Move Lebron To The Point?
Lebron James is one of those special players in this league that comes once every decade or two because of his dominance and his set of skills and his maturity at such a young age. Lebron came into the league as a high school phenom that played way beyond his years, using that athleticism, explosiveness and passing ability to his advantage. The scouting report on him compared him to something like His Airness Michael Jordan with the passing ability of Magic Johnson and they’re absolutely right. So with that in mind and the premise that the Cleveland Cavaliers are weakest at the point guard spot, Nate Jones from The Yardbarker suggests that Lebron should move to the point.
LeBron has all of the abilities of Oscar and Buck, but with more athletic ability. Scorers get all of the glory in the league these days, but I have a feeling LeBron would be more of an asset to the Cavs as 20, 11, and 8 guy than as a 26, 7, and 7 guy he currently is. Magic Johnson was a 20, 11, and 8 guy for his entire career. But what the stats don’t tell is that he elevated guys like Byron Scott to 20ppg scorers at various times throughout his career. Dude, if Penny Hardaway could play point guard and be as successful as he was for years, than LeBron could do this easily. Penny was great, but let’s be real, the tools that LeBron has now dwarf what Penny had to work with in his prime.
First of all I’d like to refresh our memory that Lebron did play the point guard spot early in his rookie season when Ricky Davis and Darius Miles occupied the wing spots at the time. Suddenly Ricky Davis found himself traded to Boston for Eric Williams (now with the Spurs) and Darius Miles to the Blazers for point guard Jeff McInnis. For the period that McInnis took over the point guard and with Lebron now a wing player, the team actually started winning more games (this is all from memory and I don’t have the actual records for before and after that trade happened).
The whole point of moving Lebron up to the wings was to take the load of carrying the ball away from him and to focus more on getting open. As the team’s most deadly scorer, it’s his job to get open for the easy jump shot or drive to the basket. Of course, because he’s also a deadly passer it’s a bonus that he can actually make plays for others. It’s his job to score as the team’s star. They have a proficient point guard in Eric Snow anyway. Moving Lebron to the point could just put back that burden of making plays for others and distract him from his real job of scoring.
But you know what, I really don’t know. Magic Johnson had the skills to play any position on the floor. He could have easily been the wing player on that Lakers team but he was needed at the point. But i guess what sets that Lakers squad aside from the Cavs of Lebron was that Magic was usually not the first scoring option. It was Kareem. For the Cavs, Lebron IS the first scoring option so his job is to first and foremost to score. That’s why he’s in the wing. But who knows, with Sasha Pavlovic becoming a monster on the offensive end then maybe, just maybe the team could afford to have LBJ at the point. What do you think?
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