So far this offseason, two LeBron-related realities have become clear. The first is that LeBron does not feel such a strong sense of loyalty towards Cleveland and the current Cavalier team that he has secretly planned on returning to the Cavs no matter what. If that was how he felt, one assumes he would have talked to Tom Izzo.
LeBron refusing to assure Izzo he would return to the Cavs didn’t/doesn’t guarantee that he’s leaving, but it does strongly suggest that Cleveland would need to give him a better supporting cast than any other team, or at least one nearly as good. There is now a very high likelihood that the Chicago Bulls will be able to offer LeBron a far better supporting cast than the Cleveland Cavaliers will be able to offer him. If they can’t the Miami Heat will likely be able to offer James the chance to pair with Wade and at least one other big free agent. In my heart, I can’t imagine LeBron playing for another team. But my head is telling me LeBron has likely played his last game as a Cavalier.
Assuming they can grab James and Bosh, Chicago makes perfect basketball sense for LeBron, what with Derrick Rose creating plays for LeBron to finish and Bosh and Noah finishing them. I also think people underestimate just how good of a defense Thibodeau could build around LeBron and Noah.
I thought about going in-depth on the above, but felt squicky about it. Instead, here’s how LeBron-to-Chicago could potentially get botched. (This is assuming Chicago fails to move Deng for a useful package.)
As has been noted, LeBron and Rose wouldn’t be the best pair of superstars on their own together. Bosh has let it be known he’s waiting on LeBron, and believes himself to be a centerpiece. The prospect of being a possible second/third fiddle on the Bulls might not appeal to him.
Also, remember that the Bulls don’t have quite the money to give both James and Bosh max contracts if they don’t make another move. LeBron will want the max, and so will the player’s association and the other owners. Bosh doesn’t have nearly the endorsement money that LeBron does, and not getting the max might hurt his pride. Amar’e and Boozer may be backup plans for Chicago, but Amar’e is likely going to Miami and Boozer isn’t Bosh.
Unless LeBron has heard seriously bad things about Thibodeau, is really chapped about Noah’s Cleveland comments, or doesn’t want to play in the same city Michael Jordan played in (and honestly, if it’s the latter, I regret ever having rooted for LeBron), I don’t see many other reasons why Chicago wouldn’t make sense for LeBron. (Pat Riley’s “Combine Like Voltron” pitch also has a puncher’s chance of working.)
Basically, all I really want to say in the weeks before this does or doesn’t actually happen is that it’s nobody’s fault. The front office had two good chances to win a championship, and it went for them. In this league, there’s no excuse for not going all-out when the opportunity to win a title is there.
All the cap space and patience in the world wouldn’t have gotten them a Bosh/Rose/Noah combination, because they didn’t have the draft picks. The options available to the front office were to go for the good chance the Cavs could win a championship with a team thrown together around LeBron or go for the slim chance of building an NBA 2k team around LeBron. The choice they made likely won’t pan out, but that doesn’t mean it was the wrong one.
LeBron’s always made his priorities clear: He wants to be on the team that gives him the best chance of winning championships in the near future. The Cavs made those moves, or at least what they thought those moves were. Now they have few assets or ways to improve, and there are teams that can potentially give LeBron a better chance to win a championships ever did or could.
Everyone in this organization did their best. They were contenders. Things didn’t go their way. That happens sometimes. It doesn’t mean there were any bad guys involved in the equation. I’ll always wonder what would have happened had the ball bounced a different way in games 1 and 4 of the 2009 ECF, or if anyone was prepared for the Celtics in these playoffs. This was a heck of a team. They were a contender, and that’s all you can ask a team to be. All of that is over now; the next couple of weeks will tell just how over it is.
@ben tej
both LBJ and bosh would have to take less money if they both sign with chicago. i’m pretty sure only the kncisk can affrod TWO max deals. athletes are not known for taking less money in the PRIME if their careers. you would think krolik would mention this more but i think he might be benny the bull…
and how can you NOT feel good about LBJ saying “it’s all about basketball and oh yeah, come to OHIO?” that’s not positive? i will now wait three seconds for rich to chime in, with krolik to follow with a lengthy blogpost, on why that news is, in fact, a negative. LOL! j/k, fellas…kinda…
Him saying its all about the basketball is kind of what troubles me if the Bulls really could get Bosh. I’m happy he’s not doing a “city tour”, but in all honesty, he probably made that decision mostly because it would seem tacky getting lavished by all those teams.
“They were a contender, and that’s all you can ask a team to be.” Dissatisfyingly, a lot of it really does boil down to that.
However, I do wish that the Cavs had pursued more of a long-term strategy. If they had been making moves (over the past seven years) on the assumption that LeBron was staying, they would probably be in a better position to (a) get LeBron to stay and (b) contend throughout his prime.
The drive to win a title (or bust) before 2010 always seemed bizarre to me. And now it’s obvious to everyone that past success matters not one bit next to the team’s future prospects.
In light of that, the signings of Mo, Delonte, Boobie, Varejao and Hickson look good (nobody should have predicted Mo’s playoff choking and Delonte’s craziness). But almost every other move the Cavs have made, not so much. I’m thinking especially of Larry Hughes, Shaq, Antawn Jamison. Anyone who we pursued at the expense of a younger building block, or cap space this offseason.
I also kind of wish the Cavs had kept Danny Ferry. Of course he’s made mistakes, but isn’t experience a huge part of becoming a good GM? I thought by this year he had already become a good GM, and I bet he has learned a lot more still by this point.
Well my stuff no longer posts, kind of sad.
They only need to clear James Johnson’s very small contract in order to outright sign Bosh and LeBron to max deals without the need for a SnT.
Still don’t get why the Wiz took on Hinrich. SOmeone explain that one to me.
Well, if Knicks fans didn’t realize it yesterday, they sure do now. Their first big thing, the ability to sign 2 max players outright, ended in the last few days when Miami and Chicago got in the same position.
Their second big thing (and they only had these two) was selling LeBron James on the greatness that is New York City. Well that died tonight. Good luck KNicks fans with a squad led by David Lee and Rudy Gay for the next five years. Should be awesome.
The tide on this swing changes by the hour. With this news of him not going on a FA tour coupled with the fact that cavs didn’t go in to panic mode at the draft, it’s like everything has now shifted back to Cleveland. Oh man, the next two weeks are going to be a fun, fun ride.
Rich, the only consolation I will have if LeBron doesn’t resign with the Cavs is if the Knicks end up signing Gay to a max contract. I hope the Knicks remain irrelevant for the next 10 years after all the arrogance we’ve had to absorb from New Yorkers the last 2 years.
The Heat don’t have any fans unless they’re winning, and the Bulls weren’t realistically in the hunt until the end of the season, so we didn’t have to take much crap from their (non-existent in Miami’s case) fan bases.
i wish you guys would seek out every interview and article written by windhorst., if ya did, you would know that windy (who knows LBJ better than any of us. is he infallible? no, but he’s the closest thing we’ve got) said that NYC still remains the first choice IF LBJ leaves cleveland. yet, here are krolik and jon barry and rich, amongst MANY others proclaiming chicago is the obvious destination for LBJ. not hating here but i’ll stick with windy says for the foreseeable future…
FACT: addidas offered more of *everything* to a young LBJ than nike did, yet as windy has reported time and again, LBJ went with nike because the of the COMFORT level he felt there. hmmm, now does that story have any bearing on LBJ’s FA choice? i’d consider that possibility quite closely if i were you, mr. krolik, before you post anymore “LBJ to chicago” pieces…
What’s the relevance with the adidas/nike thing? LBJ is supposedly “more comfortable” in New York?
the organization just panicked and made bad moves. fans should blame the ferry.
first, there was the shaq debacle. then the cavs compounded matters when they didn’t go after stoudemire(rumor was they wouldn’t give up j.j. hickson, which is just as hilarious as when the bulls refused to give up luol deng for pau gasol), and then ended up trading for jamison. if you really were concerned about rashard lewis and stretching the floor, as a warrior fan, i can tell you stephen jackson(when he was available) was the guy to get. a clutch player who can defend multiple positions and isn’t afraid to take big shots. this is why players like derek fisher, james posey, jason richardson, etc are so valuable, and why it boggles the mind that teams aspiring for a championship go after role players with little to no experience.
I have to keep reminding everyone that Amare Stoudemire was on the last year of his contract, and moving a pick and JJ Hickson for a guy who would be in SERIOUS doubt of playing more than 3 months for this team is a risk of epic proportions, and I still say wasn’t worth taking.
Look, Windhorst is great, but like you said he’s been wrong before. Such as when he told Reghi that there was a really good chance we would be doing a deal with at eam in California before the draft. That didn’t pan out. Windhorst doesn’t hang out with LeBron a couple days a week. William Wesley does. William Wesley has been saying Chicago for some time now. Can’t just dismiss the man even though he is a con artist.
To paraphrase Bill Simmons in part 2 of his NBA Draft podcast: There’s no way Portland is able to draw in a Sam Presti level GM after burning Pritchard. The only guys they’ll be able to get will have no other prospects.
One thing that is being overlooked is that Bosh has stated he wants a sign and trade to get his full bird rights contract. Chicago and none of the other teams that have dumped salary no longer have the resources to pull of a sign and trade. with the new cba being the unknown factor dont expect players to leave monet on the table. So let look at the cavs what if lebron wants to stay the cavs have the resources to pull a sign an trade for bosh thus both players can get full max contracts. How about Andy, JJ, West,Mo,Parker for Hedo Bosh and Jack? The cavs would only need to use their mid level on a center. How about this staring lineup. Lebron, Bosh,Haywood,Jack and Hedo.