The head coach of LeBron James is a puppet? When have you heard this before? LeBron didn’t have respect for Mike Brown, Erik Spoelstra, David Blatt, or Ty Lue. LeBron for 15 years has refused to buy into a coach’s system. Instead, he runs an elementary style of basketball where he holds the ball for the entire time. He either pulls up for a shot, drives to the basket and tries to score, or drives to the basket and kicks it out to a teammate who has been standing in the corner for an hour. It’s trash and unamusing to watch.
So it is no surprise that LeBron James has now been ignoring Luke Walton’s play calling. This report came from Brian Windhorst of ESPN:
“The scouts also have noticed that when James is running the point, he rarely looks toward the bench to receive play calls from coach Luke Walton. Even when he has seen them, the scouts say, he ignores them and runs the play he prefers. Walton has adjusted, and now when James is running the show, Walton will typically just let him call the game. This probably shouldn’t be considered a slight — it’s just James being James.”
This is just pathetic. First of all, Luke Walton, you have no balls. No courage. No heart. A real head coach would have just benched LeBron. Do you think Bill Belichick would have an issue benching Tom Brady if he was just freelancing and ignoring the coaching staff? No, he would get benched and it’s why Tom Brady is so good because he has bought into the system. If Luke Walton had any guts at all he would suspend LeBron and tell him to buy into the system or leave. If Walton gets fired, at least he would still have his dignity.
LeBron was handed a gift. he inherited a head coach that came from the Golden State system. A system that has beaten him in two straight years. If LeBron were a real student of the game he would at least buy into the system and see how it goes for the first few months of a meaningless regular season. Guess what? That system was working. The Lakers were a top 10 offense in the NBA with Rajon Rondo running the point and have since dropped to 26th since LeBron took over again. LeBron holds an unsustainable 30.4 percent usage rate refusing to give up the ball.
Once again, if you haven’t been following the season closely, Brandon Ingram’s stock is tumbling. I wonder why? Do you want to know why the Warriors are the Warriors? It’s because ALL of them buy into Steve Kerr’s unselfish system
