LeBron James, a basketball savant who was pegged as a potential contender for the Greatest Player Ever before he could even legally drive, calls out his own plays. Knock us over with a feather.
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ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recently relayed that James is often seen beating coach David Blatt to play calls in the Cavalier offense, and that he’ll often change the play as he sees fit for a Cavalier team that has completely turned its season around of late.
On Thursday, LeBron went all improv on us and asked, “yes, and?”
From Joe Vardon at the Northeast Ohio Media Group:
"I've done it every game for probably the last 11 years," James said after shootaround this morning, ahead of tonight's home game against the Miami Heat. "My rookie year I didn't have the freedom, I wasn't smart enough to do it. The last 11 years, I've done it every game."
[…]
"Why wouldn't you give me the freedom for playcalling? That's like telling Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, don't give them the freedom to change in the huddle," James said. "I'm a smart, cerebral basketball player, my basketball IQ is very high, and I take that very seriously, so I know what best suits our team and our coaching staff does as well.
"But, you don't allow me to call plays throughout the course of a game, then that's not good for our team."
[…]
"I can come down the floor and know what happened two possessions ago, or three possessions ago or a quarter ago and know how we can exploit a defense," James said. "It's just my knowledge of the game. I know how defense works, how they play me, and I can call a set to get my teammate an open shot every time, just knowing how the defense plays me. So being able to have that mind frame and that basketball IQ benefits our team."
If that comes down as a little overconfident, then watch LeBron play on Thursday night – if anything, he’s selling his abilities short. If you don’t like how many flowery words he used to describe himself, get over it, he’s earned it, sue him if he plays too long. And James, famed (and even criticized) for his passing, isn’t exactly calling his own number or pumping up his scoring average.
And if you think James’ teammates are frustrated by his approach, take a look at what Jeff Zillgitt at USA Today came up with, in talking with Cavalier point guard Kyrie Irving:
"He's grown every single day," James said. "Each month has been a learning experience for him and he's gotten more serious about the game, understanding what this moment can be for himself, for us as a team."
Without question, Irving enjoys having James as a teammate, calling it "one of the greatest experiences in my life. … The game is fun, and I just love playing with him."
Cleveland has gone 29-7 since the middle of January. That’s a 67-win pace, spread out over a full season.
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One of the more underreported troubles for coaches that make the jump from the NCAA to NBA is massive catch-up time coaches need in order to properly scout the 400-odd players they thought they knew something about while watching from afar. It’s true that former NCAA coaches often fail because they’re unable to parlay a snake oil trade with adult professionals, or if their roster is lacking or if their coaching is just plain bad, but learning the tendencies of individual opponents and sets of 29 other teams on the fly is a devastating charge.
David Blatt comes to the NBA with a wealth of international professional experience, and we don’t doubt his dogged pursuit of NBA know-how, but it takes a while to catch up. And sometimes you need to rely on a guy who has been in the NBA since 2003, and one that routinely plays deep into June, to figure out the best way to slip past Roy Hibbert and David West in December. To determine when Kevin Martin usually looks the other way. Sometimes it helps having a photographic memory when George Karl busts out a 2006-era defensive set that wasn’t included in the most recent game tapes David Blatt pored over.
If LeBron James’ camp wants to make David Blatt look bad, then this is just what you deal with. If James’ crew is running the Cavaliers in the same way that doomed the team towards the end of his first go-round in Ohio, then oh bloody well. LeBron James is 30, he’s already played more combined regular and postseason minutes than Larry Bird, and he’s proven he can win it all in ways that he was capable of five years ago.
If David Blatt can create an attack that will serve as something bigger than the sum of its parts, then we’d love to see it – because the sum total of what we’ve seen from Cleveland over the last two and a half months should have the rest of the NBA quivering.
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from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1DBndxA
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