LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

Harden has more career 40pt playoffs games, than Austin has career playoff wins. I'd still favor Harden. I'm interested in this roster roster you envision, that we would produce a better team head to head. Share your thoughts

 

Pay LeBron Whatever He Wants?!

 

ESPN REPORT: LeBron James Cares About Game Balls; Lakers Think They've Done Enough For James Family

 

Blah..blah..blah. These dudes know nothing. They just speculate like us.

 

He’s going to retire a Laker.
He’s not going to the Flippers- that would severally tarnish his legacy.

 

I see a deal coming for LeBron being paid BIG bucks for a high profile sports celebrity pimping the International Superior Wine Makers Coalition of Central California. And it being legit!

 

Teams LINING UP To Get LeBron, Sign And Trade Possible?

 

Mason & Ireland: The Final Chapter of LeBron? Where Does He End His NBA Legacy?

 

Who are they calling, allegedly? What’s legal at this point, allegedly?

 

we are the only "contender" that can offer him above the TP MLE this summer.

so he has every reason to stay, unless he's willing to take a big pay cut to ring chase.

I expect a 1y deal around $20m

 

I think it'll be higher than 20m, we want 20m because we want to rebuild, but he's the best free agent available so I anticipate more like 30m.

 

Mark's really good at deferring big bucks though at least in MLB. Would imagine he will make sure no stone unturned as to what he can do in NBA.

 

Sure, the billionaire really needs that extra $10 million.
What he demands will let everyone know if he’s really trying to win another Chip or not.
The Lakers might give him what he wants if they can’t pull off a big deal first.

 

yeah, totally baffles me that he'd even want 30 million with how that could hamstring efforts to win another ring.

if i had that much money, i'd definitely just say give me whatever's left over after you've built the best team possible.

and again, the retention of his bird rights and the likelihood we're over the cap going forward means he can get some of it back later, too.

but we've been over this for a full year. we'll see what the number is and how it goes down.

 

I don't think it's a money thing, although I think we shouldn't lightly brush off 10m dollars, but it's also a top billing thing.

We know he won't accept less that the MLE because that will be available out there for him. But at the same time, him taking 30m is giving a 50% discount. He isn't 50% of the player he was a few years ago, why should we ask him to take a 65-70% discount?

 

Because we need to build a team that can compete with the Spurs and OKC.

 

yeah, it's pretty simple. i truly don't get a guy with nearly a billion dollars playing at age 42 purely for joy/legacy and worrying about whether he's being paid properly. just not a mindset i understand at all.

and i don't know that he has it. just if he did, i don't get it. michael jordan played for 1 million at the end. nobody looked down upon him other than he did it for the wizards, lol.

 

Michael Jordan was President of Basketball Operations and minority owner of the Wizards when he took 1 million - it's wild typing that sentence haha. Hardly the same thing.

I don't know, I think athletes sort of have irrational confidence, I'm sure Luka thinks he can bust the Spurs in the playoffs and that he is better than Wemby. I'm sure Lebron thinks he is the GOAT and still a top 10 player - I assume they believe they have enough to get it done if they're healthy.

I can only comment from my time around high performing athletes. They aren't rational.

 

Yeah I think it's so evident that it's a bit wild it's up for discussion.

I really can't see how Bron would think he rather get paid according to his performance than paid the figure that better maximizes his chances of winning a title and living the best experiences basketball can still give him, at this point of his career. It's beyond a ego thing, it's really just... stupid.

And Lakers have been nothing but respectful to him and treating him as the star he is. Not only the LeGM stuff but the Bronny thing is a huge thing too. We gave the kid a proper NBA experience that he probably didn't deserve. He came up good and has been putting the work, but we prioritized him over the team by cutting Goodwin for example.

I'm not saying he needs to do us a favour because I think him taking any money that is left it's a favour to us as it is a favour to himself.
But then I saw a report yesterday that said "all contending teams asked about Bron for free agency" which is a language that seems to indicate it came from Bron's side to signal he still got it and the whole league wants him so you better pay me. I hope I'm reading it wrong

I may be wrong but my stance on this is: if Bron wants to strongarm us for a specific number over 20M, I just let him go. I think he has more to lose than us and it's just a ridiculous approach to this situation if he wants to force us to pay a few millions more.

I get this view. These stars and especially someone like Bron that has defied all logic in sports, that can only come from unwavering confidence on yourself. And that shows in how he rally the team to beat Houston, I think he set the tone and the others followed. He really believed they could win.

But I also think a man his age and experience should be better reading the room and taking better pragmatic decisions.
Signing for whatever lower value is in no way a disrespect to him but the most logical approach to give both sides what they want: the best team possible during Bron's window to bridge the gap to OKC/Spurs. Hell, it's what they did on Miami where they all agreed to be paid a bit less for the money to work

I think the tricky part is that he probably only does it if he has a say on where the additional money is used. And after Russ I think that leverage was lost and Rob doesn't want to open it again. Now that I think about it, that's probably the misalignment on this one