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

Kobe played with Shaq who is greater than any of Lebron's teammates. Kobe shouldn't even be in the conversation of greats if you are really not a Lebron hater.C'mon dude, Kobe isn't even better than Tim Duncan.

 

For me the GOAT is not Jordan (Hakeem was better just stuck with a horriible team), it's not Lebron either it is Abdul Jabbar.

That dude played 20 years as the best or one of the best players in the world, if you took him in a time machine and put him in today's NBA he would still be a star because his Sky Hook was/is still unstoppable. Second would be Hakeem who was just dealt a horrible hand, he got drafted by Houston who was full of crackheads and the original Mr. Glass Ralph Sampson. If he got drafted by the Chicago Bulls instead he would be the GOAT with 8 rings playing with Pippen whereas Jordan might not even have 1 ring playing with Ralph Sampson who would get injured every year.

No 3 would be Lebron, 16 years of greatness and he is still the best in the league, that is 1 year more than Jordan's entire career. People can talk about his flaws left and right but a man's NBA career is a marathon not a sprint, Lebron should be no 3 just based on his longevity and when he finally retires if he passes Kareem's tenure of greatness then Lebron should be the new GOAT.

 

Shaq and Kobe not being a super team may be the funniest thing I've read this year.

 

shaq alone is better than kyrie and love.

 

Yah its not even close lol. Shaq is better than wade + bosh too. Kobe was the sidekick on that 3peat team.

I feel like people forget how good prime shaq really was.

 

dude getting double and triple teamed

like a man vs. children

 

I don't wanna defend LeBron too much for his results since he left Cleveland the first time. He's gone to the finals every year, and won it 3 times. He's also had talent around him.

But his first stint in Cleveland was a joke, they put some absolute trash around him. There's not a player in history that could have gotten more out of that supporting cast. I don't blame him for not wanting to waste his prime years never having a real chance to win it all.

 

Nope never been a kobe fan, actually **** him for what he did to Ron in the playoffs, could've beat them if it wasn't for the dirty move, my point is that kobe shouldn't be excluded when you include LeBron and mj in the same conversatio, kobe was probably the 2nd best scorer right behind mj the game has ever seen.

 

I always say arguably I believe MJ is greatest NBA player ever, BUT if I had to start a team, there's about 5-7 players I might take over him

I would start a team with/draft Kareem, Wilt, and Dream before MJ, no question asks. The ability of a great center is going to negate abilities in comparison to a great wing -- because of their effectiveness on the boards, defense, and inside scoring efficiency.

Here's a controversial line of players, right here -- Magic, LeBron, Bird, Duncan, Shaq, Big O, and Kobe. I think MJ is arguably better than these players, BUT would he actually make a team better than those players. That's kind of throw-off, point, because there are alot of give and takes on both sides. Magic, LeBron, and Bird are crazy to measure, because I think their talents can lift or carry a mediocre team, deep into playoffs. Same with Shaq and Duncan. With Big O and Kobe vs. MJ is more of who is more skilled and efficient in team play, and I think MJ wins out over them. It's kind of hard to take shooting guard over indomitable center or bigman or a forward who can score and run an offense, like point guard.

 

Name a more talented team in the West for the 1999-00, 2000-01,2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10 seasons.

 

How many clutch shots did Shaq hit? How many times did the Lakers give the ball to Shaq for the last play? Any reasonable fan knows Shaq's inability to hit ft's made him a liability in clutch situations. You're a idiot if you take him over Wade & Bosh. I'd take Duncan over Lebron

 

"Clutch" only matters if the game is close. If you have Shaq and Lebron on the same team then it would be blowouts so "clutch" wouldn't matter. Being clutch or not at the end of the day is just 2 or 3 pts, a guy who gets 6 rebs or 30 pts like Shaq did has more impact in a game than someone who hits the clutch shot. If Shaq was such a liability why is he the the Finals MVP every year for their 3 peat? He and Tim Duncan were trading MVPs during the 3 peat where was Kobe? Kobe was the sidekick ask anybody they will say that Kobe was Robin to Shaq's batman. Lots of guys are Clutch Big Shot Rob or Ray Allen are super clutch are you saying they are better than Kobe? Cuz I would trust Big Shot Rob over Kobe for the last shot any day of the week.

Why am I an idiot if I take Shaq over Wade and Bosh? Shaq is in the conversation for best players in NBA history, he is always in the top 15 no matter who made the list where are Wade and bosh?

At the end of the day you are just a kobe nuthugger, didn't I already show you the list? In every list of best NBA players ever Lebron is always higher than Kobe. The only advantage Kobe has is he got drafted by the Lakers who got him Shaq and then Gasol who are a lot better than Wade and Bosh.

 

If that were true then people wouldn’t keep saying he has no one to play with. How do you get good players to commit to your team when LBJ could just decide to leave at any time? I thought that was part of why Irving wanted out - no one knew if James would stick around.

 

Didn’t Lebron have like the worst plus minus in the entire league for a good chunk of the season?

 

i certainly think lebron not committing causes some problems. i can definitely see irving thinking he didn't want to be around after lebron left. but then he could've just demanded a trade then so i'm not sure what he accomplished. and cleveland would certainly be willing to trade him since they would consider themselves rebuiding.

as for players in general, maybe it would turn them off, but cleveland has been capped out since day 1 with lebron/irving/love so it's tough to say what any free agent would think because cleveland hasn't been able to pursue a free agent. if there somehow was a game-changing free agent and the cavs somehow had cap room (love signs a 2 year deal or something), i would think that the free agent would consider themselves the building piece lebron needs to stay in cleveland and wouldn't worry about him leaving, but who knows.

at the end of the day, lebron is too old, cleveland too traditionally stupid, and lebron/gilbert too bad of a relationship for lebron to commit long-term. it makes sure the team keeps their foot on the gas, but also causes more short-term thinking and the will he/won't he dynamic. i'm not sure there's a perfect solution. i guess it resulted in a title and could've easily resulted in more if not for injuries in year 1 and warriors superteam in year 3. neither side can probably complain too much about it and now in year 4 this is just the bill coming due.

 

for a couple of weeks in january i think he did. he was playing the most minutes for a team that was playing terribly/lebron was sabotaging and was getting blown out every night.

 

to put that in perspective. in kobe's playoff career, which was a lot of playoff games, he hit 4 shots in the final 10 seconds to tie or take the lead. i'm not sure what the shot was in 2001, but one of the other ones was detroit 2004. kobe tied game 2 and the lakers won in OT. then the lakers lost the next 3 games and lost the series. the other 2 actually occurred in the same game, so they didn't even impact 2 games. in game 4 in phoenix in 2006 he hit a shot to force OT and then hit the game-winner in OT. then the lakers lost the next 3 games and lost the series.

that's not to make any judgment about the shots or say that only shots in the last 10 seconds are "clutch". just that in one of the more renowned playoff careers in nba history, that person produced 4 big time clutch shots. and 3 of them were immediately followed by series losses that "clutchness" didn't stop against all of the other factors that affect winning (like shaq getting 30 and 15 in the first 47:50 of the game).

 

I don’t wanna hear about this garbage ever again. Dude just willed his team through a series.

 

Let's say there is hard salary cap at 80, 90, 100 million each year for the past 3 years (2015,2016,2017), LeBron's team would not make the playoffs once.

Take out Irving and Love, their salary is still over 100 million

 

Speaking of LeBron leaving teams and moving to where the stars are, I've noticed something insane in a discussion about how Victor Oladipo's contract is now a bargain thanks to his play.

The NBA salary cap is at 108 million dollars, the Indiana Pacers have the 27th highest payroll in the league, at only 95 million.
Al Jefferson's 10 mil/year contract and Lance Stephenson's 5 mil/year contract both have team options coming up this offseason, if the Pacers let them both walk they would end up having Twenty-Eight Million Dollars in cap space. Here is the insane part:
If they trade away Corey Joseph they would have Thirty-Six Million in cap space, enough to sign LeBron James outright. Or maybe they use him in a sign-and-trade, either way, the result remains the same.

Its probably not going to happen, but the Pacers did win 48 games, and adding LeBron, even with the subtractions listed, would put them above 60 wins and provide the Restoration of the Reign of King James over the east.