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When I was a kid, I had a comic book about "What if Magic and Bird switched places?"

Maybe you know of this comic book - I don't have it any more and can't find information online. I remember Bird being portrayed as embracing a Hollywood lifestyle, with his golden mane glistening in the LA sun, and Magic taking on a blue-collar appeal.

I had the thought, "What if LeBron were drafted by a Western Conference team," which led me to compare him with Carmelo Anthony. I wonder what would happen if, by some twist of fate, the Cavs had gotten the No. 3 pick and the Nuggets No. 1. (I find the Pistons what-if to be a little overdone at this point.) What goes through your mind when you imagine this alternate history?

For the Cavs and Carmelo, I still think Boozer leaves for the Jazz. His skills are too redundant with Melo's. Ricky Davis and Darius Miles also have to go. I wonder how Melo would have vibed with Paul Silas and Mike Brown.

Moving ahead on the timeline a little bit, Drew Gooden seems like a strange pairing with Melo. I wonder who we could replace him with. Luke Jackson, of course, should have not been taken by the Cavs in the '04 draft. I'd like to see them take Josh Smith instead. A Melo-Josh Smith pairing would be deadly.

Varejao and Big Z would have complemented Melo well; Snow, perhaps a little less so. I don't think I would want Donny Marshall or Larry Hughes on this team. Of course, I would like to see Big Ben play with Melo.

The Nuggets and LeBron pairing is fun. LeBron with Camby? With Nene and Andre Miller? With Birdman and K-Mart? With George Karl? I see LeBron in this situation as having less influence over the organization — but being a tougher player on a tougher team and more interesting public figure overall. LeBron and Iverson or Billups would be a weird fit, though.

I think the Nuggets' ceiling would have been a little higher. Perhaps they would've contended with Nash's Suns, Duncan's Spurs and Kobe's Lakers in the West and won a title before 2010. I think the Cavs' ceiling would be about the same, actually. LeBron is an amazing player, but a little difficult to build around. I'm giving myself a lot of flexibility in this alternate history, but Melo may have been easier to build around. And he was amazing in his own right.

I realize this is a very nerdy subject, but hey it's summer time. Indulge me with your thoughts and let's fight boredom together.

Cleveland is worse off. Denver is a lot better off. Seems pretty straightforward. Lebron was considerably better, and Denver had a lot more talent relative to Cleveland, which Lebron was better-suited to leverage with his dramatically superior playmaking abilities (and ultimately, his superior scoring ability).

I am particularly curious if in this world denver still trades for iverson and later billups

Having lebron as a ballhandler may make denver go after someone different (maybe a big) instead of iverson but assuming they still go for AI the nuggets may be good enough with lebron instead of carmelo that they convince themselves they dont need to move iverson for billups

Billups would nasty with lebron if it happens, could actually challenge or beat the lakers in 2009

Melo is regarded much higher because he would be in the East, and had deeper runs. Lebron conversely ain't doing jack in the West during the 00s, so he bolts to a contender once his contract is up(cough Lakers).

An Unbiased Fan wrote:Melo is regarded much higher because he would be in the East, and had deeper runs. Lebron conversely ain't doing jack in the West during the 00s, so he bolts to a contender once his contract is up(cough Lakers).

Carmelo is likely not getting past the 2007 pistons, let alone beating the big 3 celtics and he is sure as hell not replicating let alone beating whst lebron did in 2009 vs orlando, he really was not that good to match, let alone exceed lebron results

In 2011 the cavs with carmelo (assuming he extends his contract to 2011 like in real life with denver) are not gonna get past the bulls, that team as it was had got decrepit without ben wallace, washed ilgauskas, washed shaq had he stayed and lack of any notable surrounding talent or role players around carmelo's somewhat unidimensional, tunnel vision, decent efficiency scoring talent

Lebron may or not leave in 2010 but gives them a much better shot in 2009/2010 to beat lakers if they still get billups and may even give the 2006 or 2007 nuggets a shot at pulling off a upset like he did vs detroit

Do the Celtics even put together the Big 3 without the looming threat of LeBron in Cleveland?

An Unbiased Fan wrote:Melo is regarded much higher because he would be in the East, and had deeper runs. Lebron conversely ain't doing jack in the West during the 00s, so he bolts to a contender once his contract is up(cough Lakers).

Limply-efficient volume scorer, weaker defender, weaker player... He doesn't turn Cleveland into anything like what Lebron did, that seems fairly obvious. He'd have likely been even less efficient without the up-tempo offense that Denver ran.

parsnips33 wrote:Do the Celtics even put together the Big 3 without the looming threat of LeBron in Cleveland?

Why would Lebron matter for that? The Celtics weren't contenders even if you took out the cavs pre-kg

OhayoKD wrote:

parsnips33 wrote:Do the Celtics even put together the Big 3 without the looming threat of LeBron in Cleveland?

Why would Lebron matter for that? The Celtics weren't contenders even if you took out the cavs pre-kg

I guess yeah if anything they'd be more inclined to go for it without another major threat in the East

falcolombardi wrote:

An Unbiased Fan wrote:Melo is regarded much higher because he would be in the East, and had deeper runs. Lebron conversely ain't doing jack in the West during the 00s, so he bolts to a contender once his contract is up(cough Lakers).

Carmelo is likely not getting past the 2007 pistons, let alone beating the big 3 celtics and he is sure as hell not replicating let alone beating whst lebron did in 2009 vs orlando, he really was not that good to match, let alone exceed lebron results

In 2011 the cavs with carmelo (assuming he extends his contract to 2011 like in real life with denver) are not gonna get past the bulls, that team as it was had got decrepit without ben wallace, washed ilgauskas, washed shaq had he stayed and lack of any notable surrounding talent or role players around carmelo's somewhat unidimensional, tunnel vision, decent efficiency scoring talent

Lebron may or not leave in 2010 but gives them a much better shot in 2009/2010 to beat lakers if they still get billups and may even give the 2006 or 2007 nuggets a shot at pulling off a upset like he did vs detroit

Well I don't think Cleveland is winning with Melo. I'm just saying his playoff runs would have bene deeper than in the West. For Bron, the opposite because the West had LA/SA/Dal/Phx.

t some point Lebron leaves Denver to play elsewhere in the East.

parsnips33 wrote:Do the Celtics even put together the Big 3 without the looming threat of LeBron in Cleveland?

KG to Boston had nothing to do with Lebron, it was a Celtic helping out another Celtic, and screwing the Lakers.

An Unbiased Fan wrote:

falcolombardi wrote:

An Unbiased Fan wrote:Melo is regarded much higher because he would be in the East, and had deeper runs. Lebron conversely ain't doing jack in the West during the 00s, so he bolts to a contender once his contract is up(cough Lakers).

Carmelo is likely not getting past the 2007 pistons, let alone beating the big 3 celtics and he is sure as hell not replicating let alone beating whst lebron did in 2009 vs orlando, he really was not that good to match, let alone exceed lebron results

In 2011 the cavs with carmelo (assuming he extends his contract to 2011 like in real life with denver) are not gonna get past the bulls, that team as it was had got decrepit without ben wallace, washed ilgauskas, washed shaq had he stayed and lack of any notable surrounding talent or role players around carmelo's somewhat unidimensional, tunnel vision, decent efficiency scoring talent

Lebron may or not leave in 2010 but gives them a much better shot in 2009/2010 to beat lakers if they still get billups and may even give the 2006 or 2007 nuggets a shot at pulling off a upset like he did vs detroit

Well I don't think Cleveland is winning with Melo. I'm just saying his playoff runs would have bene deeper than in the West. For Bron, the opposite because the West had LA/SA/Dal/Phx.

t some point Lebron leaves Denver to play elsewhere in the East.

Only if you dont consider how weak the cavs actually were of a supporting cast

I dont even know if they beat a solid gilbert arenas wizards team in 2006

Lebron doesnt make the finals in 2007 with denver, but if he gets the same billups in 2009 they become a big, big threat to beat the lakers and go for a ring vs orlando or celtics

falcolombardi wrote:

An Unbiased Fan wrote:

falcolombardi wrote:
Carmelo is likely not getting past the 2007 pistons, let alone beating the big 3 celtics and he is sure as hell not replicating let alone beating whst lebron did in 2009 vs orlando, he really was not that good to match, let alone exceed lebron results

In 2011 the cavs with carmelo (assuming he extends his contract to 2011 like in real life with denver) are not gonna get past the bulls, that team as it was had got decrepit without ben wallace, washed ilgauskas, washed shaq had he stayed and lack of any notable surrounding talent or role players around carmelo's somewhat unidimensional, tunnel vision, decent efficiency scoring talent

Lebron may or not leave in 2010 but gives them a much better shot in 2009/2010 to beat lakers if they still get billups and may even give the 2006 or 2007 nuggets a shot at pulling off a upset like he did vs detroit

Well I don't think Cleveland is winning with Melo. I'm just saying his playoff runs would have bene deeper than in the West. For Bron, the opposite because the West had LA/SA/Dal/Phx.

t some point Lebron leaves Denver to play elsewhere in the East.

Only if you dont consider how weak the cavs actually were of a supporting cast

I dont even know if they beat a solid gilbert arenas wizards team in 2006

Lebron doesnt make the finals in 2007 with denver, but if he gets the same billups in 2009 they become a big, big threat to beat the lakers and go for a ring vs orlando or celtics

Melo's supporting cast was no better in Denver than Lebron's in Cle for nearly all of the 2000s. And sure, maybe at the tailend of the 2000s Denver become a challenger like it did with Melo, but the same can be said of Cleveland too.

Keep in mind LeBron didn't make the playoffs his first two seasons...in the East. I don't see much difference between both of their results other than Melo having deeper runs because he's in the East. Lebron would be in that KG box where he just can break through due to the Laker/Spurs/Max/Suns

Once you get past the 2000s, if Melo leave for Miami.....well then he has at least 2 rings too. Wade/Melo/Bosh is a great fit. If Lebron goes to NY like Melo, then I think he deals with that horrible FO too.

Cleveland wins **** all and Denver win a ring in 2009.

An Unbiased Fan wrote:Well I don't think Cleveland is winning with Melo. I'm just saying his playoff runs would have bene deeper than in the West. For Bron, the opposite because the West had LA/SA/Dal/Phx.

t some point Lebron leaves Denver to play elsewhere in the East.

You don't think LaLa pushes Carmelo to bail on Cleveland even faster than he did on Denver. I still remember his last year where he was basically playing for his contract and his camp was letting everyone know he was going to leave as soon as physically possible for NY or LA.

LeBron with Billups is a perfect fit. Iverson is not a good fit with nearly anybody.

Another interesting one would be Steph and Harden switching draft positions

An Unbiased Fan wrote:

falcolombardi wrote:

An Unbiased Fan wrote:Well I don't think Cleveland is winning with Melo. I'm just saying his playoff runs would have bene deeper than in the West. For Bron, the opposite because the West had LA/SA/Dal/Phx.

t some point Lebron leaves Denver to play elsewhere in the East.

Only if you dont consider how weak the cavs actually were of a supporting cast

I dont even know if they beat a solid gilbert arenas wizards team in 2006

Lebron doesnt make the finals in 2007 with denver, but if he gets the same billups in 2009 they become a big, big threat to beat the lakers and go for a ring vs orlando or celtics

Melo's supporting cast was no better in Denver than Lebron's in Cle for nearly all of the 2000s. And sure, maybe at the tailend of the 2000s Denver become a challenger like it did with Melo, but the same can be said of Cleveland too.

Keep in mind LeBron didn't make the playoffs his first two seasons...in the East. I don't see much difference between both of their results other than Melo having deeper runs because he's in the East. Lebron would be in that KG box where he just can break through due to the Laker/Spurs/Max/Suns

Once you get past the 2000s, if Melo leave for Miami.....well then he has at least 2 rings too. Wade/Melo/Bosh is a great fit. If Lebron goes to NY like Melo, then I think he deals with that horrible FO too.

Denver’s cast post -2005 >>> post-2005 Cavs rosters sans LeBron and Melo. Come on dude.

parsnips33 wrote:Another interesting one would be Steph and Harden switching draft positions

Presti wouldn’t have the clout he has now if he was known for the guy who traded Stephen Curry away.

PistolPeteJR wrote:

parsnips33 wrote:Another interesting one would be Steph and Harden switching draft positions

Presti wouldn’t have the clout he has now if he was known for the guy who traded Stephen Curry away.

Ah but does the "Steph has no ankles" discount extension encourage OKC to keep the squad together? I don't know enough about the cap at the time to say