The LeBron James Thread

[jeebs9]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

The second video is on point. He's had a ton of help in his career since he left CLE the first time. Wade, Bosh, Irving, and Love are better supporting stars than most greats got to play with. Every one of those guys had to take on a reduced role to fit into the required BronBall system. You could put four guys from All-NBA First Team on LeBron's squad and every one of them would have their role greatly reduced. You wouldn't see a balanced mesh like with GSW. Bosh essentially became a spot up shooter, much like Love. Funny that those players' reduced statistical impact fed into the narrative that LeBron's supporting cast was always weak or didn't show up in various series. You could see the disarray the young Lakers core was in this year trying to adjust to BronBall.



LeBron is at his best when he is allowed to carry a team full of role players. He's the best there's ever been at maximizing role players and carrying teams farther than they should go, granted playing in the weak East played a sizeable role in that. He'll put up monster numbers like his 36/13/9 '15 Finals series and everyone will be blown away. There's a weird irony about one of the most unselfish basketball players having a style that makes his best teammates worse. I think that's why there's truth to KD's statements about stars not wanting to play with LeBron. You have to sacrifice a ton; it doesn't seem like fun despite giving you a greater chance at winning.



Despite all that, for as great as he is, he's just like other greats who needed a great sidekick to win. He needed Wade and he needed a Kyrie who outplayed Steph in the 2016 Finals.



His off the court behavior has always had a bit of phoniness and divaness to it but whatever. At least we moved past the days where he was doing an Irish jig on the bench mid-game. Still, stuff like the "playoff activation" stuff makes you cringe.

Bosh and Love were bigs with jumpers. Like I said before. I thought the Heat team shared the ball the best of any LeBron lead team (those last 3 years on the heat). Once he came back to the Cavs. The Bronball was back in effect. I think the be narrative once it got to the finals was always going to be on LeBron's teammates if they lose.

The first year with the heat. That finals I blame LeBron. He disappeared.

The final year with the heat. I think the first game with the weird heat conditions missed up the whole series.

The first year with the Cavs. Kyrie was killing Curry before hurting his knee. Love was lost in the Boston series.

That third year with the Cavs was weird. You can blame LeBron on this series.

And obviously last year JR Smith situation. The whole series was done lol

I think LeBron is in a tough spot no matter what anyone says. He's been put on this pedestal.

People complained about him not posting up. They complained about his jumper. They complained he was too passive. They said he wasn't clutch. I've heard it all to this point.

https://youtu.be/erQl3K7NRnc

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[jeebs9]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Here is one more thing that I guess could be a counter argument about "Bronball". All these star players before they joined or got forced into playing with him. Can't you say they have never been to the finals before they played with LeBron. Wade is the only one. But even before he teamed up with LeBron. He was first round exit vs 2010 Celtics the year before. 2009 lost to ATL. 2008 didn't make the playoffs. 2007 swept by the Bulls. Won finals MVP 2006 (with Shaq towards the end of his prime).

No need to mention Bosh, Love, or Kyrie. These guys can't say they even been to the Conference Finals of their conferences at the time.

LeBron was always expected to be in the finals. Even his 2009 Cavs team had the best record in the East. They choked Orlando in the Eastern Finals. And then choked again vs in the semi-final vs the Celtics in 2010.

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[ojandpizza]

The LeBron James Thread

Edit: delete

[ehh]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Edit: delete

Booooooooooo.

It was more than 5,000 words, wasn't it?

[jeebs9]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Booooooooooo.

It was more than 5,000 words, wasn't it?

I read half of it this morning lol

[ojandpizza]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I really just didn't want to jump into a back and forth over it lol.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I really just didn't want to jump into a back and forth over it lol.

March 28th, 2019.

The Day OJ DID NOT Stan for LeBron

[ojandpizza]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

March 28th, 2019.

The Day OJ DID NOT Stan for LeBron

Really what I had typed out originally wasn't even really stanning for LeBron, it could have been applied to all players in general.

[jeebs9]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I really just didn't want to jump into a back and forth over it lol.

I totally understand. After I posted mine. I thought of erasing mine too.

[The 24th Letter]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Really what I had typed out originally wasn't even really stanning for LeBron, it could have been applied to all players in general.

Agree with you.

If you're going to itemize the game of basketball like that, which I hate.....the standard has to apply to everyone....and no one really gets a fair shake doing that, even the players we favor, if we're honest.

[23]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

March 28th, 2019.

The Day OJ DID NOT Stan for LeBron

Michael Rappaport - "Shannon, You know it's the beginning of the end"

[ProfessaPackMan]

The LeBron James Thread

Really what I had typed out originally wasn't even really stanning for LeBron, it could have been applied to all players in general.

So repost it so we can know what you and 24 are talking about.

[ojandpizza]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Really solid breakdown from Ben Taylor from thinking basketball, nylon calculus, backpicks, etc.. gives some scouting reference to why synergy, advanced stats, and the like still peg LeBron as a plus level defender, despite people pulling the 3 "rest" possessions he takes per game and making their Harden-like anti defense montages.

<iframe width="789" height="444" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hsxlu7nYdhU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Also, his YouTube is worth a follow as he is doing more and more scouting breakdowns for lots of players, and his work tends to go a bit deeper than your standard "eye test" as it's relayed back to how the scouting results in what the numbers tell us as well. Cool stuff, some of the same scouting tools that were used in his backpicks top 40 players article that was shared here awhile back.. Which if you took the time to actually read those scouting reports, and watch those videos, it's about the most in depth tool available.

I'm also subscribed to his patreon account, for anyone interested in these types of numbers he has TONS of that there as well for players dating back to before stats like this were even kept. Most everything is pace adjusted as well as relative to league average adjusted.. So lots of unique things like being able to compare rebounding rates from Bill Russell to someone like Dennis Rodman, and having passer ratings for players all the way back to the 50's.

[jeebs9]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Really solid breakdown from Ben Taylor from thinking basketball, nylon calculus, backpicks, etc.. gives some scouting reference to why synergy, advanced stats, and the like still peg LeBron as a plus level defender, despite people pulling the 3 "rest" possessions he takes per game and making their Harden-like anti defense montages.



Also, his YouTube is worth a follow as he is doing more and more scouting breakdowns for lots of players, and his work tends to go a bit deeper than your standard "eye test" as it's relayed back to how the scouting results in what the numbers tell us as well. Cool stuff, some of the same scouting tools that were used in his backpicks top 40 players article that was shared here awhile back.. Which if you took the time to actually read those scouting reports, and watch those videos, it's about the most in depth tool available.

I'm also subscribed to his patreon account, for anyone interested in these types of numbers he has TONS of that there as well for players dating back to before stats like this were even kept. Most everything is pace adjusted as well as relative to league average adjusted.. So lots of unique things like being able to compare rebounding rates from Bill Russell to someone like Dennis Rodman, and having passer ratings for players all the way back to the 50's.

I've been following him since his first video.

His content is great
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[ojandpizza]

The LeBron James Thread

I've been following him since his first video.

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I’ve been following his other outlets for awhile now since that article was posted with his top 40 GOAT list, just recently discovered he has a YouTube account now though. I’m glad he’s started to do videos now for all current guys because a lot of his other stuff is on past players.


I think one of my favorite takeaways from his content is he does a great job of trying to remove the whole bias factor. Meaning his videos aren't like the traditional here is a scouting video and this is what I think about it.. But more so here is a scouting video and this is where it relates to what this stat, and this stat, and this stat tell us. Along with providing insight on areas where those stats might come up short in giving full context as well.

For his past player breakdowns he does a great job at getting away from the whole this player was an All-Star, this player won MVP, this player was All-NBA, he pays little attention to narrative and more on the individuality of the player. An example being that just because Michael Jordan didn't actually win MVP in 1990 doesn't mean he didn't have an MVP level season.

He has a particular quote in his back-picks article in where he says something along the lines of if David Robinson was backing up the two best centers to ever play he wouldn't be very valuable but he would still be very good. Meaning that a lot of his reasoning attempts to separate a player's "goodness" rather than just their situational value. That line in particular to me changed a bit the way I even view and value certain players and start paying more attention to how different circumstances often play a big role in skewing perception and basic counting stats.

I also love his idea of using a per 75 possession stat fix for all basic stats for era comparison. Where a modern player in today's game playing up around that 36ish minute mark will get roughly 75 possession in a game, adjusting past players stats to a per 75 get us much closer than the standard per 36 numbers because those still don't adjust for pace changes.. Per 75 possessions, though only truly altering possessions, mimics what it would be like if we could adjust for pace, minutes, and possessions. I think the error rate on this was only about a 1% error, so this stat and a lot of others that he manipulates have very very small differences from what would be reality. Which gets us estimates that are about as close as you could ask for without requiring you to be a statistics wizard since basketball-reference lets you change the per possession value to whatever you want it to be.


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