Do people realize just how important lebron was to the Cavs this season?

[Hoopz2332]

This is how the Cavs players performed in +/- playing with LeBron versus playing without LeBron on court over the course of the season. To me, these numbers demonstrate the true greatness of LeBron James. Without LeBron, it could be argued that the Cavs are mediocre. The team is lost without him. LeBron carried this team to the championship, not just by making a Herculean effort in the Finals, but he did it throughout the season too. LeBron is the Cavs. The Cavs are LeBron.

[CODE]WITH and WITHOUT LeBron James

WITH min per 48 | WITHOUT min per 48 | DIFFERENCE
Frye + 3.9 8.2 + 22.8 | - 2.1 10.7 - 9.4 | +32.2
Delly + 5.6 16.8 + 16.0 | - 0.1 9.1 - 0.5 | +16.5
Shumpert + 3.4 12.5 + 13.1 | + 0.3 12.8 + 1.1 | +11.9
Thompson + 5.6 20.7 + 13.0 | - 0.9 8.8 - 4.9 | +17.9
Love + 6.7 27.4 + 11.7 | - 0.8 6.2 - 6.2 | +17.9
Smith + 5.3 26.9 + 9.5 | - 1.0 6.3 - 7.6 | +17.1
Irving + 4.2 23.6 + 8.5 | 0.0 10.0 0.0 | + 8.5
Jefferso + 1.0 7.3 + 6.6 | - 1.3 12.7 - 4.9 | +11.5
Williams + 1.9 15.8 + 5.8 | - 2.7 6.3 -20.6 | +26.3

[/CODE]

These are outrageous numbers. The kind of difference LeBron makes is huge. Without LeBron on court, each player gets net losses across the board. With him, massive positives. The difference is staggering.

As a comparison, here are the same with-without +/- stats for the other members of the "Big 3". Or perhaps "massive 1 and biggish 2"?

Irving:

[CODE]WITH and WITHOUT Irving

WITH WITHOUT
"+/-" min per 48 "+/-" min per 48 DIFFERENCE
James + 4.2 23.6 + 8.5 | + 5.4 20.4 + 12.7 | - 4.2
Smith + 2.3 22.2 + 5.0 | + 2.5 15.8 + 7.6 | - 2.6
Thompson + 4.4 27.7 + 7.6 | + 3.9 31.5 + 5.9 | + 1.7
Love + 2.8 23.1 + 5.8 | + 3.9 17.3 +10.8 | - 5.0
Shumpert + 1.1 13.0 + 4.1 | + 2.4 12.8 + 9.0 | - 4.9
Delly + 1.4 8.8 + 7.6 | + 4.3 19.8 +10.4 | - 2.8
Frye + 0.7 9.6 + 3.5 | + 0.6 9.2 + 3.1 | + 0.4
Jeffers + 0.6 8.0 + 3.6 | - 0.9 13.3 - 3.2 | + 6.8
Willia - 1.0 3.5 -13.7 | - 1.0 17.6 - 2.7 | -11.0[/CODE]

This doesn't paint Irving's impact on his teammates in a particularly positive light. He is getting big credit for stepping up in the Finals, but his impact based on regular season +/- is not as impressive, especially for a "superstar". Statistically, the other two of the Big 3 actually preferred when they are playing without Irving. And this applies to several others too. Dissing Irving might be a dangerous thing to do around here, so I will just say: basketball is a team game.

And Love:

[CODE]WITH and WITHOUT Love

WITH | WITHOUT |
+/- min per 48 | "+/-" min per 48 | DIFFERENCE
James + 6.7 27.4 + 11.7 | + 1.8 9.7 + 8.9 | + 2.8
Irving + 2.8 23.1 + 5.8 | + 1.4 10.5 + 6.4 | - 0.6
Smith + 3.3 23.8 + 6.7 | + 0.9 8.4 + 5.1 | + 1.5
Thompson + 4.0 16.6 + 11.6 | + 0.7 12.4 + 2.7 | + 8.9
Shumpert + 2.8 11.0 + 12.2 | + 0.8 14.4 + 2.7 | + 9.6
Delly + 4.5 14.1 + 15.3 | + 0.8 11.4 + 3.4 | + 12.0
Frye - 1.0 5.0 - 9.6 | + 1.7 15.5 + 5.3 | - 14.9
Jefferson + 0.1 7.5 + 0.6 | - 0.7 11.5 - 2.9 | + 3.6
Williams + 1.4 14.7 + 4.6 | - 2.4 7.1 -16.2 | + 20.8


[/CODE]

To honour the departing Delly, here is how the Cavs players played with and without him. Somehow Delly seems to add more value that the lesser 2 of the Big 3.

Delly:

[CODE]WITH and WITHOUT Delly

WITH | WITHOUT |
"+/-" min per 48 | "+/-" min per 48 | DIFFERENCE
James +5.6 16.8 +16.0 | +3.0 20.4 +7.1 | +8.9
Irving +1.4 8.8 +7.6 | +2.8 24.7 +5.4 | +2.2
Smith +3.2 12.6 +12.2 | +1.2 19.4 +3.0 | +9.2
Thompson +3.0 15.2 +9.5 | +1.6 13.8 +5.6 | +3.9
Love +4.5 14.1 +15.3 | +1.4 18.5 +3.6 | +11.7
Shumpert +2.3 13.9 +7.9 | +1.4 11.7 +5.7 | +2.2
Frye +0.3 10.7 +1.3 | +1.0 7.7 +6.2 | -4.9
Jeffers +0.9 10.6 +4.1 | -1.5 8.4 -8.6 | +12.6
Williams +1.8 7.3 +11.8 | -2.4 14.7 -7.8 | +19.7

[/CODE]

[Jasper]

that is amazing.

[Im Still Ballin]

King Jamses The Egyptian GOD!

[TheWinningFam]

Just another reason why Kareem and lebron are 1a. 1b. Both were the most important to their teams than anyone and are the GOATS of both a small market team and major market team..

[Im Still Ballin]

They finally figured it out

Play LeBron with the bench unit

Sub him out with 2 mins left in 1st, hold the fortress down with Irving and Love

Start LBJ with the bench crew in the 2nd

[NBAGOAT]

Love was pretty good during the RS which people forget. Irving missed like 30 games and took some time to adjust during the RS and they still got 57 wins with Lebron coasting. Good part of that was Love.

[Trollsmasher]

GOAT impact player

[Hoopz2332]

GOAT impact player

[RedBlackAttack]

Kyrie clearly used this regular season as his training camp, preseason, etc., to get right and springboard into the playoffs since he missed the whole offseason and the first 27 games. He put up his worst regular season numbers of his career by a fair margin, only to have a dominating playoffs. Anyone using those numbers to judge him as a player should check themselves, tbh.

The guy averaged 25+ points in the playoffs and 27+ points in the Finals.

I think everyone is aware that LeBron is good at basketball. It's also true that he doesn't win a title this year without Kyrie Irving by his side.

[Hoopz2332]

[Hoopz2332]

so far in 2016-2017 season the off the ball action lebron wasgetting with delly is gone because none of these other dudes have the feel for passing that delly had