The Cavaliers’ season is now over. No championship and they didn’t even make the conference finals. The Knicks are courting LeBron and the Bulls want him too. Obviously the Cavs want to keep him and he is from Ohio. I’m sure a lot of other teams would love to have him, but they aren’t currently in the conversation. So, assuming there aren’t any labor disputes or lockouts and the NBA does play next season, what team will LeBron James play for in the 2010-2011 season?
Oh yes, I have also heard rumors, that make some sense, about him taking a look at the Miami Heat and the New Jersey Nets. I just thought the three teams in the poll were the front runners, but please feel free to disagree.
After that Russian billionaire bought the Nets, I’m going with them as LeBron’s landing place. From King James to Comrade LeBron.
I like the Nets too, but other options not yet mentioned are the L.A.Clippers and the Zombie Sonics. The Clippers allow him to play in LA and do all the media/icon stuff, while providing an up and coming supporting cast. Plus it’s a tailor-made story for TV: Kobe and LeBron challenging for king of the city, or somesuch… Downside is that they’re the Clippers, and he’d have to play for Donald Sterling.
Oklahoma City I threw in because they have the young talent to make a trade “reasonable” and they’re one of the few teams where adding LeBron means they start winning rings now. Downside is that it’s Oklahoma City.
I heard Miami is in front of the race.
The Heat and Nets are definitely very strong possibilities. Of the rest, the Clippers and Thunder are pretty intriguing choices as well. I would tend to not say the Clippers, but only because I think LeBron wants to go somewhere he has a real shot at a championship. That may depend on the Clippers lottery spot and draft pick. I think the Knicks can get the players if needed, but my pick is the Cavs or the Bulls. Since I have to choose one or the other for the purpose of my own poll, I’ll go opposite my gut and say the Bulls. They already have have Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah and I think they will try to add LeBron and either Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh while dropping one or more of their high-priced guys like Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, or Brad Miller.
Cleveland or New Jersey
As someone somewhat in on the Thunder loop, I don’t think they go for James. He’s an excellent player, but I think they’d have to give up to much of the young core they have, and the great chemistry that exists, to get him.
I’m confused about all this talk of trade value. James is a free agent: other teams won’t need to give anything up (other than loads of cash) to get him. Right?
I voted as if the question said where he “should” play, and that is Cleveland.
People keep forgetting that Cleveland has a huge advantage under the NBA collective bargaining agreement, in that under the so-called Larry Bird exception, the Cavs can re-sign James as their own free agent for about $20M more than any other team, be it the Knicks, Nets or whoever.
The New York market for endorsements is immaterial. Endorsements are national nowadays and from that standpoint LeBron can make as much from US endorsements in Cleveland as in Sheboygan. Just look at how much he’s made in endorsements while in Cleveland since he turned pro. The real endorsement market is China and again there NY has no advantage over Cleveland.
He’s going to the NY or LA markets (with a small chance of Chicago). The networks want it that way, Stern wants it that way, and they’ve been pumping for it for 3+ years, so it’s what’s going to happen.
People in Cleveland or Miami shouldn’t hold their breath. The fact that the Cav’s can pay him $20m more than any other team doesn’t mean that they will pay him $20m more. And doing such a thing would put a huge hit on their ability to build a team around James, regardless of their cap situation.
IMO, money is a non-issue, if not in favor of Cleveland for the reasons that zamboniracer mentioned; he’ll ultimately make as much or more money in Cleveland as anywhere else. Besides, I’m pretty sure that, at this point, given how much he’s going to make regardless and how much he’s making in endorsements, he’d be willing to trade losing a bit of money for what he’d probably see as the best chance to win a championship. So, really, I think that for any team to have a shot, they have to be reasonably close to a championship.
That said, I think Cleveland has the advantage, no only monetarily, but they clearly have the talent there to support him. I’m not quite sure what they’re missing that is causing them to choke in the playoffs, but I’m reasonable sure that if they make a move to address that (new head coach, a niche player, etc.) he’ll be enticed to stay.
I think the Bulls are reasonable close and could be attractive, possibly the same for the Heat if they bring in one more player. I don’t see him going to the Knicks or the Clippers, unless they make some major moves or he really thinks he’ll make that much more money in endorsements. I think the Thunder are an interesting choice, but I don’t think they’re any closer than the Bulls or Cavs, so I don’t see him downgrading to such a smaller market unless he’d really think they’re the best choice.
I think now that the Cavs have been exposed as a not so good team by losing at the first sign of real competition two years in a row it opens the door for Lebron to try other things. He wants to win, he NEEDS to win, and before this year when you looked at the teams chasing him you had to go with Cleveland as the obvious choice for a championship contender. Not so much anymore. As far as i know the Knicks can sign two max player, Lebron and Bosh would make them an instant contender but they would have nothing left to sign any complimentary players. Lebron and Rose is not quite as good as Lebron and Bosh but the Bulls do have a decent team that is mostly lacking in scoring punch and that would be solved by adding Lebron. The Cavs are losing Shaq and Big Z, which is probably for the best since they were both liabilities on defense. I wish i could have seen the Magic play the Cavs to know for sure how the Shaq experiment would have worked out. Mo Williams is NOT Lebrons Scottie Pippen, he’s BJ Armstrong at best. Antawn Jamison was not as good as expected and has little left in the tank. I give the nod to Chicago at this point, with Cleveland second and NY settling for a disappointing summer and ending up with maybe Amare and Joe Johnson.
While any team can sign him to a maximum deal (which I think can be a maximum of 6 years long), his own team can resign him to a maximum deal one year longer than anybody else. (Not sure if the amount per year is identical, or even higher if he resigns with his original team)
So, LeBron can ask for a “sign-and-trade”, where the Cavs agree to sign him for the max for 7 years, and then trade that contract to someone else for some goodies. Otherwise, as you point out, Cleveland would get nothing when he leaves. This way, everybody “wins”… Also, signing early gets his new guaranteed contract set before the owners lock everybody out and force a new CBA… with probably lower max amounts per year, and definitely shorter maximum terms.
When you look at the max deal that Cleveland can give, it’s about 2 million more than anyone else can give him per year.
On ESPN they just said it was 20 more million, but i think thats because they can sign him for one extra year. Theoretically he would be able to sign for almost as much at the end of that contract so the difference should be inconsequential.