The LeBron James- 23-24 NBA Playoffs & Off-Season Thread -(NO PERSONAL ATTACKS & BAITING)

[Run DLC]

Off topic, I love Ant-man approach to the game. I don’t think his off the court image will be as polished and carefully crafted as LeBron’s, but I don’t think people will question his competitiveness and “killer instinct” as much as they did LeBron. Wemby, Ant-Man, Giannis, etc, they all have that 80’s and 90’s “We’re not friends, I’m going to **** kill you” mentality when they step on the court, and I love every minute of it.

[EmpireFalls]

For whatever it’s worth, Ben Taylor of Thinking Basketball placed LBJ in the all-NBA first team of the first round series, 2nd in the Thinking Basketball Box Model.

[rk2023]

For whatever it’s worth, Ben Taylor of Thinking Basketball placed LBJ in the all-NBA first team of the first round series, 2nd in the Thinking Basketball Box Model.

I found his list to be pretty fair, both for the first and second teams. I’d probably replace one of the Clips guys (George) with Kyrie - making one of these lists after the Mavs Clips series concluded.

Spoiler:

First: Jokic Ant LBJ Brunson Embiid
Second: PG Harden Luka AD White

One thing I would elaborate on further that did spark my curiosity was explicitly mentioning Luka’s playmaking and latent value of such - but not touching on it for Bron or Harden (both of them had very stellar playmaking series as far as I’m concerned).

Brings a few questions to mind w.r.t. player evaluation:
• Could it be mentioned solely for Luka due to his scoring efficiency being significantly lower than LBJ and Harden (albeit, Harden’s total O-Load and box production was a lot lower than either)?
• Could Luka have more scoring gravity and better stamina & motor on the ball nowadays which leads to a greater degree of latent / inherent value as a playmaker?

[Colbinii]

Ya'll really thought you were beating Minnesota

[nzahir]

Ya'll really thought you were beating Minnesota

We would have had a better shot than Denver tbh

Minny is a bad 4th Q team

But they are one of the only teams with the size to go up vs Den

I want us to look at getting a big who can play besides AD so we can go big

[IG2]

There's 0 doubt in my mind Lakers would beat every team in the WC besides Denver. They'll also remain Denver's toughest opponent until Boston in the Finals.

[IG2]

There's 0 doubt in my mind Lakers would beat every team in the WC besides Denver. They'll also remain Denver's toughest opponent until Boston in the Finals.

Hmmm maybe I was wrong. I guess we're seeing the big difference defensively between Minnesota and LA. LA could never get any stops late against Denver.

[rk2023]

There's 0 doubt in my mind Lakers would beat every team in the WC besides Denver. They'll also remain Denver's toughest opponent until Boston in the Finals.

Besides Denver and Minny*

[Cavsfansince84]

Off topic, I love Ant-man approach to the game. I don’t think his off the court image will be as polished and carefully crafted as LeBron’s, but I don’t think people will question his competitiveness and “killer instinct” as much as they did LeBron. Wemby, Ant-Man, Giannis, etc, they all have that 80’s and 90’s “We’re not friends, I’m going to **** kill you” mentality when they step on the court, and I love every minute of it.

I don't think they have it anymore than LeBron has/had it. LeBron' main criticism was just that he passed it too much early on. The only guy he really acted like friends with was Wade. People forget that Isiah and Magic(who were two of the most competitive players ever) used to kiss before some of those finals games. Players just are who they are. LeBron was getting criticized so much simply because we live in a society where that gets more views for talking heads than praise does and he had a huge target on his back from the age of 16. Wemby will have a similar target by the time he is 21/22.

[Run DLC]

Off topic, I love Ant-man approach to the game. I don’t think his off the court image will be as polished and carefully crafted as LeBron’s, but I don’t think people will question his competitiveness and “killer instinct” as much as they did LeBron. Wemby, Ant-Man, Giannis, etc, they all have that 80’s and 90’s “We’re not friends, I’m going to **** kill you” mentality when they step on the court, and I love every minute of it.

I don't think they have it anymore than LeBron has/had it. LeBron' main criticism was just that he passed it too much early on. The only guy he really acted like friends with was Wade. People forget that Isiah and Magic(who were two of the most competitive players ever) used to kiss before some of those finals games. Players just are who they are. LeBron was getting criticized so much simply because we live in a society where that gets more views for talking heads than praise does and he had a huge target on his back from the age of 16. Wemby will have a similar target by the time he is 21/22.

I agree to an extent, but LeBron’s approach doesn’t come off as ultra competitive as the late Kobe or MJ. LeBron is friends with a lot of top players(Wade, Melo, CP3, etc) and he wants to be friendly with each and every top players who posses a threat to his chance of successfully winning. Can you even imagine MJ or Kobe publicly wanting to play with Steph Curry(the guy who took 3 titles from LeBron) or even KD( the guy who slithered his way to take away 2 titles from LeBron), and the whole time neither one of those two guys have expressed the same mutual interest in return, and that makes LeBron comes off as a cowardly bitch in a lot of people’s eyes.

[Cavsfansince84]

I agree to an extent, but LeBron’s approach doesn’t come off as ultra competitive as the late Kobe or MJ. LeBron is friends with a lot of top players(Wade, Melo, CP3, etc) and he wants to be friendly with each and every top players who posses a threat to his chance of successfully winning. Can you even imagine MJ or Kobe publicly wanting to play with Steph Curry(the guy who took 3 titles from LeBron) or even KD( the guy who slithered his way to take away 2 titles from LeBron), and the whole time neither one of those two guys have expressed the same mutual interest in return, and that makes LeBron comes off as a cowardly bitch in a lot of people’s eyes.

Ok but that's also part of the era of these guys constantly playing on national and youth teams to some degree together which didn't happen before the 00's much. So it's not an apples to apples thing here and some of these guys aren't on national teams with other top players either. Guys didn't move around and switch teams nearly as much prior to the 00's either. You have to use this context if you're going to try and have a meaningful discussion about the topic imo. Steph and Bron also went after each other on social media a decent amount as well. It's not all just rainbows and unicorns between these guys.

[homecourtloss]

Denver’s front office messed up the easiest job ever by not replacing Brown (would have been huge in this game) and not getting a backup big.

On another note, it was funny seeing Denver get beat by some lucky shots, i.e., Reid’s bank three and Rudy’s bank shot put shot. Also was amusing seeing super peak Jokic get roasted by Naz Reid.

[homecourtloss]

There's 0 doubt in my mind Lakers would beat every team in the WC besides Denver. They'll also remain Denver's toughest opponent until Boston in the Finals.

Hmmm maybe I was wrong. I guess we're seeing the big difference defensively between Minnesota and LA. LA could never get any stops late against Denver.

Eh, I think the Lakers take Minny in six. They really should have beaten the Nuggets.

[Mos_Heat]

Denver’s front office messed up the easiest job ever by not replacing Brown (would have been huge in this game) and not getting a backup big.

On another note, it was funny seeing Denver get beat by some lucky shots, i.e., Reid’s bank three and Rudy’s bank shot put shot. Also was amusing seeing super peak Jokic get roasted by Naz Reid.

They are 20M above the tax line and about to pay KCP a good amount. It's not that easy

[falcolombardi]

Off topic, I love Ant-man approach to the game. I don’t think his off the court image will be as polished and carefully crafted as LeBron’s, but I don’t think people will question his competitiveness and “killer instinct” as much as they did LeBron. Wemby, Ant-Man, Giannis, etc, they all have that 80’s and 90’s “We’re not friends, I’m going to **** kill you” mentality when they step on the court, and I love every minute of it.

.

That sounds more like valuing the performative-ness of the whole act or persona than actual competitiveness

[zimpy27]

How do people see DeMar as an MLE target? Or in an SnT?

Lakers would need to be hard capped to have DeMar..

[donnieme]

Ya'll really thought you were beating Minnesota

It's called matchups for a reason.

[donnieme]

Off topic, I love Ant-man approach to the game. I don’t think his off the court image will be as polished and carefully crafted as LeBron’s, but I don’t think people will question his competitiveness and “killer instinct” as much as they did LeBron. Wemby, Ant-Man, Giannis, etc, they all have that 80’s and 90’s “We’re not friends, I’m going to **** kill you” mentality when they step on the court, and I love every minute of it.

.

That sounds more like valuing the performative-ness of the whole act or persona than actual competitiveness

It's also a myth they were ever that way. There just wasn't any twitter or camera phones to show them playing golf or clubbing with each other in the middle of a series. Behind the scenes these guys have always been buds. It only looks new because of overexposure.

[Slava]

How do people see DeMar as an MLE target? Or in an SnT?

Lakers would need to be hard capped to have DeMar..

I wouldn’t mind him if the price isn’t high. Low turnover, efficient at his brand of shots and can play as a primary ball handler. We really do need depth though, a better 6-10 than Vincent, Prince, Reddish and Hayes would be nice.

[K9J]

How do people see DeMar as an MLE target? Or in an SnT?

Lakers would need to be hard capped to have DeMar..

if lakers could move to get full MLE Derozan seems the best target this FA if he accepts the pay cut

snt adding caruso would be a better move, but tougher to do