Los Angeles Lakers: Is Charles Barkley right about LeBron James?

Charles Barkley offered his opinion on the Los Angeles Lakers point guard situation. Is Barkley’s take about LeBron James correct?

The Los Angeles Lakers are now 4-1 and sitting at the top of the Western Conference. It goes to show the up and down roller coaster season of the NBA. It seems now like the Lakers’ only loss, on opening night, was merely a small bump in the road.

The Lakers now look like world-beaters after rolling over the Memphis Grizzlies 120-91 in a game that Anthony Davis broke team and league records all over the place. Did I forget to mention that he did this in three quarters?

Should the Lakers be printing tickets for fan purchase to the Western Conference Finals? According to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, not yet.

Comparing the Lakers to the brand new “New Orleans Pelicans moving to Hollywood” is a bit harsh and will probably stick out more than the actual discussion in this article. For the record, the Los Angeles Lakers are not the next coming of the “West Coast Pelicans”.

For this, Stephen A. Smith is wrong in that context.

With the complete overhaul of the roster, it is common knowledge that the Lakers are going through major changes, especially with the injuries to Kyle Kuzma (Stress reaction in his foot) and Rajon Rondo (Calf strain) that has held two potential starters out of the lineup this season. What is being missed in this big scenario is the adjustments being made between the hierarchy of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

But let’s take a deeper look at the message that Stephen A. Smith may be saying about James’ play. It’s no question that James has to be at a certain level for the Los Angeles Lakers to have a chance to win the NBA title this year. For the first four games, LeBron James is not there yet.

There are two major issues that LeBron James is currently facing in his adjustment period.

LeBron James has been the undisputed No. 1 option for four franchises (If you count Cleveland twice!) over the span of 17 years. Now the Lakers bring in a player of Anthony Davis‘ caliber, James has to figure out the proper balance of making sure that Davis is producing numbers while staying aggressive enough to play at or near the level he was during the championship runs in the past.

TNT’s Charles Barkley may have noticed the problem after the Lakers’ opening night loss to the Clippers.

The next day Barkley and his Inside the NBA colleagues were at a media luncheon at Shaquille O’Neal‘s restaurant at LA Live (On a side note, how many businesses does this guy have?  He should be known as the “Big Portfolio”). He believes that LeBron James should not be running point.

Here’s an excerpt from his reasoning courtesy of Bleacher Report.

"“I’m not going to overreact to one game, but I do think the [Los Angeles] Lakers got to take LeBron [James] off the point.” “He can’t play the point all night. They need to play at a much faster pace, and at his age, he can’t do that,” Barkley continued. “They need to find a way to speed the tempo up and get the other guys involved.”"

This will be a sore subject for LeBron fans everywhere. No matter what the situation is going forward, somehow, someway LeBron James will have the ball in his hands initiating the offense.

Considering the fact that he’s one of the best players of his generation, good luck to Frank Vogel convincing him to play off the ball more. This was the plan last year, but it took about 20-25 games for things to go back to the status quo.

Taking LeBron James off the ball was a good theoretical idea last year, but this year it’s clear that he needs to start playing with another ball-handler to take the pressure off.

Is Charles Barkley right about taking LeBron off the point? Let’s take a look back over the first five games and see.

The Los Angeles Lakers came out on fire in the first quarter. LeBron wasn’t running the point. He was in the post.

When the Lakers lost their season opener to the Los Angeles Clippers 112-102, the offense was humming right along as they ran off to an early 13-2 lead in the first quarter.

That lead had a lot to do with LeBron James getting down in the post and bullying Patrick Beverley to get to the basket. Sure Beverley fought him in the post but, LeBron basically rendered Zubac useless as his slow rotations messed up the entire Clippers defense. First, he just powered his way to the basket here.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1186836545375887362

Then he used his matchup in the post to draw a double team and set up Danny Green for an open 3-point shot. These two plays highlight the fact the LeBron James is playing off the ball and how different the offense flows. He even had a turnaround jumper over Kawhi Leonard working off the left block.

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1186836778654658560

After Doc Rivers banished Zubac to the bench and brought in his players off the bench featured by Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell, LeBron started his transition back to the perimeter. Then the offense started to slow down.

Anthony Davis was never comfortable and was less aggressive. LeBron James shot a sub-par 7-of-19 from the field. Between the two in the last quarter, they both combined to score two points. The offense was based around the two taking turns shooting the ball at times.

This game should have been a blowout. Had it not been for Danny Green exploding in the 3rd quarter, there would have been more panic at the time. Magic Johnson was on FS-1 analyzing the game with Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe and pointed out that simply the Lakers had abandoned the pick and roll.

Three minutes in after Magic Johnson talks about his exit from the team. He talks about how the Lakers still call him for advice on how to deal with LeBron James playing the point.

What is being discussed here is possibly the overall vision of the Lakers for the championship run. LeBron James will be used in the Magic Johnson mold of the “Showtime” era.

He joins Charles Barkley in the theory that LeBron James should not be the primary playmaker. It’s important to note that LeBron won his titles with a wing or guard who was great shot creators. He won in Miami with Dwyane Wade and in Cleveland with Kyrie Irving.

The Lakers don’t have players of this magnitude, but they found possibly the next best thing in the next game.

The first half was a continuation of the problems in the first game. But Frank Vogel changed the game plan. 

The absence of Rajon Rondo with a calf injury led to the same starting lineup when they faced the Indiana Pacers. Again, the offense sputtered when James was featured as the team’s point guard.

Frank Vogel continued his belief in “defense first” philosophy putting James alongside strong perimeter defenders Danny Green and Avery Bradley along with Anthony Davis and JaVale McGee on the backline.

The Lakers offense was actually bad, as they scored just 43 points in the first half. The offense was sloppy and stagnant which 34.8 percent from the field with 10 turnovers would attest. Vogel had to be pleased with the defense giving up 37 points, but even that was skewed.

The Jazz was missing Bojan Bogdanovic who was out with an ankle injury and Mike Conley, Jr. was just missing in action (If you watched the Clippers game, you know he’s back!). Bottom line, the first 24 minutes stunk up the Staples Center. Then Vogel made a decision that turned the season around offensively.

Frank Vogel has already shown that he is an upgrade from Luke Walton with this adjustment. Give him a ton of credit for noticing the issues on the offensive end and adding Caruso to the starting lineup. That meant another ball-handling guard alongside James. AD sent his blessings as well.

"“On that last maybe three minutes in that second quarter we had me at the five and we were just running pick and rolls, and we had Rudy kind of disoriented in where he was going and LeBron was getting downhill and I was rolling to the basket, so it was a tough cover for Utah and we were finding guys on the weakside as well, so we thought it would be more effective with me at the five playing that way to be able to win this game”"

After Alex Caruso entered the game, everything changed. The numbers didn’t tell the story (two points, two turnovers with no assists), but his ability to handle the ball and defend opposing point guards helped make the game easier for James.

With Rudy Gobert out of the paint, LeBron James had avenues to move to the basket. He finished with 32 points. In this sequence you can see how the Lakers offense flows when LeBron doesn’t initiate the offense.

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1187947972476039168

With Caruso on the floor, LeBron James can worry about getting into his spots on the floor. The play eventually develops into a pick and roll which nobody in the NBA has shown the ability to stop yet. It was the next game, that Vogel knew that he might be on to something.

The Lakers are undefeated when Alex Caruso plays. He’s like that player in a glass container used in case of emergency.

It’s interesting to note that After Caruso sat the bench for the entire game in the Clippers loss on opening night. After watching for the first half, Vogel has inserted Caruso in the lineup in the second half of the last two games. Both times the Lakers offense was struggling. Both times Caruso made a difference in providing intangibles that don’t show up in box scores.

After raising the defensive intensity against the Utah Jazz by playing strong defense and providing steady ball-handling, Caruso did the same against the Hornets shifting momentum with timely defensive plays and overall hustle. Here’s the example here.

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But this is a LeBron James article, right? In one of the more stranger games to analyze, James did not transfer the aggressiveness on offense that he had against the Jazz. He took a major step back while Anthony Davis went nuts in the first half dropping 25 of his 29 points. Going into the last quarter, his double-figure scoring streak was on the line when had only six points.

Granted, he exploded in the 4th quarter, scoring 14 points to end the night at 20. But AD was on the bench for most of that time with a shoulder injury he suffered earlier in the game. Maybe this is the LeBron James that Stephen A. Smith was criticizing.

There is no question about LeBron’s ability to take over as a scorer when needed. But this was done against a Charlotte team that can’t match the talent level of this Lakers squad. The balance needs to be there instead of just watching Anthony Davis dominate.

LeBron James has made progress on how to play with the best player he’s ever had in his career. 

LeBron James now is in a position that one of his best friends, Dwyane Wade was when he came to Miami years ago.

The Heat was dealing with the same issues that the Lakers are now with multidimensional superstars. Wade knew that he had to step back a little because he knew that LeBron had a certain shine that would make the team successful. When Wade made that decision, the Heat went to four straight Finals and won two championships.

If LeBron is a student of the game, he needs to call his friend for pointers on this. The Los Angeles Lakers have to run the offense through Davis for a chance at the NBA Finals. Sure, James said that the offense would run through AD in the offseason, but unlike in previous seasons, he can’t renege in the middle of the season.

For the last two games, it looked like LeBron tried to make a point to get AD in rhythm to set the tone. Against the Hornets, he looked passive. Against Memphis, LeBron had a much better balance.

James scored 23 points and dished out eight assists. But while Anthony Davis was setting records left and right, LeBron gave support on the defensive end and running the floor hard.

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1189405695805775872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1189405695805775872&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2019%2F10%2F30%2Flos-angeles-lakers-4-lessons-record-night-vs-memphis-grizzlies%2F

What does this show? Leadership and willing to buy into sacrificing on defense. For the first time, LeBron James got off the plane to sign his contract, he is playing outstanding winning basketball for the Lakers. You don’t need analytics and stats to see that James is playing well here. You see it by the little things that send a message to the Laker Nation that he is engaged and wants to win.

Sure LeBron James had a triple-double against Dallas. But is it Fool’s Gold? 

Lakers fans are going to lose the entire point of all of this based on the performance of LeBron James Friday night against the Dallas Mavericks. It is totally understood that LeBron James went off on the Mavs beating out Luka Doncic in their personal triple-double showdown.

In the age of analytics, 39 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds will tell the tale that James can lead the team running the point. Sports shows will lead to this play to back up their argument.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1190482104309571584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1190482104309571584&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2019%2F11%2F02%2Flos-angeles-lakers-lebron-james-saves-game-dominates-ot%2F

Nothing against LeBron’s great play here, but it merely masked a problem that reared its head even in this game. Plus this play worked for two reasons.

Number one, the Dallas Mavericks have done some strange things since LeBron put on the purple and gold. Remember the ridiculous Wesley Matthews foul at the end of the game last year when the game was tied to send LeBron to the line for the win? This was just as close. Dallas doesn’t foul and then closes on LeBron James and leaves the shooters.

Number two, Dwight Howard held up Seth Curry slowing up his rotation.

LeBron James played an outstanding basketball game. It doesn’t mean that he played a great floor game as the point guard. Why?

The Lakers started out slowly again on the offensive end. Taking this further, the Lakers only scored 20 points in the first quarter which was a season-low. Things only started to pick up when Alex Caruso was in the game. Also, Anthony Davis was affected. He struggled for about three quarters before really taking off.

When LeBron James runs the point, it seems that AD is being force-fed in the post. With his shoulder injury, that is not the smartest way to run the offense through Davis and keep him fresh in the long run.

The Lakers took off when LeBron got his numbers in the flow of the game. He got on the break rebounding the ball and picking up the pace as Charles Barkley said in the beginning.

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1190476944569069568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1190476944569069568&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2019%2F11%2F02%2Flos-angeles-lakers-lebron-james-saves-game-dominates-ot%2F

Now the question is, can he keep this up through the season into the playoffs. Now that LeBron James has shown that he is capable, now NBA fans can see for themselves.

The Los Angeles Lakers are 4-1 this season and the reason is that Frank Vogel is weaning the point guard duties off of LeBron James to Alex Caruso when he’s in the game. Since then, it has opened up the offense and LeBron James to new opportunities to succeed.