The only GREAT team that Lebron has faced his entire career in the East was the Boston Celtics. Here are Lebron's 3 paths to the title. If he was in the West and had to go through the likes of the Spurs, Lakers, and pre-2016 Thunder BEFORE getting to the Finals, how many rings would he have? 2012 Oklahoma City Thunder Mavericks Lakers Spurs Miami Heat Knicks Pacers Celtics 2013 San Antonio Spurs Lakers Warriors Spurs Miami Heat Bucks Bulls Pacers 2016 Golden State Warriors Rockets Blazers Thunder Cleveland Cavaliers Pistons Hawks Raptors
If he were in the West. he'd probably ask for another playmaker, another elite 3 point shooter, another big no matter how stacked his team is
Ah, the annual "LeBron sucks because the East is weak" thread. Also. He could have been a Houston Rocket if he chose Houston after his stint in Miami, it was financially possible.
What if Kobe was drafted by the Hornets? What if MJ got drafted by Houston? Lol we can play what ifs till the sun goes down. What we do know is Cleveland was nothing until Lebron arrived, they were nothing when he left and now they are champs when Lebron came back. Feel free to argue with LBJ's 3 rings and 4 MVPs.
The answer to your question is at least many as he has now. Every championship he's taken out the #1 seed out West in the Finals. You should ask yourself when he was entering his prime and dragging a league-worst (ex LBJ) roster to the NBA finals, on his back, what could he have done if he was on one of the stacked rosters out West or on D12's Orlando team(s)? If you think, hypothetically, that he gives 1/3 back by playing out West, I would retort that he incrementally gains at least one by not having to drag his god-awful CLE roster through the playoffs to face a Big3 Celtics and Big3 Spurs. Hence the logic above; at least as many as he has now. And I find it hilarious how people ignore that he shutdown the NBA MVP on a 62 win Bulls team by just presuming every year was East fodder. Get a grip breh's. Oddly enough, this was posted just today.....
Well... he beat GSW. The top team in the West. Logic would deem that he would be pretty damn successful.
If there was no conferences, but just 1-16 seeding he would probably have 1 ring at most and Cavs wouldn't even make the finals last two years. I think that's the biggest flaw at the moment, last season they were 4th best team in the league but managed to dodge top 3 teams until finals and then highrolled in finals.
not so many championships but I guess with a better GM could have still gone to the Finals several times.
Tell you what, swap him out with any of the perrenial Western conf contenders: LBJ / KD / Anyone = multiple titles LBJ / Russ / Solid rotation = multiple titles LBJ / CP3 / Blake = multiple titles LBJ / Blake / DJ = multiple titles LBJ / CP3 / DJ = multiple titles LBJ / CP3 / Solid rotation = multiple titles LBJ / Prime Timmay / Anyone = multiple titles LBJ / Harden / D12 = multiple titles LBJ / Aldridge / Dame = multiple titles LBJ / Kobe / Anyone = multiple titles LBJ / Steph / Kerr coaching = multiple titles LBJ / Klay / Draymond = multiple titles LBJ / Prime Dirk / anyone = multiple titles LBJ / Brow / solid rotation = multiple titles Oh what's that? You wanted him to come out West, keep all the West teams stacked, and have him compete with that WNBA squad masquerading as his teammates from his first stint in Cleveland? If you want him out West, then go right on ahead and put him on one of the iterations above. And then remember that you don't have to play against LBJ in the finals. You guys are such haters lol it's truly comical.
If LeBron were out west, I'm sure whichever team had him would do a better job of getting him talent than Cleveland did before he left and came back for/from Miami. Argument here is invalid and a poor attempt to throw dirt on his name. Respect the greatness of LeBron, stop hating. His last two finals series performances should have shut up most of the haters, but I guess people wanna keep telling themselves LeBron isn't an all-time great. I can't think of any player in recent (30 or so years) memory who by him being in the league was favored to get to the finals outside of MJ. Cleveland goes from title contenders, to lottery picks, back to title contenders. Miami went from playoff team, to title contenders, to lottery picks. This dude is absurd.
Lebron is a top 3 player of all time, there was absolutely no intent of throwing disrespek at him. The argument was not questioning Lebron's greatness, it was merely examining how much of a role the lack of quality competition played in his path to the finals and whether he would've had the same success in the West. What I failed to consider was that if Lebron was in the West, he would also have had quality teammates and would still have been great. What I'm saying is that going against Kobe, Duncan, and KD-Westbrook, and even this Clippers team is extremely difficult, and being in the West means that most likely will play ALL of them before making it to the Finals, at which point you're undoubtedly incredibly fatigued. Lebron didn't go back to the same Cleveland team he left, he went back to a team with 2 other All Stars, and recent NBA trends have shown that quality player personnel = championship. The fact that he beat GS and SA those two years is surprising in its own right, but if GS/Cleveland and SA/Miami had switched the teams they played before meeting each other, I'm curious to see what the outcome would've been.
The year that the Warriors beat Cleveland in 2015, the warriors faced 3 teams with injured starting PGs. in the west (jrue, conley, beverley; going 4-0,4-2,4-1). Arguably they had an easier route to the finals than most NBA teams coming out of the west. If Kyrie doesn't get hurt in game 1, and if Love is actually able to play, arguably the Cavs take that series. I would say that it's all luck of the draw regardless of which conference you play in. The East as a whole is a lot worse than the West, but still each team has to play at least 12 games before reaching the finals (usually anywhere from 15-18). Roll of the dice in my opinion. 3 hurt
The current top 7 Western teams would all be finals favorites if LeBron joined them. The same goes for every Western team that made the postseason last year and the top 6 seeds the year before that. He'd do just fine in the West.
