Lebron admits he has never given it his all

[LeaderOCola]

LeBron James says he could hit '50-40-90' mark if he 'wanted to' - CBSSports.com

 

[Shanemansj13]

I wouldn't be suprised. FTs is his only weak point.

 

[beardown07]

GD, I missed this one...woulda gone something like this...."Inb4 Shanesman, or that crazy guy from CBS!"

 

[Shanemansj13]

A misleading thread title. He is just saying he can improve, it makes it sound like he doesn't give it 100%.

 

[shitsho]

Wow. I hope the OP was just kidding. Reading comprehension goes a long way if not.

 

[uncfan103]

That's a terrible title. He says if he wanted to improve his free throw shooting he could. It doesn't say he didn't spend time improving this offseason. He improved his post up game, but if he was interested in only working on shooting then he would be could but it would sacrifice other parts of his game.

 

[LeaderOCola]

A misleading thread title. He is just saying he can improve, it makes it sound like he doesn't give it 100%.

He said he has never cared to improve his FT's. That's textbook definition of not giving it his all

“I can achieve anything if I just make it a goal of mine,'' James said. "I never made it a goal of mine. If I decided to do it, I can make it happen.''

 

[Ragingcroc]

LeBron James says he could hit '50-40-90' mark if he 'wanted to' - CBSSports.com

Lebron is confused by the thread title.

 

[bksballer89]

All he said pretty much is that ft shooting was never a goal of his in the offseason.

I don't doubt him. I think he can shoot around 85% if he focus all summer on his ft shooting

 

[uncfan103]

He said he has never cared to improve his FT's. That's textbook definition of not giving it his all

Why should he make free throw shooting a goal of his instead of improving his post game or ball handling skills?

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

All he said pretty much is that ft shooting was never a goal of his in the offseason.

I don't doubt him. I think he can shoot around 85% if he focus all summer on his ft shooting

He already said this summer was going to be devoted to FT shooting.
2 years ago it was post game. Last summer it was 3 pt shooting.

For anyone to try to imply that James doesn't work as hard or harder then anyone in the NBA to improve his game is comical.

It might not have been that way pre Dallas Finals loss, but it has since.
I have said many times that in thel ong run, losing that series will end up being the best thing that ever happened to him.

 

[Shanemansj13]

Don't think it was the most important thing and he doesn't either. Post gane abd sgooting was obviously more important. I guarantee he is saying this now bc the rest of his game is so good that now he will devote more time to FTs and most likely shoot 85%. He said he would become a better and has; no reason to doubt him now.

Way to spin the other way though.

 

[Shanemansj13]

He already said this summer was going to be devoted to FT shooting.
2 years ago it was post game. Last summer it was 3 pt shooting.

For anyone to try to imply that James doesn't work as hard or harder then anyone in the NBA to improve his game is comical.

It might not have been that way pre Dallas Finals loss, but it has since.
I have said many times that in thel ong run, losing that series will end up being the best thing that ever happened to him.

No doubt. He matured, he is just taking his game higher one step at a time. This is the step he is on now.

 

[LeaderOCola]

Actually, if you look at his stats in Miami, he is not managing his 'improvements' optimally
with the style of play of his game.

I'll be back with some #'s in a minute

 

[LeaderOCola]

OK, let's take a look at some #'s

Distribution of his scoring per year with Heat (regular season, per game)

Year 3P 2P FT Total
2010 3.49 16.86 6.37 26.72
2011 2.61 18.29 6.24 27.15
2012 4.07 17.42 5.30 26.79


And look at the fractional contributions.
Year 3P 2P FT Total
2010 0.13 0.63 0.24 1.00
2011 0.10 0.67 0.23 1.00
2012 0.15 0.65 0.20 1.00


These come from the raw attempts per game (average)
Year FG FGA 3P 3PA 2P 2PA FT FTA
2010 9.59 18.80 1.16 3.53 8.43 15.27 6.37 8.39
2011 10.02 18.85 0.87 2.40 9.15 16.45 6.24 8.10
2012 10.07 17.82 1.36 3.34 8.71 14.47 5.30 7.04

 

[Lakers+USC=#1]

Why wait 10 years to finally work on something that you had problems with? The moment he had them games when he choked at the ft line, should of told him to work on it because it was an important part of the game. Same with his post game. He just start working on it but it him years to finally listen to people that were saying he's to big and strong to not have a post game.

 

[Shanemansj13]

If he is attempting less FTs then it makes sense to wait on FTs, bc it is less important.

 

[Shanemansj13]

Why wait 10 years to finally work on something that you had problems with? The moment he had them games when he choked at the ft line, should of told him to work on it because it was an important part of the game. Same with his post game. He just start working on it but it him years to finally listen to people that were saying he's to big and strong to not have a post game.

If don't think ge was trying this for awhile now then you are misled. Ge has also had more opportunities in Miami to expand his versatilty w/ the players around

 

[LeaderOCola]

Because his FTA have declined and he has not 'improved' his FT%, he has lost 1 point per game , ceteris paribus. (2012 vs 2010) This has been offset due to the fact that he has improved his 2pt and 3pt %'s. However, there is a point of diminishing returns, given his attempt numbers, how much does he need to improve his 2pt or 3pt % to compensate that 'lost point' . -- 2 pointer up to 63.6 % -- 3 pointer up to ~50.5% . Now I think we will all agree that options is not feasible. I believe he might could move up to 63.6% on 2pts, but not without defenders starting to foul him a lot more-- which would then bring us back to the FT issue, to begin with.

 

[bksballer89]

Why wait 10 years to finally work on something that you had problems with? The moment he had them games when he choked at the ft line, should of told him to work on it because it was an important part of the game. Same with his post game. He just start working on it but it him years to finally listen to people that were saying he's to big and strong to not have a post game.

Free throws are the least important part of his game in terms of what he needed to improve. If he shot as bad as DeAndre or Dwight then I would get your point about him needing to work on it sooner. He is not a bad ft shooter. LBJ did the right thing by addressing his mid range shot, 3 pt shot, and post game before his fts. He wouldn't be as great as he is now if he focused on fts first instead of those aspects of his game. LBJ biggest struggles from the line came between 06-08 when he shot 73%, 69%, and 71%. In the years since 08 he shot 78%, 77%,76%, 77%, and 75% so there has been improvement since those 3 years when he struggled to shoot 70% as in 3 of his last 5 seasons he's been really close to 80%.

Here is the truth of the matter. If LBJ worked on ft shooting instead of the more important things as you suggested he would then he would still be ringless because we don't beat OKC if LBJ post game and mid range shot never improved. You can get around shooting once you're not bad enough where they're intentionally hacking you like they do with DeAndre, Evans, and Howard.