it's nothing at all. James is all grunt repetition and sweat. Finally he yells after missing and says, "I have to concentrate like a motherfucker and you're just fooling around. It's bullshit."
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could that be LeBron's problem, that after missing so much he's now trying too hard to make them? He may just need to relax a bit and trust that a reasonable percentage of them will go in. That game winning shot he made against the bulls he didn't have time to think about it.
 
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