At 6-9 and an estimated 270 pounds, LeBron James is the same size as Blake Griffin and Karl Malone. He usually has at least 30 or 40 pounds on anybody who guards him. He is one of the strongest players in the league, and has no problem finishing inside with either hand.
All of those things suggest that LeBron could be a deadly post-up threat, but he’s never shown much interest in going to the post. The Cavaliers did set LeBron up in the post a fair amount last season, and were actually effective when they did so. However, those possessions rarely ended up with LeBron shooting from the low block. LeBron will float to the ball instead of sealing his man and establishing deep position, prefers to draw the double-team and pass out of it rather than make a quick scoring move, and will usually face up his man and try to go around him instead of backing his man down and trying to score over him.
Even when LeBron does back his man all the way under the basket, he often rushes what should be an easy shot for him and lets the resulting miss discourage him from returning to the low post. In short, LeBron’s post game could use work, which is why it’s interesting that LeBron told the Heat Index’s Michael Wallace that he put in that work over the off-season, and that he plans to show off his newly refined post game while Chris Bosh is sidelined with an injury:
That’s an intriguing statement, to say the least, especially since LeBron has looked more uncomfortable posting up in Miami than he did in Cleveland. Still, all that’s really keeping LeBron from being a monster in the post is LeBron committing himself to learning some basic footwork and counter-moves and actually trying to score on the blocks, and he’s saying he did the former in the off-season and will do the latter on Saturday. If it works for him, maybe he’ll make scoring on the blocks a regular part of his game and make the Heat offense that much more dynamic.