Reply With Quote
are you re ed
before he got hurt the lakers were among the top 4 teams in the west
I think this year has made that painfully obvious, and I don't want to hear about injuries because that happens every year to all sorts of teams. Replay his career in the West and he most likely never wins a ring. In fact I don't think he'll even get out of the 2nd round the rest of his career here.
are you re ed
before he got hurt the lakers were among the top 4 teams in the west
and the Grizz were the 1st seed at one point in this season, it means nothing. Tons of teams have suffered injuries, the Rockets, Spurs, Nuggets, OKC, list goes on.
and I gurantee you lebron would still be a playoff team in the east, even Oladipo had IND 3rd, even without him they're winning games. even brooklyn is the 6th seed despite losing Levert at the start of the year. that tells you all you need to know about the east
Their record with would be equal to a 50 win season. Their record without him would be equal to a 27 win season. And this is the conclusion you’ve drawn?
2007 was a joke of a team. Cavs got swept by the Spurs and would've gotten swept by the Suns too. Wouldn't have made it past the second round of he played in the west.
2011 was interesting bc they would've had to face 2 of the Lakers, thunder, or the Mavs. Miami was a great team though but Lebron really only choked bc it was the finals. He played great in the conference finals. Hard to say if he chokes as bad against Dallas if they play them in the WCF but I will give Carlise the upper hand and say the Mavs still win.
2012 & 2013 they are champs so no complaints. Lebron dominated.
2014 they got killed by the Spurs in a joke of a finals so obviously he wouldn't have made it to the finals. I'm not sure they even beat the thunder tbh.
2015 is a 100% fact that they wouldn't have made the finals. They would've been the 6th seed in the west that year and play the Clippers, Rockets, and Warriors to make the finals. ALL ON THE ROAD. Just no way to really say Lebron would've made the finals that year if he played in the west.
2016 no complaints. They are the champs and Lebron played godly where nobody was stopping him. He was on a mission and played the best bball I've ever seen.
2017 obviously KD rigged the league but I believe Lebron wouldn't have made the WCF that year. He would lose to either the Spurs or the Warriora in the second round.
2018 was another joke of a team that would've been playoff fodder for either Houston or Golden St. Once again Lebron wouldn't have even made the conference finals.
And this year they aren't even in the playoffs. Lebron is by far a product of the Eastern Conference. By my count Lebron loses in the second round 3 times (arguably 4) in the West while making the WCF only twice (maybe 3 times). His legacy would be far under Kobe and Duncan and Shaq
LeGOAT's problem isn't the West, it's the Lakers. The new-age Lakers can't do anything right. They lucked into getting the greatest basketball player of all time purely on geography and his Hollywood career, and they've managed to that up.
so lebron himself being injured is not an excuse for the lakers sucking after he got hurt and was unable to play?
then by that logic there is no excuse for cleveland or miami sucking after lebron left
Rack it.
Lebrons teams with and without. The difference is staggering.
that literally makes no sense whatsoever
the mavs had a completely different team and gameplan than chicago
the stage had nothing to do with him choking because aside from that year he pretty much always played as well as he could have in the finals, often far exceeding expectation
dallas had one goal defensively - dont let lebron beat you. they let wade have all he wanted, but didnt want lebron to get involved. they frequently doubled him quickly forcing him to give the ball up immediately, while wade had tunnel vision due to his strange butthurt over 2006
this also is a re ed claim
if hes a product of the east (implying the east has far less talent), then you have to take into account the fact that his supporting cast is less talented too. among the eastern conference teams, he had a very good supporting cast.
so if you wanna plug him into the west, you gotta plug him into a western team with a comparable level supporting cast for western conference teams. he should have one of the 2-3 best supporting casts in the west. so take this year for example, say you replace westbrook with lebron, and hes able to play with PG, shroeder, and Steven Adams. would they not dominate in the west too, aside from maybe GS?
he literally went from kyrie and love (a solid #2 & #3 option) to ingram and kuzma (a young, rather lousy #2 & #3 option)
he went to a tougher conference and has a worse supporting cast than he previously had. do we really expect him to be at the top of the conference in that situation?
Le”Goat” problem is father time.
Also as ty as some of those Cleveland teams were, the one thing they always had were shooters who could consistently space the floor and could somewhat compliment Lebron on offense. This Lakers team doesn’t have any 3 point shooters that defenses have to respect.
They're 22-16 or something close when he plays, that's pretty impressive considering his #2/3/4 options are all young and inexperienced, while the rest of the team is old scrubs(other than Rondo and maybe McGee)
LeBron's legacy would have been better in the West..he would have the same number of les, but then people couldn't use the stupid Finals record argument
OP argument is just dumb.They're 22-16 or something close when he plays, that's pretty impressive considering his #2/3/4 options are all young and inexperienced, while the rest of the team is old scrubs(other than Rondo and maybe McGee)
LeBron's legacy would have been better in the West..he would have the same number of les, but then people couldn't use the stupid Finals record argument
He would make less finals, sure.
But greatness is transcedant acoross eras and conferences.
you could also make arguments that most anyone who had an extended level of greatness benefitted from weakness
west was far weaker than east in magics era
east was arguably weaker than west in jordans era
the league as a whole was weak during shaq/kobe era
the league was garbage during wilt & russell era
who cares though, winning is winning. to win it all you gotta beat the best of the best, regardless of conference or era
He averaged 4 points a game in the 4th quarter in 2011. He went scoreless one game. GTFOH with this he didn't choke business. if that's your definition of playing as well as he can or exceeding expectations then your standards are lower than bridesmaid at the singles table.
I do make that point about Magic. He had an easier path to the finals and played a 40 win team once to make it to the finals.
But nothing else you say is actually factual. Bc even if the east was weaker, not by much, Jordan swept the West everytime he faced them and didn't get blown out in the worst finals loss ever (points wise) for a series. If you don't lose to the west then it doesn't matter how strong they supposedly were.
Shaq played against Jordan so I wouldn't consider that era weak. He also played against Duncan in the west which once again wasn't weak. Like literally the only thing weak about the Kobe/Duncan era was the eastern conference so I don't know what your ing about.
also it's impossible to compare Lebrons era with Russells. Yes players are more skilled today and faster. But Lebron wouldn't have played nearly the same as he did in the 50s and 60s. He would be wearing inferior footwear. He would be taking buses instead of private planes. He wouldn't have his own chef or nutritionist. He wouldn't be able to spend so much on his body bc the technology wasn't the same (and he'd be making far less). He'd have to handle racism and segregation to a degree he can't even imagine. He's actually be called for traveling and carrying. He would be staying in awful motels instead of 5 star resorts. So say what you want about Russell and his era but nobody today could play back then either.
great point.
did i say he didn't choke? did you even read what i posted?
i said the stage isn't why he choked. yes he choked, but not because it was the finals. he (and the heat as a whole) didn't adjust properly to the mavs scheme
yep you're re ed
yeah it's re ed to think that a player like KD, who gets his feelings hurt bc teams ask about his upcoming free agency, would thrive in a time with death threats, lynching, segregation, real racism, and overall lack of rights for black people. They didn't even have AC back then. You got to take in even little things like that into account.
The stage is why he choked. It became a story that he played bad and he was on the biggest stage with all eyes on him. Of course the Mavs played good defense, but bc he had never won before and so much was expected from that team and it was the NBA finals where he guaranteed 7 rings. These things played a part of his choke job too not just Carlise.
i was with you in that post until you said no one in today's league could play back then. thats just stupid. especially after all the comparisons "oh well the players back then didn't have the equipment and food that todays players have if they did they would be just as good!!!!!!!!!!!"
then you would have to account that plugging todays players back then, they grew up in the same environment and wouldn't be as easily offended by little things. quit picking and choosing
I would agree if he had a history of choking, period. but outside of that series, lebron has literally never been a choker at any point. so i have a hard time believing it was the stage that caused him to play so poorly
They couldn't even dribble a basketball with both hands
Eh, he also brought it upon himself this year. He's 34, no longer an 18 year old, and still think he should have the ball at all times. Too bad the Lakers couldn't win before they went to the Cavs gameplan (a LeBron-dominated offense). But that doesn't mean it's right for him at this stage of his career. He got an overuse injury because he was an overused 34 year old athlete with crap surrounding him. One Jimmy Butler/Paul George/Kawhi/KD/ even Kyrie (a professional ball player with championship DNA) changes his whole story this year on the Lakers. This year is also on Magic Johnson who got him the crappiest supporting cast ever (Lance Stephenson, Javale McGee, Michael Beasley, as a core, really?). Only Rondo is a keeper there atm. Kuzma can be a player but is so young and raw still, and they are like the TWolves culture over there without LeBron propping them up.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
