LeBron James: The Biggest Part Of The Team's Poor Fastbreak Defense

For all of the complaints LeBron James has had in loaded quotes to the media and over social media, he’s perhaps the biggest problem in one area. Transition defense.

See, LeBron James is an all-time great but he still reacts to bad calls in a game like he hasn’t been in the league for 14 years. James should know, by now, that refs are going to miss calls. He should also notice, as an avid film watcher, that his incessant complaints lead teams scoring on the fast break on other ends.

He should also notice that for a player who is supposed to be the defensive anchor, he fails to pick up the defensive challenge head-on when he should.

Case-and-point, January 16th against the Golden State Warriors, a game the Cavs lost 126-91. The Warriors had 37 points come from the fastbreak in that game.

Here’s an example of the Cleveland Cavaliers failing to execute simple defensive principles. Nobody picks up the ballhandler and although Kyrie Irving is running out to meet Stephen Curry on the wing, James is wrongly telling Iman Shumpert to guard Kevin Durant when he should have been the one to pick up the ballhandler in transition.

The result of Shumpert running towards Durant when he should have stayed on Klay Thompson was a wide open three early in the game.

Here, again, James is the catalyst for the terrible transition defense. This time, it’s because he’s chosen to complain about a call to his bench.

He chooses to look at the bench instead of run out to pressure anybody. Kevin Love doesn’t run out to chase down Javale McGee either and the malaise displayed by both aren’t going to stop teams from running right at the rim anytime soon.

Against the San Antonio Spurs, and in front of Pop (San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, who James has a great admiration for), James was on his p’s and q’s. He got back on defense early and picked up the ball handler. Once he forced them to make a decision, the transition opportunity ended dead in its tracks. Patty Mills picks up his dribble and passes the ball to Ginobli, who hesitates and then gets stripped by Shumpert.

This is how James is supposed to get back against every team, not just in front of a coach who has his respect.

Now, to be fair, James isn’t the only culprit of bad transition defense. Nonetheless, James is the head of the snake though and should do better.

If players are supposed to lead by example, this is what James is leading the team to do:

Here, against the Brooklyn Nets, former New Jersey Nets star Richard Jefferson lets Rondae Hollis-Jefferson get all the way to the rim. While constantly backpedaling, Jefferson has forced the interior of the Cavs defense to collapse. As a result, even though Hollis-Jefferson misses his layup, Isaiah Whitehead is able to sneak baseline for the tip-in.

These problems, ones of failing to stop the ball handler in transition, happened over and over again for the Cavs and against the wrong team, like the Warriors, it will doom them.

The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have to decrease the amount of threes they take in order to have said transition defense. After all, the Boston Celtics are ranked 4th in three-pointers attempted per game with 32.6 and tied for 1st with the Detroit Pistons in opponent fastbreak points with 10.7 per game. The Cleveland Cavaliers are ranked 3rd in three-pointers attempted per game with 33.4. While they’re ranked 23rd in opponent fastbreak points per game for the season with 14.7, they’ve given up 21.0 points per game in the fastbreak over their last three contests.

Only the New Orleans Pelicans and Orlando Magic have performed worse over their last three games.

The Cleveland Cavaliers transition defense comes down to focus, hustle and simply “bodying up” the ballhandler and his available outlets. Love, or whoever is playing power forward, won’t be close enough for an offensive rebound most times because they’ll be spotted-up behind the three-point line. Those players should be one of the first defenders back so that they can provide some sort of obstacle for the rim. The others will try to make life hard on the ballhandler.

James is probably right to complain about playmaking on the offensive end and a lack of rim-protection on the defensive end. However, think about how many times James looked at the bench in frustration or argued with a referee and didn’t get back on defense. Look at the above clips and see the difference between the Cavs transition defense when a player picks up the ballhandler as soon as possible.

James has to look in the mirror and accept that he’s a part of the team’s problem too. All one has to do is watch him whine and let team’s score in the process to realize that.

Do you think LeBron James is part of the Cleveland Cavaliers problem? Let us know in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.

LeBron James: The Biggest Part Of The Team’s Struggles Defending The Fastbreak

By Quenton S. Albertie | Jan 25, 2017

For all of the complaints LeBron James has had in loaded quotes to the media and over social media, he’s perhaps the biggest problem in one area. Transition defense.