LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

It depends on the matchups, Jake struggles against certain type of guys too. So I'm not ready to declare him, a better fit per se. We have several guys that are useful in certain situations, the head coach is going to have to figure out, who works best against who. In general, I'm leaning towards the proven playoffs performance, once we get to the postseason. Hopefully Jake will elevate his game and establish himself. We'll see.

 

Sure, I'm more saying that he is a good glue guy and plays both sides of the ball. We could use more two way players alongside Lebron, AR and Luka.

 

Took to long to get going offensively but I can't believe at 41 he's still a shutdown defensive guy in the 4th when you need him to be.

 

His joints must have really disliked the cold cause it took 42(ish) minutes into the game before he was loose. BUT those final 5-6 minutes, he was great. Got strips and stops on D. Made the right plays on offense.


Found the gear and got it done.

 

Interesting as I thought Luka also looked fresh in the 4th - Come on Rob get these guys some dudes to hold the fort down. Once they decide to put the peddle to metal it's fun to watch

 

What’s all this nonsense about steroids?

 

He's putting up his "Miami Heat days" numbers, insane. Too bad we hurt his feelings, having him next season for 10-12mil a year would be SICK.

 

i don't think he'd be willing to take that kind of money regardless of his feelings

 

I continue to believe that this idea that if we just replace LeBron's salary slot with a couple of 3&D role players everything will work better is misguided. If that's the way we go, we're going to sorely miss having a third guy that can both create offense and finish plays.

 

Even when some here, because they hate him personally, think he should be doing NO offense creation, and forget who he is and what he can STILL do, and just give the ball up to everyone else, set screens, rebound and play D (though maintaining he plays none)?

 

It’s the defense that’s our problem. We have plenty of scoring and passing and shot creation with Luka and AR.
Imagine if we replaced LeBron with two players who can play D AND give Luka and AR even more space to operate?
Defensively, we aren’t even good enough to make it out of the first round.
Also, we desperately need a microwave scorer off the bench to spell Rui when he doesn’t have it going.

 

tertiary creators are easier to find than 3 and d role players, so you might be in luck!

 

I think Lakers can offer him only 9 millions in the summer ,unless some big trades will be made
and please retire please
“If James moves on or retires after the season, the Lakers could re-sign Austin Reaves and still have $50 million in cap space,” the report added.

 

could also make moves at the deadline that kill the space and could lead to keeping lebron. i'm fine with that, as any moves good enough to do that should put us in contention this year and next.

but otherwise, yes, lebron will need to take a pretty serious cut or play elsewhere next year if he wants to be part of a winning team.

 

He ain’t returning next season.

 

some random stuff from internet
Austin Reaves stays — he’s cheap, young, and already proving he can handle big minutes and be Luka’s sidekick.
Cap space — use it wisely for:
A solid secondary star if one becomes available (think All-Star level, not Giannis-level max)
Depth/role players who can shoot, defend, and absorb minutes
Luka as cornerstone — everything else is built around him + Reaves + complementary pieces
Basically: keep Reaves, respect the cap, build around Luka, and don’t get carried away with “trade for a top 5 player” nonsense.
looks like chatgpt suggestions,but no LeBron or Giannis for Reaves nonsense

 

it's unlikely, but bane went for expirings, 4 1sts, and a swap.

on draft night, we'll have three firsts and a bunch of space to absorb a salary like bane's. bane-level is probably the best you could hope to get there. ironically, the most sensible candidate would be jalen suggs. orlando is going to have to pay black, and their payroll next year is right on the second apron already. long-term, they'll have to choose between black and suggs.

our issue is that suggs is hurt. a lot. but he's the ideal fit with luka and reaves, imo. sort of a young jrue holiday type.

anyway, this is the lebron thread...i'm eager to see what he looks like when reaves gets back. can we get back to him being a secondary connector/facilitator/play finisher? will it get us to where we can outscore most teams most nights?