LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

Eh, teams played defense back then. Hand checking was allowed, th rules allowed you to do more than breathe on a perimeter player to varying degrees. The rules today allow players to get a full head of steam because you can’t touch them, and then reward them for plowing into stationary players and falling down, with free throws.

 

I'm not discrediting Magic, I'm saying what LeBron did was impressive. I don't understand how Magic had one of the greatest Finals performances of all time, but LeBron is just inflated stats despite the fact that Magic played at a faster pace with better teammates...

Both performances are fantastic. I have no idea how you can dismiss LeBron while building up everyone else. That makes zero sense.

 

If those stats are inflated, then stats in the 80s are more inflated. If we're going to strike those players down due to pace, then every player in the 80s needs to be taken down too. What is inflated is the efficiency because defense is so rare these days, but pace is going to exist no matter what. It's a cyclical league. In 10-15 years, it'll slow down again when the next Shaq or Hakeem comes along and takes over down low. That's the way the league works.

Even if you take that into account, nobody in the history of the NBA, including Kareem, Magic, West, Jordan, Kobe, etc. has averaged a triple-double in the NBA Finals and you toss that aside as "inflation" as if that's not an accomplishment.

 

Nobody else has averaged a triple double in the Finals. Not Westbrook. Not Harden. Not even Magic with a faster pace. No one.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.

 

No I doubt it at this point. This is likely to be his last major deal, so taking a shorter one doesn't really make sense. If he took a two year deal, he's likely declined at that point and only offered a two year deal at sub max. He might as well take the full max deal.

I feel the same way about Paul George actually. He's unlikely to get a second max regardless of if he takes a 4 or 5 year deal, so might as well take all 5 right? (Demand a trade and then sign an extension).

Trading for LeBron doesn't makes sense because his PO is the same as what his new contract would be, but trading for Paul George would be a massive benefit. If we traded for George by giving up a protected future pick and maybe Zubac or something, we could get George and extend him, waive Deng, sign LeBron to his full max, and give Randle all the money he wants while not giving up any of the major pieces we already have including the Cleveland pick which looks like it could end up in the teens.

Of course, we could also attach a couple assets to Deng and try to use that extra 7.5 million to nail down another role player, but maybe we don't have to.

1) Trade 2020 1st (Top 10 protected), Zubac, 2 2nds for Paul George
2) Waive Deng
3) Sign LeBron to a full max deal 4/137 million
4) Sign Julius for 4/80 million
5) Sign Paul George to a 5/156 million dollar extension
6) Sign Brook Lopez to a 3/12 million dollar Room Exception deal
7) Fill in with veteran minimums

Lonzo/vet minimum
George/Hart
Ingram/Cleveland Pick
LeBron/Kuzma
Randle/Lopez/Bryant

 

This is definitely the best case scenario.

 

I'm not expecting to convince you or anyone on the other side of the fence to change your mind, honestly. I do hope that when the time comes and he's holding up that Laker jersey, you can fight down your hatred and hopefully my posts in this thread give you hope that things will work out.

 

Man, sign me up for that team yesterday. Instant contenders with players to keep us good for a long time as well.

 

My Vote and tweet (comment at the bottom):

 

I'm not surprised at all. Fans are hardly ever pragmatic about this thing.

I'll take Option E- Most of the kids, Julius, LeBron, and George.

 

I would have likely voted for this option as well, but twitter doesn't allow you to add a 5 option (weird) and I would want to know who or which of our young guys had to be included to trade Deng before selecting that option for sure.

 

Of THESE options, PG, Randle, all the kids. We become a playoff team next season, remain young, have extra time to trade Deng, and then have a max slot still for that 2019 free agency class. I think they purposely left out your option E, real, to make this a more difficult choice. If the choice is LeBron, PG, Randle, and almost all the other kids, that seems a pretty easy choice. I’m not for trading half the team to pair Davis with those other 2 guys though, dumb as that may sound. Watching these kids grow and progress, it would be hard to dump them all for a brand new big 3 and suddenly love that team. And no it wouldn’t be like what Boston did in ‘07, because they kept their beloved PP, and they were horrible the previous season.