Once the Akron prodigy, the now 32-year-old LeBron James has mastered how to successfully age in the modern-day NBA.
It’s beautiful really. LeBron James has gone from a pure scorer to a completely dominant force in the NBA. Even though he made “The Decision”, LeBron James has been welcomed back with open arms and is now the beloved legend in Cleveland, where he has played a total of ten years.
The 14-year veteran with 13 All-Star appearances, four MVP awards, three NBA Finals rings and three Finals MVPs to match, has transformed and transcended the NBA.
As a third-year player, James had already averaged over 30 points per game in a season, a feat most players hope to obtain once. It isn’t the fact that James had incredible seasons that make him completely unique.
It is his ability to gracefully age while transforming his game.
After averaging more than 27.0 points per game for seven straight seasons, LeBron James has only hit that mark two times in his last six seasons and has missed the mark complete his last three seasons. James, who is a 6-foot-8, 250 pound small forward, pieced together one of his most impressive seasons at 32.
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There are an array of factors that have driven James to have such a statistically successful year. For starters, James averaged 8.7 assists and 8.6 rebounds last season which are both career-highs. This tells me that James has figured out how to use his idiosyncratic vision to find open teammates, and he has found a way to dominate the boards with his overwhelming frame. James has this vision and reads the boards because of his passion for the game. Players as great as James force themselves to study the game to improve, another reason he might have wanted to watch the summer league Lonzo Ball.
James’ shot selection has been another way that James has transformed his game. James, who played small forward for 61% of his court time this past season, has shot over 43% of his field goals from 0-3 feet. Never in his career, except for these past two seasons, has he shot over 40% of his field goals from that close, not even in the seasons that he was a power forward for the majority of the time. James has been extremely efficient from that range, shooting 78% this past season. James has learned that he can overpower the vast majority of small forwards, and he has taken that to his advantage. Along with that, James shot 36.3% of his shots from three this past season. That number is the third-highest of his career.
To wrap all that up, James plays the analytics as of late he’s bullied his way to shoot from closer, or he has chosen to shoot from outside, a shot he has improved over his career.
When it comes down to it, James, over his career, has increased his rebounds, increased his assists, and takes high-percentage shots, shooting from either extremely close or three-point range. James has played to his strengths, and that is the reason he has been able to continue to be an MVP candidate at 32.
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Aging is a natural process, and players should start looking at James to understand how to improve while aging. Play to your strengths and become physically overwhelming for your position are the two ways LeBron James has proven that he might still have five or more good years left in him.
*All stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com