LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

No one has ever what? Tanked a franchise? So what? This is a unique situation.

No one has ever let a player walk? That happens a lot. We did it. People still beat up the Lakers even though those decision makers are gone.

No one has ever had a bitter break up? LeBron already had one with Gilbert, why not two?

 

Your proposed plan means the Cavs take on Gordon/Anderson/2 1sts. Let's examine that.

The Cavs would then have 110 million on the payroll for a team that's non competitive. They're paying the repeater tax this season which means Gilbert is likely to pay more than 100 million dollars for this team. By the way that's assuming that Shumpert opts out and they let Isaiah Thomas walk. If they bring back either of those players, they're in the repeater tax area again and will be subject to another 100 million dollar bill.

So are the Cavs likely to pay 100 million to let LeBron go where he wants? Or start shedding salary and avoid paying 100 million dollars for a loser?

 

Where does Love go where you aren't taking salary back?

How much are you paying IT? Are you letting him go?

 

One thing that also needs to be taken into account: Is Gilbert, who evidently hates Lebron at this point, willing to take on money and pay millions of dollars to players he doesn't want just to get a couple draft picks in the late 20's in order to give Lebron exactly what he wants? Are two picks at 28 and 29 worth paying 20 million a season to Ryan Anderson for a couple years? Are they worth giving the dude who has hamstrung your franchise exactly what he wants? Lebron walking out the door lowers the value of that franchise by hundreds of millions. Is Gilbert really going to be anxious to help facilitate that while taking back a really bad contract all so he can get a couple late first rounders that probably have a 50/50 chance of being on the team even 2 seasons later?

 

I wasn't arguing with you for sure. IT to me, even during his "MVP" year, is a glorified bench scorer. That's his best role because he can't guard anything.

But I don't think you'll find it so easy to just dump Love on someone. We'll see. I don't see the marriage at all there given how many pieces have to cooperate to make it work. Gilbert, Morey, LeBron, Shumpert, IT, Love, some other GM all have to work together to make LeBron go to Houston.

 

One thing is for sure, he's not staying and he's crushing any connections he could salvage. Someone is going to make a home for him. It could be us. It could be Morey pulling magical rabbits out of his ***. It could be... the Sixers? I don't know. That doesn't seem likely.

 

That hurts more than you think. They are full sized on the way out.

 

If this is true, it is looking quite bad there... I wouldn't mind James even with his prima donna personality. I just want to win on a consistent basis or at least have better chances.

I would think James would try not usurp Johnson whom he probably will respect more than Gilbert. Can he even go back to Miami? Riles...Spoelstra...Gloria Estefan?

 

Miami would have to get fancy to get the cap space I think, but I haven't checked.

 

Wasn’t there talk about Gilbert wanting to sell the Cavaliers? If so, I’m sure the new buyers would want a team that is way under the salary cap. So they could make their own player choices. Which do you think is more desirable....the Lakers with cap space or the Lakers with Moz/Deng on the books?

 

I certainly agree with the Lebron statement but no minority owner is going to think Anderson’s a great deal. Or any of their other bloated contracts.

 

Most likely I agree, but the Lakers have so many young assets they'd still likely hold on to a good number of them. You probably lose Ingram or Kuzma with Nance/Zubac and go get a bigger name. That way you have LeBron/George/Ball/Kuzma or Ingram left over. You hold on to Hart and Bryant. LeBron brings Wade for the short-term as well.

That's a great start and a team that can likely compete now. You also probably convince Lopez to stick around who is proving his value. Unfortunately that means probably losing Clarkson and Randle, but you field a team of:

Ball/
George/Wade
LeBron/Hart
Kuzma/
Lopez/Bryant

That's a damn good team without as many hoops to jump through as Houston. We'd fill the rest with our 2nd round pick, we'd still have next year's 1st, and we'd of course sign some ring chasing vets. You'd have guys like Ariza, Tony Parker, Joe Johnson, Ilyasova, Jameer Nelson, Nerlens Noel, Rondo, Seth Curry, etc. I don't see that as so much more difficult a scenario than Houston;at least we have the assets to pull off meaningful trades.

I'm about to get 15 responses with "WE CAN'T TRADE KUZMA OR INGRAM!"