I’ve been following the man his whole career but I have reached a point where I am starting to think he is overrated. Yes he has led this Cleveland roster which to many is sub-par to the Finals but let’s not overlook that he beat a inexperienced Indiana roster which took him to 7 games, a Toronto team which freezes up in the post season and their two stars Lowry
and Derozan choke when its time to shine, and a Boston team which was without their two best players Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. Kudos to Lebron for making a 8th straight Final without former sidekick Kyrie Irving but the fact that he is down 3-0 to the Warriors is a shame.
Judging off what I have seen so far in these Finals, yes his 51 point outing Game 1 at Oracle was amazing but a lot of people felt he should have took the last shot instead of deferring to George Hill who went on to miss 1 of 2 free-throws which lead to JR’s historical disaster. If you have 51 points you should be taking the last shot period, you are the best player in the game and should not be deferring in those moments. I’m retracing back to last Finals and Lebron’s defense was atrocious, I compare his defense to Kawhi’s in the Western Finals before he got hurt and its not even close. Kawhi Leonard was defending Durant the whole first half and the Spurs were up 27-30 points by half-time, why couldn’t Lebron do the same instead of letting Durant not only beat him in the Finals but win Finals MVP. Same thing in these playoffs, why is Lebron not playing defense? I watch him off the ball and he is not playing defense with energy nor is he glued to his man consistently.
Lebron has become a severely overrated defender ever since he left Miami, in Miami he actually put in effort on defense but Lebron has never been a lock-down defender. He gets too much credit for being a two way player, he just isn’t. He’s a very good play-maker with freakish athletic gifts and a god given physique but mentally he lacks what it takes to win. He does not bite down on both ends nor does he set the example for his teammates, he could preach better effort all he wants but if his team sees he is not giving 100 percent effort on defense why would they be motivated to play defense? A lot of times I see a player drive to the basket with Lebron having the opportunity to contest the shot and he does not even jump to contest the shot. Sometimes you see him not step out to the 3 point line to contest a jump-shot and his man usually kills him on the offensive end.
They say he conserves energy on defense to carry the offense but he puts a lot more weight on his shoulders than he probably has to. If he would buy in to being part of the team and playing a role instead of trying to be the play-maker and scorer the team would be a lot better. But he wants to control the basketball 90 percent of the time and his team is left watching as he brings the shot clock down to 6-7 seconds leaving his teammates with very little time to get in rhythm to score. I’ve never seen anything like it, I do not comprehend why he can not be coached and just be part of an offense. Any team picking him up in free-agency must be ready to deal with Lebron’s baggage, everywhere he goes it is about him.
D-NBA 