KJG roundtable on all-time starters, LeBron James’ postseason runs with Cavs, his fit with prior CLE legends

#2: Who has been LeBron’s best teammate of his career in terms of best player/fit (including non-Cavs)?

Sow:

Bias aside, I believe that Irving has been LeBron’s best teammate. From the beginning, they had great chemistry with one another, and it just looked like a match made in heaven. Unlike someone like Dwyane Wade, Kyrie was just entering his prime when the two first joined forces and if Kyrie never seemingly forced himself out of Cleveland, I believe the two would still be running the Eastern Conference.

Casey:

I think it’s still D- Wade. I really wanted to put Irving here because in terms of fit, as his game meshes better with LeBron. With that being said, Wade is the third-best 2 guard ever and one of the top 25 players ever. Even though knee injuries towards the end of their tenure as teammates capped their chances, it’s hard to go against four NBA Finals trips in a row, while winning two of those.

I think LeBron learned a lot from his time in Miami, too, and Wade had a ton to do with that.

Fagan:

I think it is safe to say that LeBron has had his fair share of memorable teammates throughout his career, but to me the best one he’s played with has to be Wade. Irving was a close second, but ultimately, the bond between James and Wade won out. D-Wade and Bron were nearly unstoppable during their time in Miami together.

DiPaola:

Well, this is a tough question. It comes down to either Wade or Irving. LeBron played with Wade during the downside of his prime in Miami, while he joined the Cavaliers right as Kyrie was reaching his prime.

Kyrie allowed LeBron not always to be the primary ball-handler, and James could operate off the ball. Both James and Irving were a great tandem because either could go off on a given night, which came to a head in Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals when they became the first set of teammates to score 40-plus points in a game.

It’s a shame Irving and James only played three seasons together, they were quite the duo.

Meitin:

This is actually a unique question because the answer has probably shifted in a lot of ways in the last few seasons. The answer could range anything from (of course) Dwyane Wade to Kyrie Irving to even his newest partner in Anthony Davis.

Yet the answer statistically is probably Kyrie. Kyrie’s best season next to LeBron was in 2016-17 in which he averaged 25.2 points, 5.8 assists, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game on a near 50/40/90 clip. He averaged 47.3 percent overall/40.1 from three-point range/90.5 percent from the foul line, per Basketball Reference.

This was in the 2016-17 season, which came after arguably one of the more dominant performances in Finals history as a #2 option in the 2016 Finals against the Golden State Warriors, which cemented his legacy as LeBron’s greatest teammate. Wade could’ve been in this discussion had he played like his former Finals MVP self at a consistent level next to LeBron during his time as a member of the Heat, but he never put together a stretch like Kyrie in that 2016 Finals run and the 2016-17 season beyond that.

Davis also easily can change this answer in his favor if he wins a title next to LeBron in Los Angeles, yet until that happens, the answer will remain Irving.

Harris:

While LeBron has played with multiple Hall of Famers over his storied career, I believe that the player who was his best all-time teammate was one of his best friends in Dwyane Wade. The on the floor chemistry between the two was insane to watch and everything they accomplished together made it difficult to cheer against them, even as a scorned Cavs fan.

If they were to have played their entire careers together I think it is safe to say that LeBron would be much closer, if not have surpassed Michael Jordan’s ring count. The two meshed so well together even though on paper it was an odd pairing play style-wise. The weakest part of both of their games had been their outside shooting which would lead to spacing issues.

However, James and Wade always found a way to make it work and given more time in a Cavs jersey, it is possible that the duo could have been tearing up the league for two or three more years.