So LaBron apparently could be Houston bound next season (I believe @abeer3 found this extremely plausible). I still have my doubts, cause Houston seems to be a success now and why would LaBron jump onto a team's coattails when he "witnessed" how Durant's legacy was diminished for doing the same thing with the Dubs? Even if this Houston team fits the MO of a D'antoni team (amazing regular season team that most likely underwhelms in the postseason), I don't see Brony trying to "rescue" this team cause it wouldn't be as spectacular and glorious as "saving" a franchise like the Lakers. What really raises my eyebrows about this article though, is how it came out directly after news broke of LaBron buying another LA home. Maybe this story is coming from his camp so that he still holds leverage with LA to get better and he doesn't have to answer questions about the inevitability that he's going to leave Cleveland for LA.
This came up in the Clarkson thread. I'll say this, I would prefer to try our guys along with another superstar(s). I would of course welcome LeBron the basketball player, but not LeBron the GM. If he were to come, I would still want Jeanie/Rob/Magic making decisions for the Lakers. Not LeBron or Maverick Carter, because they work for LeBron's "brand". LeBron in year 16 doesn't guarantee a title, I'd prefer to roll with PG + ____ and our young guys to try for 50 wins.
I think if he had his choice, he'd take Houston. But in the end, like the article alluded to, the cap gymnastics it would take to pull that off would be insane. Are you going to offer 2-3 future firsts to get rid of Anderson? That's what it would probably take since there are no young assets to package with him for the dump (like Deangelo). So you do that and you STILL don't have the space to sign LBJ and Paul unless someone takes Gordon AND PJ Tucker. If they somehow manage to sell their souls to Satan and unload Anderson without taking any money back, that leaves them with approximately 60-61 million without capholds and without extending any qualifying offers. I realize paycuts can happen, but you're asking Lebron and CP3 to take HEFTY paycuts.
That's been my point all along. In order to get there, the Rockets don't have to just get fancy with their cap, they'd have to sell their souls and if they're willing to do that, they're making a big mistake. I'm all for LeBron this summer because it would only cost us cash and it'd likely mean another player with him. We're not selling 2-3 1st round picks to make this happen. We've seen the failure in that. We've seen the failure in that from Brooklyn as well. If the Rockets make that move and throw everything away in order to get LeBron and Chris Paul together with max contracts, all power to them. I'll happily go in another direction. I'll happily try to woo a George/Cousins combo.
So Im guessing LaBron doesn't want to play with Boogie then. Also, I totally agree with the crowd that's saying we can't allow LaBron to play GM. I would much rather have Randle than Noel... But that definitely considers salary. For instance, I'm favoring Noel at 17M as opposed to Jules at 22M. Again, these dudes are the complimentary pieces to the big fish we hope to bring in, so as long as we bring two max guys onto the roster, any additional (reasonably priced) salary hikes to players like Noel & Randle, I'd be okay with. Secure the big fish first tho. Oh and on that Houston cap gymnastics thing, I totally agree with you guys. Morey would need quite the wand to pull that off. And by some miracle he does pull it off, Im going to call the Hollywood witch hunters to investigate Mr. Analytics (pause) cause he definitively violated someone to get those numbers to work out for Houston. Oh and lastly, bullying is wack AF. Kudos to anybody trying to deter this phenomenon that continuously rears it's ugly head claiming the innocence of our youth and future leaders.
noel aint getting 17 and randle sure as hell isnt getting 22 ftom anyone...n we cant get 2 max on top of a 17mill type offer for noel or randle
Noel shouldn't get 17M....Randle shouldn't get 22M....Vasashi17 shoulda used a better lead in for that scenario than "For instance"
You're gonna be hard pressed to find any numbers that work with essentially a 3:4 ratio in salary. 5 and 7, 8.5 and 11...Randle is much better than Noel.
still not seeing how it's as difficult as folks think. paul forced his way to houston; lebron can do the same. who's going to take anderson? cleveland. that's who. just like the clips took a pupu platter for chris paul when they could have simply called houston's bluff. in short: be more creative--they don't have to actually clear the space. they just have to be a threat to clear the space. the lakers are playing the same game, and many are happy with it. the difference is that they have two all-nba players on the roster already and the best record in the league. this is like, 60/40 at this point, imo. maybe greater. lebron wants to knock off the warriors, for good. i only see one route.
I wish for all of humanities sake we could see the fan's face after Kobe does this. Like, "Okay....You're right" (quietly sits down and lets out a giant sigh)
If I'm Cleveland, I'm not doing it. I'm not taking on Ryan Anderson and 3 late 1st round picks to help facilitate LeBron going where he wants to. Especially since there's almost no way to get to Houston if he does that. I'd rather lose LeBron for nothing than take back bad deals to help LeBron.
anderson/gordon/unprotected 1st two years from now. if cleveland won't take it, a similar package is a threat to move that salary elsewhere. also, it's houston, not la. there's not some bizarre league-wide conspiracy to take them to the cleaners. teams are always helping morey. he'll just call sac or philly.
Honestly, if I'm Cleveland I let him do that then. They've got a lot of bad contracts they're going to have to clean up on their own. It's not worth it to take on one of the worst contracts out there for a decent player and a 29th pick in the draft two years from now. If there's someone else willing to take that deal, I probably try to beat Houston to it. If someone is willing to take Anderson/Gordon/super late 1st, they're probably also likely to take Thompson/Shumpert/Top 5 protected or something like that.
Lebron in Houston would be a weird fit ... 3 dominant ball handlers on one team ... As fo the "George vs Lebron" talks , I'd prefer Lebron , even only for 2 seasons than PG 13 for many ones . I think many here are overrating the impact he would have on our team . Sure he's a top 15 player at best ( playing in the Least ) , great defender but he's also a 43% career shooter despite being 6'9.