LeBron James is somehow playing some of the best basketball of his career a decade and a half since he came into the league. But even he feels that sometimes he’s not recognized for what he’s capable of doing.
James is posting career highs in true shooting percentage (66.4), 3-point percentage (41.6), assist percentage (42.9) and block percentage (2.6). His free throw shooting (77.3) is the second-best mark of his career but he’s still managing to do things he’s never done before, according to Kyle Wagner of FiveThirty Eight.
Wagner’s piece explores some of James’ numbers and argues that, while he’s not playing as strong defensively as he has at other points in his career, a lot of that might just be because he’s not playing at his best just yet. And that’s something that LeBron himself seems to agree with.
He told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin on Wednesday that he’s at about 80 percent, but hopes to get to 100 percent by the postseason. The conversation was sparked by teammate Channing Frye, who argued that LeBron usually plays at “60 percent” but was operating at about 80 percent right now. James thought the numbers were off.
“I’ve never played at 60 in my life. Never. But OK, cool, it sounds good. I like it.” James went on to say that if he is at 80 percent currently, it will only improve by the postseason. “I can play better,” James said. “But I think right now I’m in a really good groove. But for me every month I get better and better. That’s how I’ve been in my career. I get stronger and stronger as the months go on. I just want to continue that. I want to continue to get better and better every month. This is December, I’m at 80. January I’ll be at 85, I’ll be at 90 in February, I’ll be at 95 in March and then when playoffs start I’ll be at 100 all the way up hopefully until June. Hopefully I can continue that.”
One key point to James’ comments is that his level of play by now is just expected to be great. In fact, he essentially called himself under-appreciated.
“I think people have just grown accustomed of what I do and it gets taken for granted at times what I do because I do it so often and it’s been a constant thing for so long,” James said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s what LeBron’s supposed to do.’ It looks easy, but it’s not.”
It’s always going to be controversial when James argues that his skills are “taken for granted,” but he’s not wrong. James’ greatness is so commonplace that it’s just assumed, and when he can’t single-handedly drag a struggling team to wins it’s seen as unusual. But what everyone agrees about with him is that he’s not at his best right now. It’s coming, though.
