Why the Lakers should trade LeBron James
LeBron’s 2018-2019 Advanced Stats from www.basketball-reference.com
- Value Over Replacement Player: 4.5, the lowest of his career
- Win Shares: 6.9, 2nd lowest of his career
- Defensive Rating: 108, 2nd worst of his career
- Offensive Rating: 115, 5th worst of his career
It’s clear by looking at the advanced stats listed above that this has been one of LeBron’s worst season’s as a pro and they might be an indicator that he could be moving past his prime and into his twilight years.
If James’s sad statistics aren’t a bad enough sign, according to www.theringer.com’s Dan Devine, among all players who have played at least ten minutes per game this season, LeBron James defensive speed is the 3rd worst in the NBA, which is just another display that father time might be finally catching up with King James.
James’s stats are worrying, but they could simply be a result of his Christmas Day groin injury that caused him to miss 17 games and also limited his ability to stay in game shape, thus slowing LeBron down after the damage in his leg healed and he started playing again.
The thing that really worries me about LeBron James and the biggest reason why the Lakers should consider trading him, is the fact that he’s had an awful attitude this season.
Only one month into the season LeBron’s defiance toward Lakers head coach Luke Walton started showing up. www.espn.com’s Brian Windhorst said this on Novmeber 29th:
"“When James is running the point, he rarely looks toward the bench to receive play calls from coach Luke Walton. Even when he has seen them, the scouts say, he ignores them and runs the play he prefers.”"
Since the early stages of the season LeBron’s non-cooperative approach to playing basketball has been seen time-and-time again. There have been numerous games where LeBron blatantly turned his back on Luke and the team during in-game huddles, which was finally noted a few days ago by New York Knicks announcer Clyde Frazer, who had this to say about LeBron, “ part of the team,” and “He doesn’t really care.”
LeBron’s displayed an awful attitude during games in front of millions of fans around the world, which brings up an interesting point. There’s a tenet that I like to call “the behind a locked door and closed curtain rule.”
Let me give an example to explain this rule.
A husband and wife go out to dinner with four other couples and during the meal the wife starts to passive-aggressively belittle her husband in front of the other twosomes. She says things like, “Wow Marie, your husband’s looking really fit, I wish my man would get off the coach and start going to the gym.” Or the wife says something like this, “Dennis, I really like that new shirt your wearing! It looks expensive. Too bad my husband doesn’t make enough money to buy clothes like that.”
If the wife from the example above has so little respect or love for her husband that she mocks him in public, then when she and her spouse are at home with the door locked and the curtains closed, she treats her husband much worse than when they’re out among friends. Why? Because at home nobody’s there to judge her, so she’s free to let loose and act the way she wants to.
From my experience, my “behind a locked door and closed curtain rule” holds true almost all the time. That means if LeBron is willing to show how little he cares about his coach and teammates in front of a national audience, then when the doors to the Lakers practice facility are closed off to the public, his attitude is almost certainly demoralizing.
Only LeBron and the rest of the people who are directly associated with the Lakers know the extent of James’s disrespect, but it’s clear that LeBron is LA’s best player and therefore he has the power to create a positive clubhouse culture or to generate an ethos full of negativity.
Unfortunately, James has chosen to use his self-proclaimed “GOAT-ness” to hinder the Lakers progress this season. This to me is the most worrying aspect of LeBron’s season.