Setting the bar for LeBron in L.A.

BY Matt Rehbein

Published August 10, 2018

Earlier this summer, at the age of 33, LeBron James announced that he had signed a four-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. The move ended months of speculation and confirmed that LeBron was leaving his hometown of Cleveland for a second time.

To try to gauge whether we should expect King James's numbers to slide with the change in venue, I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at his numbers the last time he swapped clubs. And I wanted to see how he compares with the man he's most often compared with from a historical perspective -- Michael Jordan, who re-emerged from his first retirement in 1995 at the same age LeBron is now.

Let's start by comparing LeBron's numbers from the last three of his four years as a member of the Miami Heat (left) to the first three years of his second tenure in Cleveland (right).

LeBron's points per game slipped slightly after his homecoming, but not much. And of course LeBron didn't have the same level of talent surrounding him in Cleveland as he did in Miami. Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade joined LeBron as all-star selections every year the three were together in Miami. In Cleveland LeBron had Kyrie Irving of course, but the only year the Cavs sent three players to the all-star game was the 2017 season, when Kevin Love was tapped along with LeBron and Kyrie.

LeBron was 29 when he went back to Cleveland, so to make a comparison closer to the age he is now, as he heads to the West Coast, let's look at Jordan's numbers from before he left to try his hand at baseball and his return.

Jordan's scoring dipped a little but, like LeBron above, not much. (I should note that I'm eliding the 17 games Jordan played during his late-season return in 1995.)

As far as supporting cast goes, Jordan had fewer all-star teammates than LeBron did in Miami, but of course he had Scottie Pippen. During the title years of Jordan's reign with the Bulls -- both before and after his sojourn in baseball -- only Pippen joined Jordan on the all-star team. We should note however that Jordan returned to a Bulls team that had produced three all-stars during the season he spent in baseball: Pippen, B.J. Armstrong and Horace Grant.

Here's a look at how Jordan's comeback compares to LeBron's homecoming:

Championships are an obvious difference in the years we're looking at here: LeBron notched two as part of Miami's superstar triumvirate and made his second flight from Cleveland more palatable by delivering a title to the city in 2016. Jordan's year in baseball did little to interrupt his peak, as evidenced by the three-peat on either side of his hiatus. Should LeBron look for another new home in coming years as he approaches 40, as Jordan did with the Wizards, we can look at some more numbers.