I don’t understand the “hand picked team” sentiment. Maybe in previous years but def not this one. He pushed hard and called managment over the summer imploring them not to trade Kyrie, that he would make it work with him. And they in no way should have that was stupid.

He then (along with Lue) wanted to trade for…

But imagine he had Terry Rozier this year. On the C’s, he was a fun, upstart player. If he were playing with LeBron, the narrative would have been, “My God, look at this stiff LeBron has to play with.”

Those Heat teams were perfectly fine. They could have kept rolling for several more years, but I think LeBron wanted to cement his Cleveland legacy by bringing a championship to his home town. But he also had a better coach, GM and owner down in Miami and all those things help.

Yes, the numbers show it. Players who play with the warriors get better, and players who play with lebron get worse than expected.

I’m all in on this angle. At some point, the question has to be asked how LeBron’s teammates seem to get shittier when they join the same team.

True but Gilbert is next-level incompetence. Here’s a guy who runs off a GM both LeBron and Kyrie like, put the kibosh on the Paul George trade, and now is openly opining about contributions he made. Oh and before anyone says Gilbert is willing to pay the tax: who do you think help devise its structure? Yep good ol’…

I think a big part of the blame has to be laid at Dan Gilbert’s feet for refusing to pay front-office staff any money. Had he just extended David Griffin’s contract, they had a high probability of trading for Paul George and Eric Bledsoe and this is a much different Cavs team.

LeBron is a world class passer who refuses to pass to guys if they don’t make shots and he loses confidence in them. His friends can’t make any shots, and he insisted Cleveland gift terrible contracts to a bunch of his friends.

Your points speak to: 1) LeBron is really good, the Cavs are a crap organization; 2) Kyrie should not have been traded. Both are valid points.

But my argument outlines the ways in which LeBron placed pressure on the front office. They definitely could have made different, better decisions. Yet it’s impossible to…

Counterpoint: The Cleveland Cavaliers have been around for 48 years, 11 with LeBron. They’ve made it out of the 1st round of the playoffs twice in the 37 non-LeBron years. They were in the lottery the five years previous to drafting LeBron. When he left for Miami they missed the playoffs every year. They had the #1…

Yeah, some of this is definitely LeBron’s fault as well due to the pressure he’s put on the front office.

Because of how poorly the Cavs were run during his first run and his continued anger at Gilbert post-Decision, LeBron has always sought to maintain negotiation leverage over the Cavs. This means consistently…

I think there’s a slight Russell Westbrook effect. Lebron is an infinitely better passer, but all his teammates seem to fight the urge to sit back and “watch him do cool shit.”

My wife’s mother pulled a similar move.

That’s weird, the Internet told me that CONCACAF is by far the easiest qualifying region, a total joke, and that every other confederation’s 10th and 11th teams would easily qualify, if only they played in CONCACAF, which is a total joke.

Sure, but you can’t have nearly ended someone’s career, then hit him again near there, and then turn around and call him childish for being upset about. Especially when you barely ever hit yourself, and get to throw a ball/weapon for money once a week.

The NBA should punish any team that Hinkie-tanks by making Mark Jackson and Shaq their local broadcast play-by-play team.

You’re completely right! They literally meant “here are some other words.”

I’m pretty sure they just meant that the words following that statement were different than the previous sentence, not necessarily related. Words are meaningless to this administration, they mean whatever Trump says they mean at any given time.

I would say that this should be something you can look at as proof that money and fame are not cures for depression. You’re not doomed, you just have to find something (medicine, therapy, etc.) that will help you. Money and fame will not. Which I’m thankful for as I have neither.

“In other words” took quite a leap there. You might even say it jumped some sort of marine-based predator.