LeBron gets crazy criticism no matter what. He is probably the most hated athlete any of us can think of, let’s be real. The East his last 4 years with the Cavs was definitely weaker than his first stint with Cleveland and the 4 years with Miami. There were no other strong teams in the East those years but then again, those Cavs were never world beaters either. And that’s part of the Bron hatred where people act like he’s been on nothing but super teams his whole career. I’m sorry but Kyrie and Love with a pretty bad cast after that is no super team. Again do the exercise where you take LeBron off those Cavs teams, IMO they either miss the playoffs narrowly or get bounced in the first round, aside from 2018 when that is easily a bottom 3 roster without LeBron on it. Kyrie is definitely not a top dog type player and is flawed and fragile overall, and Love was never a winning player either.
It’s pretty telling that as soon as LeBron left the East you went from a guy getting there 8 straight times to a revolving door of teams making it every year. And it is a conference that has had Giannis and Embiid in it.