[BlackcatAlum]

My favorite part about your post is what you left out. Where are your excuses for Kobe missing the playoffs without an Elite post player and getting knocked out in the first round another year?

The only other player on the '04-05 team worth a crap was Lamar Odom. He and Kobe in no way shape or form could have taken the Lakers to the playoffs with the team they had or the level of experience either had with one another. Not even Lebron himself could have gotten that Laker team to the playoffs. But it's mostly because the previous season they had lost Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Shaquille O'Neal, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, etc. to free agency, trade, or retirement. Plus the west had the Spurs, Suns, Mavs and Rockets. Those teams where loaded have a decade ago.

They however did make the playoffs in the '05-06 season, but Kobe had to averaging 35 ppg, 5 rpg, and 5 apg in 41 minutes per game just to get them there.

Say Lebron gets drafted into the west to the Clippers or something, how many playoffs does that team hypothetically goto in Lebron's first 7 seasons?

The east didn't begin getting competitive (team-for-team) with the west up until the past 2-3 seasons, you know when the Cavs had the best record in the league and still couldn't back it up.