LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

I think LeBron needs to be the 3 defensively, not the 4. The difference between the 3 and the 4 defensively is really the difference between being a wing stopper vs. being the low man. I think LeBron is better at being the wing stopper, because it actually takes less effort. He's slowed down a ton laterally, but he still has the strength and smarts to stay in front of wing-sized ballhandlers, and he gets hyped up to defend in isolation. But when he's the low man, his responsibility is to help, rotate, provide supplemental rim protection and rebound when the 5 contests shots at the rim. That's when his wanting to conserve energy during the regular season really hurts us; he just won't do that stuff. That's why the LeBron/Rui at the 3/4 lineups counterintuitively worked better than the DFS/LeBron lineups in the regular season, because Rui is taking the low-man responsibilities in those lineups.

 

hmm...i've been under the impression that the 4 was the least taxing defensive spot. in part because it's rare your specific assignment is a handful and you're not designated as the last line of defense. but i guess it all depends on system, right?

 

Two GOAT’s.

 

Yeah exactly even if you’re not the last line of defense as the 4 you’re helping when the wings get blown by. So AR/Luka on the wings who may get beat more would then force LeBron to help more often in theory. AR as 6man playing 30+ min a game could help us get a stronger defensive starter or two, keeping his minutes similar to now.

 

Yup, the idea of the 4 being the least taxing spot starts to break down when you don't have viable options in the POA or wing stopper roles. Even when we had AD as an elite rim protector, he was always having to come over to wall off drives. That forced LeBron to have to (1) rotate over from the back side to provide supplemental rim protection if the driver dumped the ball off to AD's man, or even beat AD; (2) rotate back to his man in the corner if the driver managed to kick out to him; or (3) be the primary rebounder because AD is contesting the shot of the driver. And of course, all that only gets worse when its Hayes instead of AD. All of a sudden LeBron doesn't have the least taxing role; he's the guy cleaning up others' mistakes. That's why he was so exhausted at the end of those Nuggets' series games; he had to do all that stuff for 40+ minutes a night to give us any chance of hanging with the Nuggets offense, while also shouldering the load over our halfcourt offense.

I prefer using wing stopper vs. low man, rather than 3 vs. 4, because it's not always the forwards in that spot. When you go to the Defensive Roles page on BBall Index, the example they use for low man is actually Chris Paul on the 2021-2022 Suns. That team started Paul/Booker/Bridges/Ayton, with Bridges defending POA, Crowder as the wing stopper, and Booker as the strong-side helper or lock-and-trail defender. Bridges and Crowder were better perimeter defenders than we've had, and Ayton was a better rim protector than Hayes, so Paul's role really was limited to guarding the guy in the corner, rotating occasionally, and being the QB of the defense diagnosing what the offense was doing and organizing the defense.

That's why it needs to be Luka playing the 4/low man defensively IMO. I know Cranjis had some data about him actually being pretty good at it. It makes the most sense for him to be doing it rather than LeBron; he's less athletic, but smart and has good instincts. He can be the one organizing the defense, but having the least responsibility for executing it. Meanwhile, LeBron can be in the 3/wing stopper role. He's still stronger than just about every wing scorer out there and can keep them from getting to their spots. If he's involved in a screen action, with a solid center I think he can do a decent enough job.

 

bingo. it's why teams couldn't go after him as much with dallas as minny did this year. i felt like we were protecting lebron too much defensively in the playoffs.

 

LoL ,ya right

So he basically would be champion every season even when Chicago were swept or when he played in Washington

To no one in the room’s surprise, Falk quickly answered Jordan when asked who his G.O.A.T is. Asked for No. 2, he said either Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Kobe Bryant.

Is LeBron James in his top 10?

“Probably,” Falk said, before delivering the quote of the day: “I really like LeBron,” he said. “But I think if Jordan had cherry-picked what teams he wanted to be on and two other superstars, he would’ve won 15 championships.”

 

well, jordan got some pretty good guys picked for him...

i think prime pippen was better than wade, tbh. i guess bosh was better than prime horace grant, but...by a lot?

jordan played on great teams. the fact that he didn't engineer them doesn't change that. like, was he going to choose someone other than pippen? drexler? barkley?

 

Not bad, old man

 

edwards was better than lebron and cunningham this year, imo. that's a legacy vote.

but yeah, nobody would have guessed he'd get even 4th and 5th place mvp votes at age 40.

 

I still feel that Pippen is extremely underrated. As Robbin’s go, I have him only behind Kobe during our three-peat run(Kobe and Shaq took turns who was Batman and who was Robbin).

 

Steph wasn't "bad" either when KD decided to join them and got the trophies

 

Agreed, think Pippen struggled with his confidence.. he was the best player on the floor a lot of the time, even with MJ out there.. at least in key situations. I really enjoyed his game and unselfish play. Can't imagine what he'd have done with Kobe/MJ type confidence.

 

LeBron not making either of these All Defensive teams is a joke. He was our defensive anchor all year. He was elite all season long on the defensive side. Also I don’t get how Caruso isn’t on there either after seeing what he’s done in these playoffs.

 

Lebron making 2nd Team All NBA at 40 is crazy. Salute!

 

Barkley??

.... unless you're referring to Dream Team.

 

Abeer isn't going to like this one.

https://hoopshype.com/2025/05/24/ri...d-not-make-that-trade-i-know-that-for-a-fact/

 

lol, why was he boasting about brokering it after the fact, then, rich? WHY WOULD ANYONE HAVE DRAWN THIS CRAZY CONCLUSION?

disingenuously playing on the fact that lebron does not officially make trades is weak sauce. yes, i also know FOR A FACT that lebron didn't make that trade.

i also know that without him, that trade isn't made, and the franchise is spared a brutal 1.5 years.

 

There ya go ..... see YOU are why we hate Russ and can't let it go. The constant reminder posts among us.