LeBron James: The Most Valuable Loser

David Powis

Given the hand that the Cavs were dealt from the very beginning of the playoffs, most teams would’ve packed it in or at the very least sulk. There was one reason why they managed to keep going. LeBron James. As long as he was there, Cleveland had no reason to give up.

Take a casual fan, who was not exposed to either team very much throughout the season. He would probably think the the likes of Matthew Dellavedova and Timofey Mozgov were all-star material based on the importance they played for the Cavs to be at all successful. Not to take anything away from those guys, who gave admirable performances and really did change the complexion of the series, but these are guys who should generally play about 5-8 minutes a game in the finals. I was watching Game 6 with a few friends, and the point was brought up that the Cavs starting lineup looked vastly different in the beginning of the season in comparison to the starting lineup of Game 6.

First game starting 5: (How many games missed in playoffs)
PG: Kyrie Irving-(Missed 7 games in playoffs, including games 2-6 of finals.)
SG: Dion Waiters *Traded at deadline (Replaced by Iman Shumpert)
SF: LeBron James
PF: Kevin Love-(Missed every game of Conf. Semi’s-NBA Finals)
C: Anderson Varejao-(Missed all of playoffs)

Compared to Games 2-6 of the Finals:

PG: Matthew Dellavedova
SG: Iman Shumpert
SF: LeBron James
PF: Tristan Thompson
C: Timofey Mozgov

Now to be fair, Cleveland had a bad case of the injury bug all year, so playing with these make-shift lineups wasn’t new to them. But the difference is that they played these games against primarily the Eastern Conference, which may very well have been one of the weakest conferences assembled in NBA history. They also have the self-proclaimed greatest player in the world. Agree or disagree, there is no doubt that James gives a team a better chance to win every time out on the floor.

But eventually you need other pieces to be successful, and the Cavs couldn’t provide enough around James come the Finals. The Warriors were a different animal, far different than teams like the Magic, 6ers, and (sigh…) Knicks. The Warriors sport one of the deepest lineups possible, full of quality players. Golden State’s bench would be starters on other teams. They just seem to keep coming. So you take these Warriors, and tell them that what stands between them and a championship are the likes of Dellavedova, Mozgov, and J.R. Smith.

I think you can hear laughter coming from Golden State fans if you listen really closely.

Enter LeBron James.

LeBron James put together the greatest stat-line in NBA finals history: (PPG: 35.8 APG: 8.8 RPG 13.3.) Yes, he missed 99 shots throughout the series (Steph Curry ATTEMPTED 122,) but if I had James’ ability, and was staring at the same team he was, I would just keep shooting also. For anybody who wants to make the argument that he shot poorly from the field and tried to do too much, look at the assist number. He led both teams in APG (which is insane by itself) but it goes to show that he wasn’t pulling a J.R. Smith, just shooting unconsciously. He was actually looking for the best shots, and it just so happened that he felt the best shots were his.

I came across a stat provided by Tom Haberstroh:

Without LeBron James on the floor this series. JR Smith 0/9 FG Delly 0/7 FG J. Jones 0/3 FG Shumpert 0/2 FG Total 0/21 FG

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) June 17, 2015

Cleveland needed James, they didn’t care what what he did with the ball, they just knew to get it to him. James either scored or assisted on 57.8 percent of the Cavs points in the series, the most in Finals history.

LeBron James is the deserving MVP of this series. Not only did he make this a series, but an entertaining one at that. The only other player to win the MVP as a member of the losing team was Jerry West in 1969. He averaged nearly 38 PPG, 5 APG, and 7.5 RPG. This stat-line won the Finals MVP on a team that also had Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain. James had a better stat-line and forget having other all-stars on his team, he didn’t have true NBA starters around him.

If you read my article on the legitimacy of the MVP award, you’ll see I’m one of these people who supports the idea that it’s the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER, James was the most valuable, by a landslide.
I sincerely apologize to all LeBron haters and Iggy, but there is no way around it, we have never seen a more valuable performance in a series and probably won’t for a long time.