While my title might be the overstatement of the century, it emphasizes a very real issue: LeBron James is having a far worse fantasy season than his previous few.
Analysis: First of all, we all knew that a slight dip in points was going to result from the whole Taking My Talents… debacle, but nobody predicted James to not produce as well in other categories. Sports writers’ such as Bill Simmons thought he might even approach triple double status for the season. This has not been the case. LeBron is shooting a slightly worse FG%, a slightly worse FT%, and averaging 3 less points a game. With Dwayne Wade as his co-superstar and Chris Bosh as another star, I really thought that LeBron’s percentages would have gone up significantly, certainly not down. He should be getting easier looks resulting in higher percentages but this hasn’t been the case. More importantly are LeBron’s drop-off in assists, blocks, and steals. He is averaging 1.5 less assists, .4 blocks less, and a .1 decrease in steals. With LeBron finally having some decent help, I expected him to focus more on piling up his assist and block stats, but this has not happened.
Projection: For anybody else LeBron’s stats would look absolutely gorgeous, but coming after his MVP season they look pedestrian. Expect more of the same from LeBron as Miami struggles to find itself.