I don't get the big hoopla about Lebron James signing with the Lakers

[Dracula]

James is going to a team that finished 35-47, 30 games behind the Rockets and 12 games out of the playoffs. They finished 11th out of 13 teams in the Western Conference. He's going to save this franchise at age 33? Those LA guys really are smoking the good stuff.

[eagle eye]

You underestimate how good LeBron truly is. The talent on the Lakers is already better that the Cavs team he took to the NBA finals the past two years. If the Lakers do get Kyrie Irving and another player like Clint Capela from Houston the Lakers are more than relevant. They can threaten to upset Golden State’s run of championships. It really is a big deal that LeBron is now a Laker. Don’t believe me? Check out what what Kobe Bryant said about the Lakers acquisition of King James.

[eagle eye]

Recently, I got into a debate on Facebook over who the NBA GOAT is. I wasn't even arguing one guy over the other. All I did was point out one of the players in the debate had some legit reasons for being considered the best ever. Wow, was I ripped! I have my parentage questioned, I suddenly became the dumbest thing since a box of hammers, and even my race was a reason why I was so wrong with my opinion. I guess a little context is needed. The debate was whether Michael Jordan or LeBron James is the greatest player ever. If there is something I'm pretty sure of is that these two players are the only ones that have a legit claim to be the NBA's GOAT. For the record, I love Michael Jordan as a player. I don't have the same feeling for LeBron but I appreciate what he's been able to accomplish so far in his career. Even the biggest skeptic has to admit LeBron has enough skins on the wall by now for people in LeBron's corner to make an argument.

The other day Colin Cowherd was talking about LeBron and he brought up a stat that is squarely in LeBron's favor and it's not even close enough to debate. The stat is called Value Over Replacement Player (VORP). It's a stat that's been around since 1973 and in the link below are the lists of NBA/ABA, NBA only and ABA players. What VORP is a calculation of a player's value to his team based on how well that team would fare if that player was not in the lineup. It is the basketball equivalent to baseball's WAR (Wins Above Replacement) stat. What the list says is that LeBron is # 1 on the list with Jordan #2 and the gap isn't even close. The people in LeBron's corner in the debate over the GOAT have a new, so to speak, argument for their guy.

 

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/vorp_career.html

Edited July 20, 2018 by eagle eye