The Ultimate Guide to LeBron James Entering 2014-15 Season
The 2014-15 NBA season will begin with a different LeBron James in a familiar place.
Though King James is now (again) a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, he returns changed from his time away. A champion twice over and bearing two more MVP awards than when he left, LBJ has become a locker room sage, superstar recruiter, history chaser and, above all, regional savior.
He is also, of course, still the best basketball player on the planet. Not everything about him is new.
Here follows everything you need to know about LeBron as he enters a fresh phase of his career—where he's been, where he stands now and where he's likely to go in the coming years.
The NBA's ultimate player deserves an ultimate guide. Don't you think?
The Return
In a turn of events both startling and surreal, James left the Miami Heat behind, opting for the comforts of home and the challenges of redemption. The flaming jerseys and widespread loathing James incurred four seasons prior when he made his infamous Decision weren't enough to stop him trying to make things right.
It's difficult to overstate just how unlikely James' return to Cleveland seemed—until it actually happened.
The Heat were supposed to retain James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on cheaper deals that would allow for enough free-agent help to extend the team's run of four straight Finals appearances. The Big Three exercised their early termination options, clearing loads of cash from Miami's books, freeing up the organization to pursue help before bringing back the core on new deals.
As the weeks passed in free agency, progress stalled. James, at some point, felt the pull of his Rust Belt roots.
On July 11, the unthinkable happened.
In a piece penned by Lee Jenkins for Sports Illustrated—one we've all read and heard referenced countless times since—James talked of revitalizing a city, his personal growth and his mistakes. The catharsis felt real, even if it was delivered to the masses in a perfectly packaged public relations strategy—one that seemed devised specifically to be as different from the Decision as possible.
There was a lot to digest, but only his closing statement mattered: "I’m ready to accept the challenge. I’m coming home."
James wouldn't be coming alone.
He recruited Kevin Love, a disgruntled superstar searching for a way out of Minnesota.
"LeBron signed to come back, and a few hours later he called me and I said 'I'm in,'" Love told reporters. That commitment was all it took for the Cavaliers to ship out a pair of No. 1 overall picks for Love, exchanging distant-future promise for immediate production.
James' gravity also attracted ring-chasing veterans from his past.
Mike Miller arrived. Shawn Marion, who defended LeBron when the Dallas Mavericks knocked off the Heat in 2011, followed suit. Though he hasn't signed anywhere yet, it won't be stunning if Ray Allen is in a Cavs jersey by midseason.
And now, Cleveland is the favorite to win the NBA title, per OddsShark.com.
Boasting an exciting, untested core of James, Love and Kyrie Irving, the Cavs figure to play elite offense under new head coach David Blatt. The veterans James brought along should mesh well with the youth on the roster, providing guidance for the likes of Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson.
LeBron is back, and the Cavaliers are better than ever.
Statistically Speaking
We know where James is geographically (Cleveland, duh), but where is he historically? How do the numbers he brings to the Cavaliers stack up against the greats of NBA history?
It's probably best to start with his four MVP awards, which tie him with Wilt Chamberlain for fourth place on the all-time list. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Michael Jordan (five) and Bill Russell (five) have more.
James is just 29 years old. Jordan won his final two MVPs at 32 and 34. Abdul-Jabbar collected his fifth at age 32.
In other words, we can probably expect a few more trophies for LBJ.
Diving into the other statistical minutia is trickier, and we'll get to the task of extrapolating what kind of numbers James might put up in the future momentarily. For now, let's run down LeBron's key stats and show where they rank on the NBA's career list.
| Points | 23,170 | 8 | 27 |
| Rebounds | 6,086 | 20 | 151 |
| Assists | 5,790 | 5 | 35 |
| Steals | 1,444 | 9 | 45 |
| Blocks | 675 | 34 | 158 |
This is year 12 for James. As you can see, he's done pretty well for himself to this point.
History in the Making
Enough stats. What about stakes?
Item No. 1 on James' list this year is addressing unfinished business in Cleveland. He couldn't deliver a ring in his first tenure there—both because he wasn't ready to lead and because he didn't have nearly enough help.
Both of those shortcomings have been addressed—the first by time and James' natural maturation in Miami, the second by the obvious talent surrounding him.
If James comes through with a ring this season, immortality awaits. The jersey-torchers will extinguish their spiteful flames forever. All will be forgiven, and James' 2010 departure will seem like it never happened.
His legacy will undergo a massive change as a result. James will be a total, complete, unassailable hero. The narrative of his flight to Miami will shift; it'll describe a personal journey to bring something back to the place James loved most all along.
Cleveland has never won an NBA title, and the city hasn't had a champion in any major professional sport in half a century. If you think James is revered in Ohio now, just imagine the extent of his post-title deification.
We're talking shrines. Murals. A whole generation of little LeBrons and LeBronicas named in celebration of the great basketball hero who came back out of love and taught one of sports' all-time losingest cities how to win.
Elevation to divinity aside, James is in position to write a fascinating new chapter in the story of his career. Never before has he occupied the role of veteran leader—not alone anyway. In Miami, he was the Heat's alpha, but he shared duties with Wade, who was always South Beach's favored son.
There was no opportunity for James to develop his mentorship credentials with the Heat. That was a business relationship between veteran peers who shared a collective joy in yelling at Mario Chalmers.
Now, LBJ will be charged with managing a crop of young talent. He can pass on wisdom, lead by example and teach his teammates (Love and Irving especially) what kind of sacrifice and commitment it takes to do something meaningful in the NBA.
He's already been preaching (and motivating), per these comments James gave to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com:
"You've got to go through something to create a bond; that means for the worse. We've got to lose ballgames that we think we should've won, we've got to get into an argument every now and then just to test each other out.
It has to happen. I know it is going to happen. A lot of guys don't see it, but I see it. That's the only way we're going to be able to grow. You don't define yourself during the good times, you define yourself through the bad times.
"
James is entering the end stage of his basketball evolution. He's the old head now. The on-court leader who'll dispense wisdom, encouragement and the occasionally necessary ass-kicking in the locker room. His game won't need to change—he's already primarily concerned with making life easy for teammates—but his demeanor will be different.
Welcome to grown-up LeBron, Cleveland's older, wiser superstar.
LeBron 2020
We've touched on where James sits in NBA history, but a glimpse into his distant future adds even more valuable context.
Earlier, we mentioned how James has a very realistic shot to collect two more MVP awards, which would give him six, tied for the most ever. And No. 5 might come more easily than the others because Kevin Durant, his prime competition (and last year's winner) is out with a fractured foot to start the season.
If LeBron were to collect his fifth MVP this season while also grabbing his third NBA championship, he'd become a member of a very exclusive club. Only Jordan, Russell and Abdul-Jabbar have at least three rings and five MVP awards.
Where might LeBron wind up in other statistical categories six years from now?
Bear in mind these projections are rough ones, and it's hard to know how many games James will play going forward, let alone how his production will hold up. As the league becomes more conscious about the value of rest, we could see stars like James log fewer and fewer minutes.
We've been accordingly conservative in our projections.
LeBron has 23,170 points through 11 seasons. He scored 2,089 last year, and 2,036 in 2012-13. Only twice—during his rookie year and in the 2011-12 lockout season—has James scored fewer than 2,000 points. He's usually closer to 2,200.
If we give him 2,000 points per season for the next six years, that's another 12,000 on top of his 23,170 total, which would give him 35,170 heading into 2020-21. That total would put him ahead of Jordan by over 3,000 points, and James would trail only Karl Malone and Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time list.
Kobe Bryant is something of a wild card here, as he's currently in fourth place and might add another few thousand points to his pile before he's through.
We took a similar approach to James' other stat categories, making conservative six-year forecasts based on his statistical averages in recent seasons.
Here's how some of James' other stats might look at the dawn of the next decade:
| Points | 23,170 | 12,000 | 35,170 | 3 |
| Rebounds | 6,086 | 3,300 | 9,386 | 44 |
| Assists | 5,790 | 3,120 | 8,910 | 9 |
| Steals | 1,444 | 720 | 2,164 | 8 |
| Blocks | 675 | 240 | 915 | 97 |
| Win Shares | 168.54 | 96 | 264.54 | 2 |
An interesting note on LeBron's advanced metrics: He currently sits in 15th place on the all-time win shares list with 168.54. James led the league in that category for five straight years until last season, and has generally posted 14-20 per year. If he averages 16 win shares per season between now and the start of the 2020-21 campaign, he'll have 264.54—which would put him less than 10 behind Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time lead.
Finally, James' career player efficiency rating is 27.79, a number that trails only Jordan's 27.91. Assuming some level of age-related decline, it appears MJ's primacy in that stat will be safe.
Despite how it seems, James can't win 'em all.
A Plea
LeBron is back where he started, already a historically significant figure in the NBA and poised to build on his legend.
And we haven't even touched on the possibility of him reaching a new level of statistical dominance with Love and Irving drawing loads of attention. Per-game averages of 30 points, nine assists and nine rebounds are all within reach—if Blatt doesn't employ a conservative approach to James' minutes.
Nor have we mentioned just how perfect of a foil the Chicago Bulls are for James and the Cavs. Built on grit and continuity, Chicago is everything the young, newly united Cavaliers aren't. Different though these teams may be, both want the East crown desperately.
Every great protagonist needs an obstacle to overcome, and James' Cavaliers have theirs in the Bulls.
James' 2014-15 season has it all: the there-and-back-again narrative, statistical intrigue and a rare chance for a superstar to evolve on the biggest stage imaginable.
This is going to be fun.
All stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
