“The great contradiction with LeBron James, or the flaws that have held him back from realizing his birthright as the greatest ever, is how he carries a supreme arrogance in every facet of his basketball life except with a ball in his hands.
James thinks the world of himself, which is understandable from a mega-athlete who has been worshipped since he was in high school. James undermines coaches because he can, because, perhaps rightfully so, he believes he knows more about the game than a David Blatt does. He plays the role of GM, through back channel influence if not by straight demands, even though he’s proven to be subpar over the years in constructing a basketball roster. He takes up all the oxygen in the room, dictating the mood and tenor of his team. If James is not the center of attention, he’ll send out a couple of cryptic tweets to make certain the spotlight is where it belongs.
Basically, LeBron does everybody else’s job but not his own when the time arrives to take over a game. Then he defers.
Jack Winter of uproxx.com writes:
“It’s no secret the four-time MVP never quite managed to find his wayward jumper in 2015-16. The Warriors probably understand that even better than the rest of the league, too. They forced James into dismal 29.3 percent shooting from outside the restricted area en route to a title last year. And unfortunately for Cleveland, the only thing that’s changed between then and now is his willingness to improve on that number…The analytically inclined fawn over shot charts that look like this.”
“…James’ ailment has infected his entire team. And unless he magically finds a cure for it, his jump shot will continue plaguing the Cavaliers as their title hopes go from rapidly fading to vanishing altogether.”
Echoing LeBron’s poor shooting is Ethan Strauss for ESPN:
“But 10 games is enough of a sample size. In the last 10 regular-season and playoff meetings between the Warriors and Cavs, James has shot 32-of-91 (35 percent) with Iguodala as his primary defender. In that span, James has yet to solve Iguodala’s combination of speed, savvy and well-timed swipe-downs.
So Iguodala has been dominating James defensively since June 2015. It’s an effort augmented by a team of similarly sized wings who switch and defend with intelligence. It’s an effort augmented by whatever happened to James’ jumper after he left Miami. The Warriors are going under on screens for James and switching with ease thanks to the apparent lack of a shooting threat.”
Harvey Araton on Pro Basketball for the NY Times:
“Losing in the finals to a Golden State team that won a record 73 regular-season games, if that is the inevitable result, would be no disgrace. But if the series continues this way, and so far it has not been remotely competitive, the epitaph for the Cavaliers’ season should be: This is the team James wanted, and assembled.
…Love is just one example — although the most egregious — of what can happen when a player, even the very best player, enjoys the kind of executive leverage James has had since rejoining the Cavaliers in the summer of 2014.
The denials from his camp and the Cleveland front office have naturally been vehement. They say James did not insist on trading Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 pick of that year’s draft, to Minnesota for the overrated Love, a deal that deprived the Cavaliers of a superior young athlete James might have mentored.
…But agents who have had business with the Cavaliers speak of Griffin’s telling them he would get back to them after checking matters with James. League people remind you that Michael Jordan never had such power in Chicago and, based on the personnel decisions he opposed, probably would not have won six titles if he did have it.”
Dieter Kurtenbach from FoxSports.com writes:
“You can hear the hot-take cannons being prepared as we speak – artillery shells with his soon-to-be NBA Finals record – “2-5” – emblazoned on the side, ready to be fired off as justification for alleging one of the greatest basketball players of all-time isn’t a “great winner.
…The Cavs might lose these Finals in embarrassing fashion, but no matter how it goes down, you can’t pin the loss on LeBron.
It’s not LeBron’s fault that Kyrie Irving has no interest in passing the ball, or that Kevin Love, before his concussion, decided that defense was something he only did for the Timberwolves, or that JR Smith can’t find the space to shoot, or that Tristan Thompson is being worked down-low by smaller players who are hungrier than the once insatiable forward, or that Tyronn Lue doesn’t appear to have any idea what he’s doing, or that the Warriors are ruthless winning machines that crush the souls of anything in their wake (so long as they don’t have three 7-footers.)”
We have the typical, LeBron isn’t alpha male enough. I don’t think that this is LeBron’s ultimate weakness. When Kobe was going total alpha male, his critics railed on him for being too selfish. LeBron can’t win. He went total alpha male last finals, and it still didn’t work. They did win two games, but this Warriors team is better than last year, and it seems that the Warriors figured out a way to beat the total alpha male.
A legitimate concern is LeBron’s shooting. That stat chart reminded me of the first time that I realized Michael Jackson was born black, it was surprising, but made a lot of sense. There has been a lot of chatter about this that he can’t hit shots away from the basket. Zach Lowe, Brian Windhorst, Ryan Rusillo, and countless others who watch this team all season have brought this up. The shot chart strengthens the argument.
Is this LeBron’s team? Well, yeah, he has built the team. Does that mean, it is all on him if he doesn’t win a championship with them? Well, no. He is in the NBA Finals, which 30 other teams can’t claim, and they all have someone that put together those teams as well. It’s not like he is Coach K choosing his Olympic dream team and ending up with Channing Frye and Tristan Thompson. He can only choose from those players who are willing and available. He orchestrated the resurrection of the Cavs since his return, and any other general manager would love to be in his position. It is bad luck that he has ran into the greatest team ever (allegedly).
LeBron is past his prime, his jump shot has eluded him, and he can’t beat the Warriors. He is still arguably the best player and his ability to instantly make any team he is on a finals contender is remarkable. He is fighting against a proven incompetent organization. A team who was irrelevant, both before and after his stay there. Cleveland should be grateful as long as it’s lasts, title or not.