Thread: Beacon Journal | 03/05/2006 | View from Pluto
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**remy23** · 03-05-2006, 03:42 AM

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LEBRON NOT LIKE MIKE Comparisons to Jordan unfair, but James has time, though he's playing too much

By Terry Pluto

LeBron James is not Michael Jordan.

Can we agree about that?

He's not Jordan at the same stage of his career, because Jordan was still playing for Dean Smith at North Carolina in his third year out of high school.

James is leading the NBA in total minutes played.

I'm stopping right here on this subject of minutes.

Does anyone know what is the most minutes per game averaged by Jordan in a season?

Try 40.4 minutes in 1987-88, his fourth year in the NBA.

For his career, Jordan averaged 38.3.

Now, consider this:

• James averaged 39.5 minutes as a rookie.

• He led the NBA in total minutes last season and in average at 42.4.

• This season, he's averaging 42.5. Only Allen Iverson is averaging more (43.5), but he has played only 2,306 total minutes. James has played 2,507, more than anyone in the NBA.

• It's getting worse: In January, he averaged 41.8 minutes. The average was 44.6 in February and is at 46 minutes for the first two games of March.

• Here are the minutes for his past eight games: 47, 45, 47, 38, 48, 43, 43 and 54.

This is insane.

Jordan averaged 41.8 minutes in the playoffs! That's still less than James in the past two regular seasons.

Can I suggest that some of James' struggles in the fourth quarter are attributable to fatigue, combined with a primitive offense that ends up handing the ball to James in the fourth quarter and just watching him?

This has got to stop. If coach Mike Brown can't bring himself to rest James a little more, then the front office has to tell him to do it.

This is not to say that a minutes overload leads to injury, but it would seem to add to the risk. The Cavs need to come up with a real game plan for how to use James.

How about letting him sit the last minute of the first and third quarters, along with the first minute of the second and fourth quarters. That's four minutes off, plus the quarter breaks.

Brown keeps saying he knows that James needs a few minutes off each game -- well, give it to him.

Jordan vs. James

There's something else: I keep hearing from some members of the media and fans that Jordan would have handled clutch situations differently than James has with the Cavaliers.

No kidding.

Jordan just might be the best player -- ever.

The Jordan whom fans remember when comparing with James is the Jordan in his late 20s and early 30s. They forget it took Jordan seven years to win his first NBA title.

I'm going to repeat that: It took Jordan seven years to win his first NBA title.

Here are a few facts people like to ignore:

• In his first three pro seasons, Jordan's Chicago Bulls never had a winning record. They did make the playoffs, but that was the product of a weak Eastern Conference.

• In his rookie year, the Bulls were 38-44. He missed most of his second pro season with an injured foot, and they were 29-53. In his third year (1986-87) -- where James is today -- a 24-year-old Jordan led the Bulls to a 40-42 record, and they were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.

James' troubles

This is not a blanket defense of James.

He obviously is having some fourth-quarter problems, deciding when to shoot and when to pass. Too often, he settles for long, off-balance jumpers.

At the end of Thursday's game in Chicago, James drove to the basket, then passed off to Anderson Varejao. It was a high, hard pass . . . James should have just continued his drive to the basket.

He also made a smart play by driving into the teeth of the defense, then passing to an open Flip Murray for a 3-pointer to win it.

James needs to work on his defense. His ball-handling also can get sloppy. Like many of the Cavs, he sometimes seems uncertain what the offense should try to accomplish, or where the various players should go.

Let's put what James is doing in context: He's averaging 30.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 6.8 assists and shooting 48 percent from the field, 73 percent from foul line.

Thread: Beacon Journal | 03/05/2006 | View from Pluto View Single Post

Thread: Beacon Journal | 03/05/2006 | View from Pluto
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