The tide receded, and the NBA's most overrated star appeared

Halfway through the NBA regular season this season, many teams have finished the schedule before the All-Star Weekend, and indeed, at this stage, players enter a period of fatigue, and many injuries begin to appear, such as Beal's hamstring injury, Leonard's adductor injury, and players need a time to rest and adjust. In terms of the four giants in the West, the Clippers have a 36-17 record in the top three, and Harden and Leonard are leading the team on the right track faster than expected. The Suns have indeed been strengthening the team, including bringing in O'Neal, Roddy, etc., but to put it bluntly, they still rely on Booker and Durant's singles to solve the problem, and the overall cohesion is lacking. The biggest problem for the Warriors is Klay, who has not been able to give up his energy decently this season, but has hurt the team again and again. And the Lakers' situation is the most interesting.

Let's start with two pieces of news. According to the Woj report, in fact, before the trade deadline, at the instigation of Green, Warriors owner Rugbu had inquired about the possibility of trading James, and James's attitude was biased towards staying with the Lakers. In addition, 76 people also came to join in the fun, but were ruthlessly rejected. The Lakers' attitude is very clear, unless James takes the initiative to leave, the Lakers will not consider sending Lao Zhan away at all. In addition, the Lakers gave Lao Zhan two options, either jump out of the player option this summer and give him a three-year $160 million cap salary, or exercise the player option to extend his contract for two years and $120 million in August. In addition, the Lakers management is determined to use 3 first-round + 4 pick swaps to pursue teams at the level of Mitchell and Irving, and at the same time, they have seriously considered bringing in Bronny to completely dispel James' concerns.

Obviously, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss is not stupid, she will never easily move James, a cash cow, but it is impossible for the Lakers to make up for it at any cost in order to satisfy James, like the Suns, Celtics, and Clippers, and Aunt Jenny does not have this strength. James' value should be divided into two aspects, on the court and off the court, there is no doubt that he and the Lakers belong to each other's achievements, but what about on the court? James averaged 24.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 7.8 per game this season, at the age of 39, in the 21st year of his career, playing this data, no one has ever come before! But there is one thing worth pondering, is James's data high in gold? Judging from the two sets of data, the Lakers are 3-3 in the games that Lao Zhan has missed this season, and James has averaged 3.9 interference shots per game and 131st in the league in interference shooting 3.9 times per game, and 2.0 interference two-point shots per game, ranking 136th in the league.

Simply put, if James is on the floor, the rest of the Lakers players need to do two things: to help defend James, and at the same time play their role in James' system. James' salary this season is $47.6 million, which is an absolute value, but he can't contribute energy steadily on both offensive and defensive ends of the regular season, and only fires at the top of the game, which is also a fact. Take James's recent two missed games as an example, one is the Lakers' away upset to upset the league's No. 1 Celtics, Reaves scored 32 points, Russell 16 points and 16 assists, and the other is back-to-back games against the Jazz, thick eyebrows hit 37 points and 15 rebounds, Hachimura scored 36 points, Russell hit 11 points, 9 rebounds and 17 assists, leading the team to a 16-point victory over the Jazz. After the game, Russell said well: We still have a lot of potential to be tapped, and it cannot be simply defined.

When James is not there, role players, including thick eyebrows, are more likely to explode, nothing more than three points: one is that everyone can be themselves, such as Russell's control of the court, he and thick eyebrows are extremely efficient in blocking and dismantling this season, and have developed a high position strategy of thick eyebrows, with Russell, Prince and others to cut the air, isn't it? Second, the Lakers' defense has been significantly enhanced. To put it mildly, when Lao Zhan was there, the thick eyebrows lacked help on the defensive end. On the contrary, Hachimura, Prince, and Hayes were very positive on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends when James was suspended, and it was difficult for opponents to get a lot of open three-point shots through simple blocking and pick-and-roll. Finally, it is obvious that the pressure on the players on the court has decreased, taking Reeves as an example, when he was with Lao Zhan, he stumbled on the control of luck, and James was not there, so he dared to play Markkanen under the basket.

It's like a child who can grow up quickly if he leaves home. James is like a towering tree, with his protection, his teammates around him can indeed relax, but they are bound to a tight spell. In fact, the Lakers are too demanding of James, and it is impossible to expect James to still play a stable dominance at the age of 39, even if he is James. For most of the regular season, James was destined to look at the defense a lot, and even the bottom corner couldn't keep an eye on people. His energy can only be in crunch time, only on the offensive end, because that's the way to best reflect James' contribution. To some extent, this overestimation is not intentional on James' part, but because of the Lakers' objective salary conditions, because of the way James plays, and because of the entire team framework, often the Lakers play any team, even if they meet the Pistons or Hornets.

It must be said that James is now the most overrated star, not to question his ability, but at his age, the Lakers are a little too demanding of him. From Hamm's point of view, he can give Russell and Reaves, including thick eyebrows, more organizational privileges, reduce James' playing time, and patch Waddy is also remarkable, everyone does not lack talent, nor does it lack attitude, but it just lacks opportunities. James's real stage is also in the playoffs, and if he really exerts too much effort in the regular season, the gains outweigh the losses. The fault is not Lao Zhan, but the result of the collision between the Lakers environment and James's age.