What’s going to happen in Lebron’s final years of his career?
I’ve noted before that Lebron is the Greatest Mind In Basketball.
This post will call back to that.
Why would the Lakers trade for Russ? Why don’t the Lakers have more three-point threats? Are they built to win?
The answer is they aren’t built to win and that answers the first two questions.
The league and sports in general have revolved around stats for as long as I can remember and that’s only amplified with fantasy leagues, sports betting and analytics.
Lebron never comments on this, but he knows it. He knows stats is a large determining factor in how players are compared.
That’s what his career is now (moreso that before) about. Russel Westbrook isn’t going to win them any games. He will likely get his stats. Lebron hasn’t been a good defensive player for close to if not more than a decade. But he gets stats. I’d bet he will continue to get his stats until he decides it’s time to call it a career. Statistically it will be one of the most impressive careers if many respects. Something we will be able to analyze at depth.
But if you’re wondering if the Lakers will be competitive or go deep in the playoffs? I doubt it. This is about padding the stats of an impressive career.
One thing I do see happening with sports is stats being put in their right place. We should look at sports analysis more in a descriptive aspect first with more context and that stats add complementary information. They shouldn’t be the basis of an opinion which happens often.
There are many examples of this but point guards will get a baseline number of rebounds and assists yet we often this may not be taken in account in player comparison. Or the amount a player that boxes out isn’t praised but a player who chases down rebounds more will get more rebounds, or a player who goes for steals might also get beaten badly for easy buckets, or players with “high usage rates” are seen favorably but is it good they have the ball a lot? It might be but it’s also the sign of a ball hog.
