2018-19 NBA Thread

It's a hell of an uphill climb. He doesn't seem to be aging like a normal human, but they need to get some stars around him in a hurry if he's going to be a key part of another title.

 

I've very much come around on LeBron, as I did with Kobe. I just have no faith in Magic or Pelinka to surround him with the talent he needs.

 

I sort of agree here. It's not that they won't get the talent, it's that LeBron is aging and they are treating this like he's still the 28-year-old LeBron. They are going to have to bust ass just to make the playoffs and then they have to sign someone and potentially hold money for AD the following year or decide that they can't wait for him. I don't think they were thinking a three-year plan with LeBron.

But I also believe Magic is absolutely arrogant enough to think he could strong arm teams into bad trades and so far he's been met with resistance he's not used to.

 

Jordan was 35 when he won his last title and he was running on fumes. They maybe could have squeezed one more if they hadn't broken up the team after 1998.

I know LeBron is a physical freak, but he's 34 and has basically managed to avoid any kind of injury, nagging or otherwise, his entire career. Law of averages says he's due for something at some point.

 

Typical arrogant approach from Magic and the Lakers. It’s like, “We got Kareem for a bag of garbage, got Magic for an aging Gail Goodrich, Kobe for Vlade and Shaq for nothing, so all of these smaller market teams must exist solely to be our feeder system.”

At this point, I may root for the Warriors to stay together if the Lakers trade for AD.

 

Whoa, let's not say things we can't take back later.

 

And it's so short-sighted because...no offense to Kawhi or Paul George, who are great players...Anthony Davis is on another level. He's going to give you 5-7 more years of MVP level production from the front court. If they traded for him tomorrow I'd argue that he, not LeBron, becomes the main piece to attract other talent.

So they should be willing to give up whatever it takes to get that guy in because he's their bridge as LeBron transitions into the latter years of his career, If NOLA wants Kuzma and Ingram and three-first rounders and cap relief? It should be done.

 

Don’t look at the age of James, look at the mileage. Kobe’s last complete season was his age 34 season.

 

Exactly. By then, Jordan was nothing but base line jumpers and pure competitive guile. He had long since stopped aggressively going to the rack.

LeBron is still expected to play the game, he played when he was in his mid-late 20s. So while I hope it doesn't happen because the guy is amazing and is as fun to watch as any athlete I've ever seen, I feel like the drop off is going to come and when it does it's going to be like Peyton Manning completely losing his arm in his final season.

 

Yeah, I think because he’s such a force of nature, we’ve all come to expect LeBron to play at the same level until he’s close to 40. The odds of that actually happening, though, are minuscule.

With all of LeBron’s mileage, and the time he’s missed this season, it’ll be interesting to see how he holds up over the final three years of his deal.

 

I'm sure the NBA brass is thrilled LeBron sat out the big Saturday night game at the Warriors. Not the NBA can do anything about it.

 

Aging in the NBA isn't just declining skills, it's taking longer to recover from injuries, harder to stay in shape without injury. LeBron's mileage is like police car mileage in Alaska.