Lebron James Tired?....No

Whenever anybody here in Cleveland speaks about Lebron James, it is 99% of the time some overblown comparison to Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. Normally it is touting his game and how good of a player he is. I am a HUGE King James fan, but lately Lebron James has become an enigma (at least to me). First I will give my opinion, then I have some interesting statistics regarding my argument, then we will wrap it up.
I know it is only the 4th season for Lebron James, but statistically through this exact moment, he has regressed this year. At the halfway mark here in the season, Lebron James' assists per game, turnovers, steals, blocks, and rebounds are all within a margin of plus or minus .050. If anybody wants to see the stats, check out http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3704/career. This site is great for comparing numbers from season to season. Now the only noticeable different is Lebron James points per game which has went from 31.4 per game to 27.2 per game (which is still phenemonal). There is a simple reason for the drop in points. Most critics are arguing that Lebron is tired (this might be the case). Some critics are claiming that Lebron James doesn't have to do it on his own. MY argument against that is Lebron's Assists and Field Goal Percentage are the same as last year. The reason for the point dropoff is simple...FREE THROWS. The cavaliers as a team are the worst free throw shooting team in the NBA. Lebron's FT % has went from around 75% to 68% this year. That is a significant and costly regression. The problem is that nobody knows exactly why Lebron's free throws have went down. After beating myself mentally to try and figure it out...I pulled out my video of the NBA Playoffs last year (yeah, I VHS Taped them so that might make me a dork). After watching Lebron shoot free throws on tape, I watched his entire motion. From when the ball was given to him to when the shot goes up. Then I watched the game against Phoenix last sunday. There was 1 noticeable difference in his FT shot. When I saw the difference, I had to refer back to the video tape...but it was simple. In 2005 and 2006, Lebron would take his pre-shot dribbles (normally around 3), and then focus on the shot for about 3 seconds and in one fluid motion shoot the ball. I noticed this year Lebron has focused on the shot either way too quickly (1-2) second range...or stare at the shot for about 5-6 seconds. It is very obvious Lebron is trying to shake off the slump and is overthinking his free throw shooting. It seems one he gotten into the slump early in the season, he has beaten himself up mentally over FT's. Hopefully, Lebron will progress before March/April...the chase for seeding in the playoffs. All I know is that if Lebron's FT's improve, it better rub off on the entire team. When a 7 foot 2 inch center is your best FT shooter (79 %) that doesn't bode too well come playoff time.