Lazy LeBron: The "Next" Vince Carter?

[cyanide]

There's talk that's going around that LeBron is not trying hard enough. I read it somewhere, and now I'm reading it again at RealGM, so there's speculation going around that LeBron doesn't have the work ethic of Jordan or the drive as Kobe. Somebody at RealGM made an unique observation: "All the fame and money went into his head."

Here's the thread.

Some argued that he's only 21, and some argue that he's playing a lot of minutes, so he's saving energy, or that he just came off a summer with Team USA. Are those valid excuses?

I haven't watched a single Cleveland game, but I've heard that Cleveland fans are disappointed with his lack of consistent effort.

Anybody who are LeBron fans, haters, or close followers of the game, I'd be interested to hear what you think.

[ThaLiveKing]

I don't know about this. . Usually LeBron is doing all the work on the court

[eisfeld]

I don't think he plays different than last season, just the hype is going to be over soon. He is too inconsistant right now, but I'm quite sure he can develop a better game over the years. But honestly, on a long run I think Melo will be ahead of him.

[Andrew]

Admittedly I haven't seen many Cavs games this season (only one against the Spurs to be precise) but I think some of the disappointment is due to the huge expectations, some of which aren't exactly fair or realistic. How often do you hear someone say "If LeBron James is this good now, imagine how good he'll be when he's in his prime"? I think there's a lot of people who truly expect him to be averaging something ridiculous like 40 ppg, 15 rpg, 12 apg, 3 bpg and 3 spg while shooting 55% from the field when he hits his prime and that anything less would be a disappointment. The fact of the matter is that besting his numbers from last year is easier said than done.

LeBron is averaging 27.4 ppg, 6.7 rpg and 6.6 apg, with the only really significant dropoff from last year being his scoring average which is down an even four points per game but by most standards those numbers aren't disappointing. The Cavaliers are tied for the second best record in the Eastern Conference at 11-7, which is better than it looks considering more than half the league is under .500 including the entire Atlantic and most of the Southeast divisions. And of course, there's still a lot of basketball left to be played in the 2006/2007 season.

[Matt]

You want loafing... watch the Raps rotate on D.

LMAO

[Metsis]

Okay, I'll first say that I have not seen a game of LeBron's this season so I don't look at this from that angle at all.

LeBron is probably facing a lot tougher defenses than last year. Last year Ilgauskas was pretty good, Gooden had good games, even Damon Jones pitched in from time to time. Right now Cleveland is all LeBron James... And basically no one else. Marshall is shooting okayish sometimes, but before Ilgauskas and Gooden and Varejao begin to resemble a high school teams inside threat, the opposition will not respect them... And the opponents can all concentrate on taking LeBron away from his stride.

Ilgauskas really needs to step it up to make this team work again... And a healthy Hughes would be nice as well... Right now, the team is really bad and only hanging on because LeBron is just that good... If they didn't have LeBron, they would be the bottom dwellers of NBDL at the moment...

If LeBron James seems fazed out sometimes... I think, if you think of his situation you can understand that... I can. If you get no help from anyone on your team, well it's going to eat away at you, slowly and surely.

And let's not forget... Who else in this league is averaging 27/7/7???

[Nick]

I wasn't aware 27/7/7 was lazy. What a strange accusation.

[Metsis]

While on this subject...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-061207

[Nick]

Lol, that article had a cool picture in it.

Supersonic slam!

[PAMPERS]

Just saw the game against the Raptors. James in my opinion is just reserving most of his energy to finish the game, He barely goes to the bench.

[Chris_23]

Nah, LeBron James will not be the next Carter. Carter was surprisingly determined earlier in his career to fight off the next-Jordan things from his back and was quite a success at it.

It is similar to LeBron (it's been a while since he's been tagged with next-Jordan talk), but LeBron is very different from Carter. I also find it hard to believe that all that hype and fame and money is getting to him in negative way. I at least hope not, since he has great talent and seems to be a good person.

Nevertheless it is not about statistics. 27/7/7? So what, anyone who's seen LeBron play this season knows he is quite inconsistent, relies too much on jump shots even if it's obvious he cannot hit them, does not drive often enough even though he could play it Jordan-Wade style and just lure in fouls down below in a charge.

But next Carter? No, and it's way too early to say that anyway. We'll see what happens when Hughes gets back, it may just be that LeBron is not one-man-leader enough for his team mentally.

[cyanide]

Interesting comments. I know that 27/7/7 is ridiculously high, but it's also interesting to see that Cavs fans see that regardless of his stats, he's not playing 100% all the time on the court. On the other hand, what Andrew said about higher expectations could be true as well. It's also interesting to know whether LeBron still has more potential left, or 27/7/7 is a realistic career average?

[Weiland]

he's just unselfish and he has lousy team8s that's all. he isnt lazy

[cklitsie]

This "lazy" Lebron still owns the friggin league, I don't see the big deal.
On another note, I'm pretty sure Lebron won't be a Cavalier his whole career if they keep surrounding him with all these crappy players.

[Chris_23]

Owns the league? He has been pwned by Knicks. And Bobcats this season. 'nought said. LeBron definetly does not own the league. Yes, he is the best player of the Cavs but to -own the league- you do need to do alot, alot more.

LeBron also made a strong drop in NBA.com's MVP rankings after his recent perfomances.

LeBron in another team in the future would be interesting, but I doubt there's any real chance of that happening. Firstly, his contract is rather strong which means that he'd be signed by lottery bound team and I doubt he wants that. And as a trade I can't imagine Cavs ever trading him unless he does something really stupid that would anger the fans, team and management (and that's quite possibly not going to happen).

Also, there has not been many franchise players who, after changing their main team, gain similar or above success in their next one.

[BIG GREEN]

People will find any fucking thing to bitch about. I'm dissapointed in lebron's performance this season thus far cause he simply isn't playing as good as last season but jesus...give the guy a fucking break. What should he be averaging for him not to be considered lazy? Lebron is suffering from the kobe haterism disease. No one says shit about him, writes an article or makes a post on these forums about him anymore when he does well. Soon as he slumps a little..we have a brand new article and forum thread about it.

Andrew's post put it best as usual.

[cyanide]

I'm going to clarify my point, because I don't want anyone misunderstanding why I made this thread:

Despite LeBron averaging great numbers, there are fans saying that he isn't putting in the 100% work ethic like Jordan, Bird, Magic, Pippen, Kobe, etc., does. In other words, he's relying on his exceptional talent but not giving 100% on work ethic (looking unpassionate, disinterested, cruising at times, giving up on certain plays, etc).

I'm not basing this on my observations, but others, and I'm curious on what people have to say. 'tis all.

[[Q]]

Just saw the game against the Raptors. James in my opinion is just reserving most of his energy to finish the game, He barely goes to the bench.

that's a very good point. I saw that game on TV and he didn't do much until the 4th quarter of that game. There was a 13-0 run by the cavs at one point and Lebron had 3 assists on 3 consecutive trips and then a timeout was called. the Raps miss and the CAvs come down expecting him to pass and he gets an easy dunk over Garbajosa. He just took over in the 4th.

[Chris_23]

This 'reserving energy' theory is ridiculous in my opinion. NBA is a league where, if you don't make much of an effort, you don't belong on the court. Not to mention the league has many players who are able to reserve energy yet still be lethal while at it. And.. It's not like LeBron is thirty five year old veteran who's body is giving up slowly.

But, as I said in another thread talking about player comparisons, I believe this recent criticism is because of those comparisons. If LeBron is looked at for what he is, he is amazing player, and without going to some ridiculous comparisons, his perfomance is good in most games (I 'am' saying 'most' because his couple below-20 perfomances this season have been akwardly bad. If one dimensional Morrison can handle LeBron then 'hellllo')

[Dro]

One of the problems is that people compared keep trying to compare Lebron and MJ, when Lebron clearly isn't the player who can score at will like MJ did (perhaps Carmelo is the better MJ comparison). Some people have already made this comparison, but I think Lebron-Magic is a much more accurate comparison.

[Weiland]

i think lebron can overpower any player in the league..he's just so unselfish and he doesnt know how quick and strong he really is... he want his teammates to get involved so much even though they can't do anything

[Chris_23]

You know, people wonder why LeBron is not quite there while being still a good player and scoring nice stats. Well, after seeing tonights game, seeing really special players like Nash and Kidd duel it out, it became quite clear to me.

All those four years mister James has been in the league, I don't think I remember a single game. I remember his best scores and the like, certain dunks or passes, but no game, no real memories. Tonights Nash perfomance however showed quite clear why, even though not your everyday basketball-teen-fans favorite Nash, is still the MVP of the league. Lebron, take those steps, please, get there and give me memories to last forever.

[Weiland]

You know, people wonder why LeBron is not quite there while being still a good player and scoring nice stats. Well, after seeing tonights game, seeing really special players like Nash and Kidd duel it out, it became quite clear to me.

All those four years mister James has been in the league, I don't think I remember a single game. I remember his best scores and the like, certain dunks or passes, but no game, no real memories. Tonights Nash perfomance however showed quite clear why, even though not your everyday basketball-teen-fans favorite Nash, is still the MVP of the league. Lebron, take those steps, please, get there and give me memories to last forever.

it's only your memory your talking about

[Chris_23]

Yes, as I said. Of course it is

[volsey]

Ok well I'm tired and haven't read the whole thread, but most of it. I watched both of the Cavs vs Raps games this season. And I think one other Cavs game, but I don't remember against who. After watching the first Cavs Raps game, where the Cavs lost, I was thinking the same type of thing in this thread. I didn't think he'd turn into Carter type player, but I just thought that he wouldn't be as amazing as his last season, or be the Mr. 4th quarter player we'd seen. In yesterdays game I still didn't see much energy, he also seemed alot slower and seems like he lost that quick first step, but he scored when he had to, and he didn't neccessarily make bad decisions, just not the best decisions. At the beginning of the year I was impressed with how much more energetic he looked on defense compared to last year, and now that energy is gone too.

I don't think he'll turn into a Carter type player, but I've definately noticed a decrease in determination and energy. He's been settlings for ALOT of jumpshots, and hasn't been running the break as much. He also never seems to try as much when playing against a team that they think they should beat, like the Raptors or Bobcats. He's still able to drive and score whenever he wants, but instead he'll be pulling up jumpshots, or passing to a player and then lazily walking to the corner and stand there and do nothing. Stats wise I'm not really dissapointed, but just watching him is like watching a different player.