LeBron James

LeBron James
SF/PF - 6’8, 250lbs - 33 years old - 15 years of experience

Here’s a fun thing to do – go back and watch a game of LeBron James back in 2003, when he was first drafted. Do you ever sometimes watch him play now and think he has that whole Reggie Miller thing going on, where it feels as though he is exactly the player to look at right now as he was then? Especially since we all used to joke about how he entered the league looking like he was already 34 years old? Yes, well. It is not even remotely true.

Firstly, he is quite obviously far bigger. That $1.5 million annual spend on his body gets you something, as it turns out. He used to look like Josh Smith. Now he’s a shot-putter winning at pole vault.

Secondly, he is also slower now. It is known that modern day LeBron walks a lot, but compared to former him, it is even more evident. More than anything, this is a comment on quite how other-worldly athletic he was, rather than a comment on now, but it is an interesting aside. A bit like how Vince Carter still looks athletic in his 40s because even though he has lost a lot, he had so much more to lose than everyone else.

Thirdly, and most importantly, look at the control. That whole thing where he pinpoints the action on both ends of the court, the defensive quarterback who knows exactly what is coming, and the always-in-command point guard who is as cerebral as he is dynamic? It wasn’t there. Partly there, but certainly not fully.

It seems, then, as if he is only getting better with age. That will have to end eventually but it sure hasn’t done so yet.

Player Plan: Has declined a $35,607,968 player option. Re-sign at all costs. If unsuccessful, get whatever you can for whoever you can and start again.

LeBron James
SF/PF, 6’8, 250lbs, 32 years old, 14 years of experience

Still great. You’d think he would have lost quite a bit by now. Nope. Some defence has gone, maybe, but only some.

Player Plan:

To get the top spot back, Cleveland needs to beat the Toronto Raptors tonight in their final game, while hoping that Boston loses at home to the Milwaukee Bucks. This is a tough ask. It will be one made tougher by the fact that LeBron James will miss the game, getting some much-needed rest before a gruelling upcoming playoff schedule in which he will once again have to largely carry his team.

Both the fact that LeBron needs rest, and the fact that he will largely have to carry his team single handedly, are sad facts that speak to the troubling recent fortunes and immediate projections of a #1 or #2 seed. Things should be good for a #1 or #2 seed, just as they are right now for Boston. But because of those two things, the Cavaliers arrive at the playoffs with absolutely no momentum and legitimate concerns.

Worse still, both of those things were completely avoidable.

One thing that is unavoidable is that LeBron will have to come in rested and put in a herculean effort if the Cavaliers are to repeat as champions. Short of a Golden State Warriors-calibre supporting cast, this would always be the case. LeBron is by far and away the best player on his team, and has been the NBA's best player for a decade - even if he has not been the best player in the NBA this season, he is right in amongst the other contenders for that award, and with his historic individual performance in last year's NBA Finals, he proved he really can do it single handedly for short periods if needs be.

[...] LeBron will have to put in a historic individual effort to top these Warriors, that much was known before the season began. Yet so questionable is the team around him at this point that he might have to put in even more just to get that far. James can flip a switch, that much is proven. But the team around him can also flip their own switch off.

Making it worse, far worse, is that he is already tired. James needs rest tonight because he is absolutely gassed. At a time when he absolutely should have been resting, James played 48 minutes against the Hawks and fouled out in a loss. It was known going in that LeBron, with last year’s Finals and what it took from him to win them still fresh in the mind, would benefit from the rest days that are so en vogue in the NBA today. Yet head coach Tyronn Lue, feeling he needed to win the game given the vulnerability of their seeding and feeling the rot needing to be stopped, flogged him still further. This, too, was thoroughly avoidable.

(James is also not above criticism here. Many of the sloppy plays down the stretch of that Hawks implosion were his, including fouls, bad passes, and a lack of hustle. How much of that can be cited to his fatigue, we will never know. But it looked like a lot. Having been so good in the three quarters prior, recording a fairly effortless triple double and controlling the ball on a string, LeBron suddenly looked dead on his feet. This is not from a man known for ever giving up. He therefore gets a pass from this author. This is not about him nearly as much as it is about everyone and everything else.)

At that point, Chris Bosh agreed to join the team, concurrent with Dwyane Wade's decision to re-sign. LeBron James then spent an hour the following afternoon wanking himself off on international television over thoughts of his own greatness, inventing a new metaphor for wanking in the process, and while simultaneously committing to joining the Heat.

[...]Even though Pat Riley said it wouldn't happen, Miami pawned off Beasley to Minnesota in exchange for the Timberwolves's 2011 and 2014 second round draft picks. [David Kahn might not have a plan, but he's made two unbelievable steals in the last two years that are in danger of going overlooked. This was one of them. More of the other in another post.] Subtracting Beasley's salary and adding one more cap hold put the Heat's total salary number at $24,259,284, cap room of $33,784,716. Wade then re-signed to a less-than-maximum contract, which started at $14,200,000 and paying $107,565,000 over the full six seasons; for reference's sake, this is over $16 million less than Joe Johnson got from Atlanta. (This is also the only time Joe Johnson will ever get mentioned in a "creative" financing post. Nothing creative about that contract.) Sign and trades for Bosh and James were then completed, both players signing identical $109,837,500 contracts starting at $14,500,000.

[Kashif Watson] is here because he is C.J. Watson's brother. This happens a lot with player's brothers - Tony Durant was on the Thunder's summer league team last year, and Joel Bosh has played with the Raptors one before now. Rodney Billups once played with the Pistons, Zach Marbury with the Knicks, William Pippen (Scottie's nephew) with the Blazers. Additionally, LeBron James's high school team mates Dru Joyce and Romeo Travis have received numerous summer league stints with the Cavaliers, at James's behest. But the common trait behind that list of players is that the famous brother is a star for that time. This is not true of C.J. Watson, who is a free agent backup.