Gilbert Arenas claims that after LeBron James’ performance against the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals, the Miami Heat considered trading James for Chris Paul.
“Let’s go back to their loss to Dallas in 2010–11,” Arenas remarked. “You know why they lost to Dallas, huh? Who was the awful player? Who wasn’t a good fit for the other two? Thus, yes, Miami was considering trading, but it wasn’t [Chris] Bosh.
Paul was supposedly on the verge of joining the Heat, as both Arenas and Shannon Sharpe noted, but the deal fell through because Paul and Dwyane Wade insisted on having No. 3 on their uniforms.
In the 2011 championship series, James and the Heat were defeated in six games by the Mavericks, who were led by Dirk Nowitzki, Tyson Chandler, and Jason Terry. At one point in the series, the Heat were up 2-1, but
After Wade and Bosh, the 39-year-old was likely Miami’s third-best player in the NBA Finals, so he underperformed against Dallas. James shot 32.1 percent from three-point range and 47.8 percent from the field while averaging 17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.5 blocks a game.
In comparison, Terry scored 18.0 points per game on 49.4 percent from the floor and 39.3 percent from beyond the arc in the championship series, which was higher than James’ average.
