<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> No matter where James plays, he is going to score 25-30 points. But when he runs the point, he tends to get his points more in the flow of the game, and he's more likely to take advantage of his passing skills and keep everyone else involved. LeBron was never meant to be one of those off guards like Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant, etc., where you throw him the ball and let him isolate one on one. He can score that way, but it's a waste of his skill set. He should be used more like Larry Bird, or Scottie Pippen, or hey, maybe even Magic. Then in crunch time, he can be the one to take the big shot, like MJ did. It makes more sense for the ball to be in LeBron's hands as much as possible - good things happen. Why have Eric Snow dribbling for 15 seconds of the 24, or Jeff McInnis creating floaters, when LeBron's passing can find easy baskets for everyone? When LeBron was drafted, I thought that his best position was point guard, or at minimum a point forward who creates the offense. To have him off the ball and then having to race the shot clock - that's not a recipe for success. There's talk about having a traditional point guard, but wouldn't that player be asked to all of the things that James does best? The only real liability is that James may have a problem guarding small quick point guards, but I think he'd cause them nightmares at the other end. For example, I think Steve Nash would have a tougher time guarding LeBron that LeBron would guarding Nash. Of course, acquiring a point guard who both had range and could play scrappy 'D' would be a plus. Dan Dickau might be an option where the shooting is concerned. Maybe Jiri Welsch will come around - he is certainly tenacious on defense, although I question his pure shooting ability. Free agent possibilities, besides Dickau, include Bobby Jackson, Jon Barry, Earl Watson, Keyon Dooling, and Travis Best. The Cavaliers have been trying to find a swingman who can shoot, and that's still a good idea. But getting a point guard that can shoot, like John Paxson and Steve Kerr did for the Bulls, would help. Whatever free agent the Cavaliers get, whether it's Michael Redd, Ray Allen, or whoever, that guy and James should be handling the ball most of the time, just like Jordan and Pippen did. Everyne else is a secondary option. They should run plays for Z when he has an advantage. Gooden and Varejao should get all of their points off putbacks and hustle plays. Next year when Luke Jackson returns, James may have the sidekick that he needs. Losing Luke really hurt the team this year. He'd just be coming into his own by now, 74 games into the season. </div> Source I thought some of the ideas here were pretty interesting and made sense. Change things up since the current lineup isn't working. Put the ball in LBJ's hands as much as possible and have him initiate the offense since neither Snow nor McInnis is producing. Make use of his incredible court vision. Put better shooters on the floor... Sasha > Harris. Use Tractor Traylor less... Varejo and Gooden more. I was wondering what your thoughts on some of these changes were.
LeBron should run the point at the end of games, but certainly not the whole game. That's just how this team works best.
