Could anyone else in NBA history do what LeBron did in Cleveland?

[Doranku]

This dude had one of the most inept coaches in the league along with a bunch of average to garbage players and:

-Made the finals in '07
-Back to back 60 win seasons
-Never lost in the first round

Seeing the Lakers have this clown as their coach really makes me appreciate what LeBron was able to accomplish with that Cleveland team. His second best player for all of his years in Cleveland was Mo f*cking Williams.

The Cavs only have themselves to blame for him leaving as well. They could have gotten Amare (which would have been more than enough to put the Cavaliers in the finals from '10 and up), but they didn't want to gave up Hickson ( ) who they ended up shipping out for f*cking Casspi.

I don't think even Jordan could have gotten that piss poor '07 cast to the finals like LeBron did. As much as I dislike the guy, if LeBron is able to win 3+ titles/FMVPs, he's going to become a legitimate GOAT candidate.

[imdaman99]

case in point. a couple of nights ago, bulls (rose) and cavs (lebron) both play without their superstars. and the bulls win by 50 pts in cleveland. oh wait...

[GOBB]

Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson just off the top of my head.

[StroShow4]

I don't think anyone else in the current NBA takes those Cavs further than LeBron did. Not going to comment on the past, I wasn't around to watch it. The crazy thing is that LeBron could've accomplished more if he had a more dominant mindset. He didn't even want to drag that team. They should've won the championship in 2010, but LeBron didn't care to dominate.

[Dave3]

case in point. a couple of nights ago, bulls (rose) and cavs (lebron) both play without their superstars. and the bulls win by 50 pts in cleveland. oh wait...

Cavaliers also added the 1st and 4th picks from this year, traded away many of their players, and lost a few to free agents since losing LeBron. Oh, and no more Mike Brown. Cavs are much better than they were last year. They have a winning record, this year. Losing by that much is more of a fluke than a display of their talent.

It's funny that now though Lakers fans are gaining a little more appreciation for what LeBron did with Mike Brown (at least the ones that didn't watch the Cavs as much). I'm not saying it based on this thread, just generally all of the Lakers' fans in the posts throughout their games threads complaining about the offense.

[mlh1981]

This dude had one of the most inept coaches in the league along with a bunch of average to garbage players and:

-Made the finals in '07
-Back to back 60 win seasons
-Never lost in the first round

Seeing the Lakers have this clown as their coach really makes me appreciate what LeBron was able to accomplish with that Cleveland team. His second best player for all of his years in Cleveland was Mo f*cking Williams.

The Cavs only have themselves to blame for him leaving as well. They could have gotten Amare (which would have been more than enough to put the Cavaliers in the finals from '10 and up), but they didn't want to gave up Hickson ( ) who they ended up shipping out for f*cking Casspi.

I don't think even Jordan could have gotten that piss poor '07 cast to the finals like LeBron did. As much as I dislike the guy, if LeBron is able to win 3+ titles/FMVPs, he's going to become a legitimate GOAT candidate.

The bolded simply isn't true. i wish people would quit saying that. Why won't this myth die?

The team worked well together, but much like that supporting cast, LeBron needs to fall on the sword as well for his own playoff struggles during his Cavaliers playoff runs. What happened to the player that shone during the Pistons series? He simply wasn't there in the following years against the Magic and Celtics.

[Doranku]

I don't think anyone else in the current NBA takes those Cavs further than LeBron did. Not going to comment on the past, I wasn't around to watch it. The crazy thing is that LeBron could've accomplished more if he had a more dominant mindset. He didn't even want to drag that team. They should've won the championship in 2010, but LeBron didn't care to dominate.

Can you blame him though? He put up 39/8/8 in the ECF the previous year and that wasn't enough to even beat the Magic. He probably would've had to average 50 to beat the Celtics.

[ShaqAttack3234]

Jordan as well as several other players would've had a chance to get the '07 Cavs to the finals considering how weak the East was. And the Cavs did at least have a good defensive team around Lebron and the Cavs were a great rebounding team. But they also faced a Wizards team without Arenas or Butler and then a Net team whose best big man was Mikki Moore. Vince Carter being shut down also made it easier for Lebron to lead the Cavs past the Nets because New Jersey relied on Carter's scoring quite a bit.

They faced a good Piston team, but they pretty much self-destructed. Lebron has gotten much better since '07, but I was actually disappointed in his play that season. His shooting was extremely erratic and he seemed less dominant. The big games were far less frequent than any season since or '06 for that matter. I think his game 5 causes that season to get overrated because I remember others during the season noticing that he had regressed from '06 and speculating on whether it was because he was tired from playing for team USA.

His game 5 was truly incredible, though. I was stunned watching it.

With that being said, what he did during his next 3 years was more impressive to me. Particularly '09 when he made Cleveland one of the most dominant regular season teams in NBA history. Though that was a pretty good cast, just not a team you'd expect to have the record they did, or to be blowing out teams to the point where Lebron was regularly resting during the 4th. To add to that, his play during the first 2 rounds of the playoffs was unbelievable, he dominated effortlessly and his one man army performance during Orlando, keeping them in the series almost by himself was also impressive.

Cleveland also screwed up with the Jamison trade, that made them a weaker defensive team.

[Doranku]

The bolded simply isn't true. i wish people would quit saying that. Why won't this myth die?

The team worked well together, but much like that supporting cast, LeBron needs to fall on the sword as well for his own playoff struggles during his Cavaliers playoff runs. What happened to the player that shone during the Pistons series? He simply wasn't there in the following years against the Magic and Celtics.

Huh? 39/8/8 is BETTER than what he did against the Pistons. He dropped 49 in the first game on 66% shooting, yet the Cavaliers still lost because NO ONE else stepped up.

[Dave3]

The bolded simply isn't true. i wish people would quit saying that. Why won't this myth die?

The team worked well together, but much like that supporting cast, LeBron needs to fall on the sword as well for his own playoff struggles during his Cavaliers playoff runs. What happened to the player that shone during the Pistons series? He simply wasn't there in the following years against the Magic and Celtics.

No...he was there against the Magic, but not for all of the Celtics games yeah. He did play well for the first 3 or 4 games in the Celtics series, but after that he wasn't himself.

And another thing, RBA explained it many times, the Cavs didn't refuse to trade Hickson for Amar'e, the trade wasn't actually there for them anymore, the Suns had rejected it.

[Doranku]

No...he was there against the Magic, but not for all of the Celtics games yeah. He did play well for the first 3 or 4 games in the Celtics series, but after that he wasn't himself.

And another thing, RBA explained it many times, the Cavs didn't refuse to trade Hickson for Amar'e, the trade wasn't actually there for them anymore, the Suns had rejected it.

Regardless, Cavs management had ample time to surround LeBron with better talent, but the best they could do was a declining Jamison. Mike Brown is an idiot and didn't utilize Jamison right at all, but is that really the best piece they could acquire?

[mlh1981]

Ok, well, I went and looked back at that 2009 Magic series, so I stand corrected in thinking that his game suffered in that particular instance, but yeah, his play the following year against the Cetics is still a complete mystery to this day.

[StateOfMind12]

The back to back in 60 wins is probably the toughest task for any other NBA player in NBA history to do. I think there are many players that could lead that '07 Cavs team to the Finals and never lost in the 1st round with those Cavs team though.

That is why Lebron gets high praise for being an amazing regular season player but gets tons of crap about not being a great post-season performer.

[StroShow4]

Can you blame him though? He put up 39/8/8 in the ECF the previous year and that wasn't enough to even beat the Magic. He probably would've had to average 50 to beat the Celtics.

I don't know if I blame him, I'm just saying his mindset is different than all other basketball players who are even close to his caliber that I've ever seen before. Most guys as good as LeBron seem to get a huge rush out of being able to do a lot with a little... you know, it's the "like Mike" thing... the desire to be/belief that you're on such a high level that you can do it on your own (even though MJ had HOF help, you get what I mean). LeBron was just never like that. He insisted on involving his team to a fault. He wanted his team to be elite moreso than he wanted to be elite himself by carrying a bad team. Hence his joining with two other all-stars in Miami. I've always said LB would rather be on the greatest team ever than be the greatest player ever. Carrying that Cleveland squad just didn't get his juices flowing like it would have a guy like Kobe, Wade, etc.

[inclinerator]

not sure if sarcasm