Andrew wrote:His game also has a tendency to force bigs to become outside shooters (see Chris Bosh and Kevin Love), because of his drive and dish mentality
Not really.
Bosh attempted 3s at a similar rate in his last 4 seasons with Toronto and his first 2 seasons with the Heat.
Only in his last 2 seasons with LeBron did his attempted 3s increase and it's not even because of LeBron.
It's Wade, he attempted more of his shots within 10 feet than LeBron did. You could even point the finger at Spoelstra for trying to take care of Wade's aging knees by having him post up more instead of always slashing to the basket like his younger self or constantly running around screens if he were to become a shooter.
Same with Love, he was already attempting 3s at similar rate in his last 2 seasons with Minny and first 2 seasons with the Cavs, including the season where they won a ring. Only in his 3rd season with the Cavs did his attempted 3s jump, like the rest of the league did as every team fell in love with the 3 because of the Warriors curb stomping the regular season to 73-9.
The oft impression of bigs playing with LeBron suddenly becoming Kyle Korvers is always thought of because that was and is the repeated and easy narrative when he played with them but stats say otherwise and gives all of us and the narrative a big middle finger.
Besides, LeBron already has his stretch big with the Lakers. That's why Kuzma wasn't traded, for now.
All the successful LeBron teams always had a big man to do work on defense, Ilgauskas, Joel Anthony, Bosh, Tristan Thompson before the Kardashian curse finally went in full effect, now it's Anthony Davis and him being in the top 2 of two-way players in the league also helps, a lot.