The Lakers Reality Show

radsoxfan

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He said he was keeping his decision private....but if you read between the lines it seems like he is anti.
At least for himself, don’t have to read between any lines. Schroder said Lebron isn’t vaccinated.

Being one of the few unvaccinated is not a good place to be. All the social distancing and rules that protected everyone will fade away and unvaccinated will be at higher risk than before.

Overall community spread and infection density is decreasing so Lebron has that going in his favor I suppose. But between new variants and everyone else relaxing around him, decent chance he gets knocked out for 10-14 days before the end of the playoffs.
 

Kliq

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LeBron, like Tom Brady, is probably extremely conscious of everything he is putting into his body, so it wouldn't surprise me if he is hesitant to take vaccine. It's a shame that he isn't proactive in it given his status and platform, but hopefully he will come around on it soon.
 

ElUno20

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LeBron, like Tom Brady, is probably extremely conscious of everything he is putting into his body, so it wouldn't surprise me if he is hesitant to take vaccine. It's a shame that he isn't proactive in it given his status and platform, but hopefully he will come around on it soon.
Beyond a shame. As a minority, it's fn disgraceful and shameful.
 

radsoxfan

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There is no doubt if Lebron had the exact opposite approach (publicly getting vaccinated and encouraging others to as well) he would save a lot of lives.

Not shocked he's got some weird belief system here. But it is a shame, no doubt about it.
 

Sam Ray Not

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ESPN announcers now ballwashing AD when he makes even a half-decent play, as if he's some freaking bench scrub charity case. This is the same player whom your hoops scribes in their infinite wisdom called **the #2 player in the NBA** at the start of the season.
 

benhogan

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There is no doubt if Lebron had the exact opposite approach (publicly getting vaccinated and encouraging others to as well) he would save a lot of lives.

Not shocked he's got some weird belief system here. But it is a shame, no doubt about it.
Agreed, what a whiff by Bron. Thought he did a nice job on the get-out the vote.

Kyrie is the one that I expect with all the silly vax conspiracy theories.

a week ago, 70% of NBA players had received at least 1 dose

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2021/04/27/adam-silver-more-than-70-of-nba-players-have-received-coronavirus-vaccine/
 

the moops

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ESPN announcers now ballwashing AD when he makes even a half-decent play, as if he's some freaking bench scrub charity case. This is the same player whom your hoops scribes in their infinite wisdom called **the #2 player in the NBA** at the start of the season.
Is it, or was it really that much of a stretch to call him the 2nd best player in the NBA? He had an incredible year last year and one could easily think that another year with Lebron would bring out even more in him
 

Rook05

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LeBron being anti-vaxx is secretly great since he’s methodically forced my sports hate of him to wane.
 

radsoxfan

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Agreed, what a whiff by Bron. Thought he did a nice job on the get-out the vote.

Kyrie is the one that I expect with all the silly vax conspiracy theories.

a week ago, 70% of NBA players had received at least 1 dose

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2021/04/27/adam-silver-more-than-70-of-nba-players-have-received-coronavirus-vaccine/
Someone should tell Lebron his venn diagram of bizarre thinking has him overlapping with racist uneducated white republican male Trumpers. A strange place for him to be.

70% isn't too bad, pretty much in line with polls I've seen for vaccine acceptance. Goes without saying unvaccinated NBA players are risking a 2 week absence as we head in the non-bubble playoffs.

I'd never root for anyone to get sick, but if Lebron costs the Lakers a playoff run because he won't get vaccinated..... let's just say I won't feel bad for him.
 

lovegtm

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Is it, or was it really that much of a stretch to call him the 2nd best player in the NBA? He had an incredible year last year and one could easily think that another year with Lebron would bring out even more in him
I think his point was that AD is good enough to not need to be hyped up for doing routine things.
 

Sam Ray Not

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I think his point was that AD is good enough to not need to be hyped up for doing routine things.
That, plus I don’t think he has ever realistically been the #2 player in the league, great as he is. No advanced metrics (that I’ve seen) rank him anywhere near that high; and MVP voters seem to agree (he has one season in his career at #3, one at #5, and no others in the top five).

He’s awesome, of course, but I don’t see a real case for him over LeBron, Steph, KD, Kawhi, Harden, Giannis, Jokic, Doncic, or Embiid. Those last three may have passed him this season while he was injured (again); the others have pretty much always been ahead of him, imo. CP3 probably needs to round out that top 10. Then I’d think about AD in the #11-15 range with PG, Lillard, Tatum, Butler.

In any case, not #2. And as you say, truly great players shouldn’t need to get ball-washed for playing reasonably well.
 

Jimbodandy

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That, plus I don’t think he has ever realistically been the #2 player in the league, great as he is. No advanced metrics (that I’ve seen) rank him anywhere near that high; and MVP voters seem to agree (he has one season in his career at #3, one at #5, and no others in the top five).

He’s awesome, of course, but I don’t see a real case for him over LeBron, Steph, KD, Kawhi, Harden, Giannis, Jokic, Doncic, or Embiid. Those last three may have passed him this season while he was injured (again); the others have pretty much always been ahead of him, imo. CP3 probably needs to round out that top 10. Then I’d think about AD in the #11-15 range with PG, Lillard, Tatum, Butler.

In any case, not #2. And as you say, truly great players shouldn’t need to get ball-washed for playing reasonably well.
Preseason folks may have glossed right over Steph and discounted KD due to injury. It looks much dumber now than it did then.

Whether one thinks that AD is #2 or #5, he sure as hell doesn't need ball-washing.

He's better than a bunch of the guys on your list. I'd take him over Harden and Doncic immediately. CP3? Defense matters.
 

Kliq

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Putting Davis at #2 was cute but not particularly realistic. He only made the playoffs twice in New Orleans and his teams were actually pretty awful despite having some decent supporting casts, his last year in New Orleans they won 33 games with Jrue Holiday and Randle as his sidekicks. He might be the most talented two-way player in the league, but if I'm ranking a guy #2 in the league, I'd like to think they could drag a suspect supporting cast to respectability on a regular basis. Davis is a second-banana for a championship-level team, which is an amazing feat, but it isn't the #2 player in the league. He's also been pretty below average for him this year so far; 21-8-3 isn't wowing anybody. Like I said, it was cute to make him the #2 player after playing well in the bubble and winning the title, but he has never been the #2 player in the league.
 

Kliq

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Preseason folks may have glossed right over Steph and discounted KD due to injury. It looks much dumber now than it did then.

Whether one thinks that AD is #2 or #5, he sure as hell doesn't need ball-washing.

He's better than a bunch of the guys on your list. I'd take him over Harden and Doncic immediately. CP3? Defense matters.
Doncic has taken Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Richardson and Tim Hardaway Jr. to the #5 seed. Davis gets a massive edge on defense, no doubt, but a guy that can score and create for others consistently is by far the most valuable skill-set to have in the NBA and Luka is arguably the best in the NBA at doing that.
 

Jimbodandy

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Doncic has taken Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Richardson and Tim Hardaway Jr. to the #5 seed. Davis gets a massive edge on defense, no doubt, but a guy that can score and create for others consistently is by far the most valuable skill-set to have in the NBA and Luka is arguably the best in the NBA at doing that.
Luka's inherent skillset is more rare and therefore valuable. That doesn't make him a better player than Davis.

Reasonable people can disagree with the rankings, but I'd be hard pressed to find 10 guys that are better basketball players than AD.

"In the Lillard tier" is laughable.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Luka's inherent skillset is more rare and therefore valuable. That doesn't make him a better player than Davis.

Reasonable people can disagree with the rankings, but I'd be hard pressed to find 10 guys that are better basketball players than AD.

"In the Lillard tier" is laughable.
Can you name 10 guys better at basketball than Dame? AD is in the top 10 but Dame might be too, or at least he's very close.

AD is probably at the tail end of the 1st tier and Dame is at the top of the 2nd.
 

Kliq

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Can you name 10 guys better at basketball than Dame? AD is in the top 10 but Dame might be too, or at least he's very close.

AD is probably at the tail end of the 1st tier and Dame is at the top of the 2nd.
Dame and AD have finished very close in the MVP voting for most of the past five years. They are probably in the same tier.

Dame would...uh...not be the person I'd be dismissing as an elite player.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Luka's inherent skillset is more rare and therefore valuable. That doesn't make him a better player than Davis.

Reasonable people can disagree with the rankings, but I'd be hard pressed to find 10 guys that are better basketball players than AD.

"In the Lillard tier" is laughable.
Availability matters for rankings like this. Lillard is almost never hurt; AD is almost always hurt.

But even just on a per minute basis: by RPM — deeply flawed, but the quickest and dirtiest per minute measure available — Lillard has rated above AD in each of the last four seasons. AD was a total stud in last year’s playoffs, but during the season the Lakers were actually better with him on the bench than on the floor. That’s not a result you really see from LeBron, Steph, or Harden, e.g.

AD crushes a lot of those guys on D, though I think the “what about the D?” argument when comparing bigs to smalls tends to ignore the fact that basketball is played 5 on 5. Guys like Dame, Steph, Luka, and Harden are primary ballhandlers, so you can surround them with long wings and bigs to shore up your defense. AD can’t remotely run your offense, so you always need to play a little PG alongside him (unless you can find a 6-9 PG like LeBron).

In terms of *overall impact* on the scoreboard — offense plus defense — AD has never really rated up there with the elite studs (LeBron, Steph, Giannis, Harden, e.g.), great as he is.

And again: availability. Lillard and AD came into the league the same year, and AD has already missed 117 more games than Dame has.
 

DannyDarwinism

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I don't know what I find more surprising, that Jimbo would take AD over Harden "immediately" or that he thinks it's laughable to put him in the same tier as Dame. And I say this as a fellow "defense matters!" stan. Because it does! Just not as much as offense. And James Harden is one of the best offensive players of all time. Dude's at .611 TS% for his career average while being a walking 30/10. For comparison, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen each only had two seasons in their careers with better efficiency than Harden's average. Dame's pretty damn close to peak Harden these past couple of years. Both guys have led teams to deep playoff runs in the loaded West, while AD had one series win in his career and missed the playoffs completely more often than not prior to joining the Lebrons.

I get the argument, but not the certainty.
 

Jimbodandy

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I don't know what I find more surprising, that Jimbo would take AD over Harden "immediately" or that he thinks it's laughable to put him in the same tier as Dame. And I say this as a fellow "defense matters!" stan. Because it does! Just not as much as offense. And James Harden is one of the best offensive players of all time. Dude's at .611 TS% for his career average while being a walking 30/10. For comparison, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen each only had two seasons in their careers with better efficiency than Harden's average. Dame's pretty damn close to peak Harden these past couple of years. Both guys have led teams to deep playoff runs in the loaded West, while AD had one series win in his career and missed the playoffs completely more often than not prior to joining the Lebrons.

I get the argument, but not the certainty.
I know that everyone loves their scorers. But when I read about how Doncic is dragging a bad roster to the 5 seed above, I think about the playoff resumes of these guys.

SRN actually wrote (and I paraphrase), "yeah AD was a beast in the playoffs, but what about his regular season?". Also "and he gets injured a lot".

Beast in the playoffs is right. At both ends. Won a title for his efforts. Will be beasting in these playoffs against Brooklyn most likely (yay Harden finally) as Dame goes valiantly into that good night again in a second round exit, putting up 45 in the series and giving back half that at the other end.
 

nighthob

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Doncic has taken Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Richardson and Tim Hardaway Jr. to the #5 seed. Davis gets a massive edge on defense, no doubt, but a guy that can score and create for others consistently is by far the most valuable skill-set to have in the NBA and Luka is arguably the best in the NBA at doing that.
Man, look at what Julius Randall's dragging to a .570 winning percentage, he must be Wiltesque... And can we stop with the "loaded west" nonsense. There's exactly one more good team out west than in the east, followed by a bunch of teams playing sub-.600 basketball, just like the east. The LeBroners, due to injuries, are one of those teams scuffling around at a sub-48 win pace. But they're still scuffling and hardly a juggernaut.

To be brutally frank, Brooklyn might be the most impressive team in the NBA so far given how little they've gotten from Durant this year (combined with Irving's health issues). Now a lot of this weirdness is likely driven by CoVid Season v2.0™. But both conferences are full of teams with very pedestrian records.
 

DannyDarwinism

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I know that everyone loves their scorers. But when I read about how Doncic is dragging a bad roster to the 5 seed above, I think about the playoff resumes of these guys.

SRN actually wrote (and I paraphrase), "yeah AD was a beast in the playoffs, but what about his regular season?". Also "and he gets injured a lot".

Beast in the playoffs is right. At both ends. Won a title for his efforts. Will be beasting in these playoffs against Brooklyn most likely (yay Harden finally) as Dame goes valiantly into that good night again in a second round exit, putting up 45 in the series and giving back half that at the other end.
Yeah AD was great last year, no doubt. Almost as good as his teammate, who happens to be the best player in basketball history, and who has won a bunch of titles for his efforts. Maybe that guy had something to do with it.
 

Jimbodandy

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Yeah AD was great last year, no doubt. Almost as good as his teammate, who happens to be the best player in basketball history, and who has won a bunch of titles for his efforts. Maybe that guy had something to do with it.
Of course it does.

I'm just judging the man based on how he played, which was immense at both ends. And both ends matter.
 

DannyDarwinism

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Of course it does.

I'm just judging the man based on how he played, which was immense at both ends. And both ends matter.
To varying degrees, yes. And I know your mileage varies with them, but there are metrics that measure overall impact and those pretty consistently favor Harden by a decent margin.
 

lovegtm

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This is just the usual thing about fit+scaleability. If you already have LeBron, there might not be another guy in the league you want before AD. If you don't have LeBron, you need an elite scorer.

AD is the archetypical amazing D + pretty good O player who can make almost any team with a top scorer into a championship threat. He's a lot like KG in this regard.
 

Kliq

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He wants to re-honor Michael Jordan by retiring the 23 again.