Lebron James expanding

I just heard on ESPN that Lebron is now 6'9 and 274 lbs. I was like damn, he's bigger then Dwight Howard and still has guard skills.

 

Ridiculous. The dude is a beast. Now if only he could find a consistent jump shot to compliment his raw abilities, he'd be golden (moreso than what he already is).

 

I meant bigger as far as bulk, not height. Dwight is 6'11 I know that, but he's between 265 to 270. Lebron now being 2 inches shorter, makes him about 14 pounds bigger if they were the same height.

 

Can we verify this new height/weight somehow? Sounds a bit too anecdotal.

I'd bet he has grown, I'm not sure about the weight though.

 

I just hope that Lebron decides to sign with the Bulls in 2010 for some reason. The guy is so ridiculously good and so big. That, or he can go sign with a Western Conference team. I don't want to have to try to go through him every year to get to the championship.

 

ESPN's around the NBA show they have on Tuesday nights. I heard that one of the refs got a peak at the scale Lebron got on. I believe that, I mean why lie about that. I noticed from the Summer Olympics that whenever he drove, they bounced off his body every single time. I mean they don't even have any kind of a chance to wrap him up like say a Dwight Howard. He's always been strong, but he's been showing that he's stronger then he's ever been. He's basically like Shaq in his rookie year, but with handles, speed, and some range.

 

I read somewhere recently that they said he only has 5% body fat, I mean that's insane.

I don't understand, though, someone that quick, with that power should be dominating down low, but he's not. Along with his jumpshooting, that's a big area for concern.

 

Do you mean he should be playing like Barkley down low? Well I guess he's just use to driving most of the time and he still has to do everything else. He's jump shot isn't up to par probably because he's gotten stronger. I believe that can mess up your shot and it's hard to readjust to an individuals new found strength.

 

There's no reason why he shouldn't be able to play like Barkley and some of the other all time greats. He has the power, he has the agility and he definitely has a knack for getting rebounds. He's the kind of player who should be able to post up better, and if you think about it he could have one of the greatest move sets down low of all time if he put his mind to it. He would be the most guard-like player down low, so he would be faster than the big guys, but would also be stronger. Maybe a devastating spin move or something like that would suit him best, but he really should have more in his arsenal than he does at present.

As for his jump shot, I think strength has something to do with it (and also free throw shooting) so hopefully over the next few weeks he'll try to sort something out.

 

During the Bulls vs. Cavs game, Neil Funk was talking about how Lebron shies away from the paint too much becaues he is a fraid of getting fouled and then missing free throws as a result.

Luol Deng, I think it was in the 06-07 season, could play great defense on Lebron. During both Bulls vs. Cavs games, Deng pretty much just got pushed back whenever James drove in.

As an Eastern Conference fan team, I hope we make a run at Lebron ourselves, he's the best in the game by far, and you just hope that he wears in a game worn Michael Jordan jersey as his pajamas. (Lebron was a Bulls fan growing up).

Although I think Lebron understands that a one team legacy for a great player is better than having to switch teams, and if the Cavs are good (which it looks like they will be) over the next 2 years, that could lead to him staying.

Lebron is going to have an interesting situation. He will be able to go to a team with a lot of good players and pretty much instantly create the best team in the NBA. He could go to the Bulls to play with Rose, Gordon, and Deng (do it!). Or go to Miami and play with Wade and Beasley.

Celtics are a really good team, but I could definitely see Lebron finding his way back to the finals this year.

 

Finally someone here is talking some sense about the prospect of LeBron moving

To summarise what I said earlier, and get a couple of new points in, there are 4 main weaknesses to LeBron's game: foul shooting, post play, jump shooting and defence. That's also the order as I see it.

He's inconsistent from the line, which makes him shy away from the paint, as said above. If he can get comfortable and consistent from the line (shoot ~80-85% more or less night-in-night-out) then it should give him even more confident about the other aspects of his game.

For a guy his size, his post play is pretty poor. If he is just shying away due to his foul shooting, that's understandable, but it is a demon he must conquer. If he needs to improve his foul shooting before his post play, that's fine, so long as he does it. And when the time comes for him to post up, we could enter a new era of dominance.

His jump shooting is pretty inconsistent, too. There have been times (Detroit, Game 5) when he's been on fire, but there have also been times (such as the first couple of games this season) where his shooting has been atrocious. That could be due to his increased strength and it might just be something he has to get used to, so hopefully he can. However, the other way of looking at it is that he's showing that he doesn't need to be a great jump shooter to be dominant at the moment, but in the future he will need to be. So it's a big concern, but one which will hopefully get rectified by evolution rather than revolution.

Defence and LeBron are an interesting mix. I think he is capable of being one of the better defenders in the League but so far when playing for the Cavs he has had to shoulder so much of the burden on offence that he can't also be a lock-down defender for 40+ minutes per game. Hopefully with the addition of Mo Williams and, hopefully, more to come, we might see him try his hardest for more than just the final 5 or 10 minutes of the egame on defence. Then we can truly see how good he can become.