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LeBron James

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You could find videos of clips that make any player look bad. Someone could put together a video of Curry missing a bunch of threes and say "look, Curry is a bad shooter!"

You continue to misstate my position. I've never claimed that he's still an elite defender, or that he's still as good as he used to be. He's not. But, it's also not a "running joke" as you described it. He was a plus defender last year, nothing more, nothing less. I gave you a litany of statistics that show that he was a plus defender last year and you came back with articles from "legitimate writers" (who literally get paid to publish hot takes and push agendas) as your evidence.

The "discrepancy" is the result of the deep rooted, completely irrational hatred that so many people have for LeBron. We've seen it here in this thread. (I'm not saying that that's you)
One of them was Brian Windhorst, who has always been pro-Lebron. He had an article from this past spring titled....Lebron James defense is horrible. I didnt read it but it wasnt Steven A or Max K saying it. Windhorst to me anyway, has never been a hot take guy. Anyway, i know what you are saying, i dont think you think he is Ron Artest in his prime. We are never going to agree on this. We will see how he does this year. Peace Baller.
 
Living on the west coast, I know lots of Laker fans. Most of them hate Lebron, they don't accept him like we did, its kind of funny actually,

What is really funny is Laker fans have a blind spot for Kobe and think he is better than Lebron. They the when I say Kobe isn't probably top 10, and might be the 5th best player to play in a Laker uniform.....Kareem, Magic, Lebron, and the dagger? Shaq, lol
Yeah, i have visited their message boards, its Kobe this, Kobe that. They will change their tune big time if Lebron gets them a title.
 
Yeah, i have visited their message boards, its Kobe this, Kobe that. They will change their tune big time if Lebron gets them a title.

No they wont, shaq was the finals mvp 3 times for them, its still Kobe. Magic won 5 titles for them, once starting at center when kareem went down, its still Kobe

its insane.
 
I remember multiple times last year seeing lebron while defending near the rim looking like he could barely jump over a pencil on defense. Maybe as the help defender? Stats wont convince me that hes not wearing down. He also has the type of iq to play in a way that makes his own stats look good. He forces the offense to be catered to him so that on every possession hes either getting an assist or a bucket. He probably tries hard as the primary defender but gives nil as the secondary. You know, so he can conserve his energy as you can see by the way he walks around on the court now. The dude is old.
 
If someone can explain to me why there is huge discrepency between the stats and what all these guys are seeing id like to hear the explanation for it.

This may be part of the explanation:

The thing is: The Lakers should welcome this strategy from their opponents. James is perfectly fine (if not actually good) as an on-ball defender. Just let one of his stans tell you....

It’s while he’s off the ball on the weak side that his energy and focus tends to wane. Watch him when he isn’t guarding the ball and you’ll get to see the ways he can actually hurt the defense. All too often he’ll just wander over to help somewhere that doesn’t need it, and then hardly attempt to recover to the shooter he left open.



So if that's the case, perhaps some of the stats don't properly assign fault to James for poor off-ball defense, and focus too much on his on-ball defense. If that's true, then he's really a "worse" defender than the stats may show.

Also, LBJ is still so immensely talented physically that he can be decent on defense even while putting force below-average effort. So perhaps some of those pundits are seeing that below average effort. And then perhaps the last component is that no matter how badly you get beaten, it still only counts as 2 points. So if James has a bunch of horrendous plays where he doesn't do anything and gets beaten badly, they don't count any more against his defensive rating than if he contested and just got beaten. So that also may be part of the "eye test" factor on defense.
 
This may be part of the explanation:

The thing is: The Lakers should welcome this strategy from their opponents. James is perfectly fine (if not actually good) as an on-ball defender. Just let one of his stans tell you....

It’s while he’s off the ball on the weak side that his energy and focus tends to wane. Watch him when he isn’t guarding the ball and you’ll get to see the ways he can actually hurt the defense. All too often he’ll just wander over to help somewhere that doesn’t need it, and then hardly attempt to recover to the shooter he left open.



So if that's the case, perhaps some of the stats don't properly assign fault to James for poor off-ball defense, and focus too much on his on-ball defense. If that's true, then he's really a "worse" defender than the stats may show.

Also, LBJ is still so immensely talented physically that he can be decent on defense even while putting force below-average effort. So perhaps some of those pundits are seeing that below average effort. And then perhaps the last component is that no matter how badly you get beaten, it still only counts as 2 points. So if James has a bunch of horrendous plays where he doesn't do anything and gets beaten badly, they don't count any more against his defensive rating than if he contested and just got beaten. So that also may be part of the "eye test" factor on defense.
Good read man. I really appreciate you breaking all that down. Makes perfect sense to me.
 
Frankly, it’s good that James is hearing some of this criticism. The effort on defense he’s shown for stretches since he announced that he was going to ramp up to playoff intensity has been borderline laughable. If he hears this criticism and uses it to ignite his game, then great.

This paragraph really stood out to me.
 
No they wont, shaq was the finals mvp 3 times for them, its still Kobe. Magic won 5 titles for them, once starting at center when kareem went down, its still Kobe

its insane.
I guess what i meant is those guys that hate Lebron, oh he will be the king of LA if he wins them a ring. Never above Kobe though.
 
I guess what i meant is those guys that hate Lebron, oh he will be the king of LA if he wins them a ring. Never above Kobe though.

Not to hard core Laker fans, but yes majority will love him, but there will be those that will take the championship while still hating him.
 
People are sleeping on the possibility that if the Lakers are not successful this year then Anthony Davis will just leave. Look at this exchange from his latest interview with Rachel Nichols from ESPN:

You’ve come here and said already, “I’m here to win titles.” Rob Pelinka told the media, “Anything less than a championship is not a success.” Are you guys worried you’re setting the bar a little bit too high here?
AD:
“No. We have a standard, and that is it, you know. Especially for me as a player. If I don’t win the championship, then that season was not a success.”
At your introductory press conference, they introduced you as someone who they hope will be a “pillar of the Lakers for a decade to come.”
AD:
“Yeah.”
You’re only signed through this season. Do you think you will be a pillar of the Lakers for years and years to come?
AD:
“Honestly, Rachel, I’m just focused on this season. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have one year here, so I’m going make the best of this year. And when that time comes around in the summer or, you know, whenever the season’s over — hopefully, around, you know, mid-June, after we just had a parade, and I need a couple days to think — then we can talk about that. But until then, I’m trying to do whatever I can to help this team win this year.”


So he says that the season will be a failure if they don't win a championship, he basically just grunts when she gives him a chance to say he expects to stay a long time, then he explicitly says "I'm just focused on this season, I don't know what's going to happen, I have one year here".

Lakers are a long shot to win a championship this season, say they not only don't win but don't come close -- e.g. lose in the second round of the playoffs or something -- dude is definitely going to at least listen to other offers.
 
@Joe Charboneau - Just wanted to say that, while I almost 100% agree with @MediumBaller and disagree with your opinions on this topic, I appreciate the way you handled that back and forth with maturity and class. I've seen so many other "newish" posters crash and burn when confronted like that. I think you're clearly a positive on this forum and hope you stick around, man... even if I disagree with your opinions on Lebron. Cheers! :alc:
 
Living on the west coast, I know lots of Laker fans. Most of them hate Lebron, they don't accept him like we did, its kind of funny actually,

What is really funny is Laker fans have a blind spot for Kobe and think he is better than Lebron. They the when I say Kobe isn't probably top 10, and might be the 5th best player to play in a Laker uniform.....Kareem, Magic, Lebron, and the dagger? Shaq, lol

Haven't you heard? Every Lakers great is better than LeBron, except maybe the logo because finalz ellz and stuff. ;)
 
@Joe Charboneau - Just wanted to say that, while I almost 100% agree with @MediumBaller and disagree with your opinions on this topic, I appreciate the way you handled that back and forth with maturity and class. I've seen so many other "newish" posters crash and burn when confronted like that. I think you're clearly a positive on this forum and hope you stick around, man... even if I disagree with your opinions on Lebron. Cheers!
Hey i appreciate that. I try not to get too carried away. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If we all ageed on everything this message board would be pretty boring wouldnt it. Again, thanks for the nice words!
 

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