preface:
"But the king of the world, won the name of the deceased, poor white happened." The 37-year-old LeBron James is still on his way to GOAT, but his performance this season has lost his prestige, which is really pitiful. James's most criticized shortcoming this season is undoubtedly his defense, and various videos of James's non-defensive games appear on social platforms, so in the end there is no problem with James' defense this year.
The data proves that the defense is not bad
James' defensive efficiency this season is 111.3, ranking 254th in the league. Looking at this data alone, James' defense is indeed quite sluggish, it is already the level of the league's bottom, but if you look at the high-level defensive data, James is quite good, such as defensive plus-minus and defensive victory contribution value, which are ranked within the top 50 of the league, in January, James's dbpm (defensive plus-minus) was once ranked 28th, and dws (defensive contribution) ranked 47th in the league. On the Lakers' high-level data list, James also appeared in the first quadrant, which shows that James is actually not so pulled down. In fact, james was ranked fourth in the best defensive team last season, and the contribution value of defensive victory was second only to Gobert.
If James hadn't injured his ankle last season, maybe he'd be in the all-defensive lineup. In just one year, James has become the most criticized player on the defensive end, and I don't believe that in just one year James has lost all his defense. Data does not lie, the best reference basis for modern basketball is data, basic data may be deceptive, but high-level data does not have such a problem. James's defense is definitely not rotten to the bottom of the league, why James's defensive efficiency is so bad, the main reason is affected by the overall defensive efficiency of the Lakers, based on the overall performance of the team.
If you really want to judge defensive efficiency, you should actually compare net efficiency, so that you can know whether a player is losing points or points on the field. The Lakers' offensive efficiency was 108.4, while the defensive efficiency was 110.3, and the overall net efficiency was -1.9. Although James's defensive efficiency is 111.3, the offensive efficiency is 110.0, and the net efficiency is -1.3, in fact, he is better than the overall performance of the Lakers. This proves that James' defense is really not so bad, but to say that he is very good defensively, these are not related, and there is no comparison with his defense last season.
On-field performance leads to impression streaming
So why do fans think James' defensive problems are too big? The fundamental reason is that some of the details of James on the court do affect his perception of defense, such as James watching the opposing players go to the basket in the process of defense, such as James not supplementing the outside line, such as James being used by Doncic to use roll call tactics to play at the cash machine. These are the reasons why fans feel that he is not defending well.
This season James has some games deliberately messed up, the most intuitive is the Lakers 37 points fiasco against the Nuggets that game, in that game James chose to give up defense as soon as he opened, watched the other side shoot three points, even rebounds are not protected, James in this season there are really many games in this situation, the Nuggets This is just the most representative game. It's no secret that James's black fans like to look for James's black spots round by round, which also causes some of James's undefended clips to be amplified, casually looking like he's defending badly.
However, when James is really serious about defending, he still has a good performance, but he can't attack and defend like the Heat, and he can't maintain the focus of defense throughout the game, but when he really wants to defend, he can still play a great role in restricting the other side. However, these clips are far less widely disseminated than the videos of black him, so the impression given to fans is far less than the videos he does not defend, and there is no way to have controversial videos to have traffic, especially in the era of self-media, James is not defensive, such a topic will cause more people to watch.
He's not really good at center forwards
This season, the Lakers have been in the center position for a long time due to injuries to Westbrook and Davis. In fact, James is not good at this position, but in order to show his versatility, he still gritted his teeth and stomped on the center position. In fact, James is selfish in doing what he is not good at, and he thinks that this is the best way to prove himself in history, because no one in history has ever been able to play from the fifth position to the first position like him, so he is THE GOAT, but in fact he is not good at it.
James has averaged 28.9 points per game this season, ranking third in the league, and no one is older than 39 in the top five scorers this season, let alone 37-year-old James. James is not a monster, he will be old, it is impossible to balance defense and offense, his offense has been done to the extreme, but he certainly can not get a foothold in the center position, after all, physical strength is limited and James's figure is not suitable for playing center. The most exquisite center position is hand-to-hand combat, the consumption of physical energy is too large, so James does not card position for a long time, often gives up defense, his ball quotient is very high, understand what ball can prevent what ball can not be prevented, so he simply gave up.
In fact, There is no need for James to demand of himself, after all, people have to serve the old, no one is at the age of 37 to do things that they are not good at all their careers, Jordan can't do Kobe Bryant, how can James ask himself to do it?
epilogue:
There is no doubt that James's defense is indeed not as strong as it was then, but it is not as bad as it seems, any star will have an old age, and James is no exception, so don't look at James with the eyes of a saint, give this veteran a little more tolerance!