Cavs legend LeBron James not in playoffs is odd, just ask Stephen Curry

LeBron James, who made the NBA Finals the last four years with the Cleveland Cavaliers, won’t be in the postseason, as his Los Angeles Lakers are mathematically out of contention. Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry touched on that, and he essentially said how weird that is.

LeBron James won’t be in the postseason for the first time since 2006, back when he was not even near his prime with the Cleveland Cavaliers in his first go-round with the team, and was amid his third season in the NBA.

James won’t be competing in the league’s “second season,” thanks to roster construction that didn’t seem to lead to any sort of consistency for his Los Angeles Lakers (who are currently just 35-43), combined with a reported nagging groin injury for James that will be the reason he’ll have appeared in a career-low 55 games (according to Basketball Reference).

More from Cavs News

• 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
• 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
• NBA Expert says Cavaliers backcourt just won’t work
• When does NBA Training Camp start? When do Cavaliers start?
• Prominent NBA agent says LeBron had a harder path than Jordan

It was recently reported that L.A., who wouldn’t have had a chance to make the Western Conference Playoffs anyway, announced they were shutting down James for the rest of 2018-19 (h/t ESPN’s Dave McMenamin); the Lakers had six games left at the time of the shut down, for reference.

Obviously LeBron missing 27 games this season would not have been something I would have thought would’ve been the case going into this year, considering the most amount of games he’s missed in a regular season was 20 back 2011-12 with the Miami Heat.

For the record, the only other year in which he really missed significant time due to injury other than that mentioned season with the Heat was back in 2014-15, and James essentially missed 13 games mostly due to rest where he seemed to be completely recharged, based on previous reports.

So, not seeing LeBron’s walking near-triple-double statline in the postseason will be very, very odd, considering he’s made eight straight NBA Finals, combining his years with the Heat and in his “Return” tour with the Cavs.

For his career, James has averaged 28.9 points on 57.9 percent true shooting, to go with 8.9 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game across 13 postseason runs, per Basketball Reference.

Today, Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, who is all too familiar with facing James in the postseason (his Warriors played James the last four years, winning three times), essentially emphasized that LeBron not being in the league’s second season will be, well, as we’ve mentioned, weird (courtesy of ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk and h/t Cavaliers Nation’s Jonathan Sherman).

Yes, the postseason will be compelling without James, anyway, but it will still feel like something’s off just a bit, in my opinion, without the King having his shot to make noise in the Western Conference Playoffs for the first time.

As Curry said, though, James will be able to “reset” for the 2019-20 season, and I would be shocked if he doesn’t make his imprint on the postseason in the West next year.