King James Gospel
Fansided

The unfair assassination of LeBron James’ MVP case

By Jason Timpf

DENVER, CO - MARCH 7: LeBron James
DENVER, CO - MARCH 7: LeBron James /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 5
Next
CLEVELAND, OH – JANUARY 28: LeBron James
CLEVELAND, OH – JANUARY 28: LeBron James /

Personnel decisions

The other mythological criticism surrounding LeBron is that he makes all of the personnel decisions and that he’s done a terrible job of it.

First of all, it’s completely ridiculous to portray this idea as a leadership shortcoming of LeBron.

Every great player in the history of the game has at least been consulted before major moves were made. Richard Jefferson alluded to a case like this involving Tim Duncan during this interview on The Bill Simmons Podcast:

"I’ve seen Tim Duncan go to the back of the plane to talk to [Popovich] about who they should possibly bring in, or things that are being offered. I’ve seen that . . . When you are a great player, and you are bringing so much to the table . . . You should ask him."

Are we all going to pretend that Kobe’s trade demands didn’t magically disappear after the Pau Gasol trade? Do you really thing Steph and Klay didn’t play a role in the re-signing and subsequent overpaying of Andre Iguodala?

Regardless — as we saw with the LeBron’s attempted veto of the Kyrie Irving trade — the actual general manager of the team makes the final decisions regarding player personnel. This is just the way business is done in the NBA.

However, let’s get to the decisions themselves. The two signings that LeBron himself is most criticized for are Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith.

No one will argue that these signings don’t presently look poor. Nonetheless, it is entirely unfair to use revisionist history to judge someone’s decision-making.

Thompson was signed to his current contract during the summer following the 2015 NBA Finals.

In that series — where the injury-hampered Cavaliers took the 67-win Warriors to six games — Tristan was a dominant force on both sides of the ball. He averaged 10 points and 13 rebounds while being relied on to play over 41 minutes per game. He was a defensive force, switching every screen and effectively guarding the Golden State guards out on the perimeter.

This was not a one-series fluke, either. He averaged 10 points and 11 rebounds over that entire playoff run. Was he overpaid that summer? Absolutely, to some extent. But he was also considered indispensable to Cleveland headed into that summer. They had to pay him.

As for J.R., he was re-signed for the same reason Andre Iguodala was: continuity. J.R. had just played perhaps the best defensive series of his career, effectively guarding the unanimous MVP — Curry — for long stretches, (I know. It’s hard to imagine considering how far he’s regressed, but yes, he was a dominant defender in that series).

He also made seven threes over Cleveland’s three-game win streak to take the title, including two huge threes in Game 7 to avoid a likely Golden State blowout. He played so well in that series that he ran back to the locker room as a champion, yelling out this:

The Cleveland front office knew going into that summer that J.R. would likely have to be overpaid but there was no debate as to whether or not to bring him back.

They were champions. The Cavaliers had proven that with the roster they currently had, they were good enough to defeat the winningest team in NBA history. Running it back, so to speak, was the only logical option.

But then Kevin Durant signed with the Golden State Warriors. That is what put the Cavaliers — and the rest of the league — at a talent disadvantage. There was no alternative signing, no magical fix to adjust for your biggest rival adding the second-best player in the league.

It’s unfair and inaccurate to look at this talent gap between Cleveland and Golden State and point to J.R. and Tristan as the culprits. They were championship pieces… until they weren’t. Durant shifted reality for every NBA team.

The Rockets made an unbelievable improvement this summer with the addition of Chris Paul. Yet they will take the floor with half of the All-NBA talent that Golden State will take the floor with in the Conference Finals. That is the conundrum that Durant created.

The super team that LeBron formed in Miami created a clear — yet beatable — favorite. The super team that Durant joined in Golden State created an invincible favorite. These are entirely different scenarios.

Criticize LeBron the GM all you want, but the man has won a lot of games — and three championships — with the rosters he has (allegedly) put together.

More from King James Gospel

But let’s get back to the MVP case. So we can’t blame LeBron entirely — from the perspective of an MVP candidate — for his using of defensive possessions to rest for his offensive workload and his inevitable playoff run. We also can’t blame him for the roster he helped put together.

The last chink in LeBron’s MVP armor is the drama surrounding Isaiah Thomas and the dissension Isaiah caused in the locker room. LeBron is — for some reason — blamed for this dissension but I believe that to be another unfair criticism.

Yes, the overall mood in the locker room was terrible during the Cavaliers’ awful January. But that is a byproduct of losing, and losing is never fun.

Even the Rockets — our MVP’s best team in the league — had a five-game losing streak this year. Then Harden went and pulled his hamstring! Do you think the Rockets were all loving on each other in the locker room during that stretch?!

This 82-game NBA regular season is grueling. It’s impossible to not have highs and lows. Isaiah just happened to exacerbate the situation by running his mouth every night. Now to be fair, he was dealing with his own injury demons and the pending free agency this summer that could make or break his financial future. But he was mostly to blame for the chemistry issues.

It is no coincidence that the locker room mood improved immediately upon his departure at the trade deadline.