How many more seasons will Lebron be the best player?

[BudweiserCeltic]

He didn't play like the best player this past year, so... there's that.

[KG Living Legend]

 You can't compare anyone to Lebron. I don't think he;s the greatest ever. But he was definitely created in a test tube in a Lab somewhere, No major injuries yet. He is a Demon, they usually have good luck with injuries, until 35 anyway.

[celticsclay]

4 seems like a really crazy stretch, 5 seems really improbable. I get this guy seems like he is a machine with how he plays, but he is human like the rest of us. Everyone that has played the amount of minutes he has has started to fade, let alone multiple seasons down the line. Players like Durant and Davis should theoretically still be improving. If he is still the best player 5 years from now at 35 I will be completely blown away.

[crimson_stallion]

 You can't compare anyone to Lebron. I don't think he;s the greatest ever. But he was definitely created in a test tube in a Lab somewhere, No major injuries yet. He is a Demon, they usually have good luck with injuries, until 35 anyway.

KG and Karl Malone were Demon's too, I think haha

Honestly I think Lebron will continue to be dominant at a similar level to what he is now until he's about 32 years old.  After that I can see him starting to gradually drop off.

I don't think it's going to be dramatic though.  Lebron's lucky because as much as his game benefits from his athleticism, it's not DEPENDANT on it.  He's got good size and his very skilled, so once his athleticism fades he can spend more time at PF playing in the post, and he'll still be able to use his strength, footwork and BBIQ to get to the basket (much like Paul Pierce and Kobe still do). 

I think Lebron will be an all-star in to his mid 30's and I think he'll still be very productive until the age of around 37-38 if his health holds up that long.  I just think his physical talents and basketball skills give him the versatility to be able to respond well to aging, because he's just got such a broad palette of skills and talents.  When one ability fades, it's just so easy for him to find another way to get an edge.

This is much like what happened with Jordan.  Once he lost his athleticism, he used his strength and basketball IQ to beat his opponents. This allowed him to continue to average 20 PPG even at the age of 39-40. 

[Fred Roberts]

Flat out impressive finals showing by LeBron. Too bad we couldn't see Love and Kyrie and side show Bob in the mix as well. Series is 7 games or likely Cleveland's sans injuries,  right?

LeBron is gonna conserve more in the regular season and let the rest of the team build. He'll be the best for a couple more seasons when it's time to go toe to toe.

[Jon]

There is no doubt that LeBron is a very skilled player, but a lot of his success is predicated on his ability to overwhelm opponents with his deadly combo of speed and strength. That will fade over time, particularly his speed. That coupled with the fact he is not a great shooter may give him a shorter shelf life than some suspect. I could see him settling in as a strong power forward in a few years, but I don't see him dominating the game like he does today beyond a few more years.

And that doesn't even factor in the possibility he gets busted for roids or HGH, which I am almost sure he has been doing for years (see his skull 10 years ago vs. now).

[TheFlex]

He didn't play like the best player this past year, so... there's that.

Yes he did. Guys LBJ's age aren't usually as motivated to win regular season MVP as a younger or less experienced guy such as KD or Curry is. When it was game time (the playoffs, and particularly the Finals) LeBron showed that he was still far and away the best player. It's not really close. Put LBJ on the Pelicans in place of Anthony Davis (at worst the 3rd  best player in the league) and the Finals would at least go to 7.

[BudweiserCeltic]

He didn't play like the best player this past year, so... there's that.

Yes he did. Guys LBJ's age aren't usually as motivated to win regular season MVP as a younger or less experienced guy such as KD or Curry is. When it was game time (the playoffs, and particularly the Finals) LeBron showed that he was still far and away the best player. It's not really close. Put LBJ on the Pelicans in place of Anthony Davis (at worst the 3rd  best player in the league) and the Finals would at least go to 7.

You mean, the Anthony Davis that averaged 31 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks? All at 54% shooting with a 61% TS? All of this is in his first playoff series? While LeBron averaged 42% from the floor on with a 48.7% TS?

Now there's no doubt in my mind that LeBron can do more with less than anyone in the league mainly because he can assume many roles on a team particularly because of ball-handling duties. Pelicans weren't a team that was particularly deficient on that regard.

But if you're going to draw me a comparison between LeBron vs. Davis this year, it's Davis and easily.

Sadly, LeBron's worth is left in a hypothetical... if only he had the help he needed...well he didn't have it and his scoring was a let down.

Well, you know who else had a very poor supporting cast? Dwayne Wade in 2010. What a terrible team he had, yet he managed to go for 56% FG, 65% TS 33 points per game against our very own Boston Celtics.

LeBron did a lot for his team, but he really has no excuse for his inefficient performance particularly with all the strides he's made in the past few years with his shot AND when even with his poor teammates (he had Kyrie through most of the playoffs even so, and Thompson playing very well, as well as Mozgov), he was playing against single coverage through pretty much the full playoffs from all that I could see.

All this to say, that LeBron should be the best player... I think he fell short last season.

He's in the West with a poor supporting cast, he doesn't make it past the first round and this discussion wouldn't be happening.

Heck, look at what Blake Griffin (and I dislike him) did during the playoffs with a severely depleted Clippers team. That was impressive.

This is another thing that gets me... you realize that LeBron was taller than everyone in the Golden State starting line-up? I mean Cleveland had the biggest 3 players on the floor to start the game. And the way Thompson and Mozgov have played in the playoffs, the lack of usage they got is something to ponder...

[crimson_stallion]

Well, you know who else had a very poor supporting cast? Dwayne Wade in 2010. What a terrible team he had, yet he managed to go for 56% FG, 65% TS 33 points per game against our very own Boston Celtics.

A fair call, and he also led a (honestly pretty bad) Heat team to a championship in only his second or third season while averaging something like 35 PPG in the finals - that was a ridiculous.

I mean take a look at that Miami Heat team - with the exception of Shaq, who (look at his playoffs stats) was a shadow of himself, that team had NOBODY.  It was full of has-beens at the end of their careers (Payton, Mourning, Williams) and mediocre role players (Haslem, Posey, etc). 

That Wade (yes Wade, not Miami - the rest of the team did nothing) beat Dallas to win that title,  (against Dirk Nowitzski in his prime, was an unbelievable feat that has to be right up there with some of the most impressive individual playoff performances of all time.  It's right up there with how impressive it would have been if Lebron beat Golden State.

[LGC88]

I think he will still be chasing his third ring at 38 before giving up and retire while still thinking is the king.

[Roy H.]

3 or 4 years sounds about right. 

One quibble:

It also seems like he has not improved his jump shot much, if at all, since entering the league

In his first 8 seasons, Lebron hit more than 35% of his 3PTs once.  In the past four years, he's done that every season, including a high of 40.6% 3PT%.

[Moranis]

He didn't play like the best player this past year, so... there's that.

Yes he did. Guys LBJ's age aren't usually as motivated to win regular season MVP as a younger or less experienced guy such as KD or Curry is. When it was game time (the playoffs, and particularly the Finals) LeBron showed that he was still far and away the best player. It's not really close. Put LBJ on the Pelicans in place of Anthony Davis (at worst the 3rd  best player in the league) and the Finals would at least go to 7.

You mean, the Anthony Davis that averaged 31 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks? All at 54% shooting with a 61% TS? All of this is in his first playoff series? While LeBron averaged 42% from the floor on with a 48.7% TS?

Now there's no doubt in my mind that LeBron can do more with less than anyone in the league mainly because he can assume many roles on a team particularly because of ball-handling duties. Pelicans weren't a team that was particularly deficient on that regard.

But if you're going to draw me a comparison between LeBron vs. Davis this year, it's Davis and easily.

Sadly, LeBron's worth is left in a hypothetical... if only he had the help he needed...well he didn't have it and his scoring was a let down.

Well, you know who else had a very poor supporting cast? Dwayne Wade in 2010. What a terrible team he had, yet he managed to go for 56% FG, 65% TS 33 points per game against our very own Boston Celtics.

LeBron did a lot for his team, but he really has no excuse for his inefficient performance particularly with all the strides he's made in the past few years with his shot AND when even with his poor teammates (he had Kyrie through most of the playoffs even so, and Thompson playing very well, as well as Mozgov), he was playing against single coverage through pretty much the full playoffs from all that I could see.

All this to say, that LeBron should be the best player... I think he fell short last season.

He's in the West with a poor supporting cast, he doesn't make it past the first round and this discussion wouldn't be happening.

Heck, look at what Blake Griffin (and I dislike him) did during the playoffs with a severely depleted Clippers team. That was impressive.

This is another thing that gets me... you realize that LeBron was taller than everyone in the Golden State starting line-up? I mean Cleveland had the biggest 3 players on the floor to start the game. And the way Thompson and Mozgov have played in the playoffs, the lack of usage they got is something to ponder...

He still shot better than his teammates though.  That is the thing, if he teammates were shooting at 45% or better and he was at 40%, I can see laying into him, but his teammates shot worse than he did. 

[BudweiserCeltic]

He didn't play like the best player this past year, so... there's that.

Yes he did. Guys LBJ's age aren't usually as motivated to win regular season MVP as a younger or less experienced guy such as KD or Curry is. When it was game time (the playoffs, and particularly the Finals) LeBron showed that he was still far and away the best player. It's not really close. Put LBJ on the Pelicans in place of Anthony Davis (at worst the 3rd  best player in the league) and the Finals would at least go to 7.

You mean, the Anthony Davis that averaged 31 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks? All at 54% shooting with a 61% TS? All of this is in his first playoff series? While LeBron averaged 42% from the floor on with a 48.7% TS?

Now there's no doubt in my mind that LeBron can do more with less than anyone in the league mainly because he can assume many roles on a team particularly because of ball-handling duties. Pelicans weren't a team that was particularly deficient on that regard.

But if you're going to draw me a comparison between LeBron vs. Davis this year, it's Davis and easily.

Sadly, LeBron's worth is left in a hypothetical... if only he had the help he needed...well he didn't have it and his scoring was a let down.

Well, you know who else had a very poor supporting cast? Dwayne Wade in 2010. What a terrible team he had, yet he managed to go for 56% FG, 65% TS 33 points per game against our very own Boston Celtics.

LeBron did a lot for his team, but he really has no excuse for his inefficient performance particularly with all the strides he's made in the past few years with his shot AND when even with his poor teammates (he had Kyrie through most of the playoffs even so, and Thompson playing very well, as well as Mozgov), he was playing against single coverage through pretty much the full playoffs from all that I could see.

All this to say, that LeBron should be the best player... I think he fell short last season.

He's in the West with a poor supporting cast, he doesn't make it past the first round and this discussion wouldn't be happening.

Heck, look at what Blake Griffin (and I dislike him) did during the playoffs with a severely depleted Clippers team. That was impressive.

This is another thing that gets me... you realize that LeBron was taller than everyone in the Golden State starting line-up? I mean Cleveland had the biggest 3 players on the floor to start the game. And the way Thompson and Mozgov have played in the playoffs, the lack of usage they got is something to ponder...

He still shot better than his teammates though.  That is the thing, if he teammates were shooting at 45% or better and he was at 40%, I can see laying into him, but his teammates shot worse than he did. 

All fine and dandy, it merely explains why you rather have him taking the shots than his other teammates. It doesn't explain though his level of shooting inefficiency and it doesn't explain the lack of usage of Thompson and Mozgov who were highly effective against the smaller Warriors.

By the way, you can play that efficiency logic game you're using for LeBron with these two.

[Celtics4ever]

I think three to four years but Davis in NO may take over the mantle at some point.

[SHAQATTACK]

Until Winslow puts the brakes on him in the East .