Miami can’t give all three guys max deals unless they want to blow through the salary cap Brooklyn-style, and they are obviously not going to do that. The talk here is that LeBron will get the max, or close to it, and that’s something like $20.7 million a year.
So this is dragging on and on, and it’s kind of fascinating but kind of infuriating at the same time. Miami has added a couple of players (McRoberts and Granger) who could be better than its current subs but don’t move the needle a ton. Bosh and Wade are willing to accept pay cuts, but not huge ones, and the salary rules are such that Miami has very deliberately locked itself into not spending more than $81 million. If LeBron gets something like the max, there’s just not enough room for another major-ish free agent like Deng or some of the other guys Miami supposedly wanted. Lowry and Gortat came off the table pretty quickly. Cleveland has cleared out enough money to sign LeBron and maybe a buddy of his if that’s what he wants. (I still can’t understand why, but it looks like it’s at least possible.) What’s happened otherwise is that all of the other major free agents are waiting to see what LeBron does. Houston is pushing really hard for Bosh with a max offer. Carmelo Anthony is supposedly choosing between the Lakers and Knicks but in theory if Bosh went to Houston he could fit in with the Heat. Pau Gasol could go wherever Carmelo goes (NY, LA, and I don’t if Miami is even theoretically possible). Oklahoma City and San Antonio would like to get him, too. There are probably other mystery free agents I’m forgetting about at the moment because there are too many possibilities. Carmelo to the Bulls seems to have been forgotten as an option. There’s supposed to be a meeting between the Riley & Co. and LeBron today, and maybe there will finally be some answers afterward.
Because home is where the heart is.
“It’s not far, but it is far. And Clevelanders, because they were the bigger-city kids when we were growing up, looked down on us.… So we didn’t actually like Cleveland. We hated Cleveland growing up. There’s a lot of people in Cleveland we still hate to this day.”
So yes, Cleveland is home. For varying definitions of home. If this doesn’t work out the Cavs have put themselves in position for another shot at the #1 pick next year.
Cleveland and Miami are basically the only places he can go if he doesn’t want a legacy as a mercenary.
I don’t understand the basketball salary stuff, but on another board I heard there was basically no reason for the Cavs to trade those two players except for salary reason and some sort of trade exemption or something. They seem to think it strongly points to Lebron coming home.
Also, rumors of a Wiggins for Love deal, which sounds like a win-now/entice LeBron sort of move. Or, it might, if I knew anything about basketball.
See, I don’t think I understand why LeBron would want to stay in Miami, other than pure loyalty to Wade and Bosh. He could make his way to virtually any team in the NBA. If his main concern is winning, not just next year but for the next four or five, there’s nothing particularly unique about Miami. Bosh is a good player, not a great one, and there are at least a dozen teams with players on Bosh’s level. Wade is in decline, and while it may not be a permanent decline it very well might be.
I think if LeBron signed with the Cavs tomorrow he’d be in a better situation, wins-wise. Kyrie Irving had numbers equal to or better than Wade’s more or less across the board - and his arrow is pointing up instead of down (also, Irving can play longer minutes and more games than Wade can manage now). He’s only 22, and Wiggins is a high-potential player. Bosh is obviously a better player than anybody in the Cavs frontcourt, but you could definitely argue that Varejao + Tristan Thompson > Bosh + Udonis Haslem. The role players here aren’t special, no - but neither are Miami’s. If LeBron signed with Cleveland right now, and if they did nothing else, I think they’d still be the favorites to win the East.
And that’s just Cleveland! Why would he not seriously consider the Bulls, who with Noah, LeBron and a healthy Rose would absolutely destroy the entire conference?
Everyone seems to assume he’ll go back to Miami - and I think he might. But if he does, I think he’ll be doing it because he wants to play with Wade and Bosh as friends and partners, not because it’s objectively the best situation for him.
**ETA: @SenorBeef: who cares if his legacy is as a mercenary? Moses Malone did it, and he’s respected and an obvious Hall of Famer. **
Akron is about a 40 minute drive. I know people who work in Cleveland who have longer commutes than that.
Yes, it just cleared cap room. Boston was involved in part because they had a trade exemption (for Paul Pierce) that was about to expire.
It’s definitely an attempt to get him.
That plus liking Miami and his personal and financial situation and trusting Pat Riley and company to continue to build good teams around him. It’s one thing to say you can build a winning team around LeBron, as several teams want to convince him they can, and another to have actually done it.
Bosh is way, way underrated here. There’s a reason Houston offered him a max contract: he’s a big guy and one of the best midrange shooters in the league. There are not 12 guys like that. There are a handful, maybe.
With a lot of ifs, since they stunk last year: if Irving plays as well with LeBron as Wade eventually did. If Wiggins develops (there’s a reason the Heat were stocked with veterans). If Varejao stays healthy (he never does). If they can pick up more shooting, because in that trade with the Nets they got Marcus Thornton of all people. If Anthony Bennett really gets better. Anyway the point here is that yes, there are lots of places where you can put together a scenario with serious appeal and in most cases some major drawbacks. It sounds like people expect Miami or Cleveland and that’s it, and lately there has been little to contradict that. I don’t see how Cleveland is as appealing as Miami. They’re a team with potential but they haven’t accomplished much, and they’re proposing taking a big leap.
This has what to do with what?
Playing for the Cavs will make it easier to live in the greater Cleveland area with his family.
Don’t discount wife and family.
As a restricted free agent, Moses was allowed to review his options by Houston, who then traded him to the 76ers after matching Philly’s offer (Houston had the right to match the offer, which they did, and then traded him anyway.) He was later traded by Philly to Washington, then became a free agent and signed with the Hawks, long after his MVP seasons.
It’s more than a bit different than the LeBron situations in 2010 and 2014.
In regards to LeBron, the point was made on the Dan Patrick show yesterday that his agent sending those tweets out about the possibility of Cleveland landing him was a colossal PR mistake, especially if he doesn’t sign with the Cavs.
Would like to point out that the NBA champs have signed Diaw, Duncan, Mills, and Popovich (contract extension) and still have millions left in cap space for Gasol, if he decides to go with a winner.
To me, I think Bosh possibly throwing away $30 million just to play with LeBron is insane and will be a decision he will later regret.
He’s not throwing away $30 million. He supposedly wants $80 million to $90 million over five years from Miami, and the most another team can offer is $88 million over four years. That’s what Houston is offering. I guess in theory he could get an amount similar to what the Knicks are offering Melo ($129M/5 years), but the Heat can’t afford it and a sign and trade for that amount is a hypothetical at best.
@Marley: It seems to me that you’re projecting uncertainties onto Cleveland (or other situations) while assuming a best-case scenario in Miami that seems pretty unlikely to me. Wade’s future is absolutely uncertain; he’s injury prone and he can no longer play extended minutes. By 2016 he might no longer be even a useful piece on a championship-level team. Do you really think it’s more likely that Wade sustains a high level of value as he enters his mid-30’s than than that 22-year-old Kyrie Irving (a 7-win player as the only decent player on a bad team last season) can find a way to mesh with the best player in the world? Do you really think it’s more likely that the Heat can squeeze 10 points a game out of the shambling remains of Danny Granger than that Cleveland can get twice that out of the number one pick in a loaded draft?
Sure, there are uncertainties in every situation - including Miami. And the uncertainties surrounding Miami - limited cap space and Wade’s declining skills - are absolutely concrete, real, and undeniable. LeBron James is still young. The basketball situation in Miami might still be good for another year. But two? Four?
From a plain old basketball perspective, I don’t see it. Miami has nothing that makes it uniquely good for LeBron. You’re certainly right that Bosh is an unusual player, and quite a valuable one - but I didn’t say there were 12 players like him in the league, just that there were 12 players on his level (that is to say, of equal value). Joakim Noah plays nothing like Bosh, but he’d be at least as valuable a wingman for LeBron in a different way. I think Irving is one of those players, too, by the way - but I (though not a Cavs fan) admit to an irrational like for his game.
Now, LeBron may feel loyalty to Wade and Bosh or especially like the city of Miami or have some kind of trust in Riley - I guess I’m supposed to think the latter’s done some kind of genius job building this team, but… I kind of don’t, honestly - but that’s not really what I’m arguing here.
Everything I’m hearing (mostly from random-ass internet sites with “sources”) is that it’s about a 90% chance LeBron is back in Cleveland.
Talking with a Cleveland-native co-worker of mine, he says that there are a couple of factors not talked about:
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Lebron’s wife apparently hates Miami and misses home.
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Lebron’s mom is apparently pretty trashy, and the opulent lifestyle of Miami is not doing well for her health. Alcohol, drugs, and the party lifestyle (not to mention marrying a rapper I think) is starting to wear down on her and Lebron wants his mom to (obviously) be healthy.
No idea how real any of these two factors are, but he still has friends who know people who know people who tell him. So take it with a grain of salt.
Interesting though.
I think he’ll “come home” for the roller coaster factor
Even if it’s Cleveland, it’s still home. Got it.
Former teammate Delonte West stoutly deniesthe rumor that he nailed her.
Know what? Bet you can find all that in Cleveland, too.
I hate all these unnamed sources and our penchant for not holding random speculation that’s wrong to any kind of standard. As far as I’m concerned, only Lebron knows what his next move is. I don’t care about the “sources” and unless they quote Lebron himself, its all just idle speculation. Take 30 reporters and have them each predict 30 places he’ll end up in and one of them will be seen as a genius when he just got lucky.
He might know. However, in “The Decision”, he repeatedly made the claim that he made up his mind the morning the TV show aired. So it’s equally likely he might not know what to do…
It’s starting to sound a lot like Cleveland. Security has been heightened around his house in Akron.
I live less than three miles from him, and I have friends who live less than a quarter mile from him. They’re reporting trouble getting to their regular destinations (bank, whatever) and that a covered car-carrier-type truck arrived early a.m.
We don’t read much into it; he’ll keep the house no matter where he signs, for reasons stated above.