The Official NBA Season Thread: NBA Cup Begins | Embiid Debut | Klay Return

Yep.

Let’s keep it all the way real. He’s more concerned with conserving energy on the defensive end to chase stats.

LeBron is smart. Once he saw the writing on the Wall with Russ (like after game 5 last year)…he said **** it. Imma go get mine. In his mind, he didn’t see a path to winning.

They just not being honest about it. It’s blatantly obvious :lol:
Oh I agree completely with all of this. But it’s not solely about conserving energy to chase stats — he literally has to orchestrate everything for this squad to even have a shot, so of course there’s some energy conservation that he has to do at this age and tread.

I agree that he should be held to a higher standard defensively, he doesn’t even have to be an elite or very good guy like we’ve seen earlier in his career. Those garbage efforts we’ve seen out of him are inexcusable and set a horrible example for the team as the one who is supposed to be THE guy. But even then, that isn’t making this team a contender :lol:. He knows this, you know this, I know this. And he’s going to chase those stats until he finds himself in a position where he’s playing meaningful basketball again (if ever).
 
I don't even think this is all because the team is terrible (partly his doing) and has no chance so **** it, run it up

But you can't say "We want to win a championship with Lebron at the helm. He's still a top 5 player" but also say "We can't expect him to do x y and z because he's old :lol: like I'm sorry? what part of the game is that?
He’s definitely not a Top 5 guy anymore. But think that you can still contend with him as your best guy or maybe second best guy. He doesn’t see it with the team so he’s checked out and is stat chasing. Not defending it one bit, but calling it like it is. This is largely his fault too, but yea this situation is going nowhere fast and he re-signed knowing that so maybe he’s just trying to pass Kareem, play with Bronny and end up owning that Vegas team when the day comes.
 
He’s definitely not a Top 5 guy anymore. But think that you can still contend with him as your best guy or maybe second best guy. He doesn’t see it with the team so he’s checked out and is stat chasing. Not defending it one bit, but calling it like it is. This is largely his fault too, but yea this situation is going nowhere fast and he re-signed knowing that so maybe he’s just trying to pass Kareem, play with Bronny and end up owning that Vegas team when the day comes.

In a vacuum, you shouldn't expect ANY player to lift a team up this bad, no matter how old or young he is. These guys aren't superheroes and this is the western conference, not the eastern conference where he was playing Kemba and the bobcats in round 1

My point was simply that,

The game is the game

Everyone would say that 28 year old Lebron needs to be wayyyy better defensively in order for his team to have a real chance at a title, no matter his supporting cast.

That shouldn't change no matter how old he is now, if the goal is to win a title. If that can't happen?...Well that inherently is an issue and why teams don't build around aging stars lol

Lakers issues extend far beyond him of course, but it's really hard to build a chip level defense when your 4 won't guard ANYONE. Can't keep up on the perimeter anymore, JaMychal Green was busting his ***, it's ROUGH and he's playing 35 minutes a night.
 
C'mon man LeBron don't need to chase stats. The numbers are gonna happen. No wing player is the same defender in his 30's that he was in his 20's.
 
I’ve always said that Bron is held to standards and expectations no other player in sports is. Y’all are proving it.

That’s why he’s the GOAT.
 
Next time I see Draymond put up a triple single performance and the Warriors lose I hope y’all talk about Stephs defensive effort and how he should set more screens.
 
That shouldn't change no matter how old he is now, if the goal is to win a title. If that can't happen?...Well that inherently is an issue and why teams don't build around aging stars lol

Lakers issues extend far beyond him of course, but it's really hard to build a chip level defense when your 4 won't guard ANYONE. Can't keep up on the perimeter anymore, JaMychal Green was busting his ***, it's ROUGH and he's playing 35 minutes a night.
I hear all of this but I def think he could bring the defense in a playoff series where it really counted. He’s just not about to give you that effort for 82 games, and do what he needs to do offensively for this garbage *** team to even have a shot. They definitely could surround him around better defenders and solve that issue, though. They just had a top 10 defense 2 years ago. All of this stuff comes down to personnel, which he obviously was a part of.
 
Quarter of the season last year 23 games:

22/8/8 on 47/34/68 that's more than serviceable starter level production.


Yea yea, they didn't win much but neither did they even Bron and AD were there either, that's kinda not my point.

He looks like he doesn't belong in the league everywhere else. I think there's a happy medium that could be obtained but no one is interested in even trying to make it work. They need to move him.
I think Westbrook is at his best when the ball is in his hands 100% quarterbacking everything for a team that has goals of making the play in at best.

Last night, Lonnie walker was what the Lakers wanted Russ to morph into. Cutting, moving without the ball, taking good shots.

Imo
 
You know all the things ALA was saying when Bron signed with the Lakers??

That's where we're at now. Lebron got his 4th chip, with three different teams. The scoring record is his next mission. If he can get a 5th chip coo. But I don't think that's his end game.

He's LeMogul now. Lakers gotta pay the price now but they know what they got themselves into. It is what it is. With that said. Play-in here we come!
 
That's just it. The best player was supposed to be AD
Yup… this is where the poor decision making started and it cascades down. He’s either not playing or playing and deferring and and you’re back to 38 year old Bron being the feature player. Just didn’t make sense IMO
 
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