COMMENTARY

By Sean Deveney

updated 10:14 p.m. ET Dec. 14, 2004

Maybe LeBron James really can see into the future. There was a time, after he played in an all-star game as a high school senior two years ago, when James predicted he would play for his hometown Cavaliers. This was before the draft lottery determined the order of selection. "It's just a feeling I have," he said. There was also the time, at the end of his disappointing stint with Team USA at the Olympics last summer, when James said he would go home and work on his jump shot and defense so that critics could not harp on those deficiencies in the future. And when the Cavaliers opened training camp, James told reporters in Cleveland that with a year under his belt and familiarity with his surroundings, "It's going to be a breeze for me."

Check, check and check ... nice work, Nostradamus. Perhaps James even went too light on his soothsaying. He is not only playing for his beloved Cavaliers, he is the savior of the franchise in only his second NBA season, having nudged the Cavs above .500 for the first time in 46 months. He put in hours of post-Olympics work on his jumper and has improved his shooting accuracy from 41.7 percent last season to 49.9 percent; the defensive work has him third in the league in steals (2.4 per game). And James' season has been no mere breeze so far -- it has been a gust. He is, arguably, the league's early-season MVP, with averages of 24.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists.

"It's like he is playing ahead of everyone else," says Cavaliers point guard Jeff McInnis. "He sees everything and knows what to do. It's like, you play PlayStation against him on the plane, and he is the same way. He knows what is coming, and he beats you."

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James is learning to harness that extra sense he seems to have. On a simple isolation play in the first quarter of an early December game in Denver, he took a pass at the right side of the free throw line, and it was as if he knew what was coming. He waited for shooting guard Lucious Harris to go from the 3-point line behind James to the left corner. That set up four shooting options opposite James, who was being guarded by 33-year-old Bryon Russell. No way they're leaving me one-on-one against Bryon Russell, he had to think. So James dribbled once, saw Nuggets guard Andre Miller move off Harris to help Russell and fired a pass to a wide-open Harris. Three points, Cavs.

"He is a great passer," says Bucks small forward Desmond Mason. "He really wants to pass and set up his teammates more than anything. Everyone knows he can dunk and score, but he is such a good passer, too. He is hard to guard one-on-one because he is so big and fast. But if you double-team him, he is still just as dangerous with the pass."

That whole package has bumped James into the league's elite. He stunned the NBA coming out of high school last season by exceeding the lofty expectations set after his stellar prep career. He was the Rookie of the Year and averaged 20.9 points, mostly thanks to his athleticism. But he has been a different player this season. He is using his strength to make his step-back jumper, an impossible-to-guard shot. He has improved his range. He is a smarter team defender. He still has one of the league's quickest first steps and unmatched leaping skills, but he is mixing the cerebral with the physical better than last season. James has left many jaws dropped at how far he has pushed his play with just five months of offseason practice -- and at the idea of how much further he can go before he is finished.

"I have never seen a player learn so much in one year," says Cavaliers coach Paul Silas. "He is further ahead than I thought he would be at this time. He is so much more aware, so much better than he was last year as a rookie. But experience is going to be the best teacher, so that is what LeBron is about now. He has experienced a lot in one short year, and picked up a lot, but not nearly as much as he is going to pick up in the next two or three years. He's going to get smarter and even more mature."

His maturity was on display two nights after he took 22 shots and scored a career-high 43 points against the Pistons in late November. The Cavaliers were in Boston, where James has developed a rivalry with Paul Pierce. But the Celtics were double- and triple-teaming James. Rather than force his own offense, he took just 13 shots (making nine) and racked up eight assists, including one that set up Zydrunas Ilgauskas for the game-winner. As for the rivalry, James blocked Pierce's last-second shot attempt that would have tied the game.

This seems a good time to remind ourselves: LeBron James is 19 years old. He's barely finished growing, an astonishing notion for a guy who is 6-8, 240. Silas is right -- James has only begun to accumulate experience and knowledge, the kind of knowledge that will increase his ability to see what is happening before it happens, to really look into the future. "He has that," teammate Scott Williams says of James' on-court foresight. "Michael used to have that, too. Great players do."

James resists comparisons, especially to Jordan. It was only a few years ago, after all, that James' bedroom in Akron, Ohio, was decorated as if Mars Blackmon were the interior designer -- Jordan posters everywhere. James wears Jordan's No. 23, but that's more of a hero-worship thing than a statement of what James plans to become. "I appreciate it," James says of the tendency to link him to Jordan. "But I don't really think that way. I have my own path I have to follow."

Still, connecting past and present is part of the allure of sports, and though he is not even two years into his career, considering where James will fit in NBA history seems more relevant than placing him into the current league hierarchy. Charlotte coach Bernie Bickerstaff looks at James' athleticism and sees Julius Erving (James threw down the best dunk of the season on a rafters-high alley-oop pass from McInnis against Bickerstaff's Bobcats). TNT analyst Kenny Smith says he sees Magic Johnson in the way James passes and helps his teammates. Wizards coach Eddie Jordan agrees.

And there are the inevitable Jordan comparisons, based on James' pure scoring and dunking ability, combined with his intangibles, on and off the court. He already has become the Cavaliers' unquestioned leader because of his work ethic and his nonstop hustle. (Down 18 points in a blowout loss to the Bulls last week, James still went full bore, diving into a row of cameramen to block Kirk Hinrich's breakaway layup from behind at the end of the third quarter.) He also has marketability, the key to Jordan's career as a player and persona. James has avoided trouble, has intensely protected his private life and has, of course, the $90 million Jordanesque contract from Nike. On the opening night of the NBA season, when commissioner David Stern was asked about the league's marketing priorities, James was the first name he mentioned.

James draws much of his production from his ability to look into the future -- so why not consider just what his future holds for the league? "He started when he was 18, so he could have a 16- or 17-year career and still be a good player at that point," says Warriors analyst and former NBA guard Jim Barnett. "For him to be that polished, that good and show that kind of leadership at 19, there is no telling how much better he can be. When all is said and done, we'll be talking about him with Jordan and Magic, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain. That's the class he is going to be in."

If he gets there, an underrated part of James' success in these first few critical years will be Silas, a steady, straightforward coach who has earned a reputation as the NBA's best at developing players (compare what Baron Davis, Robert Traylor and Jamal Mashburn have done for Silas with their performances under other coaches). Silas was instrumental in clearing out the Cavaliers' roster early last season to get forward Eric Williams, a vocal leader who for one season took locker room pressure off James, and McInnis, so James could move out of the uncom-fortable point guard role and get back to playing on the wing. Getting to play at small forward, his best position, has been a big part of James' surge this season.

"Young players, and young people in general, you have to be firm but fair and patient," Silas says. "They want guidelines; they want to know what is expected. Certainly, I have had to be patient with (James), but it has worked out, and more and more, he has found his own way. That's what you want. You want to be there until they find their own way."

As promising as James' way looks now, he is young, and his future has yet to be determined. The NBA has had too many next-big-things who turned disappointing, on or off the court -- Vince Carter and Kobe Bryant come to mind -- to raise James' pedestal too high too early. James never has played in the postseason, and though the Cavaliers are getting better, they're still a team lacking depth, consistency and outside shooting. Maybe James can see into the future, but the NBA's future has a way of being about as clear as pea soup.

The Cavs do have the best young player in the game, though, and they've already begun letting him carry the load. "We're just going to rally around him," Silas says. "He can take us to another level."

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