At this point, you have to find a way to surround him with battle-tested playoff performers. Chris Paul alleviated a lot of that pressure for James and we were pretty successful and I'm okay with that--have Harden lead us in the regular season and have him share the burden in the playoffs. A guy like Fred VanVleet or Kyle Lowry (which is hilarious considering the days of underperforming with Derozan) in the backcourt with James would be glorious.
To be fair to Lowry, I don't think that Toronto team ever underperformed. They just ran into a Cleveland-shaped LeBron-sized buzzsaw. Honestly, if they faced off against LeBron's Heat, they also would have lost. That's like saying every other team in the West underperformed, when in reality, GSW was just too good.
Lowry's shooting was horrific during those first few postseasons man and that's what I was getting at. One year he shot like 30% for the series.
With a ring Lebron closes in on Jordan and makes a better case for him being the GOAT when he finally retires. 17 years of dominance, all time scoring leader, multiple playoff statistical leader and 4 rings with 3 completely different teams. At some point MJ's gotta pass the mantle no matter how unwilling he is.
I really hope 2017 was the last time a triple double average would take away the MVP hardware from a much more deserving player.
FMVP is a media vote, and Lebron is a media darling. Even if AD outplays Lebron, Lebron will win it. There's even precedent for a lesser player winning it (Curry/Iggy). Also, there's the narrative that Lebron would be the first player in NBA history to win FMVP with 3 teams. I don't see how he doesn't get it, especially if he's going to stat-pad like he did last night.
Strengthens it considerably. He wins California. And that's a big deal. But he also dominated the playoffs with or without Davis. He elevated his game back to where it was. 10 appearances is starting to negate Jordan's "undefeated" storyline. He will put himself in the conversation when he gets six. 3 in LA would be a big ass deal. And Davis could carry him to that if he can't do it himself. Of Note Kenny Smith totally dissed Max Kellerman to his face when he noted Jordan was not himself today in 95.
I am not a MJ fan and I can accept LeBron being the better overall player. But the "4 rings with 3 teams" thing is just BS accomplishment. It's a positive spin on how he team-hops to avoid being tied down to a weak team. He made the Decision to form a super team at Miami when he realized that he could not win in Cleveland. Then he hopped back when they got Kyrie and Love. Then he abandoned them when Kyrie wanted out, and he went to the Lakers where he knew would attract other stars. I'd say the team hopping should be a negative, not a positive to his legacy. I have much more respect for a guy like Duncan who won 5 rings with three different cores on the same team--in the West.
I think history will remember the team-hopping as a positive since Irving, Love, and AD were all career underachievers before Lebron.
Most players are "underachievers" when they have to shoulder the whole team as the alpha dog. That doesn't mean they aren't fantastic second bananas. LeBron's problem is that he keeps abandoning his teams looking for these great running mates so that he could keep winning. LeBron is a great player. He definitely should be in the GOAT conversation, although I've always said that there is no fair way to compare players across eras. But using his team hopping as a positive is just a spin. If he won 4 rings sticking with the same team, more people would accept that he was right up there with MJ.
No a 4th ring won't effect his status over MJ IMO because if he did it with one team then yeah but it's proven that when the going gets tough LeBron bails on teams. Jordan never did that, Magic never did that, Bird never did that, Kobe never did that, Hakeem didn't do that either. They all stuck by there teams and let the process play out organically. This just proves LeBron is a biggest front runner in NBA history
There are degrees to underachieving. We aren't talking about stars who struggled in the playoffs. We're talking about stars who struggled to even make the playoffs. Anthony Davis struggled to make the playoffs for most of his career. Kevin Love never made the playoffs before joining Lebron. Look at Irving's career before and after Lebron; he's essentially a journeyman now. Prior to joining Lebron, none of these guys were considered "great running mates". They were considered empty-stat all-stars.
What about Wade and Bosh??? Where he won 2 of his rings, where they considered empty stats all stars?
Lebron with no help got into the finals in 07. MJ with no help got beat by the Detroit Bad Boys all the time.
