King James Gospel
Fansided

32 Is The New 22: Why It’s The King’s Court Now More Than Ever

By Dan Gilinsky

May 3, 2017; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) reacts in the third quarter against the Toronto Raptors in game two of the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
May 3, 2017; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) reacts in the third quarter against the Toronto Raptors in game two of the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /
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May 7, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) controls a ball during the second quarter in the second round of game four of the 2017 NBA Playoffs against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
May 7, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) controls a ball during the second quarter in the second round of game four of the 2017 NBA Playoffs against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports /

Reason #3: Playmaking

What this guy does throughout the course of every game is mind-blowing. He has the best basketball IQ of any player in the league, and that’s been the case for a long time.

James had the highest assist average of his career this season, with 8.7 helpers per game in the regular season. His assist total has dipped a bit below that in the playoffs, but is still a robust 7.1 through eight games. He’s creating easy scoring opportunities for essentially everyone he’s on the floor with, as he an assist rate of 30.8 percent. That’s far from his best, but it’s not turrible.

The way Bron is generating wide-open looks for his shooters has been straight up wizardry. In the playoffs, the Cavs as a team are shooting 49.0 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from three (per nba.com). So much of that has to do with the way defenses are focused on stopping Bron’s drives, which they still haven’t really done, by the way. Bron has a +11.9 plus/minus in this postseason run, the highest mark of his playoff career (per nba.com). Plays like this drive baseline in the early stages of Game 2 illustrate that.

That driving threat has allowed sharpshooters like Kyle Korver, J.R. Smith, Channing Frye and many others to have clean catch-and-shoot looks in their sweet spots on the floor. Those three have combined to shoot 49.3 percent from deep, and that kind of shooting from those key guys has made this Cavs offense pretty much impossible to guard throughout 48 minutes. In addition, Deron Williams is leading the NBA in playoff three point shooting at 60.0 percent.

When you factor in the isolation threat of Kyrie Irving and the offensive rebounding of Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love, teams pretty much just have to hope Cleveland goes cold. With James at the controls getting the ball swinging around the horn and making plays in the open court, it’s basically making opponents helpless. This pass to K-Love was just filthy.

Now, my fourth reason why he’s reached new heights: his versatility on the defensive end.