NBA Free agency 2018: Where's the King landing?

[briantw]

I just don't see LeBron to the Rockets happening so long as LeBron is only willing to take max money.  This is especially true if Paul demands the max as well.  Just isn't gonna work financially without Houston stripping the team down to the studs.

From everything I've heard, LeBron wants to stay in Cleveland, but the Cavs will obviously have to make some moves in order to make that happen.  LeBron's camp (which I assume means Rich Paul) has been in regular contact with the Cavs, although the two parties haven't met directly.  However, this is a lot different from previous LeBron free agencies.  In 2010 he completely shut Cleveland out and there was zero contact.  The same is true of LeBron with Miami four years later.

[James Arryn]

9 minutes ago, briantw said:

I just don't see LeBron to the Rockets happening so long as LeBron is only willing to take max money.  This is especially true if Paul demands the max as well.  Just isn't gonna work financially without Houston stripping the team down to the studs.

From everything I've heard, LeBron wants to stay in Cleveland, but the Cavs will obviously have to make some moves in order to make that happen.  LeBron's camp (which I assume means Rich Paul) has been in regular contact with the Cavs, although the two parties haven't met directly.  However, this is a lot different from previous LeBron free agencies.  In 2010 he completely shut Cleveland out and there was zero contact.  The same is true of LeBron with Miami four years later.

If he leaves, the same will be said to be true this time, too. Orv they’ll flip it and he’ll have played false with them by pretending to consider them while knowing he was leaving all the time. You can write this in stone: if he leaves, there WILL be a narrative where he’s the bad guy. 

[briantw]

23 minutes ago, James Arryn said:

If he leaves, the same will be said to be true this time, too. Orv they’ll flip it and he’ll have played false with them by pretending to consider them while knowing he was leaving all the time. You can write this in stone: if he leaves, there WILL be a narrative where he’s the bad guy. 

I'm not sure what you mean.  If he leaves, it will likely be because the Cavs don't make any moves.  If they make a couple of trades for another star player or two, then I'd imagine he'll stay.  As I said, he's basically looking for a reason to stay in Cleveland.  Either they give him one or they don't.

As for the narrative, I honestly don't really care if he leaves or not.  He got us a championship.  If he decides to leave, I'm fine with that and ready for the rebuild.  If he decides to stay, I'll be looking at probably another annoying, drama-filled regular season (if the past four years are anything to go by) followed by a fun playoff run.  Either way, I'm ready for it.

At any rate, LeBron shutting out Miami and Cleveland is not a narrative.  It's what happened.  He hasn't done that this time, and that's because, as I said, he wants to stay.  He might not stay, but he wants to.  I think it's pretty obvious that LeBron had zero intentions of staying with Cleveland or Miami the years he left.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I don't think he'll stay, but if he does, it will be for one year so that he can team up with other elite FAs in 2019. Honestly the Lakers move is growing on me. They've got a lot of young assets and a ton of cap space. If he's not going to an already made team, he's going there. 

[Calibandar]

6 hours ago, Maithanet der Mannschaft said:

Everything I've read is that getting Lebron, Paul and Harden under the cap would be really difficult, because Lebron+Paul are both looking for max money.  In order to to that, Capela is probably gone, Ariza definitely is, and there's a good chance they'll need to offload picks and good players like Mbah a Moute in order to get rid of bad money contracts like Eric Gordon and (especially) $20 million dollar wonder Ryan Anderson. 

Thus, while it seems like adding Lebron would always be a great thing, for Houston a team of Paul, Harden, Lebron and very little else (in particular, losing most of their athletic wing defenders) seems like a team with little hope of competing with GSW. 

Just saw a video on espn tackling exactly that, what does Houston need to do.

Also, article here from last week:

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23524190/lebron-james-houston-rockets-summer-here-how-happen-nba

So they need to get him through a trade basically, and then it could be doable. He'd still make 35 million next year.

That said I am not sure if he'd be that opposed to taking a paycut. Obviously there is no one one who knows but looking at him I have a feeling he is more than fed up being beaten by Golden State and beating them comes first.

Why is why I think unfair praise is being heaped on Brian Windhorst's idea that LeBron should call Durant and try to sign with him somewhere ( away from GS). Not happening for so many different reasons.

[briantw]

16 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

That said I am not sure if he'd be that opposed to taking a paycut. Obviously there is no one one who knows but looking at him I have a feeling he is more than fed up being beaten by Golden State and beating them comes first.

Thus far, the only thing I've heard is that LeBron is unwilling to take anything short of the max.  I haven't heard anyone say that he's willing to take a pay cut and I don't think he is.

And, as I said, I don't think he's beating the Warriors so long as that's the case.

[DMC]

2 hours ago, briantw said:

From everything I've heard, LeBron wants to stay in Cleveland, but the Cavs will obviously have to make some moves in order to make that happen.  LeBron's camp (which I assume means Rich Paul) has been in regular contact with the Cavs, although the two parties haven't met directly.  However, this is a lot different from previous LeBron free agencies.  In 2010 he completely shut Cleveland out and there was zero contact.  The same is true of LeBron with Miami four years later.

This strikes me much more as wishful thinking than actual reasoning.  I don't know how you really know what happened between him and Cleveland in 2010, nor 2014 with Miami.

58 minutes ago, chiKanery et al. said:

I don't think he'll stay, but if he does, it will be for one year so that he can team up with other elite FAs in 2019. Honestly the Lakers move is growing on me. They've got a lot of young assets and a ton of cap space. If he's not going to an already made team, he's going there. 

If he wants to create-a-team like he did with Miami, LA is clearly the best option.  Which again, ugh.

[briantw]

6 minutes ago, DMBouazizi said:

This strikes me much more as wishful thinking than actual reasoning.  I don't know how you really know what happened between him and Cleveland in 2010, nor 2014 with Miami.

I'm just posting what I've heard.  What I've heard is that he wants to stay in Cleveland, but that the Cavs need to give him a compelling reason to.

[DMC]

Fair enough.

[briantw]

Also, regarding LA, there is absolutely zero chance that the Spurs send Kawhi to the Lakers, and I can't see LeBron going there just to play with Paul George.  Unless he's willing to wait a year for Kawhi's free agency, I don't see it, especially since it sounds like Paul is staying in Houston.

[DMC]

Never say never.

[briantw]

If Paul George stays in OKC, that would be a game-changer.  Basically removes LA as a destination for LeBron imo.

[Calibandar]

You can see why OKC wants to re-sign him as they don't have better options ( probably).

However to me re-signing George just means another year of deep disappointment and disillusion for OKC. It was so far below the bar last year that I don't see how they get significantly better next season. A bit better than last year I can see, but this does not work. And they'll have a a big fat contract for a useless Carmelo dragging them down as well. George is not near the shooter that Durant is, and Westbrook even regressed last year.

But yeah, in the bigger picture, him re-signing with OKC could well have implications for the Lakers because if they thought they could get anyone it would be George first. Still, they'd be happy to get Leonard and LeBron of course, George would be the least desirable piece of those 3 ( assuming that Kahwi can still play.....).

It would be very telling for LA though if George re-signs with OKC. That is bad news for them indeed. Basically means George says, Westbrook and Adams is better than anything you guys have. Which, of course, is true.

[sperry]

24 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

You can see why OKC wants to re-sign him as they don't have better options ( probably).

However to me re-signing George just means another year of deep disappointment and disillusion for OKC. It was so far below the bar last year that I don't see how they get significantly better next season. A bit better than last year I can see, but this does not work. And they'll have a a big fat contract for a useless Carmelo dragging them down as well. George is not near the shooter that Durant is, and Westbrook even regressed last year.

But yeah, in the bigger picture, him re-signing with OKC could well have implications for the Lakers because if they thought they could get anyone it would be George first. Still, they'd be happy to get Leonard and LeBron of course, George would be the least desirable piece of those 3 ( assuming that Kahwi can still play.....).

It would be very telling for LA though if George re-signs with OKC. That is bad news for them indeed. Basically means George says, Westbrook and Adams is better than anything you guys have. Which, of course, is true.

 

Carmelo won't be on the roster next year, one way or another. He'll be traded, bought out, or stretched.

[sperry]

Also, another thing that Adam Silver needs to address. Prospects are apparently refusing to work out for, give medical information to the Grizzlies and Kings. Silver needs to get this shit taken care of. You simply can't have the best prospects refusing to play for certain franchises. Just can't have it. I'm becoming less and less impressed with his leadership every day.

[Calibandar]

1 hour ago, sperry said:

 

Carmelo won't be on the roster next year, one way or another. He'll be traded, bought out, or stretched.

Maybe just a pipe dream, but LeBron signing with OKC after George has re-signed, that could create the Golden State opposition we need. Apparently they'd need to trade Adams in such a scenario though, which sucks, but they'd do it for LeBron, that would change the entire dynamic. Still think Houston is both more likely and a better fit though.

 

 

[Fez]

5 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

Maybe just a pipe dream, but LeBron signing with OKC after George has re-signed, that could create the Golden State opposition we need. Apparently they'd need to trade Adams in such a scenario though, which sucks, but they'd do it for LeBron, that would change the entire dynamic. Still think Houston is both more likely and a better fit though.

It's probably a fool's errand to try to parse out LeBron's non-basketball motivations, but they will play a role in where he goes. And I think its relevant that he owns three mansions, one in Akron and two in Los Angeles (including one that was just bought last year), and I'd be surprised if a) he wants to live too far away from any of them, b) he wants to buy a fourth mansion, or c) he plays somewhere while living the whole season in a rental (he owned another mansion in Miami that he eventually sold for a profit, though it took a while). Not saying he'd only play for Cleveland or one of the LA teams, but I do think he's going to want to play for a team located near them; which would both enable him to go home for a night here and there during the season and making it easier for his family to visit him. 

Dwyane Wade seems to think the same thing about it: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2780463-dwyane-wade-thinks-lebron-james-priority-is-family-not-teaming-with-nba-stars

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

15 hours ago, briantw said:

Also, regarding LA, there is absolutely zero chance that the Spurs send Kawhi to the Lakers, and I can't see LeBron going there just to play with Paul George.  Unless he's willing to wait a year for Kawhi's free agency, I don't see it, especially since it sounds like Paul is staying in Houston.

I saw a report a day or two ago that there was no way they’d trade him to another Western Conference team, and that if they were to trade him, they’d take pennies on the dollar to send him to the East.

Which means my take from last week was right and LeBron to the Sixers and they’re trading Simmons for Kawhi.

GET HYPED!

[Relic]

1 hour ago, Calibandar said:

Maybe just a pipe dream, but LeBron signing with OKC after George has re-signed, that could create the Golden State opposition we need. Apparently they'd need to trade Adams in such a scenario though, which sucks, but they'd do it for LeBron, that would change the entire dynamic. Still think Houston is both more likely and a better fit though.

 

 

That's a bad team. Westbrook dominates the ball too much to be a good fit with LeBron, and James should be surrounded by 3 and D dudes. 

[DanteGabriel]

7 minutes ago, chiKanery et al. said:

I saw a report a day or two ago that there was no way they’d trade him to another Western Conference team, and that if they were to trade him, they’d take pennies on the dollar to send him to the East.

Which means my take from last week was right and LeBron to the Sixers and they’re trading Simmons for Kawhi.

GET HYPED!

Trade him to Boston for Kyrie and a pick! If we're going to have one elite guy coming off a leg injury on a one year contract, I'd rather have Kawhi.