Perception & analysis of LeBron's game: there's a disconnect between hardcore hoops heads who look at his game in a complex manner vs those who base their entire analysis of LeBron on statistics...

as told by someone who relentlessly defended LeBron from 2006-2011

a thread.....

To the LeBron defenders. I was just like you.

- Defended LeBron for the 2007 Finals loss (on a YT channel that was taken down)
- Defended LeBron for the 2011 Finals loss (on the podcast)
- Hated Skip Bayless (still have videos on YouTube shitting on him from as recent as 2012)

Some of you may remember my "theLeBronJamesBlitz" channel from years ago, on YouTube, where I was the first one editing every LeBron James game. I also was posting his game edits on previous channels, (mustseeBBtv, TheBruceBlitzChannel, TheRealBruceBlitz)...

I was a "defender".

All of those channels were struck down on YouTube for "violations", and the only LeBron James channel I have left standing is https://www.youtube.com/user/LEBRONMVPJAMES6/videos (Not sure how that one managed to remain standing, but it did.) I had opened that channel after "TheLeBronJamesBlitz" was banned.

So, I wanted to establish to you guys that I was just like these LeBron fans.

In fact, I continued to give him glowing reviews, of his game, all the way up until 2 years go.

Well, what happened 2 years ago? Let me explain.....

Look at how glowing my praise was of LeBron in the 2016 NBA Finals.... https://twitter.com/BruceBlitz/status/743649394470322177

57% of voters on my poll thought his 2016 NBA Finals performance put LeBron James in the top 5 of all time.... https://twitter.com/BruceBlitz/status/744886588056952832

And here's a picture I posted of LeBron James with his championship trophy, after the 2016 NBA Finals victory.....

So... TO THE LEBRON FANS... I wanted to establish that I haven't been some blind LeBron James hater throughout his career.

I personally defended LeBron James in videos & podcasts that got millions & millions of listens & views over the years.

OK

TIME TO EXPLAIN THE DISCONNECT.

2 NAMES:

Russell Westbrook

&

LeBron James

The last 2 seasons, Russell Westbrook has had a ton of praise heaped on him, because of his

STATS.

Quite a few have put context on those stats.

"Well, he has the ball in his hands all the time, that limits the offense, but yeah, stats."
"He plays no D and gets easy rebounds."

And I noticed that LeBron James made some subtle, but very important changes to his game after the All-Star break in the 2016-2017 NBA Season.

Wow, he was starting to play a lot like Russell Westbrook. And I don't mean out of control with his flames coming out of his ears...

All the sudden, wow, LeBron was REALLY sagging off on defense, and REALLY chasing those rebounds & man, it looked a lot like what Westbrook was doing.

And wow, LeBron was really spamming passing & I noticed full quarters where he'd barely shoot & chase those assists just for #'s

As someone who had edited highlights from hundreds & hundreds of LeBron games & literally watched every LeBron James NBA game since his rookie year...

the change in LeBron's game was blatantly and undeniably obvious.

He wanted the same adoration Westbrook was getting!

After the All-Star break in 2017, LeBron damn near averaged a Triple Double... CLEARLY the change in his game was working, from a STATISTICAL standpoint.

I guess he was out to prove that Westbrook wasn't the best all-around, he was? But is that really the best strategy for wins?

Now we get to the 2017 NBA Finals.

Now, as someone who's followed LeBron's entire career closely, as I explained earlier in the thread, it was very obvious to me when LeBron goes in to "stats mode".

Man oh man did he go in to "stats mode" in the 2017 NBA Finals.

LeBron had now figured out a somewhat brilliant strategy (but not the best in-game to game strategy for winning) to control his narrative.

He wanted to win, but he was gonna make sure he got his stats first. As long as he gets a triple double, or close, criticism is minimal.

So, there LeBron was, 2017 NBA Finals, spamming the passing & not shooting for stretches of games, sagging off on defense & chasing those uncontested rebounds, just to get his numbers up. Because, I mean, hell, look at the narratives that produced in the media!

"LeBron had XX/YY/ZZ, what more do you want him to do?" "LeBron is averaging XX/YY/ZZ, he should be the Finals MVP in a win or loss!"

So he could literally lose, while chasing statistics, and get minimal blame?

Talk about a win win man.

I was dumbfounded that LeBron James had completely abandoned his defense, completely, and was now relentlessly chasing statistics instead of winning.

You have a team in the Warriors that LeBron can LITERALLY get to the rim for buckets, at will, because they don't have great rim protectors, and the rules of today, this man can average at least 45 per game against the Warriors.

LeBron literally abandoned attempting to stop Kevin Durant in the 2017 NBA Finals, and let 37, soon to be 38 year old Richard Jefferson take the assignment?

What the fuck?

So he could sag off on D and collect rebounds?

What the fuck is he doing?

Kevin Durant put up 35ppg in the 2017 NBA Finals and man, what if the Cleveland Cavaliers had an athlete, at that position, who could at least make it harder on Durant?

Nah, LeBron was too busy building his public relations safety net with those statistics.

And you gotta be kidding me, LeBron James continued to do it all throughout the 2017-2018 NBA season, same style of play, chasing the numbers (it's blatantly obvious when you train your eye to recognize it.)

And here we are in the 2018 NBA Finals...

LeBron came out super aggressive in game 1, GOOD, that's what he should do against this Warriors team, ATTACK THE BASKET RELENTLESSLY! And he was aggressive, but it happened again....

The J.R. Smith blunder happens at the end of game 1. There was no guarantee they'd make a shot to win at the end of regulation, and there was LeBron, on the sidelines, pouting, and he completely threw in the towel for overtime. Just completely threw in the towel.

And sure enough, instead of staying aggressive like he was in regulation of game 1, LeBron has gone back to stat chasing mode in games 2 and 3... and sure enough, his desire to chase those statistics, in game 3, a game the Cavs SHOULD have won, led to Durant doing it again.

So, due to the past 2 seasons, I went from a guy who posted this after the 2016 NBA Finals. Proud of LeBron's effort, a guy I was propping up since the 2005-2006 season.... https://twitter.com/BruceBlitz/status/744961135045050368

And during the last 2 seasons, LeBron & Westbrook really opened my eyes to something.... and this is where we'll get back to the real & fake 100 dollar bills I posted to start this long thread.

The devil is in the details. So I started to question the VALUE of LeBron's statistics throughout his career.

Had I been guilty of overvaluing his statistics? Nah, come on man, look at those all around numbers?

But LeBron & Westbrook chasing these statistics opened my eyes....

Just how valuable are LeBron assists? Is it really the best strategy to turn all of his teammates in to spot up shooters and have them play off LeBron? Maybe his style of play is actually limiting these teammates?

Holy fuck...... I look like an idiot for caping for this....

So went back & refreshed my memory of LeBron games from every year of his career.

Boy he sure did get a lot of easy assists on the Ilgauskas pick n pop play, man there were a lot of assists to Daniel Gibson & Mo Williams where they just came off screens & LBJ made a simple pass.

Man, Dwyane Wade really did change his entire game up next to LeBron, and Wade started scoring primarily with off-ball cuts to the basket, and catch n shoot mid-range jumpers. A savage ball handler in Wade really did change up his entire game to play next to LeBron.

Chris Bosh went from being a guy who could get his own, even score out of the low post, to now primarily being a pick n pop guy?

Damn, how did I not notice this before? All of LeBron's teammates, as talented as they were, were being limited playing next to LeBron. Fuck!

Wow, the changes in Kevin Love's game, before Cleveland and on Cleveland, holy shit just startling. Kevin Love has been limited too.

Kyrie? LeBron took the ball out of his hands too, but Kyrie wasn't fully accepting of that and Kyrie actually defied that more than Wade.

And you start to recognize a pattern, all of these guys that have been put around LeBron James in Cleveland, Miami, and Cleveland again... their games aren't enhanced... their games are minimized & they are forced to become limited spot up shooters who play off LeBron.

Game 3 of 2018 NBA Finals, you saw Rodney Hood, someone who's been pissed about the way he's been reduced to a spot up shooter, he was given the chance to have the ball in his hands and he started dominating the Warriors on those possessions. He had a 26pt game vs them in Utah.

Look at LeBron's entire career and the rebounds he's collected, at LEAST (and I'm being generous here), at LEAST 80% of them are uncontested. He's not Charles Barkley, he's not Bill Russell, he's not Dennis Rodman... he rebounds like a point guard. Sacrificing D in the process.

OMG, I felt like such an idiot when I came to the epiphany that I was blinded by LeBron's production, and here I've done shows for over the past 13 years telling people how good he was. (Well at least 11 out of those 13.) This is a HUGE mistake on my part. And I need to own it.

Just like a fake 100 dollar bill, you don't start noticing the problems with LeBron James until you look PAST the statistics, and look at how they got there. When you look at how his style of play affects teammates. When you take a hard look at his defense throughout his career.

It's a perfectly understandable conclusion when people say "LeBron James, man, he raises his teammates level of play!" The man averages 7 assists per game for his career. That's a logical conclusion...

The problem is, he actually LIMITS his teammates. Reduces their role.

LeBron's teams throughout his career have been littered with guys who can get their own shot, and the rest of the roster is filled with spot up shooters.

But how effective has that proven to be? Won 2 out of 4 with a Super team, won 1 out of 3 with Kyrie, Love & stacked team.

This style of play with LeBron has been effective, mainly in the Eastern Conference where EVERYONE who's being honest with themselves knows, it's been the vastly weaker conference during LeBron's career. But this style of play hasn't worked against the better Western Conf teams.

LeBron has never been a CONSISTENT elite on-ball defender. He's had the ability to be that, but in all honesty, he only displayed that elite on-ball defense in stretches. He's always been a roamer and that's puts him in a better position to collect those rebounds.

LeBron's passing, and more importantly, LeBron's style of play doesn't RAISE his teammates level of play, it limits them.

Just based on LeBron's efficiency alone (8 seasons over 50% shooting), this is a guy who should be an aggressive scorer like a Kobe Bryant, like a Michael Jordan, like an Allen Iverson. Why would he pass to inferior teammates unless he's facing a hard trap or double team?

I saw a post game interview this year where LeBron explained that his goal with his style of play is to show kids that there are other ways to play the game, a more team friendly way.

What the hell does that have to do with winning? Shouldn't he be more aggressive?

Limitations to his game...

In regular season, for his career, LeBron has scored 38% of his points inside of 3 feet, 45% of his points inside of 10 feet, 67% points inside of 10 feet + free throws.

Only 33% of LeBron's points in his career have come on makes outside of 10 feet.

There are nights where LeBron gets that jumper going outside the paint, but those nights are not the norm, not even close to the norm. LeBron's aware of that, and I believe he protects his FG% and isn't willing to be aggressive (missing shots sometimes), and plays for stats.

At BEST you could spin it as "LeBron doesn't always trust that jumper so he tries to get the better shot at the rim."

Well, there are game situations where that does not lead to wins against the best teams.

That limitation has cost him in big game after big game in the Finals.

I also believe that LeBron James is afraid of failure.

This is why he "makes the right basketball play" in so many big game situations.

That's a pure observation, more of an observation than a lot of the other facts in this thread.

Does LeBron's style of play raise or limit his teammates: Reduces their role, limits them.

Has LeBron been able to take over so many winnable games in the Finals, and put teams away with his scoring: Not consistently

LeBron's rebounding: Metric of him sagging off/roaming on D

What is the weakest part of LeBron's game? His competitive drive
What is the strongest part of LeBron's game? Attacking the basket
What is the part of his game he likes to feature the most? His passing
What will LeBron James be known for the most? Stats to some, losing to most.

The excuses will be abundant.

The hysteria for his free agency will be in mass.

But that long thread is the best I can do, in Twitter form, to explain how I went from defending LeBron for YEARS to where I'm at now, when it comes to analyzing the EFFECTIVENESS of LeBron's style.

You've been able to see through the numbers with Russell Westbrook.

It's time for people to take a long look at the effectiveness of LeBron James' style of play too.

Stop being blinded by statistics.

/end thread.