Lebron is turning all star players into delonte west tier players Truly the biggest cancer in the NBA no wonder he only has one ring, all his teammates under perform because of him
I think you're missing the point, OP. The biggest reason Lebron is able to do what he's doing right now is because the teams have to worry about guys like Wade and Bosh. If you so much as double team (much less triple team) Lebron now, either Wade or Bosh will be there to destroy you. I don't care if the stats look relatively equal. We all know who the better players are. We all know which players are more capable of punishing you if you double team Lebron. This is a ridiculous topic.
It's amazing instead of actually calling out Bosh and Wade for how poorly they are playing people resort to saying "oh look people are making excuses for LeBron James again". Those guys are getting paid too much money to be above criticism
This. Look at how teams defended Durant after Westbrook was down. They can't do that against LeBron exactly because there are so many other weapons on the team, although those weapons are not firing yet.
His numbers were better with Cleveland so Wade and Bosh aren't exactly the reason he is able to do what he is doing right now.
That sounds about right. While that might not sound like such a big drop, we're talking about 20 wins. That's a huge impact from one player.
First, it's hard to argue he really needs more help when his team is one win away from its third consecutive Finals appearance. Second, there is a big difference between saying a player needs his talented teammates to get out of their funk and saying that he needs more talented teammates. In Cleveland, the problem was the talent around him, even with those guys playing well, they just weren't a championship-caliber supporting cast. In Miami, they've got tons of talent, but Haslem has been the second best player in this series (and that's a problem).
I don't know about this. No LeBron means none of his production. None of his production means Wade and Bosh would have to carry the team. Wade and Bosh carrying the team means their bodies (especially Wade) would be less healthy than they currently are. Wade might have missed more games during the regular season, since he would most likely have to do what LeBron does. Missing more games = lower seed.
Heat with Lebron on the court - +12.8 per 100 possessions. Heat with Lebron off the court - -2.3 per 100 possessions
I get that the results are starting to look the same but here's the difference... Cleveland had weak personnel. Miami doesn't. So what gives? Spoelstra makes everything so damn difficult on everyone. There are only 3 ways to score on the Heat. Wade creates for himself Lebron creates for himself Lebron creates for someone else That's it man. There is no flow to anything. Bosh doesn't get any plays, there isn't much motion out there, it's all on Wade or Lebron. Not a bad idea until Wade breaks down physically. So instead of having the game come to him he has to work his ass off to score. A coach who wasn't inept offensively, say Adelman, would make things so much easier on everyone. I'm by far a defense first guy but watching Lebron do everything wears me out and I'm just sitting at home on the couch. It's also stupid to have Bosh at the 5 at all times. This guy would absolutely thrive with a real 5 next to him. I think he's the 2nd best player on that team and probably still one of the top 4's in the game but Spoelstra sure as hell doesn't make it easy on him. All he does is shoot ****ing 17ft jumpers - are you kidding me man? Of course he's going to get owned by Hibbert. Bosh is being asked to do something outside of his skillset. Bosh has looked like a b**** for years and it's honestly not his fault, it'd be like us expecting Parsons to go shutdown Zach Randolph and scratching our heads when he gets owned. Spoelstra relies too heavily on the talent he has. Lebron basically babies him and nobody is realizing it. Hell, if 95 year old Tex Winter was coaching this team they'd be blowing Indiana out, Allen would have 26 threes in this series alone and Wade probably wouldn't be looking like a 12th year running back out there.
He can, I'm not saying he can't. Threads like this where it's like "who's to blame this time besides LeBron" are stupid.
It seems that people are underestimating just how good this Miami team is because they lost a couple of close games to another very good team in Indiana. Remember this Miami team is historically good. No need to make up excuses just yet.