LeBron James

[*L-Train*]

The only stat im concerned about is Lebron being 0/4 in his recruits. They are absolutely brutal.

depends on your expectations, i guess.
-to me the only one of those 4 who has been a real disappointment is Mike Miller.
-Marion was a solid role player for us before the injury (i hope he can return to that form. we would use another lengthy defender come playoff time)
-James Jones has actually exceeded my expectations (i thought he should never play and was only brought here for chemistry reasons)
-Perkins is an insurance policy: our C rotation is totally fine unless Mozgov gets in early foul trouble or we have an injury. there might be certain matchups where Perk will play 5-10 minutes (most, if not all of them play in the West thankfully) but overall he really shouldn't play much either when everybody's healthy

 

[Ohio]

I'm still extremely frustrated today over yesterday's game. This team will bounce back and will make a hard push for the two seed when Kyrie returns.

I'm just pissed off. Partly because LeBron fucking blew the game and needs to employ the help of his teammates. Also partly because James Harden's a pussy, people are calling him the MVP on Twitter, and because the refs somewhat boned us yesterday.

The only part that still annoys me is all the praise Harden is getting. Disgusts me, actually.

 

[CommD]

wut?....

It was one game. LeBron is still the best player in the world, no way should Kyrie be the "primary end of game ballhandler/closer". That's ridiculous.

The only thing I hope LeBron takes away from this game is that he doesn't have to do everything alone as he has teammates capable of hitting big shots and coming through late in games. LeIso is cool every now & then but the frequency which we saw it yesterday is something that should never happen again.

Unlike you, I did not need to see this game to know that I would much rather see Irving at the FT line to close games than LeBron James.

It has nothing do do with who is the better overall player. James happens to be below 75% for his career, and IMO has worked to avoid the situation he faced in the HOU game over much of it.

 

[col63onel]

The only stat im concerned about is Lebron being 0/4 in his recruits. They are absolutely brutal.

But LeBron James recruited LeBron James to come here. Since LeBron James is good, Lebron James is the one good recruit LeBron James brought it.

 

[TwoPistols]

Maybe it's just me, but LeBron is not the player on the Cavs who I want to have the ball in his hands at the end of games. I like Kyrie better to get to the hole. I like Kyrie better to finish at the rim. And I like Kyrie better to sink a game winning jumper.

 

[Surge]

I would prefer he didn't shoot the technical free throws either.

 

[Binkster]

Maybe it's just me, but LeBron is not the player on the Cavs who I want to have the ball in his hands at the end of games. I like Kyrie better to get to the hole. I like Kyrie better to finish at the rim. And I like Kyrie better to sink a game winning jumper.

If you need to draw a contact foul at the end of the game or need points off the drive, there are few as effective as LeBron at drawing, at minimum, a foul.

That said... Free throws, jump shots, 3 point attempts - those should fall under Kyrie's jurisdiction.

 

[RchfldCavRaised]

I hate losing, but I appreciate when the basketball Gods hand out their justice.

There are lessons that LeBron still needs to learn in basketball that he has to be receptive to. Nevermind the freethrows... the game wasnt lost there. It was lost on the multiple possessions where LBJ killed our offense by being stubborn.

This will be the kind of game tape that will only serve to help strengthen the case for him trusting in the coaching staff and system more than his own abilities. He'll remember this in June, when someone recommends he come off the ball and/or "allow" Irving and Love to be the focal point of a late game championship deciding possession.

I never pull for the Cavs to lose, but I WAS pulling last night for LeBron to play the game a different way in the 4th quarter. I was pulling for him to stop coming to the ball on inbounds and trust in his teammates to start the offense more. I was pulling for him to remember the San Antonio loss earlier in the season when he relegated Kyrie to off the ball and proceeded to lose the handle at half court. I was pulling for him to take his big ass to the elbows or back down Ariza or Harden and seal them before asking for the ball... and he was stubbornly trying to be a guard still.

I hope when he sees the tape, he realizes how much he assisted Trevor Ariza and Josh Smith in defending himself, by insisting that he initiate the offense 25 feet from the basket. He was choosing "style" over "efficiency", and he deserved to have exactly what happened last night, happen. Harden took a charge on him, Ariza dictated whether or not he was able to get into the lane on 75% of the possessions and then Smith used verticallity to keep him from finishing after he had expended so much energy trying to get around Ariza or Harden.

It was beautiful to watch the Houston coaching staff outsmart him. And I hope as he watches that tape, he understands exactly what happened.

I've seen mastery from Blatt and staff on inbounds and half court sets. I've seen GREAT adjustments from Blatt and staff on defensive adjustments throughout games. By now, James has acknowledged the same mastery when he wants.

Take this embarrassing loss on the chin, and CONSISTENTLY trust 100% in the coaching staff to put you and your teammates in the best position to win.

 

[Cashius X]

Unlike you, I did not need to see this game to know that I would much rather see Irving at the FT line to close games than LeBron James.

It has nothing do do with who is the better overall player. James happens to be below 75% for his career, and IMO has worked to avoid the situation he faced in the HOU game over much of it.

Well obviously I'd like to see Kyrie @ the line as opposed to LeBron, however Bron only got to the line because he had the ball in his hands in the waning seconds of the game. LeBron is our best scorer in isolation so it doesn't make sense to take the ball out of his hands. Stop being a prisoner of the moment.

And for the record, I don't like LeBron shooting technical FTs either.

 

[Jscc]

Unlike you, I did not need to see this game to know that I would much rather see Irving at the FT line to close games than LeBron James.

It has nothing do do with who is the better overall player. James happens to be below 75% for his career, and IMO has worked to avoid the situation he faced in the HOU game over much of it.

Oh. I interpreted you to mean LeBron shouldn't have the ball in-game, not as just shooting free throws.

I love Kyrie but I want that ball in LeBron's hands if we're down or needing to close. If that means LeBron might get fouled to shoot FTs then so be it. 9 times out of 10 he will make them when they count.

Unless LeBron willingly defers to Kryie, that is.

 

[Sean King 87]

Something interesting I read from Terry Pluto article about yesterday's game (Cleveland dot com),

"11. Because James was feeling the physical burden, he often was WALKING the ball up the court for much of the second half. The Cavs are the most efficient offensive team in the NBA when taking a shot in the first 10 seconds of the 24-second clock, according to the team's stats. That means they need to run and fast break more often. They had 10 fast-break points."

Something I was really frustrated about yesterday was our slow possessions time after time. According to the bold sentence we are the best team in the league when we playing short possessions. In that way we unexpected offensive team and very often good things are happen. Yesterday we play without our statistically BEST offensive key. Those long possessions, too much Bron dribbling and starting to attack the rim too late was a bad offensive strategy.

Also I'm always asking myself why when Bron decide to go ISO the other players don't make movement or pretend themselves they are ready/able to shot. These kind of long-expected possessions make it clear to our opponent that Lebron go ISO and it much more easy to defend our offense.

 

[Kizzle]

He knows he messed this one up. No need to cry

 

[Baseline Runner]

Maybe it's just me, but LeBron is not the player on the Cavs who I want to have the ball in his hands at the end of games. I like Kyrie better to get to the hole. I like Kyrie better to finish at the rim. And I like Kyrie better to sink a game winning jumper.

Actually I like the Lebron/Kyre two man game at the end of games. I don't want any one player to dominate the ball as it is too predictable of an offense to stop no matter how offensively talented the iso player is. However if both Kyrie and Lebron are equally the "go to" guys at the end of games, and share the ball with each other, the defense will not be able to game plan or play an effective box-in-one strategy as was applied to Lebron in the Houston game.

Also there is the idea of exploiting mismatches in which case it depends on the game and series of who is more the go to guy down the stretch. If Kyrie has a soft defender on him then he'd be the one and vice versa with Lebron. In some games Love may be the go to guy because he has a mismatch (like he was against Detroit when the bigs couldn't come out and defend his three). We may use Kyrie or Lebron as a ruse in the appearance of an iso but the real plan is to kick it out to Love for three. Then there are the times when JR Smith has a hot hand. A good offensive coach, for which I believe Blatt is one, adapts to different game situations and doesn't use an inflexible strategy.

 

[bleedwineandgold03]

He knows he messed this one up. No need to cry

THIS!!!!

 

[Return of the King]

How dumb does someone have to be to think harden is better than LBJ??