NBA News 2013: LeBron James’ Historic Season

English: Lebron James: Washington Wizards v/s Miami Heat December 18, 2010 Italiano: Lebron James Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV License on Flickr: CC-BY-SA-2.0 Flickr tags: LeBron James (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the last decade, we’ve wondered what LeBron James would look like when he reached his prime. Once his potential and upside were distant memories and James peaked, how good would he be? At 28 years old, we’re finally finding out. Not only is James the best player of his generation, he may go down as one of the greatest players to ever step onto a basketball court. This isn’t hyperbole. This is fact.

After leading the Miami HEAT to an NBA championship, winning a gold medal and taking home regular season and Finals MVP honors last year, James still found a way to take his game to another level this season. He has an incredible arsenal of weapons that allows him to pick and choose how he’s going to dominate each opponent he faces. He scores, passes, rebounds, defends, leads and, ultimately, wins. James may not be very good at announcing free agency decisions, but good luck finding many other weaknesses.

This season, James is averaging 27.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.3 assists. He is shooting 56.8 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from three-point range. He shot 64.1 percent in February, becoming the first player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in March of 1983 to shoot at least 64 percent from the field for an entire month with a minimum of 200 field goal attempts. He also became the first player in NBA history to record six consecutive games with 30 or more points and 60 percent shooting from the field.

James is currently having the most productive season of any player in NBA history, according to Player Efficiency Rating, a stat that measures a player’s per-minute performance by weighing their positive and negative contributions. Michael Jordan holds the highest single-season PER after recording a rating of 31.89 in 1987-88. Wilt Chamberlain’s highest PER was approximately 31.84 in 1962-63, but it’s difficult to calculate since the league didn’t keep track of turnovers, blocks, steals or offensive rebounds. Legends like Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird never had a single-season PER higher than 30.

This season, James’ PER is 31.94. If he can continue to play at this level in Miami’s 27 remaining games, this will go down as a historically great year for James. This has become an annual dance for James. In 2008-09, he was on pace to break Jordan’s single-season record for much of the year, but finished at 31.69. Last year, James had a PER of nearly 35.0 at one point in the season, but eventually came down to earth and topped out at 30.80.

However, James has been seemingly unstoppable this season. After winning back many of the fans that turned on him as well as his first NBA title last season, James has had the weight of the world lifted off of his shoulders. For the first time since being labeled a phenom out of high school, James isn’t feeling the crippling pressure that comes with being the next big thing or a ring-less superstar. As a result, he has delivered an unforgettable season.

“LeBron, he’s so big and strong and powerful,” said Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doug Collins after a recent loss to the HEAT. “I mean, he decides whether he wants to be a passer or a scorer. The plays he makes are incredible. He’s an amazing player. … That team, when they go to LeBron at the four, is impossible to guard. You can’t guard him.”

His stat lines seem unreal, but these are not typos. Take last night’s double overtime win against the Sacramento Kings, for example. James recorded 40 points, 16 assists and 8 rebounds. Few players can impact one aspect of a game the way that James can impact all of them. He truly is a triple-double threat each and every night.

“He has simply made all of his weakness into strengths,” said one NBA scout. “He’s Magic and Jordan in body and mind right now. What impresses me most about James, and this is going back to last year, is that he’s no longer afraid of greatness. He’s comfortable with himself and his decisions. I credit Pat Riley for that exponentially. On the court, his game continues to expand, but it’s his jump shooting ability from all angles that has improved dramatically, especially in fourth quarters.”

James has received heaps of praise this season, to the point that his accomplishments blur together and his greatness is somewhat taken for granted. However, down the road, we’ll likely look back on these years as the LeBron James era and relive many of the spectacular moments throughout his career. James is to this generation what Jordan and Chamberlain were to theirs, and the numbers back that up.

Even if James isn’t considered the best NBA player of all-time when all is said and done, he’ll still belong in the conversation of once-in-a-generation legends that changed the game, dominated on a nightly basis and helped redefine greatness.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-pm-lebron-james-historic-season/

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NBA News 2012: Lakers' future hinges on Howard

English: Los Angeles Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with Boston Celtics Robert Parish and Kevin McHale late 1980s (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Decade after decade, generation after generation, there have always been certain things Los Angeles Lakers fans could count on. They know their ownership is trying to win, win now and win big. And as 16 championship banners will attest, the franchise knows how to get there, and money will not be an obstacle.

The Lakers have risen and fallen during the Kobe Bryant years, as almost any franchise will do over the course of 17 seasons. But you can judge a franchise by its peaks and valleys. For Los Angeles, that's meant five more titles at the apex, and a floor of a single sub-.500, non-playoff season. In terms of their association with sustained, high-level team success, the only peers Bryant has in contemporary professional sports are Derek Jeter in baseball and perhaps Tom Brady in the NFL.

Now 34, Bryant has spent half of his natural life in a Lakers uniform and 17 years into his career he's carrying as heavy a load as ever, and doing it well. Despite the early struggles of his controversy-plagued team, Bryant leads the NBA with a 29.5 scoring average that only begins to tell his story.

Bryant's PER is the highest it's been in five seasons and is at a level he's reached in just three other seasons. He's putting up a career-best .602 true shooting percentage while using a third of the Lakers' possessions, and he's doing it while playing the most minutes in the league. It's a level of volume and efficiency that few players ever reach, and he's doing it after 17 years of pounding up and down the hardwood.

Current evidence to the contrary, Bryant can't keep going like this forever, not at this level. Oh, he can probably play for a long time to come if he wants to just exist or to chase Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career scoring record, but as he eventually enters his mid-30s, it's impossible to imagine Bryant easing into an elder-statesman, glue-player role like Jason Kidd has filled in recent seasons. And then there is the specter of Michael Jordan in a Wizards uniform to serve as a cautionary tale. No, when Kobe can no longer be Kobe, he'll walk away. He's suggested that will be the case.

The Lakers' story this season really centers around Bryant. One title short of matching Michael Jordan, he's the one with the most at stake if the Lakers' season doesn't turn around.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8758641/nba-kobe-bryant-sake-lakers-make-work-dwight-howard

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NBA News 2012: Kobe's ego is Lakers' big problem

Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers drives to the basket against the Washington Wizards in Washington, D.C., USA on February 3, 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The return of Pau Gasol and Steve Nash to the lineup is likely to mask most, if not all, the symptoms afflicting the underachieving Los Angeles Lakers. But the perennial all-stars will do nothing to address the disease lurking deep inside the foundation of the Lakers, the malady that will prevent the high-priced collection of veterans from getting past the Thunder, Spurs or even the Grizzlies come playoff time.

The disease isn’t bungling, overmatched executive vice president Jim Buss. It’s not bungling, overmatched coach Mike D’Antoni.

The root cause of the Lakers’ dysfunction has been consistent for 15 years. It is Kobe Bryant’s ego, his desperate pursuit of Michael Jordan’s legacy. L.A.’s Dwight Howard experiment is going to explode and implode in spectacular fashion unless someone in the Lakers organization is bold enough to kill Kobe’s Michael Jordan avatar so that Howard’s Bill Russell avatar can emerge and lead the Lakers.

You follow?

The wrong player is driving the Lakers. Dwight Howard is the second-most talented player in the league. He’s the single-most gifted defensive player the NBA has seen since Bill Russell. On a properly functioning, championship-chasing team, Howard cannot be a sidekick, a No. 2, Scottie Pippen. Can’t happen. The Heat tried it with LeBron James in Year 1 of the Big Three, and we know how that ended. Dwyane Wade is an awesome basketball player and a terrific leader, but he had to surrender the soul of the Heat to LeBron in order for the Heat to win a title.

Kobe has to let go and let D12. Has to.

Kobe has to accept that he is not the 34-year-old Michael Jordan. You see, at 34 Jordan was taking his final victory lap in Chicago, completing his second three-peat, securing his sixth title, winning his fifth MVP award and 10th scoring title. Kobe wants to duplicate that feat. He’s putting up MVP-like numbers. He leads the league in scoring. He’s shooting a career-high 47.8 percent from the field. He’s averaging five rebounds and five assists. He’s knocking down 38 percent of his 3-pointers. Oh, the numbers look great. The results? The Lakers stink.

You can blame that on the injuries to Gasol and Nash. You can blame it on the incompetence of D’Antoni.

I blame Kobe. He’s the guy stopping Howard from eating. Kobe is the guy giving Howard room to lose himself in his immaturity and hide. Here’s what Kobe has never understood about the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s an organization built to house and nurture giants. From George Mikan to Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Shaquille O’Neal, the Lakers function best when the once-in-a-generation big man the organization acquires is allowed to be the man of the house.

Kobe emasculates his big men. Andrew Bynum politely admitted this week that Kobe stunted his growth.

“I think Dwight is a great player, but he’s going to have to get accustomed to playing with Kobe and not touching the ball every single play,” Bynum said.

The problem is deeper than touches. It’s a mentality that a big man must have in order to lead his team. Dwight Howard must enter every NBA arena with this mindset: “If I don’t hunt and kill, no one eats tonight.”

That’s Kobe’s mindset. But at 34, having played 1,186 regular-season games and 220 playoff games, Kobe doesn’t hunt and kill as effectively as Howard. Kobe isn’t the same as a 34-year-old Jordan. At this stage in his career, Jordan had played 873 regular-season games and 158 playoff games. Jordan was still a force of nature. Don’t get fooled by Kobe’s numbers. He’s not Kevin Durant or Carmelo Anthony, and Kobe damn sure isn’t LeBron James.

James, Durant and Melo can impose their will on the opposition. Over the course of a seven-game playoff series, they can mentally bludgeon an opponent into submission. We saw James do it to the Pacers and the Celtics in last year’s playoffs. Kobe is smart. He can be efficient. But he’s trying too hard right now. That’s why he leads the league in turnovers with 97. Kobe’s days of imposing his will in a playoff series are over. Howard’s days should just be beginning.

But Kobe’s ego is in the way. Howard can’t be the man of the house with Kobe sitting at the head of the table eating the biggest plate of food. As long as everything revolves around Kobe, as long as Kobe is on TV sitting across from Stephen A. Smith speaking in hushed, dark tones about the state of the Lakers, Howard gets to hide, gets to feel like the Lakers family can eat regardless of whether he chooses to hunt or not.

Kobe needs to fall back. He’s Dr. J right now and he needs to let Dwight Howard be Moses Malone. That does not mean turn the offense over to Howard. It means building a strategy and philosophy that revolves around Howard’s many gifts, which are mostly at the defensive end (and make the hiring of D’Antoni even more ridiculous). It means forcing Howard to mentally and verbally take full responsibility for the success of the team.

Howard is immature. We know that. We watched him in Orlando. Put some pressure on his ass. Make Howard explain why this team is underachieving.

I know this column will appear to many as hatred of Kobe. I don’t hate Kobe. He’s a wonderful player and terrific competitor. He simply has to make the mental adjustment that Dwyane Wade made last season. Come May and June, the Lakers are going as far as Dwight Howard can take them. Nash and Gasol might help the Lakers recover and get into the playoffs. And Kobe is certainly capable of continuing to put up big numbers.

But the Lakers are not winning a title if their second-best player continues to stunt the growth of their best player.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/kobe-bryant-ego-hampers-dwight-hoard-los-angeles-lakers-downfall-121812

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NBA News 2012: Andrew Bynum showing more defensive ownership

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 13: Andrew Bynum #17 of the Los Angeles Lakers controls the ball against JaVale McGee #34 of the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center on April 13, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers won 103-97. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Bynum scored only 10 points in the Lakers' 103-88 Game 1 victory Sunday over the Denver Nuggets, but Lakers Coach Mike Brown rightly described him as the "difference in the game." Bynum didn't speak to reporters on the podium reserved for the game's top performers, but Kobe Bryant  predicted Bynum "takes the majority of the headlines." It remains to be seen if Bynum will become one of the Lakers' storied centers, who include George Mikan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O'Neal. But he's already linked to them in history.

Bynum's triple double featured 10 points, 13 rebounds and a Lakers playoff-record 10 blocks, eclipsing Kareem Abdul Jabbar's nine in 1977 against Golden State and tying an NBA playoff record co-owned by Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon and Utah's Mark Eaton.

"The bottom line is wins," Bynum said. "Obviously I want to score more points, but sometimes that's not what's available to you so you have to do the next best thing."

Bynum couldn't score many points because Denver shuffled in its frontline combinations quickly -- Nuggets Coach George Karl compared it to  hockey teams' switching lines. The Nuggets used an array of combinations, including Kosta Koufos, Al Harrington, JaVale McGee and Timofey Mozgov.  The strategy ensured that Bynum didn't equal the 24.8 points on 66.1% shooting he averaged in four regular-season games against Denver.

But it hardly worked in other areas.

Bynum quickly passed out of double teams to ensure fluid ball movement, helping the  starting lineup and Jordan Hill to post double figures. Bynum's  help in the lane contributed to  Ramon Sessions' holding Denver guard Ty Lawson to seven points. His seven-foot frame proved so intimidating that Harrington threw up an airball hook shot as he drove past Pau Gasol in one second-quarter sequence just to avoid Bynum. That was one example where Brown said Bynum "changed a gazillion shots in the paint."

"It makes us a championship-caliber team," Bryant said of Bynum's defensive presence.

But he hasn't displayed that characteristic consistently. Eighteen days ago, Bynum became the fifth player in Lakers history to grab 30 rebounds, in a game against San Antonio. But in five of his next six games, he averaged single digits in rebounds, and Brown actually sat Bynum out of last week's Oklahoma City game in the second quarter. After Jordan Hill surprised everyone with his energy and defense, Brown kept him in during the fourth quarter and subsequent overtimes.

Bynum may not replicate Sunday's blocked-shots total, but he needs to show that kind of commitment on defense.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakersnow/la-sp-ln-la-andrew-bynum-taking-20120429,0,5463645.story

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NBA News 2010: Andrew Bynum's surgery delay reeks of more Lakers complacency

Image via Wikipedia

The charm of Andrew Bynum has always been his openness.

He's like Marmaduke ... so big and unrefined, often overexcited or a touch overzealous, completely straightforward. The oversized puppy who is indeed the youngest player in NBA history still proudly wears that No. 17 to signify his early entry age.

Andrew Bynum overcame his knee injury to help the Lakers beat Boston in the 2010 NBA Finals, but he didn't immediately fix the knee to prepare for the 2010-11 season.

Over the past five years, Bynum has given the Lakers more and more reasons to believe he's no longer a "Big Baby," as he was initially nicknamed by tutor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – the foremost reason being a saintly determination to march through the pain last season and contribute to a championship.

A reminder of what Bynum isn't, though, has already been sent for this season – before this season even starts.

Bynum put off having offseason surgery on his right knee so he could play – and we're not talking about playing basketball. He could've repaired the knee immediately after last season, but he postponed it to travel – to see the soccer World Cup in South Africa and then vacation in Europe, as he had the previous summer.

Bynum didn't want to be on crutches, which would've diminished all that fun stuff or required rescheduling. He even had the knee drained, just as he did repeatedly with much ado in the playoffs to keep playing, so he could keep pivoting around reasonably well as a sightseer.

Yes, Bynum's doctor did push back the surgery date also – from July 18 to July 28 – because of scheduling issues, but Bynum's doctor was indeed available to perform the procedure before Bynum went globetrotting. It was Bynum's choice to enjoy himself, assuming he'd be fine by the time the 2010-11 season came – even though his complications with knees are well known and his past healings have been measured by sundial.

http://www.ocregister.com/sports/bynum-267754-season-lakers.html

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