Help Wanted
King James (photo. Mannion)Imagine what life is like for LeBron off the court. At restaurants, bars, and clubs, people relish the opportunity to give the man whatever he wants. You want bottles in the V.I.P. room? Sure. You want to talk to that girl over there? Oh, look here she comes. But during his day job, the only way that he consistently gets what he wants is if he does it himself.
As the Cavs 17-point third-quarter cushion over the Bulls began to fade and Mike Brown started to get the sweats, Cleveland needed to make life easy for LeBron. His back tightened up late in the third, just around the time that Chicago bull-rushed back into the game. He wasn’t explosive enough to be able to pull off his usual John McClane defense-destruction. ‘Bron ended up scoring 1 point in the 4th, going 0-2 from inside the paint during that period. But the tightness in his back didn’t inhibit him from running the floor. Even if he couldn’t spring over guys off the bounce in a half-court set, James still would have been able to stop the bleeding if Cleveland’s point guards made his life a bit easier.
But Delonte West didn’t test Chicago’s transition D at all. Of the 5 assists that he had, he only spotted LeBron once, and it was on a 25-foot three. Since coming to Cleveland, West has topped the 10-assist plateau only once. Remarkably, that makes West the only Cav except for LeBron to dole out 10 dimes all season. In L.A., Lamar Odom‘s done it twice, and Kobe isn’t nearly as dangerous on the break as LeBron.
Even Charles Barkley was befuddled as to why Delonte wasn’t pushing the issue. During the halftime of TNT’s second game, he, Kenny and Ernie looked back at when LeBron’s driving lay-up was partially blocked by Joakim Noah in the final seconds of the 101-98 loss to the Bulls.
LeBron said, “I got hit on the elbow and left [the shot] short,” James said. “But that wasn’t the reason why we lost the game.”
Barkley suggested that the real reason the Cavs collapsed was because the Cleveland’s guards couldn’t get James that look in the open floor.
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April 4th, 2008 at 11:48 am
GEE...Kimbo Slice is the new Mike Tyson says:
Hmmmm! This back thing sounds like what happen to Mac, and from there for Mac it’s just been trouble springing up often and in the worst times. Hope it’s not like that but you have to wonder?
Second LeBron clearly needed Jason Kidd waaaaaaay more than Dallas and so for the GM and other heads not to make some type of package (as far as I know) to really get Kidd, that’s just ridiculous.
This is on the GM and crew because, sure you might have thought West and crew was enough to get over the hump, and most of us probably hoped (for LeBron’s sake) and wondered as well. Then again most of us also knew that trade wasn’t really going to make a bit of difference. You basically replaced LeBron’s old crew with the same thing. No help.
Sounds like K.G. and Minny to me. LeBron needs to bounce or either they really need to get a Kidd, C.P., Deron guard for LeBron.
Specially now that the back is flaring up!
Oh yea and get RID of Mike Brown please. I mean I am sure LeBron loves Brown cause his basic coaching is LeBron do whatever and the rest of you all try to help as much as possible.
LeBron needs a bonifide system that will not put so much on him and wear him down, and one that requires different things from different players on O and D.
Not just y’all do whatever. Naw man.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
MoxWestCoastRep says:
Dear Larry,
Now you wanna play?
LBJ
April 4th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Kobeef says:
The Ben Wallace trade will go down as the trade that proved to Lebron that he is never going to win if he stays in Cleveland. The worst part about last night’s Chicago win is that they did it without Drew Gooden who has been their only dependable low-post scorer. Cleveland would have lost much worse if Gooden was playing.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
vertman says:
IT’s very simple! If Wally had more shots then they would have won the game!
April 4th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Brown says:
The Cavs suck cuz Danny Ferry is a terrible GM, and there is no help on the horizon for LBJ.
Kidd wouldn’t have been the answer, and NJ wasn’t taking Hughes and his contract. The Cavs have bigger issues that adding just one player won’t solve.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
djKianoosh says:
on a more realistic possibility, maybe beno udrih would have been a better bargain pickup before the season.
hindsight is 20-20 though.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
JA says:
How is anyone supposed to get an assist passing to Lebron if not in a fast break situation? There are three offensive states of Lebron in a half court setting:
1) Lebron one-on-one
- shoots 95% of the time
- praised for “carrying the team”
2) Lebron one-on-many
- shoots 50% of the time
- praised for being “an amazing distributor” when passing
3) Lebron standing idle on perimeter
- doesn’t post up
- doesn’t try to run off screens to get an open look
- doesn’t set screens for teammates
- just hangs around the perimeter for several seconds and then comes towards whoever has the ball so they can dump it off to him so that he can go one-on-one again
Lebron has the ability to be one of the best ever, he just needs to find a coach who isn’t scared to upset him, and teach him how to play team basketball.
But that is a stat I would love to see – the percentage of Lebron’s made shots (non-fastbreaks) that are assisted on. At best 1 in 5?
April 4th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
JA says:
Alright, because it’s Friday and I’m dying at work, I’m going to put this out there for all of the KG-for-MVP types.
The Celtics record right now: 60 – 15 (.800)
With KG in the lineup: 53 – 13 (.803)
Without KG in the lineup: 7 – 2 (.778)
* not a huge drop off, with wins over the Spurs and Mavs in those 9 games
KG stats:
18.9 pts, 9.4 rebs, 3.5 asts, 1.4 stls, 1.3 blks
Al Jefferson stats:
20.9 pts, 11.2 rebs, 1.4 asts, 1.0 stls, 1.5 blks
* you can say Big Al puts up solid stats because he’s on a bad team, but it can be argued that it might even be harder to put similar stats up on a bad team because they can just key in on you
So now think about a team with Rondo, RayRay, PP, Big Al, and Perkins. And if you were to consider Boston’s “apparent” weakness (no depth), adding in Ryan Gomes, Theo Ratliff and Sebastian Telfair to the mix looks pretty good, no?
Not to mention Gerald Green (who could have entertained you in practice) and the one or two future first round draft picks they gave up.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
GEE...Kimbo Slice is the new Mike Tyson says:
Oh yes one player who enhances other players plus the main super-star. Mind you Kidd wouldn’t take any of LeBron’s shots away really. One player would have most def. helped. I agree it may not have solved it all the way to the finals type of help but it would have certainly improved them from what they are.
Plus you not really gone expect me to think that the Cavs couldn’t package some type of deal to bring Kidd in with all the pieces they can dangle along with cash and future picks.
It’s not LeBron either, and he WILL be one of the best ever outside of injury (back). You can stat all day but when you factor in the rest of the team, I have no problems with him shooting 50 or 95 percent. Even my wife was like, wow they just stand around and watch LeBron huh? And you can put that on coaching or the rest, but the boy is clearly a winner, he just needs dudes who know how and want to win around him.
April 4th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
sans says:
Yo gee, the Cavs already traded away their picks for years now, for Big Goro Gooden and a lot of scrubs. word on Mike Brown needing to be fired–currently, he’s the worst thing about pro ball.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
word says:
i mean he could go somewhere else but even then its still shady. i dunno i think he can win in cleveland if they put the right guys around him: a true pg and a couple low post big guys and he is good. i think a long term investment in him is the best bet but i mean i don’t know what trades they can make if any and how soon b/c he would needs to play with the guys a couple seasons before they win anything and yes hes young but i am sure he can’t wait forever. damn this topic is confusing, if they make him happy with proper trades in soon time, i think he will stay, but i can’t see him waiting too much longer.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
ngoogs says:
LeBron will stay here in cleveland as long as were a playoff team. if we can make the playoffs, he can string together some wins all by his lonesome. however, if i were him, i sure as hell would DEMAND danny ferry to go get me some peices. He seems happy enough here and i cant see him going to a mess like the knicks (not even he could save them) or new jersey/brooklyn, were he would certainly clash with VC and RJ, not to mention that teams lack of any big man with a pulse. so i think that as long as the cavs are a playoff team, lebron will stay. yet, im sure future contracts would have to have an opt out clause or two in them, just as a possible threat to get danny ferry working.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
GEE...Kimbo Slice is the new Mike Tyson says:
Dang sans they did that on Gooden. A fool and his money soon part…fa real! Or his draft picks anyway.