The Cleveland Cavaliers are pursuing LeBron James hoping for a magical third act with their hometown superstar. That is all well and good, except for the fact that building a team around three on-ball stars is a disaster that doomed the Los Angeles Lakers and would doom the Cavs as well.
If Cleveland can add LeBron, they probably should. Even at age 41 he remains one of the league's 20-best players, as he showed in the playoffs a few months ago. He was the heliocentric star running the Lakers' offense as they upset the Houston Rockets, elevating the players around him to new heights. It was vintage LeBron James.
It was also only possible because Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves were sidelined due to injury to start the playoffs. Suddenly, the lineups around LeBron -- significantly less talented without Doncic and Reaves -- made sense. They were filled with 3-and-D role players, the kind that have always thrived with LeBron.
The Lakers had a major problem
Put all three stars on the court, however, and you have a problem. All three of Doncic, Reaves and James are best with the ball in their hands, yet there is only one ball to go around. And when you invest most of your salary cap and minutes to players who overlap more than they complement, you get an offense that is good-not-great and a defense that is hugely suspect.
The Lakers recognized this and didn't even seem to want LeBron James back. That is a new place for LeBron to be, of course, but it opens up the possibility for another team to sign James and make a run at a title. Including Cleveland?
The Cavaliers would have the same problem
Perhaps, but the problem that doomed the Lakers would look over the Cavaliers as well. With Donovan Mitchell and James Harden, head coach Kenny Atkinson already has his hands full balancing touches and maximizing the offense around two on-ball high-usage stars.
Adding a third might be too much. Relegating LeBron or Harden or Mitchell to the role of spot-up shooter is a poor use of their talents, but at most two players can be involved in a pick-and-roll action. In many situations, two of the three would be stuck ball-watching.
Lineups where the supporting players are optimized to play off-ball (as rolling bigs or movement shooters) and also bring the necessary defense are likely to perform better, even when their talent level is much lower. That has long been the tension for Cleveland teams built around two offense-first guards, and that tension would only tighten with three on-ball offense-first stars.
Should Cleveland sign LeBron James?
Could it work out with Harden, Mitchell and LeBron all in Cleveland? Perhaps. It probably wouldn't be any worse than figuring out playoff success with Harden in the fold anyway. But it would be a significant problem and one that modern NBA history suggests would not be easily solved.
If LeBron wants to sign in Cleveland, they should sign him. If it requires trading away multiple key support players (or even star center Jarrett Allen) but keeping Harden around, the Cavaliers should at least pause to ask themselves whether the team they are putting together, however, talented, can actually work.
Such a forced combination killed the Lakers. And it might just doom the Cavaliers before they start as well.
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