“LeBron James Needs To Be A Point Guard”: Skip Bayless Berates Lakers Star’s New Role Of Drifting Towards The Wing

LeBron James is in a new era of his offensive style of play. The 38-year-old may be the NBA’s leading scorer across the regular season and the Playoffs but even he needs to find a way to be effective in the long term and conserve his energy. Him being more passive on that end of the floor has stirred up a bit of controversy these Playoffs and notorious LeBron naysayer, Skip Bayless, had a few choice words for him regarding this.

Draymond Green revealed on his podcast with the Volume that Stephen Curry was just as confused as him during Game 3 of the Lakers-Warriors Western Conference Semis when it came to figuring out James’ passivity. In that game, he would not take a single shot in the first quarter but would end up with 21, 8, and 8 and the 30-point blowout win.

Despite the Lakers leading this series 2-1, Skip Bayless seems to have a problem with the way James is playing on offense.

LeBron James gets noted from Skip Bayless during Game 4

LeBron James has found himself a new role on offense with this new Los Angeles Lakers squad. With how many competent ball handlers the purple and gold have, it’s made James’ life easier when it comes to initiating the offense.

A lot of times during this Playoff run, LeBron can be seen at either wing, waiting for guys like Dennis Schroder, D’Angelo Russell, and Austin Reaves to make something out of the play. Reaves’ stellar Game 1 against the Grizzlies came with LeBron letting him go at the defense and play second fiddle to him.

Skip Bayless doesn’t like this version of James. He took to Twitter to voice his disapproval of the way the 19x All-Star has been conducting the offense. Saying he does not want James to drift off to the wings.

I agree with Stan Van Gundy: LeBron must return to being THE POINT GUARD of the Los Angeles Lakers – the primary ball-handler, the orchestrator, initiator. What is this weird drifting to the wing and watching on some possessions???

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 9, 2023

Why is LeBron James staying passive?

Chris Haynes said earlier on in the TNT broadcast tonight that the reason why James is doing this is to both get the other guys going on his team and to conserve energy. LeBron doesn’t need to be the 35,10, and 8 guy at the moment because of how many weapons he has.

He’s shown a clear ability to take over a game however. His game-winning drive on Dillon Brooks in the previous series was something he took upon himself to put down. Bayless doesn’t seem to understand that LeBron does not need to exert an inordinate amount of energy in the first half for the Lakers to stay in games.