Lebron James elevates for the slam over Joe Harris

UpAndComing

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You’re just posting to see your words on the screen. There’s no sense to anything that you said above. There’s no evidence that Lebron is unwilling or incapable of playing off the ball. He’s still probably the most effective/devastating off ball cutter in the league. He’s good for at least one off ball cut layup/dunk per game. He doesn’t do that all of the time because he’s the primary play maker. Plus the Cavs don’t run a motion offense based on movement. They run a spread pick n roll/iso offense.

Lebron is more than capable of playing within any nba offensive system that there is. He’s only fallen off a smigde athletically, there’s certainly no limitations there.

Yes the Cavs suck defensively and Lebron owns some of that, but chemistry/consistency on defense comes with time and the Cavs haven’t had a consistent squad all year. You have to take that into consideration when judging them defensively.


I get what you're saying

I never said Lebron couldn't play in a more structured system, but that he wouldn't be as effective if he was playing in it. He for sure wouldn't be averaging 27, 9, 7 (or whatever he's averaging) if he was on a team where the focal point wasn't on him. If he was on the Spurs, Warriors, Rockets, Celtics, etc etc, his numbers wouldn't look as good. He's able to inflate those stats because he's in a system catered to him. He can literally create his stat line to any way he sees fit

Not comparing the two, but it reminds me alot of Rajon Rondo when he was on the Celtics. He would dominate the ball constantly on offense. He would stand at the Top of the key while everyone moves and cuts and waits till he finds the right man to pass it too. He used to rack up a ton of assists that way and rack up triple doubles that way also. I find it hilarious how people bytch and moan about Russell Westbrook doing that and "padding stats", but no one says a word when Lebron does it
 

HabitualChiller

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This version of Bron isn't the best he's been. He's now just so good on offense that you forget about him being an average defender. He still locks in when he needs to, but he's not gonna pull that shyt for a whole game which is understandable.
 

GoddamnyamanProf

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I get what you're saying

I never said Lebron couldn't play in a more structured system, but that he wouldn't be as effective if he was playing in it. He for sure wouldn't be averaging 27, 9, 7 (or whatever he's averaging) if he was on a team where the focal point wasn't on him. If he was on the Spurs, Warriors, Rockets, Celtics, etc etc, his numbers wouldn't look as good. He's able to inflate those stats because he's in a system catered to him. He can literally create his stat line to any way he sees fit

Not comparing the two, but it reminds me alot of Rajon Rondo when he was on the Celtics. He would dominate the ball constantly on offense. He would stand at the Top of the key while everyone moves and cuts and waits till he finds the right man to pass it too. He used to rack up a ton of assists that way and rack up triple doubles that way also. I find it hilarious how people bytch and moan about Russell Westbrook doing that and "padding stats", but no one says a word when Lebron does it
Claiming one style of play is legit and another is somehow stat-padding, is just nonsense, especially with how stupidly trendy its become to throw that term out there. Furthermore there's no evidence at all for you to just randomly assume that his numbers would "for sure" be worse playing in any of those systems. Correct me if I'm wrong. Your whole argument is ultimately based on nothing so it comes off as blind hate trying to be disguised as a real argument.
 

Professor Emeritus

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He's able to inflate those stats because he's in a system catered to him. He can literally create his stat line to any way he sees fit

If that's true, then why does Lebron fail to complete a triple-double most of the time he reaches 8+ rebounds and assists?

If he was really creating his stat line however he wanted (and you're right, to a degree he could) AND he was chasing triple-doubles, then he'd be able to finish off all those near triple-doubles. Yet a large majority of the time, he doesn't. He has been stuck on 8 or 9 rebounds/assists more than anyone in NBA history.

LeBron James, King of the ‘Almost’ Triple-Double

By this method, LeBron is producing the least amount of triple-doubles out of any player in NBA history compared to what his average statistics suggest. Based on those numbers (with uncertainty included), LeBron should have reasonably produced around 53 to 73 triple-doubles instead of 37, placing him fifth in the all time rankings.

Lebron actually produces far fewer triple-doubles than he should based on his stats. That's evidence that he's not chasing them. If he was chasing, he'd be hitting that 10th assist a lot more often. But he actually ends up stuck on 8-9 assists way more often than he hits 10-11 assists.



I find it hilarious how people bytch and moan about Russell Westbrook doing that and "padding stats", but no one says a word when Lebron does it

Claiming one style of play is legit and another is somehow stat-padding, is just nonsense, especially with how stupidly trendy its become to throw that term out there.

Exactly. The "style of play" isn't stat-padding (unless your style of play is literally waiting under the hoop for rebounds while other guys box out for you), it's the stat-padding that's stat-padding.

Last year, when Westbrook got to 8+ rebounds/assists he finished the triple-double nearly 80% of the time. That's ridiculous. How do you constantly end up at 10-11 assists and virtually never end up at 8-9 assists? Anyone who watched his game could see over and over - when he needed more assists to a triple-double he hunted them until the final buzzer, when he hit 10 assists he stopped hunting assists and went after his own shot.

Everyone can also see that he's been chasing triple-doubles somewhat less this year as his team has more pressure to be competitive. As a result, he's only finished the triple-double 56% of the time that he's reached 8/8. He's still obviously hunting in some games, but it's not nearly as bad as it was last year.

"Stat-padding" is way overused. That's why it's annoying when people try to apply it to everyone. But when someone stat-pads you can see it. When Westbrook chases an assist with seconds left when everyone else has stopped playing (as he's done at least twice), that's stat-padding. When Westbrook passes on the last five possessions of a tight game because he needs one last assist even though you know he'd be taking those shots under any circumstance, that's stat padding. When Westbrook gets 10 first-half assists and the team is humming, then he suddenly stops and takes 15 second-half shots with only 1 assist cause he got his 10 now, you know he ain't just "following the flow of the game."
 
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