There is one way lakers win the championship if lebron james gets hurt if he doesnt miami is most likely to repeat imo

Miami and OKC are NOT losing any sleep about the Lakers

Yes, they have a better team than last year

But OKC (has STUDS....4 olympians on their squad)

And Miami (has best all around player and two other olympians on their squad.....and last year they were better than the year before and next year they will be better than this championship year.....folks it is called...c....h.....e...m...i...s...t....r....y

CHEMISTRY......Miami and OKC have IT......LA must find theres and folks are thinking it will come automatically or quickly and I just don't think that will be the case.......primarily b/c it does take time to learn new teammates (new offense?....etc..etc...) not to mention the Lakers are old as heck in the backcourt (over 70 yrs old).....and D12 is coming off of BACK SURGERY

go go go lakers.

kobe have 5 ring james has 1 only.

takot n takot cla s lakers hahaha.

Dwight Howard is running and doing light work outs at UCLA currently

and backcourt  (sg/pg are not the only positions in basketball)

Age is not a factor so much between if its Mia vs. Lal

Also
the Lakers bench have some young players, bench actually younger average age than Miami bench.

joel anthony is 30 ---------- devin ebanks will be 23 years old
shane battier is 33 ---------- steve blake will be 33 in February
james jones 32 in October ---- jordan hill is 25 years old
udonis haslem is 32 years old -------- chris duhon is 29 years old
mike miller will be 33 in February ------- antawn jamison is 36
mario chalmers tuns 27 in May ----- jodie meeks is 24 years old


Avg. age of Starters

Miami 28+ 29 + 31 + 37 + 33 = 158/5 = 31.6 round to nearest tenth = 32 years old
Lakers 33 + 27 + 33 + 39 + 32 = 164/5 = 32.8 round to nearest tenth = 33 years old


lebron turns 28 this December _______ mwp will be 33 years old in November
bosh will turn 29 in March _________ howard will be 27 years old in December
wade will be 31 in January _______ kobe is 33 (turns 34 in August After playoffs)
ray allen is 37 ___________ nash will be 39 in February
rashard lewis is 33 _________ pau is 32, turns 33 after playoffs

I never said Miami was a spring chicken....or young guns

But your comparison while accurate is cherry picking the ages of the squads relative to their impact

If a player is asked to truly carry a load....well to me age matters

Kobe is asked to close...

Nash asked to run offense and facilitate

Pau to remain a skilled player with impact

all of these guys are older than Wade....and I didn't even mention Jamisson and Meta World Peace

the guys on miami's roster that are 32 plus years old are asked to fill a role and not do any "heavy lifting"

stand over there and knock down that wide open shot is different from   "running the offense.....closing the game"

What makes the Heat go is .....LBJ.....and that his two sidekicks are still in their prime.

I am in the minority....but Nash to me is no longer in his prime  and Kobe to me has dropped a little from superstar to star (seems insignificant)....but Kobe needs a lot of shots to get his points...

chalmers wade  lbj  bosh and anthony is not an old starting lineup

while the lakers backcourt is 38 plus 33 = 71 years old

That to me will be a factor as this season progresses

 

If your going to say Kobe has dropped off a bit which I agree, you'd have to say the same for Wade especially considering Wade is the  type of player who runs into the paint and almost always falls (takes more of a toll on the body).

The bit about all these guys are older than Wade is almost like well every starter on Lakers and Miami is older than Dwight Howard (27 in December).

Jamison is a guy who was picked to be a stand over there and shoot Lakers got him to provide some points for bench.

But my main point here is to me not so much who is in their prime but can the players still produce at high enough level that if say a 25 year old was producing same #'s they'd be an all star.


I don't think anyone can really question that Kobe can still produce close to 30 points on like 23 shots which is not great percentage but the types of shots he takes its understandable.

Nash yes he is a lot older than he used to be but still shoots like 50% and above 39% from 3 pt land. But most important is his Assists and turnover.       When he was in Dallas he averaged 8.8 assists and 2.68 turnovers. First year in Phoenix 11.5 assists and 3.27 turnover (2004-2005 season)       
2011-2012  Nash   10.7 assists and 3.69 turnover.        Only Rajon rondo averaged higher assist  and similar turnover 3.64

Pau is older but he is still top 5 big man in the NBA in terms of pts/rebs and FG %.

Dwight is top center in the NBA, almost every single category in head to head comparison he beats Andrew Bynum I can post it but its rather long from hoopstat.

Kobe and Nash have the ability to run though multiple good screens from Pau and Dwight. Dwight is more athletic than Bynum even though Bynum has displayed more post moves.

To me the difference Lakers have 1 more player that can produce high stats.
MWP and Lebron  advantage Lebron
Pau and Lewis    advantage Pau
Howard and Bosh advantage Howard
Kobe and Wade  (slightly in favor of Kobe or a even)
Nash and Ray Allen  advantage Nash in terms of impact 8 assists is what I think he'll average(all Ray allen is depended upon is 3 pt so maybe 10 or so points from him)  8 assists is roughly 16 points.

Or maybe this is the question
If Mia can get  lineup of    (money not an issue for Miami we're pretending)
Lebron
Pau
Howard
Wade
Nash

or
Lebron
Lewis
Bosh
Wade
Ray Allen
which appears to be better chance of championship.  Ray Allen is declining faster than Nash and Rashard Lewis 15 or so points possibly is not equal to Pau Gasol's 17 pts and 8+ rebounds.

If you think about it....Miami was the underdog going into the OKC series

folks was saying we will see who is better durant or LBJ?

and the media actually (like you just did in your post) gave the edge "on paper" to OKC (like you did on paper give the edge to LA)

But thats why they play the dam games (smile) and we see how a team's chemistry, coaching, defense, offense, turnovers forced, unforced turnovers, etc...etc...comes into play when teams are being guarded and defended by playoff caliber opponents

When it is all said and done....I just think Miami plays a little better team defense than any other team in league (they have some shot blocking.....get a LOT OF STEALS from multiple players...draw charges from multiple players ....).....and while offense is sexy...defense still wins out.

All this LBJ hate...

If it's LAL vs Miami in the Finals this year..I see Miami repeating. Refs will be on MIA side no doubt

Yup will be interesting to see if Howard can notch another DPOY


Mia fans should be happy they got some additional help (Allen/Lewis) with a team that proved they can win.

Lal  fans should be happy they got athleticism, offense and defense in Howard, and at least top 10 faciliator in Nash.

Okc fans should be happy they will have a more hungry Durant and co after losing to Heat.

Season and playoffs are so far away.

So tru'

@ Mattbrot

but when there is a man on first and second and the game is tied in the late innings he always grounds into the inning ending double play.

which stat  do you think is hard to prove?

he has been the youngest and fastest to each mark...just google it....he came into NBA scoring buckets right away....at age 18.

LeBron becomes fastest to 15,000 - NBA News | FOX Sports on MSN

msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/lebron-becomes-fastest-to-15...

Lebron james becomes the youngest player to reach 17,000 Pts ...

www.nba.com/2010/news/03/19/lebron.milestone.ap/index.html

LeBron James is youngest to reach 15,000-point mark - ESPN

NBA.com: LeBron becomes youngest to score 15,000 points

sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5011686

Thr narrative that detractors write ....hides this elephant in the room....if he plays kobe years...he will pass kareem abdul jabbar's all time scoring mark.

Again,  which stat is impossible to prove...here is the source for player rating (PER)   again, the media does not talk about this.....but would rather us fans debate what is clutch....which is measured how?    clutch is very subjective....but here is the source for ALL TIME PER...efficiency....we all know LBJ has been the highest rated and most effiicient....player in NBA over his current peers for years...it ain't close folks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Efficiency_Rating

The Player efficiency rating (PER) is an all-in-one basketball rating, which attempts to boil down all of a player's contributions into one number. 

Career PER leaders ( efficiency leaders)

Rank	Player	PER
1.	Michael Jordan*	27.91
2.	LeBron James^	27.24
3.	Shaquille O'Neal	26.43
4.	David Robinson*	26.18
5.	Wilt Chamberlain*	26.13
6.	Dwyane Wade^	25.70
7.	Bob Pettit*	25.37
8.	Tim Duncan^	25.02
9.	Neil Johnston*	24.72
10.	Charles Barkley*	24.63
11.	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar*	24.58
12.	Magic Johnson*	24.11
13.	Karl Malone*	23.90
14.	Dirk Nowitzki^	23.76
15.	Kevin Garnett^	23.59
16.	Hakeem Olajuwon*	23.59
17.	Kobe Bryant^	23.50
18.	Larry Bird*	23.50
19.	Oscar Robertson*	23.17
20.	Yao Ming	23.04
21.	Jerry West*	22.90
22.	Tracy McGrady^	22.81
23.	Elgin Baylor*	22.70
24.	Amare Stoudemire^	22.57
25.	Moses Malone*	22.31
26.	Julius Erving*	21.97
27.	Dolph Schayes*	21.96
28.	Pau Gasol^	21.89
29.	John Stockton*	21.83
30.	Elton Brand^	21.80
31.	George Gervin*	21.74
32.	Dwight Howard^	21.69
33.	Bob Lanier*	21.69
34.	Clyde Lovellette*	21.67
35.	Manu Ginobili^	21.65
36.	Dominique Wilkins*	21.56
37.	Adrian Dantley*	21.51
38.	Harry Gallatin*	21.49
39.	Chris Bosh^	21.28
40.	Alonzo Mourning	21.24
41.	Arvydas Sabonis*	21.20
42.	Vince Carter^	21.09
43.	Clyde Drexler*	21.07
44.	Patrick Ewing*	21.01
45.	Dan Issel*	20.99
46.	Chris Webber	20.94
47.	Allen Iverson	20.92
48.	Carlos Boozer^	20.81
49.	Paul Pierce^	20.80

 

https://miasportsguy.com/heat/lebrons-efficiency-is-reaching-absurdity/

LeBron’s Efficiency is Reaching Absurdity

His accomplishments are being printed but not priased...so they become an elephant in the room that folks will not realize until ......well until his career is over

I (in my opinion) see the elephant coming in the room but everyone else is "ignoring it"

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1097832-why-lebron-james-is-having-the-most-efficient-season-in-nba-history

LeBron James: Why the Heat's Star Is Having the Most Efficient Season in History

again, the articles are out there......but the "clutch"....subjective narrative "hard to measure" crap is out there more.

PER Diem: March 25, 2009

Want further proof that LeBron is the MVP? Here's a new rating system: Value Added

https://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-090325

The articles are everywhere......which stat or comment did I post - that was empty or hard to prove?

Oh,  before the hate responses come -- and I know they are coming   I am only providing some of the links I have read over time about LBJ........media covers the guy b/c they see this ridiculous stuff this guy is doing that his peers are not doing.........but they do the fans a disservice when they keep talking about clutch and then not tell you how to measure it.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/per_top_10.html

NBA & ABA Yearly Top 10 Leaders and Records for Player Efficiency Rating

this is from the 1950's all the way up to last season....and lists the top 10 for each season in player efficiency and I think there is a correlation between this stat and who is the best player in the nba as well as who may (OR SHOULD HAVE BEEN) the MVP that season.

My review of this link showed these NBA Players as having the best single season "efficiency" marks of all time

Lebron 31.67...30.74.....31.11...

Jordan  31.63.....31.19......31.14....31.71   (wow!!)

Wilt    31.64....31.84....31.76

***  Lebron has three of the top five highest rated seasons of all time.   ***

   I had a typo in my earlier post - I thought I had read somewhere he had five of the top rated seasons of all time

But my point is.....the way he plays if he keeps playing the way he does -- he probably will bump some of those MJ and Wilt marks from the top 10 of all time.

Again, what numbers can't be backed up?

Finally, there are articles that actually debunk the "clutch" stuff.....'your men left on base analogy"......but to me the clutch stuff is so/too subjective.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/per_top_10.html

 

Don't read into these posts as trying to "one-up" someone.....or as arguing........it is a debate

And sharing information.

To me the media covers the guy b/c they see this and trust me (MUCH MORE).....but the media also wrote articles about a GAME here vs Boston and a GAME or TWO/THREE vs Dallas

wierd, that everyone wants to cherry pick games vs what has been an extraordinary career to-date.....and I think will put him (even without rings) as top SF to ever play the game and comparisons to the other all time GOAT (mj)

@ct1016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeBron_James

2008–09 season

In the 2008–09 season, James established himself as one of the NBA's top defensive players. Behind 23 chase-down blocks and a career-high 93 total blocks, he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting and made his first All-Defensive Team.^[62][63] His all-around game was also as strong as ever as he improved his free throw shooting to a career-high 78 percent and made a league-leading 594 free throws.^[64] He was named NBA Player of the Month four times, becoming the second player in league history after Kevin Garnett to do so.^[65] He also became the fourth player in NBA history to lead his team in all five major statistical categories (total points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks) in one season

I forgot to post my source for the information I had previously posted about leading cavs in every statistical category....see wikipedia  plus there are articles.....

wierd thing about that accomplishment is that last year he led the heat in every statistical category except blocks in both the REGULAR SEASON AND POST SEASON

https://espn.go.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/mia/miami-heat

https://espn.go.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/mia/seasontype/2/miami-heat

What player in NBA history did that or does that on a regular basis     and then on top of that is PLAYING DEFENSE?

I understand what folks are trying to say when they post the whole "clutch crap"    but the narrative I have been reading and following and    yes, my opinion......see where this is heading.....just makes me think their is an anti-LBJ narrative out there that is ignoring what this man is doing - which to me, we just have not seen before going across all stats like this

 

@ mellow

Thanks and I just posted my last one.