Why are LeBron James more runner-ups? Because he is this type of player

Not black, just talk about the matter.

It was originally! It’s not embarrassing to be the runner-up. At least there is a trophy, which is better than those who don’t make the playoffs, right?

As for where the argument of "runner-up points reduction" came out, you know.

James made it to the finals 10 times in his entire career and finally won 4 championships.

In other words: James won 6 runner-ups and won the championship rate of 40%.

Why are there more runner-ups and fewer champions? Many people have discussed this issue, but they have not mentioned it directly.

Let me explain clearly: the fundamental reason is that James himself is such a player.

The description of James is generally called the most versatile player in history.

Indeed, his score, rebounds, and assists are all very good, and he can play in multiple positions on the court, from No. 1 to No. 5.

Usually we call such a player "the ball-holding core". Similar players include Doncic and Harden (the newest player is Cunningham).

The most powerful thing about the ball-holding core is its super bottom-up ability. As long as the team has a big core with the ball, and a few NBA-level players can enter the playoffs; if the configuration is more reasonable, it is not difficult to even enter the finals.

There are many examples in the past: In 2007, the young James led a group of ordinary talented players to the finals, which was shocked by the whole world.

In 2014, James left the Heat and returned to the Cavaliers. In the second year, he led the Cavaliers, who were still competing for the No. 1 pick last year, to the finals.

In 2018, Irving left the Celtics, Love was exposed, JR, Thompson and others' condition declined severely, and James still led the team to the finals.

To be honest, only James can do this experience in the finals, and it is not possible to replace Jordan.

Not only James, but other big cores with the ball also have super bottoming ability.

In 2012, the Houston Rockets, who missed the playoffs for three consecutive years, introduced Harden. Since then, the Rockets, who have Harden, have never missed the playoffs again. Among them, in the 2017 Western Conference Finals, the Rockets once led the Golden State Warriors with "cosmic courage" 3:2, but unfortunately lost the series due to their ups and downs in hand and the black whistle of the referee. So is

Doncic. Before the playoffs started last year, I'm afraid few people would believe that the Mavericks could make it to the finals. Because of the strength of this team, it doesn’t look like a team at the finals level. But Doncic still did it, allowing the team to enter the finals again after more than ten years.

This is the ability to support the ball and hold the big core.

The team does not have good organizers? No problem, I can organize;

teams don't have good scorers? It doesn’t matter, I have super scoring ability; the team does not have good rebounders, so I can grab a lot, but I’m a little tired!

This is the power of holding the ball and the core. Because of its comprehensive skills, you can use your own strength to make up for many shortcomings in the team. Zhan, Ha, Dong and others can at least make up for the weaknesses in the three positions of the organizational defender, shooting guard and small forward, and occasionally they can reach the position of the power forward. James can even appear in the center position.

So, with the ball-holding core, it is too easy to form a strong team!

This is why James was able to reach the Finals 10 times. Harden and Doncic also played in the playoffs many times and each entered the finals.

With the ball-holding core, you have a playoff team. However, it is difficult for this team to go further and even win the championship.

This is because: there are two serious problems with the ball holding the large core.

The first one is to "destroy teammates".

In other words, they are not in line with other stars and suppress the performance of other stars and cannot achieve the effect of 1+1>2.

Reason? It's too simple. Aren't you very versatile with the ball and the core? If other stars can do it, you can do it too, and the ball is in your hands, how can other stars play?

For example, among the Heat Big Three, Bosh's dessert position overlaps with James, and his efficiency is not as good as James, so his role is reduced and his role is greatly reduced. This is also the case with Love recruited when James returned to the Cavaliers.

Not only James, but also other big cores with the ball.

Harden's function coincided with Westbrook when he was in the Thunder, so he played as a substitute to stagger the playing time; later he teamed up with Paul, which would inevitably waste some of Paul's organizational skills.

Doncic this year is also very typical. Since he came, James has completely given up possession, and Li's role in the offensive end has also decreased. It has to be said that the three teams wasted some of James and Rivers' talent.

This is not someone's fault, because this is determined by the player type, and a big core with the ball is such a player. They are so versatile that they can easily overlap with other star functions.

When the team is led by a large core with the ball alone, the team is very strong; when the team wants to further upgrade their strength and therefore recruit second and third stars, you will find that the results often fail to meet expectations.

At the same time, recruiting other stars has a serious side effect, that is, the salary of the second and third stars must be very high. Under the influence of the salary cap and luxury tax, the team's quality rotation will be forced to give up (or become a bargaining chip when buying stars). With one decline and another rising, the team's strength has increased very little, and it has even declined. James, Harden and Doncic have formed a multi-giant lineup many times, but most of them have poor results.

The second problem with the ball holding core is their bonus to the role players. With a large core of ball holding, the originally useless player can fully utilize his strengths and perform well.

This is quite interesting: holding the ball and the big core suppresses other stars, but it allows the role players to fully play.

Think back then, Big Z, Mozgov, JR, TT, Dravidova, Caruso and others around James all received large contracts one after another.

This was originally an advantage, allowing teammates with insufficient talent to shine and heat up. Isn't that good?

But the problem is: the team's roster is dynamic. If the role players play well, the team will have to spend a high price to renew the contract. After playing for a few years, the team's salary space was filled with a bunch of premium contracts.

The salary space is gone, and the team has no way to sign ups. Because of his strong bottoming ability to hold the ball, the team cannot get a high draft pick.

In this way, the team cannot play badly or compete for the championship. James encountered this situation in his first career as the Cavaliers; he encountered the same problem in the later stage when he returned to the Cavaliers for the second time.

If you take a look at the experiences of Harden and Doncic, they are almost the same.

When Harden came to the Clippers this year, he allowed Powell Zubac and others to perform best in his career; there were always surprises around Doncic, but they were lost because the team could not afford to renew their contract.

The Lakers are more obvious this year. After Doncic arrived, Hayes, who had a basic salary level, played the main role and performed remarkably. This made Lakers fans wonder if the Lakers can still keep Hayes. But as soon as the intensity of the playoffs rose, Hayes was exposed and returned to his basic salary level.

Come on, summarize.

The characteristics of the ball-holding core make it easy to form a strong team around them, but it is difficult to form a championship team around them.

They always give the team hope first, prompting the management to spend money to upgrade the lineup;

Then, they will be promoted to champion contenders and get a short window to win;

Then, the team is in a situation of being in a state of being unable to go up and down due to the loss of role players and the explosion of salary, with no hope of winning the championship and no draft.

This is the fundamental reason why James has more runner-ups than champions. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with James, because he is this type of player and should have been the result. From

to today, James is the only one who wins the championship based on the ball holding the big core.

Harden once reached the finals and once to the Western Conference Finals, but did not win the championship. Doncic reached the finals once and did not win the championship. The three of them reached the finals in total 12 times and won only four championships.

is not that they are not strong enough, don't blame luck, this is determined by their player type, and it should have been.