Cleveland Cavaliers: Skip Bayless Is Right About LeBron James

Skip Bayless made a great point about LeBron James on Fox Sports’ Undisputed.

I would never write this if I didn’t believe it was true. When it comes to Skip Bayless, I look at him as an unofficial archenemy (no personal feelings) who takes a hot take to a new level. Ice cold. However, hemmed a rock solid point about Cleveland Cavaliers megastar LeBron James earlier this week.

For years, Skip has vehemently tried to discredit James’ accomplishments as if he has a personal vendetta against the King. He’s essentially given credit to Ray Allen, Dwyane Wade and Kyrie Irving for boosting James’ legacy, citing their performances in clutch moments only to slight him in comparisons to Michael Jordan. He’s done this countless times over the years, no matter what factual evidence proves him to be wrong,

Yet, lost in all the hoopla, a nugget of truth emerged yesterday on Fox Sports’ newest debate show, Undisputed.

Skip, who begins talking about James’ recent streak of performances from the three-point line at the 44:36 mark of the recording, is unimpressed by James’ shooting in his last 13 games. Making a total of 29 threes out of 70 attempts, James has shot a sparkling 41.4 percent from deep in this stretch and has shot 37.5 percent from three this season.

Taking 5.8 threes per game, and making 2.3 of those attempts, James would be on pace to be taking and making more threes in this stretch than he’s averaged in any complete season. Part of this is due to Irving, Kevin Love and J.R. Smith having missed games during this stretch. Irving has been out for the last three games while Love has missed one. Smith has missed all of these games as he continues to recover from a surgery on his right thumb.

Yet, even in the grandeur of James’ number, Bayless came away unimpressed. His response, without the fluff, had Shannon Sharpe lost for words yet it also had me lost for words. In Bayless’ opinion, James should be working on his free throws because nobody can stop him from getting to the rim. Bayless said “show me the player who’s working as hard on his free throws as he’s working on his three-point shot, that’s the player I want to read about”.

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In one mind-numbing moment, I realized I completely agree with Bayless. On that point, anyways.

While James is undoubtedly one of the most inconsistent shooters from the free-throw line, I felt inclined to defend James’ abilities as a free-throw shooter because James always seems to make the ones that count. Yet, to my surprise, he’s not.

In the clutch, which is when there are five minutes or less in a game and the point differential between the teams is five points or less, James is making 1.1 out of 1.5 free-throw attempts. Not only is that a dismally low free-throw percentage (69.6) but it shows a lack of aggression by James. While James ends up in the top-15 of free-throw attempts per game, he’s the second-worst shooter and only shoots a higher free-throw percentage than Davis Bertans of the San Antonio Spurs (50.0).

Two of the other great players in the NBA, James Harden and Russell Westbrook, average 2.8 free-throw attempts and 2.2 free-throw attempts per game respectively. They do so because they’re aggressive all game long though and while Harden averages 10.3 free-throw attempts per game, Westbrook averages 10.7.

James averages 7.0 free-throw attempts per game.

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While James, who is 32-years-old and has Love and Irving shooting a combined 10.2 free-throws per game, doesn’t need to attack the lane incessantly to try to draw a foul, he could stand to be more assertive scoring inside. Seemingly unstoppable inside, he’s converting 74.4 percent of his shots from around the rim.

Yet, in what only glosses the nugget of truth that lies in Skip’s argument, James often passes up the opportunity to attack the rim to make the pass. He’s doing that less lately, especially with a less-reliable three-point shooter in DeAndre Liggins starting beside him instead of Smith. Nonetheless, James’ bigger issue seems to come when he settles for an off-balance jumper or tough finesse shot around the rim.

In those moments, James should be getting as close to the basket as possible to improve his chance of converting the shot or drawing the foul, yet he doesn’t. It’s possible that it’s because he’s a 74.2 percent shooter from the charity stripe. It’s also possible that it’s because he’s shooting a mere 68.3 percent from the line this season.

In writing about James’ lack of aggressiveness, an old boxing saying comes to mind. The boxer who takes the least hits lasts longer. If there’s anything to know about James, it’s that he’s meticulous in how he takes cares of his body.

However, if James is avoiding contact to preserve his body, it shouldn’t affect his number of free-throw shooting attempts in clutch moments. When the game is on the line, the ultimate competitor will do whatever it takes to win in the moment.

It’s more likely that James, who always wants to play to his strengths, doesn’t consider his free-throw shooting his strength. As a result, James tends to shy away from contact and go for a shot he feels more comfortable with whether that be a jump shot or a finger-roll layup.

In the end though, that could be James’ demise and that’s why he should work on his free-throw shooting at least as much as he works on his three-point shooting. The three-point shot remains effective because it’s a shot he’ll have to make if given and a shot the Cavs need him to make while Smith, and others, are in and out of the lineup with injuries. Heavy practice on his free-throw shooting shouldn’t affect his shooting stroke either, as some of the best free-throw shooters are also some of the best three-point shooters due to the amount of shooting reps they get in the gym.

I’ll put it like this. Imagine if James was a 50-40-90 player. Shooting 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range are attainable accomplishments for James and he’s already achieved one feat or the either in his career. However, the closest James has gotten to shooting 90 percent from the free-throw line came in the 2008-2009 season, one in which James made 78.0 percent of his free-throw attempts.

If James averages those numbers from the field, he would average 1.5 more points on free-throws and just 0.16 more points on three-point attempts but he would average 27.5 points per game in total. That would result in him having his highest points per game average since his first stint in Cleveland while Love and Irving combined for another 45.7 points per game.

Do you think Skip Bayless is right about LeBron James’ free-throw shooting? Let us know in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.