I'm bored and the Last Dance has made LeBron's playoff 'failures' a hot topic in recent weeks, so let's do a quick overview of his career.

The Zero Year -
Cleveland has a 17-65 record, finishing with the No. 28 (of 29) offense, the No. 24 defense, and -10.2 net rating.

They are quite bad.

LeBron, Year 1 (2003-04) -
Cleveland improves drastically, more than doubling its previous win total with a 35-47 record, the No. 22 offense, No. 19 defense, and a -2.8 net rating.

21p, 5.5r, 6a for LeBron, albeit on poor 49% TS.

Year 2 -
Cleveland breaks .500, finishing 42-40 with the No. 12 offense & defense. Miss the playoffs on a tiebreak, so instead of Wade & Shaq vs LBJ, Miami instead sweeps the Nets. Lame.

LBJ at 27p, 7.5r, 7a on 55.4% TS, already No. 6 in the MVP vote as a sophomore.

Year 3 -
Cleveland wins 50 for the first time since 1992-93. No. 9 offense, No. 14 defense, +2.4 net. Beats WAS 4-2 in R1, then faces 64-18 DET. After dropping two games CLE wins 3 straight, pushing them to the brink before falling in 7.

LBJ 2nd to Nash in MVP vote.

Year 4 -
Cleveland wins 50 again. Sweeps WAS. Beats NJ 4-2, then end the DET dynasty 4-2 to make the Finals.

So: 50 win, +4.2 net CLE vs 58 win, +9.3 net SAS in the Finals. We all remember the sweep, but maybe you don't remember this part...

LeBron played 42.6 MPG in those Finals, only resting for 324 seconds per game.

He was only -4 total over those 4 games. They BARELY lost the 170.4 minutes he played, but were -20 in the 21.6 minutes he didn't.

He was a plus while playing 46.5 in the last game, and they lost.

Year 5 -

Injuries to Hughes, West, Gooden, Gibson, Varejao and Wallace slow CLE down. 45-37 record, -0.4 net. 4 seed, and beat the Wizards 4-2.

R2 is against the newly formed Big 3 Celtics, a 66 win, +11.3 net monster.

For context, 2017 GSW had 67 wins, +11.6 net.

Fun fact: Cleveland outscored Boston in this series by 8 points.

They lost in 7 despite 45 points and a +/- of zero from LeBron in 46:48 during G7.

Still, taking a dominant team like that to the brink is big. LeBron +21 for the series on 43.3 MPG. Brilliant over the last 5.

Year 6 is when this version of CLE peaked. 66-16 record, +10 net. Top 4 on both ends of the court. Swept DET and ATL in R1-R2.

Then came Orlando. 59 win, +7.3 team with the No. 1 defense. What went wrong?

Well, it wasn't the offense. LeBron & co. dropped a 110.6 ORtg on that ORL No. 1 defense, with LeBron averaging 38.5 p, 8r, 8a on 59% TS.

But the defensive roster built around LBJ just had no answer for D12. He scored 26p on 69% TS, and his shooters converted 41% beyond the arc.

Meanwhile, CLE has the No. 2 3P% in the league in 2009 at 39.3%, but could only muster 32.3% from beyond the arc in this series.

Add in a pair of close losses (by 1 in G1, by 2 in G4), and ORL took the series in 6.

Then ORL forgot how to shoot in the Finals and got crushed.

I forgot to mention, 2008-09 was the first of LeBron's four MVPs, and deservedly so. This was his athletic & defensive peak IMO, and likely the last time he went full throttle for the better part of an 82 game season. They went 76-20 including playoffs, a simply incredible year.

Year 7 was also very strong, despite his free agency on the horizon. 61-21 record, +7.1 net, No. 1 seed again.

After taking CHI 4-1, they ran into the Big Three Celtics again. BOS had a solid 50 win, +3.9 net season, but it fit the mold of a prior champion on cruise control.

They won the ECF 4-2, then took the Lakers to 7 games in the Finals, so clearly were better than advertised on the surface.

Still, this was one of LBJ's worse series: a ho-hum 27p, 9r, 7a on 55.6% TS and the most stocks on either team.

Not bad, but not what CLE needed, either.

The last 3 games in particular were poor by his standards, and BOS won the series fairly convincingly in 6 games. This is one of two series losses in his career that merits some legitimate criticism IMO.

Of course, only two in a career that long is pretty good TBH.

Let's take a break here, and I'll pick up with the Miami Heat run later.