Crystal baller: Lebron James' uncanny ability to see what's coming is keeping him a step ahead of the competition

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."

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."