LeBron James Atlas – Kirk Goldsberry on the evolving offensive game of the King

Since entering the NBA in October 2003, LeBron James, who was one of the least performers in terms of volume, has become a hyper-effective offensive brain, dominating the opposing defenses with an incredible mix of inner feats and peripheral fire creation. .

On Thursday, he begins the next chapter of his career. While there is no doubt that striker James will continue to thrive in Los Angeles, there are legitimate reasons to wonder if Lakers with the new look have enough firepower to take advantage of the ability to create great looks for his teammates.

Let's go on to his path to offensive greatness and what it means for this new test at L.A .. We'll start at the very beginning.

How LeBron owned the painting

Just two days after Lonzo Ball turned six, James made his NBA debut in Sacramento. It did not take him long to go. After going through a screen set by Carlos Boozer about three minutes into the match, James dribbled his first shot at the NBA. It was a disturbing success for the kid from Akron; the rider found the bottom of the net:

Since that first bucket, James has attempted 22,382 extra goals in the regular season and has made 11,279. He will start the season Thursday night as the seventh top scorer in the history of the NBA. If he stays healthy, it's reasonable to expect him now ahead of Dirk Nowitzki, Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan in fourth place at the end of the regular season.

But James fought hard as a scorer in his rookie campaign. Of the 46 players who have attempted at least 1,000 field goals this season, James is ranked 41st as a percentage of total goals scored. His rookie shooting table reveals a young player who was a mediocre and just average jump shoter in the painting. He had not yet figured out how to use his size and speed to get easy buckets on the rim or draw round-trips, and to say that his rider was ineffective is a major understatement.

He was not yet king. Consider this trio of plebian statistics:

• Of 74 NBA players who have attempted at least 200 points this season, James is ranked 72nd by converting only 29% of his attempts. Only Jason Richardson and Antoine Walker were less efficient downtown.

• Of the 126 players in the NBA who have attempted at least 200 shots in midfield, James is ranked 119th.

• Of 114 NBA players who have attempted at least 200 shots in the restricted area, James is ranked 72nd.

To date, his rookie year statistics include the lowest in career percentage of goal goals, percentage of live shot, free throw rate, PER and percentage of help. But in his second season, James has improved in almost all key statistical categories.

He showed flashes of the monster from the inside that he would soon become stronger at the edge, making more mistakes and forcing fewer shots. Its percentage of 3 points went from terrible to medium, although despite some promising numbers in the corners, there remained a threat of relatively modest scope:

James' ability to score at the cart would quickly become his business card. In his first playoff series in 2006 against the Wizards, James converted two huge buckets at the end of the game to propel his team to victory. He won match 3 with a dribble punctuated by a fake ball that sent Antonio Daniels out of the game, followed by an impossible stalemate over Michael Ruffin. He won the fifth game with a super-fast workout requiring equal speed, power and touch, which his lay-up winner managed to score with 0.9 seconds in overtime.

The key to unlocking his potential as a young scorer was simple: finding ways to leverage his strength, which ended up in the bucket. The story of James turning from novice champion into NBA scoring champion is that of a player learning to attack the defenses with his fierce mix of speed and strength to create scoring chances in the paint . It's still the key to his wallet scores now.

During the 2007-08 season, James was the only player to attempt 600 shots or more in the restricted area. On his way to the scorer title, he led the NBA converting 794 goals, but 440 of them (55.4%) went into the restricted area. James has become the best in the world to score in the small area that the NBA defense is working to protect the most. Who needs a very good shot when you can score as much in the painting?

In 2008, James had realized his potential as an individual player. He was really the most versatile basketball star. During the 2008-09 season, he led his team to points, rebounds, assists, robberies and blockages. It's amazing. But that also suggests that it was not really surrounded by an excellent distribution. When James reached his peak, he migrated from Cleveland to Miami. It's surrounded by a much better basketball environment, and what followed is undoubtedly the LeBron James Peak. Playing alongside Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, James could miss out on the difficult shots that result from operating next to an uneven distribution.

In his last two seasons in Miami, he has made the fewest attempts per game of his career. He became obsessed with efficiency, especially in 2012-13, the second year of the championship. Look at all that red organized. It's essentially a masterpiece:

James was released from being the center of the offense. He learned to play ball. He has learned to be more selective and more intentional with his selection of moves. It was a luxury to play in a great team. Sometimes, the effectiveness depends as much on the player's environment as on his individual abilities.

As its number reached new heights, those studying James were the most gifted on the confluence of reduced use, increased efficiency and a hyper-intelligent shooting selection. See what Brian Windhorst of ESPN wrote in May 2013, after James won his fourth MVP award:

"Less bad shots, more good shots, more attempts from places where he learned that he was good at defensive strategies, less strategies against strategies designed to make him take on bad decisions. (…) or the result of a group of dunks.It was so much deeper.It was James who was applying his understanding of a decade in the NBA and merged with his talent. "

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  We've covered you before, during and after the Lakers first game in Portland.

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  Is Giannis ready to be MVP? Will the Lakers play in the playoffs? What is the fall of Jimmy Butler? There are many questions to answer this season.

A dose of pessimism is justified. It's not encouraging that during the pre-season, the most active 3-point shooters of the Lakers – Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Svi Mykhailiuk combined their efforts to make only 28% of their 81 attempts at 3 points, while the entire team only achieved 32.6%. Even so, pre-season samples are both small and fragmentary, chemistry takes time and if we've learned anything about James since 2003-2004, it's that he's the rising tide that lifts all boats.