5 Things You Probably Don't Know About LeBron James

 "LeBron James 3408968580" by Keith Allison from Baltimore, USA - LeBron James. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LeBron_James_3408968580.jpg#/media/File:LeBron_James_3408968580.jpg

LeBron James is said to be the best player in the world. At least, that's what the commentators and announcers tell you. But what don't they tell you about LeBron. Well, I'm about to tell you 5 things that you probably don't know about LeBron James.

5. LeBron James is 4th in Playoff Turnovers for all-time.
LeBron has given up the ball a lot and he is not even done with his career. He has 625 total turnovers and is only 72 Turnovers away from passing up Magic Johnson. He has been very careless with the ball averaging 3.5 Turnovers per game in the playoffs.

4. When LeBron is wide open, he only makes about 38% of his shots.
Wide open means that there is no defender within 6ft. Those shots should be automatic. Instead, he only makes 38% of those shots!

3. LeBron does not do that well in Isolation.

LeBron usually goes into isolation, and the longer he stays in it, the more his field goal percentage goes down. And his 3 point% actually drops below 30%. Great isolation players like James Harden actually have their percentages rise.

2. When the team is healthy, LeBron only passes to Kevin Love and Kyrie.
This one to me isn't a shocker. LeBron claims that he plays point and works the offense, but he really doesn't run an offense. The fact is LeBron almost immediately goes into isolation then passes to one of the stars that he plays with (Kevin Love or Kyrie Irving). In fact, Kevin Love rarley even passes to the other players. Does that sound like an offense. J.R. Smith get passed to by LeBron about 4.2 times per game. In fact, John Wall gives out more passes to Bradley Beal then LeBron does to Kyrie but Wall also gives more to all the starters and dishes about 4-5 per game to bench players Rasul Butler, Otto Porter, and Kris Humphris. That is a player running an offense. Getting not just the stars involved, but everyone.

1. LeBron is a below league average shooter.


I hear all the time that LeBron is a great shooter. All the time I hear that. I say, "he isn't the shooter you think he is". LeBron is indeed below league average on his shooting. You just have to look at the stats. Take a look at this chart that www.bballbreakdown.com provides.

As you can see, from 5 to 22 feet, he is below league average, and from 23 to 30 feet he is also below league average. And yet, LeBron takes more 3 pointers than most players, take a look at the shot Frequency chart provided by www.bballbreakdown.com below.

As you can see, LeBron take a lot of shots, and misses a lot of shots. Take a look at the Zones for his shooting also provided by www.bballbreakdown.com.

These are the areas where LeBron shoots under 35% from. That's a lot of blue. As you can see, outside of the paint, he doesn't shoot that well. And it's unfortunate for players that are idolized like LeBron for them to have these stats that go unnoticed. Many people don't even realize how this guy plays and how he shoots. I'd like to thank www.bballbreakdown.com and www.nba.com/stats for providing all of these stats. I hope that this article provides a better outlook on LeBron James for you. Comment below if you have any questions or disagreements.

DeMarcus Cousins or Marc Gasol

Who would make your all NBA first team at the center position? Would it be Marc Gasol or DeMarcus Cousins? I will try to help you decide in this post. Let's compare these two in shooting first.

Shooting: 5-15 Feet: DeMarcus Cousins shoots below the average for a center in the league while Marc Gasol is above. Cousins only shoots 29% from 5 feet out while Gasol shoots about 47%.

Take a look at DeMarcus Cousins' shot chart. Notice how he has poor consistency form the top of the key area.

Now take a look at Marc Gasol's shooting chart. Notice how he takes more shots from that area.

You can also see that Marc Gasol has more red in the in the paint and you can see a lot of blue in the paint for Cousins. In conclusion, Gasol is the better shooter.

Defense: If we take a look at defense, DeMarcus Cousins allows the opposing team to 103.3 Point per 100 possessions when he is on the court. Gasol allows 101.5 Points per 100 possesions when he is on the court. Yes this does factor in the players that Gasol plays with, so they are about the same.

Rebounding: Let's take a look at Rebounding now. DeMarcus Cousins has won this one. He averages 12.7 RPG while Gasol averages 7.9. DeMarcus Cousins also accounts for 20.9% of the rebounds in a game while Gasol takes in about 13.9%.

Assists: Now this is where it gets complicated. If we look at the APG, Cousins averages 3.6 while Gasol averages 3.9. About the same right? If we look at the Assist % for their teams, Cousins is at 20.2%. Gasol on the other hand, is at 19.4. What does this mean? It just means that Gasol's team has more assists per game. Cousins Assist to Turnover Ratio is at 0.83 while Gasol's is at 1.73. This means that Cousins turns the ball over more than he assists, while Gasol assists more. Clearly Gasol is the better at assisting.

Scoring: If we compare the usage%, Cousins is used 33.9% of the time. Gasol is only used 24.7% of the time, which makes it seem that Cousins gets the ball more. That is why he averages 24.1 PPG and Gasol only averages 17.6. Gasol can score in many more ways than Cousins can though. When it comes down to who is the better scorer is though, the answer is obviously Cousins. Cousins scores about 6.5 more PPG.

Who is the better player? I'm not making this decision for you. You can make a case for both sides. If you can't decide, let me ask you this. Who would be the better player to have on a team? Cousins or Gasol? Everyone has their own opinion on what makes a better player.