Tracy is a career 45% shooter, 35% from 3. You know as well as i do that he had an off year last year, yet still shot 34% from 3. Tracy shot 23 times to Lebron's 19. He made almost 3 3pts a game. Are you saying Lebron can increase his PPG by 8 shooting 4 more times? Or by 12 by shooting 5 more times for the 02-03 Tmac who averaged 32 on 24 shots. He is no where near the offensive player Tmac is. And when i said below average scorer, i was not refering to 20ppg. He can't shoot. He shot 19 times. If you let any average scorer in the league play 40 mins and let him shoot 19 times, he will score 20+. Growing another inch isn't going to have the impact of adding 30 pounds like the other high schoolers. I was talking about Hill and Haraway preinjury. And i completely agree, Cavs would never even think about trading him for the majority of my list. Lebron at 19 is already one of the most marketable players in the league, he gets a huge premium for that. My list was for just imact and the level of the player. As for him being better than them in the future, that is your opinion. If he learns how to shoot, i will agree with you, if he doesn't, which i lean towards, then i don't. Once again, they improved more from physical development. Which Lebron does not have the luxury of having. That's a good point. Though that may be an aberration. Ask anyone if they would like a player who shoots 30 times a game on sub 40% FG. Also, AI gets to the line 10 times, which Lebron doesn't do. The others just don't have as much hype as Lebron the Chosen One. PS Sorry i couldn't get the formatting down, each of my paragraphs respond to yours.
Amare didn't play 40min and shoot 19 times. If he did, he WOULD have averaged 20+. Please don't tell me it's because amare wasn't good enough. Lebron was too hyped to play 30 mins agame, and if he didn't shoot 19 times, maybe they would've made the play offs. Boozer and Ilgauskas were better scoring options. And what did Moses average his rookie year? 13 13 2? In 30mins. Thats not too bad.
If I were the moderator of this debate, I have to ask everyone throw any words like "high-school", "potential" out. The debate is generated by the ranking of CBS, that ranking is for the coming season, and only for the season. What would have happened after maybe 3-4 or more years doesn't really matter. If you want to argue against it, you should present your argument why LJ deserves SIGNIFICSNTLY higher ranking than what's on the list this season, and only this season. carry on.
I'm tired of this LeBron topic. Let's Talk Rocks ok? We have two superstars in top 10, anybody noticed that?
Lebron James might of had an off year as well... It'd have to be around 5 more times, Tracy shot 4.5 more per game last season, maybe after some number crunching it doesn't get quite to 28 points, 26 or so I guess. He's not near the scorer Tracy is, but as an overall offensive player he is close to him, and he'll only get better. As far as letting any average scorer in the league shot as much and get 20 points, well that's true, but we're not talking about a Ron Mercer type player here. Why don't you? He will get better, he's not that bad of a shooter right now, and I'm not sure if it's going to matter if he ever learns how to shoot or not, most of his impact will come from making plays.
yeah, it's riduculous to see so many Lebron lovers on rockets board. Just tells you how powerful the media hype machine is..
HAHA, well Amare didn't because he had Stephon Marbury on his team, anywhere else he would of taken more shots. With that said Amare didn't and still doesn't have too much of an offensive game. Lebron played as much as he did because Cleveland didn't have anyone else that was better. Forget the amount of shots, they make the playoffs if Paxon makes the trades before they sink 12 games under .500. If Boozer and Ilgaukas are better scoring options than so were Howard and Gooden in Orlando, Davis and Blount in Boston, Bosh and Marshall in Toronto, Thomas and Thomas in New York. You give those guys the ball over James, Tracy, Pierce, and Marbury and their teams would of been worse. Or were you not talking about shooting percentages?
Since everyone wants to use this silly argument about getting physically stronger. How much physically stronger did Hakeem, MJ, Barkley, Dominique Wilkins, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, etc. get after their rookie years. Not much since they all were in their early 20's when drafted so that's a weak argument at best. The only reason we think like that now is because we associate recent rookie phenoms with being very young, but players usually get better their first couple of seasons in the NBA rather they are physically mature or not.
Coming from a guy who said Jordan as a rookie made an impact that compares to Magic's and Bird's, that opinion has nothing to do with the media hype machine?
I have to agree with JUMPMAN and those who say James is very special.Players mature at different rates.I see LeBron having a lot of Magic AND M.J. in him. On Iverson....To me,he is one of the reasons we lost in the Olympics.AI is the posterchild of much that is wrong with the NBA.His immaturity is still evident on and off the court and apparently he'll never change.Allen is the same guy that sparked the bowling alley brawl in high school.He's supposed to be representing mour country..man.Not showing up on time,because of his history with Larry is pathetic.Even worse is when he rubs off on Lebron and Carmelo or Amare(don't remember now which one was with him).As far as Iverson's BBALL skills..They've deteriorated.He gets banged around quite a bit for a player his size.Further his game depends on his quickness which he is losing.In addition he is a streaky shooter who has to have many looks....Sorry,I went off on a Cat rant last week,and now AI,but these two bug me.I'm not trying to be negative4 just honest. As far as Billups goes,he was drafted,what 3rd........Yes he fits into that system well but is recently living up to his draft status. Stevie might be the better all around athlete and player,but Chauncy has a much higher basketball IQ.
What's Chauncy's assist to turnover ratio, what's his shooting percentage, what's his overall assists numbers, and how long did it take him to play on a team with a winning record?
My point is that Chauncy,too me is more coachable.He became a true professional,eventually.The experience helps,and perhaps Larry had a lot to do with it. Stevie has more upside,but is just beginning to scratch the surface of what it takes to be a Champion. There now... it wasn't just hoops IQ. It has to do with growing and becoming a better player,and assimilating into your team helping them win.
5.7 Dimes with 2.4 TO. Bron had 5.9 dimes and 3.5 TO. if anyone is counting, thats 1 TO more. he avergaed 12.8 FGA with 39.8% shooting and 39% 3pt shooting on 4.3 attempts per game. Bron averaged 18.9 FGA on 42% shooting and 29% 3pt shooting on 2.7 attempts a game. I'd say Chauncy had the better year.
Wow. I could possibly see making this trade - for example I would have possibly traded TMac for LeBron AND Boozer and then say we might have a better record, but trading TMac who wants to be here, understands both winning and losing, and is in his prime for a guy who will not know when to defer to Yao would be nuts. Tracy's talent is not the only reason that he is a great fit for Houston this year. I think we are going to see the benefit of having a team that is mentally together and on the same page as their coach this year. For examples, see the Miami Heat, Utah Jazz, Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets of last year. And another thing: Count me in on the side of people saying LeBron won't improve as much as Garnett/Kobe/TMac because he has already developed physically. Someone finally brought up Moses Malone and Amare Stoudamire - these are the players that you could potentially compare LeBron to. Unfortunately, that may not work well because they are power players, not guards. Apparently LeBron has amazing court sense, so he's not going to improve there. If he develops anymore physically he'll have to become a power forward (he already weighs 240 and you can't carry around 250 pounds and play like a guard - your body will break down). The only place he can get a lot better is shooting - and like someone else said - if he does, you can reserve a place for me on his jock. Until then, I don't see what separates him from Starbury. He dominates the ball, and therefore scores a lot of points and gets a lot of assists. He hasn't proven to me that he is so good at doing this that his team greatly benefits from it. Jeff McInnis and Carlos Boozer's improved play had a big impact on that team's success as well - I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Cleveland stagnate this year.
This is pretty exciting: The article has a link to the top-ranked centers in the NBA. They have Yao listed at number two stating that he's, "The next best thing [to Shaq], taller, better shooter, needs to develop his upper body. " ... and Yao's been developing his upper body over the summer. Bring on the season! -- droxford
Couldn't disagree more here. Iverson, as far as heart and determination go, is what's RIGHT in the NBA. That boy doesn't even care about his own well being, he just wants to win. And if you think he was the reason we lost, you couldn't have watched the games that closely. AI was one of the only ones (besides Duncan and Odom) who actually looked like he WANTED to win the gold. He was near tears at the medal ceremony because he only won bronze, while the younger players were laughing and joking around. And don't accuse him of being the reason LeBron and Amare were late, because none of us know enough about that to say a word. As far as him "supposed to be representing our country" and being the same guy who sparked the bowling alley brawl, let's look at our own Rocket boy T-Mac. Remember the international games back in '02? I recall McGrady getting into a fight with one of the foreign players, EMBARASSING America in the process. Not to mention his other fights he's gotten in in the past few years with Bobby Jackson, K-Mart, Eric Snow, etc...look back and find me a recent fight/confrontation AI's been in and i guarantee you T-Mac's been in more. So if Iverson's what's wrong with the league, and you support T-Mac, then there's a conflict of interests for ya.
