James has been the fifth best player in the NBA this year by all-in-one metric EPM. He’s third in the league in scoring, top-20 in assists, top-30 in rebounds, top-10 in steals. He’s having his most efficient scoring season since his last year with the Cavaliers by true shooing percentage. He’s still getting to the rim at an incredible rate, and he’s making 79.3 percent when he gets there. It’s his second best finishing season ever. James’ play has of course slipped a bit from his prime in Miami and Cleveland, but his level of play was so high that he remains one of the best players in the league even with the drop-off. An all-time great like LeBron deserves to be competing deep in the playoffs when he’s playing like this, not carrying a flawed team on his back just to make the play-in tournament.