If LeBron James is so great, why does he have to change teams and stack the deck with superstars

I agree, and lets not forget he is playing in the leastern conference while harden is playing in perhaps the toughest division of the west throughout the years

 

LeBron's goal is to win multiple titles.

Winning multiple titles requires being surrounded by great talent.

Choosing to play without great talent kinda goes against the goal of winning multiple titles.

How many players can you name that won more than one title when they weren't on arguably the most talented team in basketball? If your list is small, which it will be, then how can you knock someone for wanting great talent when it's clearly required to win multiple titles?

 

My opinion:

Harden is a better player than LeBron. The reason LeBron has more playoffs success is that his team spends $50 million (or more) more than Warriors each year the past 3 years. (2005, 2006, 2007).

If LeBron's team spends only 35 million more than average salary teams, his team looks like an average team.

His team needs to spend a huge money in order to be a great team.

 

Lebron is not the most lethal player, he was the most skilled and versatile player, on both ends.

His skillset needs Allstar players around him.

Harden is the better scorer, that's easy to admit.

Lebron started in an era previous to that of Harden.

 

Lebron is simply chasing a championship organization.

If Lebron would have been drafter by the Spurs he'd have been a Spur for life. Do you blame a player for holding NBA front offices responsible?

 

Is durant really that good?

He’s always been surrounded by elite mvp level talent?

I’ve thought this recently because of the gsw looking not that dominate with him as the focal point and similarly in okc when Russ was out.

But of course he is. You have to judge a sole player by his sole attributes and contributions.

Same with lebron. Lebron is #2 all time and debatable to be #1. It’s not just because of good teams and media hype

 

Its the NBA you need more than one star to win. When was the last time a team won with only one major star? You could say the 2011 Mavs with Dirk but guys like Kidd, Marion though a bit past their prime were still all-star level players and Chandler and Terry were borderline all-star guys at the time (or in their prime) so the drop off from Dirk to the 2nd/3rd/4th level type guys wasn't a huge gap.

The 94 Rockets with Hakeem could be the last team that truly did it with one major guy only, but even OT had been an all-star in the recent past (though he wasnt a multiple time all-star like Kidd and Marion) but even the Rockets that year went up against the Knicks who really just had one star themselves in Ewing.

The league is too talented to just have one person be able to beat a team. The power teams in the 80s, LA, Philly, Boston Houston were all talented with multiple all-star level players if not HOF level players. In the 90s the Bulls, Jazz, Spurs and at least the 95 Rockets had multiple all-star/HOF players. The 00 Lakers, Spurs, Heat, Celtics and Pistons all did too. Only difference is maybe the Piston may not have had that "generational talent" on their team but they had 4 all-stars.


LeBron for the majority of his youth leading into his prime had no other help at all. Jordan got Pippin early in his career, Kobe had Shaq (and other notable all-star guys in Van Exel and Jones) his rookie year. The Cavs management really messed up the early 20s for LeBron, if people feel the Pels were doing AD wrong prior to last season, it was far worse for LeBron. They kept trading for big names (Ben Wallace, Jamison, Shaq) that were well past their prime with large contracts. I mean James was out there competing and leading those cavs to 50 or 60 plus wins with the likes of Jamario Moon, Mo Williams, Boobie Gibson etc. It was the same for Garnett who was a constant first round exit despite his amazing talent. It wasn't until he got two other guys in Sprewell and Cassell he was able to get the wolves to the WCF.

Its a team sport, but in the end its probably the one team sport where one player can make or break a franchise's fortunes, but there are still 4 other guys on the court with that one guy. If the Cavs management were half way competent (i mean not being able to trade multiple consecutive future picks was put into place because of the Cavs! and this was long before LeBron was drafted) I do believe LeBron probably would have not left Cleveland and they would have probably won a ring in the late 00s.

 

Superstars can't win titles alone in today's NBA. No matter how great they are. They need additional star talent along side them.

Everyone salivates on Curry, but if he didn't have Green/Thompson/KD around him, where would he be? If LeBron did not have Bosh/Wade or Love/Kyrie, where would he be? How about KD? KD+Russ+Harden couldn't get it done. He had to join Curry's crew.

Harden, FINALLY at least NOW has someone in CP to give him a CHANCE.

 

Why do we have to compare LeBron with Harden? Harden has been great for about 3 years. LeBron has been great for more than a decade.

I am not a LeBron fan because of his flakiness. But let's face it, he has one of the best careers of all time. All that "leastern" conference things is just hate excuses. He had to beat the best western conference team to win three titles. He might not have reached the Finals as many times if he spent his whole career in the west. But if you think he could not have the same kind of impact playing in the west, you are delusional.

Now maybe I am old school. I do hate the superfriends teams started by him and some others. I'll hate it if CP3 and Harden are going about it this coming off season, even if it meant benefiting the Rockets. LeBron and Durant are some of the flakiest superstars I've ever seen. Maybe this is what it is with this generation of players.

 

Being the best player and wanting to play on a better team do not have an inverse relationship.

 

LEBRON IS ONLY GREAT TO THESE KIDS NOW A DAYS....PEOPLE WATCHING NBA SINCE 90`S KNOW LEBRON IS A GOOD SIDEKICK AND I WOULD SAY HE WOULD HAVE BEEN A SCOTIE PIPPEN IN 90`S...

 

Yeah, LeBron left the Cavs because management failed him. And he left the Heat because management failed him. And he likely will leave Cleveland again because management failed him. Management being Owner+GM. The TREND is obvious.

I am not saying LeBron is going to come to Houston, BUT, if he does, I DON'T see "management (Tilman+Morey)" failing him. For what it is worth.

 

LEBRON IS NO OLAJUWON ,JORDAN OR KOBE...AFTER THESE THREE I CANT REMEMBER A 1 START TEAM THAT WON A CHAMPIONSHIP...KOBE WON WITH SIDEKICK LIKE GASOL...OLAJUWAON WON WITH ACTUALLY NO SIDE KICK IN 94 THE DREXLER IN 95 ...JORDAN DID 6 IN ROW WITH PIPPEN...

 

At first, I didn't like LeBron going to Miami. But he became the leader of that team. He basically just wanted superstars beside him to support a few championships.

I like players who want to be the man. LeBron did it, but he wanted help. Curry did it, although he never switched teams. Harden wanted to be the man, so he came to Houston. Durant joining the team who beat him the previous year to play alongside Curry is not okay with me.

 

LEBRON IS DONE....KING JAMES LIVES IN HTOWN NOW...

 

Because he’s smarter than you.

He’s 33 years old and he’s put in his work as being the alpha dog and best player in the league for the last decade or so. His current Cavs roster is trash and he doesn’t have time to wait around for that pick to develop. He knows his time as the best player in the league is dwindling by the day and some think it’s passed. Why not set yourself up to be in a position where you can win more rings instead of struggling to carry a team like he’s trying to do now.

 

The Warriors, that's why.

 

I will say this though - this more recent Cavs management failing him was probably more due to LeBron having "his guys" paid.

But look at the guys the Cavs drafted after LeBron left with the high picks they had:

Kyrie (kind of the no brainer selection at #1)
Dion Waiters
Tristan Thompson
Anthony Bennett
Andrew Wiggins

If LeBron never came back to Cleveland that would be the core the Cavs would be working with right now potentially. That core is probably first round exit at its ceiling.


Miami had better structure, but they too started to lose players for nothing to keep their tax bill low. Early on I do not believe Miami management failed LeBron (again how much did Riley/Arison really do to put Bosh/Wade and LeBron together? It sounded like it was the 3 of them who made that choice and Miami was the team that was able to move the contracts to make it happen) Once the tax bill starting coming in though they started to make moves to stay under the bill and lost talent. To his credit Dan Gilbert is paying the high tax bill for LeBron this time around.


"Team LeBron" does need to let the front office run the team and its operations but I can understand given how his first run in Cleveland went and how Miami started to pinch pennies as well after the first ring they may not trust front offices, but the mess in Cleveland right now in terms of big, bad contracts were primarily their doing.

 

Yeah, LeBron has caused some of his own problems. Holding the team hostage with the player option doesn't help.

Aside from getting guys paid though....the key moment for THIS Cavs team is management letting David Griffin walk and bungling the Kyrie situation. That moment probably could have been salvaged (either via a better trade or no trade) by better management.