LeBron James

[The Wizard of Moz]

LeBron knows what he's doing

 

[Rich]

LeBron knows what he's doing

I agree. I also believe sometimes great players just get their ass kicked, like he did tonight. I don't think he went into this game thinking "I'm gonna mail this in and look bad on purpose." He got dominated by a younger, hungrier guy. Sometimes it just happens.

 

[Tyrone Slothrop]

I never have worries about Lebron, but the turnovers are becoming a bit bothersome. Last night's game was just the latest in a pretty lengthy stretch of games where he has been just careless with the ball. He'll clean it up, like he always does, but just thought I should bitch about something regarding James

 

[Pioneer10]

He looks tired out there to me. Even the Chicago game he seemed to lose energy after the charge call he took. This is where I think aging has caught up to him. His endurance was just superhuman when he was young

Combination of the flu and mid season making it worse?: there may have been more to the Cavs thinking about sitting the Big 3 for the Warriors game then they're letting on. 5 days rest would have been a nice recharge time.

 

[rabman_gold]

Some options for helping LeBron get to the postseason (and Finals) in perfect form:

1. Continue to have games off during back-to-backs (there are still 10 more back-to-backs)
2. Take the annual break and rest (he went to Miami before, but Wade was still a Heat at the time)
3. Start weaning off of 36+ minutes throughout the 2nd half of the season
4. Take the last 2 weeks of the season lightly, but not enough to be rusty

You have to put trust into the organization. And LeBron knows his body better than anyone. He knows what to do and what not to do. He hasn't even reached 40,000 regular season minutes yet. There's still hope to win it all again.

 

[TyGuy]

I'm with Rich here with the call to get LeBron less minutes. We keep hearing about it was the plan to start him off with more minuets and then taper off. Well, when is that going to happen? He's currently logging the most minuets per game for his second tenure with the cavs.

 

[CHIMOCHIS]

If you want to lower the kings minutes you have to be ok with taking more Ls

It's that simple

So let's not cry over meaningless regular season games

And let's not be on suicide watch when they look bad out there

 

[TyGuy]

If you want to lower the kings minutes you have to be ok with taking more Ls

It's that simple

So let's not cry over meaningless regular season games

And let's not be on suicide watch when they look bad out there

Or, our other future MVP candidate and other all star could step up more when he sits? For the record i'm okay with taking more L's if it preserves LeBron.

 

[CHIMOCHIS]

Or, our other future MVP candidate and other all star could step up more when he sits? For the record i'm okay with taking more L's if it preserves LeBron.

yeah I mean at least keep a .500 record would be nice , not look like the worst team in the league without him

 

[LeShaq]

I'm with Rich here with the call to get LeBron less minutes. We keep hearing about it was the plan to start him off with more minuets and then taper off. Well, when is that going to happen? He's currently logging the most minuets per game for his second tenure with the cavs.

Yep. Time to shut LeBron down for some games.

* We're not getting HCA over the Warriors
* LeBron's not winning MVP

Because of those two things, it's time to start sitting him games. The only other concern I have for the rest of the regular season is making sure we get HCA over the Raptors. Also, we do want LeBron and Korver to get some synergy. But that shouldn't be too hard.

Other than that, time to start limiting LeBron's minutes. There's no point not to do that now.

 

[Jordan]

Or, our other future MVP candidate and other all star could step up more when he sits? For the record i'm okay with taking more L's if it preserves LeBron.

It's funny, when we rest LeBron, the problem isn't when Love and Kyrie are playing together. In those instances, the Cavs are scoring 1.121 points per possession (around 108-115 per game depending on pace) and giving up 1.107 points per possession (around 106-113 per game depending on pace). The Cavs are outplaying their opponents with both Kyrie and Love on the floor with no LeBron.

It seems to me that the problem is when it is only Kyrie on the floor and no LeBron or Love.

Just Kyrie:
-Cavs are scoring .973 points per possession (93-100 points per game depending on pace) and giving up a whopping 1.306 points per possession (126-133 points per game depending on pace).
-Kyrie is averaging 1.15 points per shot, though (111-118 points per game depending on pace).

Just Kevin:
-Cavs are scoring 1.116 points per possession (107-114 points per game depending on pace) and giving up .971 points per possession (93-100 points per game depending on pace).
-Kevin is averaging 1.16 points per shot (112-119 points per game).

My read of these stats is not entirely that Kyrie Irving is screwing us - although, he absolutely does need to improve in these circumstances for us to feel comfortable letting LeBron rest - but more that having another ball-handler when Kyrie is playing with no Love or LeBron may be needed.

Think about it, LeBron's bench unit is filled with three-point shooters making his passing deadly. Love's bench unit is filled with a bunch of rough defenders that can find him in the post (most used bench unit with Love is Shumpert-Jefferson-Liggins-TT). Kyrie's bench unit does not serve his strengths while balancing his weaknesses, though.

Kyrie will never be an All-NBA facilitator. At best he'll be a 5-6 assists per game kind of guy, and if he is all by himself, that number may rise to 6-7. The problem is that, with no Kevin or LeBron, Irving feels like he has to be one. With Kyrie as the sole star on the floor, initial actions are incredibly unsuccessful with this team, but Kyrie going ISO as the second option is highly successful (1.15 points per shot).

This is why getting a guy like Rudy Gay is so damn important. He lets the Kyrie+bench unit play at a high level because it creates a higher chance of a successful initial action. He's the type of guy - as well as any point forward type - who can make the Kyrie+bench unit playable in the postseason as well as giving LeBron rest.

 

[The Red Viper]

LeBron was rubbish against the Warriors.

But he was so lackadaisical, it was crazy. I didn't expect him to be in Chill Mode against the Warriors but he was. I guess being the last game of the Road Trip might have played a part or he was just bored and wanted to see see how the Warriors are playing him and what their gameplan was. Eitherway, it was a really bad game from him.

Also, yes, its pretty evident now that we won't get Home Court Advantage against the Warriors. I don't think he is getting the MVP either unless Rockets have some sort of collapse and OKC don't finish in Top-4. If not give him his mini vacation, just reduce his mins. This should be one of our biggest priorities heading into the second half of the season.

 

[LeShaq]

I was just doing some research on another topic (Kay Felder), and I read LeBron's lips with about 3:49 left in the game last night against the Warriors. He was sitting on the bench talking to Channing Frye and Tristan Thompson. This is basically what he said (that they showed). The part I'm not quite sure about I'll highlight in red:


They were waiting on us, man. Working to inspire themselves all since then.


"They" being the Warriors.

LeBron keeping the troops focused and not letting them get down. I like it. LeBron was not happy last night, and that's a good thing.

We didn't need the game last night, the Warriors did need it. And that seemed to be the gist of what LeBron was saying on the bench.

 

[Walter White]

 

[Jscc]

They need to come home and shave those damn beards off. I'm surprised none of them were mistaken as homeless loiterers.