I can honestly say that I no longer care about the Summer of LeBron. Frankly, the amount of coverage it has gotten even as the play-offs were still going on was disrespectful to the players and teams still fighting for a championship. I am curious about what is to happen in Beantown now. Doc likely gone. Jesus Shuttlesworth probably as well. Rondo to become the undisputed floor leader for next season? Will they really get in Kevin McHale as the new coach? How will they fare without their defensive mastermind Thibodeau? Does KG have another season left in the tank? Does Sheed return?
Cousins and Whiteside....^_^ I'm absolutely thrilled with out draft picks. I'm shocked Whiteside slid this much. He could be this years Blair.
Cousins and Evans could make a very exciting duo. Assuming that Cousins isn't as insane as advertised.
Yup. We could have the ROY 2 years in a row if this guy keeps his head right. Judging by his interview last night he seems to be a complete donut-head.
So the Bulls now will have enough cap room for Bosh + LeBron and then can go get Joe Johnson from Atlanta in a sign-and-trade deal that sends Luol Deng back there. Rose-Johnson-LeBron-Bosh-Noah That starting five wins the East without ever needing to shift into fourth gear. Actually they don't even need Johnson, they just need to turn Deng into any guy who can hit the open mid-to-long-range jumper.
So the big day has arrived. July 1st! Already the Hawks have a 6 year $119mil offer to Joe Johnson. To me that is waaaay to much for a guy who couldn't do shit in the playoffs. Good player but to me not worth almost $20mil a year. Talk is that LBJ will make a decision by July 5th.
Part of me wants Bosh and Lebron to go to Miami - just to see how they would play with Wade. But I'm in the - just get it over already camp. I have to listen to this everyday on talk radio in NYC.
It'll never work. Two of the three guys on that superteam need the ball in their hands to be effective. If you want to create a workable superteam, one of your three max guys has to be a shooter. Wade-Bosh-Dirk would work. Bosh is really in an interesting situation. He's the only guy who would fit into nearly every scenario in terms of teams with (lots of) cap space. Not just the Chicago/New York/Miami stuff either. There's also Houston. A sign-and-trade that sends him to the Lakers and Bynum to Toronto.
I don't agree - Pippen and Jordan were primarily slashers in the beginning and Jordan could score in Buckets like Wade, and Pippen got his points on the break and slashing to the basket like Lebron. I'm not saying it would definitely work because both are dominant on the ball, but they could probably find a Steve Kerr type shooter if they don't already have one. The Showtime Lakers also didn't have a super star shooter - they filled that part with more role players. Same with the Hakeem Rockets.
My point is that for it to work one of 'em would have to be willing to fill the Pippen role. Are you saying that LeBron would be willing to do that? Dirk, especially at this stage of his career, would probably welcome becoming the n°2 guy. And his game is such that it would hardly get in the way of what both LeBron and Wade are good at. Of course this is all strictly theoretical, since there is no way Dirk is leaving Dallas.
Well - I would definitely agree it's a question mark whether there is enough ball to go around on that team, but I also think it's a mistake to assume that just because it doesn't fit the mold of previous championship teams it won't work. There are similarities between Pippen and Lebron - they put up some similar rebounding and assists numbers - and if some of the scoring burden is off of Lebron, it might make him a better player. His teams fall apart when he starts trying to score every time and he isn't as clutch as Wade is. Both guys might benefit from not having to do it all for their team. Wade would have more energy for scoring if he didn't have to play point a lot, and Lebron would have to give up some of his scoring, but that's a good thing if he isn't trying to come up with forced drives all the time.
Well it would mean that at least one of them (but probably both) would be willing to give up being "The Guy" every night. People point to the Boston Celtics trio of Pierce, Garnett and Allen being able to do that just fine, but they forget that all three were much further along their respective career arcs. I very much doubt that would have worked as well in say, 2004.
I don't buy it really - Lebron seems capable to me of deferring to others. And Wade is at a point where he's won a ring and is probably willing to do less on a winning team that has a shot at the title, and Lebron is at the stage of doing anything it takes to win his first - including taking fewer shots. Did you ever see Pippen and Jordan Bulls live? Those guys just destroyed teams with confidence - you knew and they knew they could turn it on and put teams away at will. I know Pippen deferred to Jordan for a lot of scoring, but I'm not sure he viewed himself as Robin the way the fans and media do. They both had supreme confidence and it passed on to their team. I guess my question is - is there a precedent we can point to of such megastars playing together? I can't really think of anything at least since I've been watching. The Lakers had stars, but nothing like a Magic and Jordan playing together. That's part of the reason I'm interested in what would happen. You may be right that it would flop, but I'm inclined to think they could make it work. And those Celtics also had the advantage of meshing really well. Ray Allen never really made sense as "the guy" and is a perfect compliment to the other two - and Kevin Garnett is not the type of player to go primadonna either. The only one who you could convince me needed maturing is Pierce - he might have wrecked the chemistry early on in his career.
I'm not arguing it absolutely could not work. I'm simply saying that there is no guarantee that it'll be the superteam it looks to be on paper.
Steve Blake to the Lakers, four years, sixteen million. Fantastic signing for them. Great fit for the triangle.
Just looking at the current scenarios that could come out of the FA, more than likely the big names will be spread amongst the Eastern Conference. I don't see what good this will really do in the end. For instance, if LeBron, Stoude, and Johnson played for the Knicks and Heat had Wade and Bosh, the two teams would be highly competetive proving for entertaining games amongst the two but I don't see those teams having that greater of a chance at a 'ship than teams already in existence in the East. As much as I dislike the Lakers, they're insanely stacked in all the right places and that's something an Eastern Conference team will need as well.
Lakers make a move early and sign Steve Blake. Four year 16M deal. Insurance if Fish decides not to sign. He wants 2 year 10M. He's being offered 2 years but at way less dollars. He made 5M last year. Not many decent free agent PGs out there.
As a Suns fan, I'm not too sure why Stoudemire moved. Nash is the main reason for all of his success because of the pick and roll system.
If Lebron doesn't come to New York I'll be pissed but also perplexed....can someone please explain to me why he wouldn't come here? Does he realize no one knows who he is outside of basketball fans? The NBA finals he was in with the cavs got the lowest ratings in 40 years. He could build a dynasty in New York and be world famous.
Sign-and-trade deal that would send Bosh to the Cavs now seems a possibility. Interesting! If that happens I can see Wade going to Chicago after all. No way he's going through another season without any sort of help.