LeBron James Will Be Unstoppable If He Masters This Weapon
LeBron James needs to develop a certain weapon in his arsenal if he wants to remain the most dominant force in the league and to make him truly unstoppable.
It’s been a grueling past few years for LeBron James who has been playing from October to June for the past six years. During that time, he won the NBA championship three times including last season’s thrilling NBA Finals that saw the Cleveland Cavaliers deliver Cleveland it’s first major sports title in 52 years.
The greatest NBA players ever are known to be the hardest working on their teams. The same is true for James as he is widely known to be the Cavs’ most dedicated player on the practice court and is always working on his game.
But the best player in the NBA needs a certain weapon in his arsenal if he wants to remain the most dominant force in the league. To take his game to the next level, if he wants to become unstoppable, then this is what he needs to work on this offseason:
The mid-range jumper.
Forget about mastering the three-point shot and the long-range jumper. James needs to become the best shooter within the range that he studied and worked on while he was a member of the Miami Heat. Back then, James had the advantage of having a prolific shooter in Ray Allen to help him with his shot including his free-throw shooting.
Last year was one of LeBron’s worst three-point shooting season since his rookie year. Along the way, his shooting outside the paint suffered as well and it plagued him all the way to the playoffs.
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Though he had his moments during the season, NBA.com’s stats reveal that he was 40.0 percent on catch and shoot two-point shots and only 35.6 percent on pull ups. If not for his drives, post-ups, and put-backs, which accounted for almost half of his field goals, James’ overall field goal percentage would have been his poorest since before he left for Miami.
In the video below, Brian Windhorst explains what the Cavaliers’ first-round playoff opponent, the Detroit Pistons, understood about James’ lack of proficiency from the outside and they capitalized on it. Despite the four-game sweep, the Cavs-Pistons games were very close and one of their key strategies was to sag off of LeBron when he’s working from outside.
Time and time again, former coaches turned commentators such as Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy, Hubie Brown and Doug Collins would say about LeBron, “if he ever develops the jump shot he’ll be unstoppable” and yet he has only had a few seasons under his belt where you can say that he was getting there.
The mid-range jump shot is perfect for swingmen like LeBron, something that former dunk champion Vince Carter found out early in his career.
In the article titled, “Inside Out” in Sport magazine dated September 1999, Darryl Howerton explained what Carter, then the NBA’s Rookie-of-the-Year, had to do to improve his game. The high-flying North Carolina alum made a living in the paint as one of the game’s most exciting dunkers. He was told that he needed a new weapon to become the best—the jump shot.
To prove how important it was for him to take it to the next level, Howerton pointed out what a certain legendary NBA player did to improve his game by showing how he mastered a particular area on the court.
"“In the last 82-game NBA season, who led the league in 18-footers made? Hint: He also was No. 1 on 17-, 16-, 15-, 14-, 13-, 12-footers. Answer: Michael Jordan.Ironic isn’t it? This is the guy whose high-flying image spawned a Jumpman Nike logo that remains a hot commodity. The guy whose acrobatic moves around the basket and dunks from above set off the dunkathon that is the current NBA. And yet Jumpman was actually Jumper Man, the king of the mid-range jump shot.”"
Carter took notice and as much as we remember his dunks, he is a very good jump shooter and a decent three-point shooter for his career as well.
During the Finals, when matched up on offense in a switch against the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, James had countless opportunities to take and make a jump shot over the much smaller MVP. He hardly did either showing that he lacked the confidence in his jump shot despite the mismatch.
James cannot stop working on his game to stay at the top. At the age of 31, he is at the peak of his career, but may physically be on his way down. Though it’s hard to imagine that after so many highlight reel dunks during the playoffs and the Finals, LeBron’s game is almost plateauing. Almost.
To extend his career, LeBron has to recognize that the best way to fix his shooting from outside the paint is not to practice the three-point shot, which he’s working on this offseason, but to develop his mid-range game from 12-to-18 feet.
What’s great about consistently making shots from that range is it will help improve both his free-throw shooting and his three-point shooting at the same time. Jordan understood that he will never be the three-point marksman that Reggie Miller was. So he worked on that aspect of his game that he was comfortable with and one that allowed him to become the best at.
With his size and leaping ability, he can create separation from his opponent every time he takes the jumper. It will be unblockable!
It is in the fine-tuning of an already existing weapon that His Airness continued to be the best in the league and it would serve the King well to follow his lead.
And just like Jordan, James can learn to work on his jumper while in the high post. With his size and leaping ability, he can create separation from his opponent every time he takes the jumper. It will be unblockable! It’s one of those skills which Jordan continues to say Kobe Bryant stole from him and has proven to be effective for number 24 as much as it did for number 23.
The Cavs’ own number 23 could learn a thing or two about turnaround jump shots from Jordan as well.
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If he ever masters the jump shot and adds it to his repertoire, James may not just be unstoppable.
He’ll be impossible to guard.