What the hell is wrong with LeBron's shot?

[RRR3]

The issues started late regular season and just kinda continued from there. Part of it can be explained by the fact that his two best teammates are out, so both the volume and the degree of difficulty of his shots has greatly increased, but it still doesn't explain a decline to this extent. Because he has essentially returned to how he played pre-2011, but he still managed to have a couple of good perimeter shooting postseasons in '09 and '10. The 3pt shooting is the biggest shocker. Even when he couldn't shoot a lick(pre-2009), he still had twice the % from 3 he does this postseason. It just doesn't make any sense.

Thanks, good post. Exactly my point, even before his shot improved, he generally managed to shoot 33% from 3 (not necessarily in the playoffs, especially in 2007 and 2008, but even then he was at 28% and 25.7%, respectively. While those are very bad percentages, I'd certainly take them over what he's doing now).


I can't speak to his midrange shots, but his 3PT issue seemed to have start in the playoffs.



In his last 20 regular season games, he shot 39-98 on 3 pointers (39.8%)

http://www.basketball-reference.com/.../gamelog/2015/


Love being out hurts spacing for sure, but he was shooting poorly even with Love. Furthermore, he has played with worse teammates offensively and shot better.

[Marchesk]

How come nobody outside of ISH is mentioning Lebron's FG%? It's all about how Lebron is dominating and still the best player in the league.

[#number6ix#]

He's aiming his shots instead of just letting it fly naturally

He needs to loosen up and just play instead of over dribbling and forcing the issue

Instead of catching the ball and sizing up the defender for 15 sec everytime down he needs to catch and shoot or catch and drive quickly before the defense gets set

[RRR3]

How come nobody outside of ISH is mentioning Lebron's FG%? It's all about how Lebron is dominating and still the best player in the league.

Because the narrative hasn't changed yet. LeBron is still "the best" until the narrative changes and "they" decide someone else is the best, at which point said player may continue to be called the best even after someone else has surpassed them. Same thing happened with Kobe being called "the best" even after LeBron had surpassed him. Furthermore, Durant is injured which gives people an "excuse" to "forget about him".

[RedBlackAttack]

There's no doubt in my mind that part of the problem right now is how much is being asked of LeBron on a nightly basis with Kyrie and Love both out of the lineup. He sort of started fighting with it in the last third of the season, but losing those guys and everything they bring to an offense has sent it into the depths.

Right now, LeBron is doing so many other things, I doubt he has a ton of energy to devote to getting his jumper right. And, you're talking about losing two of the best pure shooters in the entire league. That's going to impact your game somewhere.

With all of that being said, there's obviously something else going on and probably a combination of things. The most obvious, imo, is that the guy has played more games and minutes in the last four years (and beyond, really) than any player in the modern era.

All of those games and all of those minutes wear on you. I don't care how crazy your genetics are, it is going to eventually show up somewhere. Having a consistent jumpshot is as much about your legs as it is your hands/arms. I've seen signs of wear all season at different points and, because he's borderline superhuman, he's been able to overcome most of those signs.

The jumpshot is the one area that he hasn't been able to overcome and the injuries to Kyrie/KLove have exacerbated it.

My two cents.

[RRR3]

There's no doubt in my mind that part of the problem right now is how much is being asked of LeBron on a nightly basis with Kyrie and Love both out of the lineup. He sort of started fighting with it in the last third of the season, but losing those guys and everything they bring to an offense has sent it into the depths.

Right now, LeBron is doing so many other things, I doubt he has a ton of energy to devote to getting his jumper right.

With all of that being said, there's obviously something else going on and probably a combination of things. The most obvious, imo, is that the guy has played more games and minutes in the last four years (and beyond, really) than any player in the modern era.

All of those games and all of those minutes wear on you. I don't care how crazy your genetics are, it is going to eventually show up somewhere. Having a consistent jumpshot is as much about your legs as it is your hands/arms. I've seen signs of wear all season at different points and, because he's borderline superhuman, he's been able to overcome most of those signs.

The jumpshot is the one area that he hasn't been able to overcome and the injuries to Kyrie/KLove have exacerbated it.

My two cents.

Thanks for your input


What is worrisome is that his jumpshot is unbelievably bad right now it's almost like I'm watching a different player than the LeBron of just a year ago. I can understand a slump where he may be around 28% from 3, but this is ridiculous.

[100grandman]

Saying he never had a jumper is B.S. He could hit an occasional jumper. As for an answer to the question, I thought it was just a matter of him not putting enough work in on the jumper. But now, I think it's something bigger than that.

[Im Still Ballin]

I feel like his gradual weight gain from the beginning of the season when he was noticeably smaller might have played apart.

Shooting is all about technique and rhytmn and weight gain can affect this

[RedBlackAttack]

There it is again... borderline airball on a set, wide open 16-footer...

I'm seeing tired legs.

[RRR3]

There it is again... borderline airball on a set, wide open 16-footer...

I'm seeing tired legs.

Honestly, though, at some point you'd think he'd stop shooting jumpers. Post up.

[Alamо]

I'm not joking or trolling at all when I say this, but I think Kawhi stole his jumper when he stole his soul in the finals. Just speculation though. I'll keep watching to further my studies.

[Marchesk]

Why not play Lebron less the rest of this series? It's not like Atlanta is going to come back and win it.

[inclinerator]

There it is again... borderline airball on a set, wide open 16-footer...

I'm seeing tired legs.

most of his shots have been long

[RRR3]

I'm not joking or trolling at all when I say this, but I think Kawhi stole his jumper when he stole his soul in the finals. Just speculation though. I'll keep watching to further my studies.

He shot fine from 3 this past season (35.4% on 4.9 attempts per game). I'm not expecting him to turn into Durant, but he's always been capable of producing in volume from 3.

[RedBlackAttack]

most of his shots have been long

...which can be the result of overcompensation. It is just tough to find the range when you're not getting the lift you're accustomed to.