What happened to "making teammates better"?

[konex]

I really don't believe in that bullshit but it's pretty funny to see how the media agenda works. When a guy they don't like gets no support it's because he didn't make anyone better. When it's a guy they like, he didn't have any help.

It's interesting how LeBron suddenly stopped making his teammates better when they ran up against a better team :hammerhead:

[Xoush]

It died with the 3peat.

[IllegalD]

LeBron would relegate prime Shaq into a spot-up 3-point shooter.

[DonDadda59]

Making your opponent's 4th option better, turning him into a finals MVP is now the new making your teammates better.

[Frozen1]

Lebron has always been in a win-win situation.

Win: Lebron tha goat, top 3 player of all time.
Lose: Didn't have enough help.

[imdaman99]

It's a myth...well not totally. He makes role players better but he doesn't do well with fellow star players doing their thing.

That's the difference with Duncan and bran. Duncan has no problems with anyone developing on the team. Bran likes to hog the stats and the glory so no star actually comes to the team and gets better. Different for role players, although they didn't look so good in this series.

[miggyme1]

lebon can never NOT have enough help.....i look forward to him teaming up with jabari,wiggins and embiid in 4 years..mark my words.lmao

[AirFederer]

Heat depend on Bosh and Wade being able to turn it on with few touches. Imho Bron was ballhogging, and I'm not blaming him but Spo. Miami had no stops and very little ball movement.

[Trollsmasher]

You could be the best team player in the world and it would be useless when you are on the court with 4 trash cans

[Dresta]

Heat depend on Bosh and Wade being able to turn it on with few touches. Imho Bron was ballhogging, and I'm not blaming him but Spo. Miami had no stops and very little ball movement.
This. Bosh and Wade can be pretty streaky so when they miss their first few shots it pretty much guarantees a quiet game. Bron needs to dominate the ball, and has done on every team he's played, and that's fine, but it does make it easier to establish a rhythm. The ball stopped way too often in the finals for Miami, that's for sure. Though i think Spoelstra has to take a lot of the blame for that.

[Rake2204]

Making one's teammates better does not literally mean improving their individual skills. I think it's more in reference to knowing how to put each teammate in a position they best need to succeed.

For instance, I once played on a rec squad with an incredible one-on-one player. He could score whenever he wanted, dropping 48 with ease, Wizards-Michael Jordan style (get to the elbow & rise, or get to the elbow, pump fake & rise). However, despite being our best option, he sometimes hurt our squad because it was four other players watching him attack. If he got stuck, he'd occasionally kick the rock out to a teammate where ever that teammate happened to be at that time. He was always in rhythm, everyone else was subsequently always out of rhythm.

In contrast, I've also played with a player who knew and understood each of his teammate's strengths, and he played into them. He knew if I was out in transition on a wing, it was running time. If a sharpshooting teammate liked to step into a triple from the wing, he'd try to set that up, all the while calling his own number when no one stepped up to stop him.

I believe LeBron is must more like the latter than he is the former. He's always had an understanding of where his teammates best excel and he's tried to play into that. Unfortunately, simply being LeBron James is not good enough to make Ray Allen knock down his good looks from the arc, or finish Dwyane's layups inside. And on top of everything else, sometimes other teams play very, very well and do not allow teams to get what they want.

All that said, I was pleased to see the self-stacked super team not succeed this season. But I do not feel it makes LeBron James any less incredible individually.

[Straight_Ballin]

I really don't believe in that bullshit but it's pretty funny to see how the media agenda works. When a guy they don't like gets no support it's because he didn't make anyone better. When it's a guy they like, he didn't have any help.

It's interesting how LeBron suddenly stopped making his teammates better when they ran up against a better team :hammerhead:

That's why I don't listen to the media. I watch the games and when I see a loser fail, I call it like I see it. If everyone did this, we would have fewer lebald dickriders.

[JohnMax]

Wade missed half the season and Lebron couldn't turn Bosh back into 24/11 player he was in Toronto.

This guy only helps spot up shooters. He doesn't even get the ball to people that are cutting to the basket.

[Basketball Fan]

Making one's teammates better does not literally mean improving their individual skills. I think it's more in reference to knowing how to put each teammate in a position they best need to succeed.

For instance, I once played on a rec squad with an incredible one-on-one player. He could score whenever he wanted, dropping 48 with ease, Wizards-Michael Jordan style (get to the elbow & rise, or get to the elbow, pump fake & rise). However, despite being our best option, he sometimes hurt our squad because it was four other players watching him attack. If he got stuck, he'd occasionally kick the rock out to a teammate where ever that teammate happened to be at that time. He was always in rhythm, everyone else was subsequently always out of rhythm.

In contrast, I've also played with a player who knew and understood each of his teammate's strengths, and he played into them. He knew if I was out in transition on a wing, it was running time. If a sharpshooting teammate liked to step into a triple from the wing, he'd try to set that up, all the while calling his own number when no one stepped up to stop him.

I believe LeBron is must more like the latter than he is the former. He's always had an understanding of where his teammates best excel and he's tried to play into that. Unfortunately, simply being LeBron James is not good enough to make Ray Allen knock down his good looks from the arc, or finish Dwyane's layups inside. And on top of everything else, sometimes other teams play very, very well and do not allow teams to get what they want.

All that said, I was pleased to see the self-stacked super team not succeed this season. But I do not feel it makes LeBron James any less incredible individually.


This I do agree with

[IGOTGAME]

Making one's teammates better does not literally mean improving their individual skills. I think it's more in reference to knowing how to put each teammate in a position they best need to succeed.

For instance, I once played on a rec squad with an incredible one-on-one player. He could score whenever he wanted, dropping 48 with ease, Wizards-Michael Jordan style (get to the elbow & rise, or get to the elbow, pump fake & rise). However, despite being our best option, he sometimes hurt our squad because it was four other players watching him attack. If he got stuck, he'd occasionally kick the rock out to a teammate where ever that teammate happened to be at that time. He was always in rhythm, everyone else was subsequently always out of rhythm.

In contrast, I've also played with a player who knew and understood each of his teammate's strengths, and he played into them. He knew if I was out in transition on a wing, it was running time. If a sharpshooting teammate liked to step into a triple from the wing, he'd try to set that up, all the while calling his own number when no one stepped up to stop him.

I believe LeBron is must more like the latter than he is the former. He's always had an understanding of where his teammates best excel and he's tried to play into that. Unfortunately, simply being LeBron James is not good enough to make Ray Allen knock down his good looks from the arc, or finish Dwyane's layups inside. And on top of everything else, sometimes other teams play very, very well and do not allow teams to get what they want.

All that said, I was pleased to see the self-stacked super team not succeed this season. But I do not feel it makes LeBron James any less incredible individually.

OK. so he just knew Bosh was destined to be Channing Frye before Bosh did...

[nightprowler10]

OK. so he just knew Bosh was destined to be Channing Frye before Bosh did...
Haha, so much of that is Spo's fault though.

[Rake2204]

OK. so he just knew Bosh was destined to be Channing Frye before Bosh did...Yeah, I'd have to dig deeper on that one. Bosh's role seemed more based on gameplan than anything else. It was not as if James saw Bosh posting up all game and ignored him until Chris decided to float out to the arc. If I had to guess, I'm assuming Miami coaches realized they had three ball dominant players (Wade, James, Bosh) and they couldn't dump to all of them to let them operate all the time. So I'm guessing they took the wiry post guy and tried to find a way to make him fit with the other two.

I don't know if that was the right move though. Still, given the role Bosh was playing, it seemed James did a solid job of hitting Bosh where he was supposed to. Looking quickly, it appears Bosh shot 41% from the arc in the post-season. Maybe he's built to be a post feller, but it seems he was willing to assimilate where needed.