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So the Summer of LeBron is going to get a lot f hype. For a while now we have heard talk from the Knicks camp of clearing money to go after him. In many ways, it does seem to make a lot of sense. Now, personally I think he will just stay in Cleveland but the IF is not what I want to discuss. What I am interested in, is how this effects us in the short and long term. The question I'm posing is: Is BJ to the knicks a good thing or a bad thing for the Celtics?

The Good:
First off, we wouldn't have to worry about the Cavs.

You could also assume that the Knicks would be no better than the Cavs are now for at least 2 years as they would need a MLE and LLE to add some vets.

The Bad:
NY might be able to attract a lot of vets on the cheap. Big City, Title hunt and getting to play with LBJ are all attractive for ring chasers.

The Cavs are a team, IMO, hastily put together. It was out of necessity, and I would have had the same MO: put as much talent around LBJ as possible. Talent over fit. I don't like the Cast LBJ has, maybe with a clean slate NY could field a better team.


My opinion:
In the short term I think LBJ to NYC is good for us. We will be rebuilding on the go or retooling and having LBJ doing the same will take some pressure off. The long term could be scarry. I think a Bron knicks has a better shot to have a bulls-esk dynasty than a Bron Cavs team does.

I think overall it would be really good for the NBA . The NBA is a lot different than the other major sports in that over the past few years the NBA has continually grew without the aid of a competitive New York team. Its really the only sport where a New York team isn't really blessed with great tradition. The Yankees, although in an 8 year WS drought, are in the playoffs competitive every year. The Giants won the Superbowl in 07. The Jets and Rangers have deep roots in their respective sports. MLB wouldn't be as profitable without a successful New York team in my opinion which is why they are good for baseball despite their wild spending. Lebron would single handily put the Knicks back on the map in this would certainly help the NBA product as a whole moving forward.

With that said, its bogus that all these teams are basically sacrificing two/three years of product at the opportunity to sign this guy or at the very least one of the other Superstars. I understand its a business, but at the core its sport and competition and right now, there isn't a lot of parity. We can sit here and dream of Wade or Lebron or Bosh, but its not going to happen unless we unload two of the Big 4. Although its not, it almost feels that as obvious as the Knicks are its some kind of tampering.

Which leads me to my next point. Jay-Z is part owner of the Nets, but friends with Lebron, whenever he is with Lebron or at one of his games isn't that tampering of some sort? Does the NBA even have any tampering rules?

I highly doubt LeBron goes to the Knicks. If he leaves Cleveland it would be in large part to win a title. In terms of high quality players, the Knicks have one of the worst rosters in the league. Beyond that they DON'T even have their first round pick this year! Sheesh!! Utah does. Unprotected no less.

I expect Lebron to go to the knicks. He is extremely money and image driven. There is no better place for him than NY.

Knicks have the money, appeal to draw other big names too, so for us it is best if Lebron stays in CLE.

Media-market, image, profile-wise, Lebron goes to the Knicks
Basketball-wise, the Nets are a freaking perfect fit- Lopez, Yi still on rookie contracts, Harris at reasonable money at the point- they have the cap room to add a star wing- maybe Joe Johnson.. but the Nets' core looks increasingly good-

I don't think he will go to NJ but it might be the best fit for him.

Lopez
Yi
Bron
Lee
Harris

to me that team has more balance then his current Cavs team.

My point of view is, who cares.

IMO the building of a championship team is more than just sticking a bunch of players together. Lebron is an immense talent, but the random moves that have been done in Cleveland I'm not sure is doing anything other than demonstrating to Lebron that there is no thoughtful approach to surrounding him with complimentary players.

So the point I've been delaying in making, does Donnie Walsh have the track record in making NBA champions? Has he set up the Knicks to be anything except Lebron and a bunch of random players? I don't know enough about the Knicks to properly answer that question, but as near as I can tell no.

Like others I'm maybe jumping to a conclusion here, but I think this is another wasted year for Lebron in Cleveland. His moving to the Knicks would postpone his championship a few more years, and would he actually have the confidence that Walsh could do it?

I was thinking the other night, Cleveland is clearing a bunch of space with Shaq and Z also expiring. What about Lebron and Wade in Cleveland, will they have cap to fit that? That would be some starting point for a team, and perhaps there are enough other parts there to make it interesting for both Lebron and Wade.

In all honesty I think he will end up in Jersey with the Nets. I mean Mikhail Prokhorov ranks 24 on the richest Billionaires in the world and he has no problem whatsoever to dump money on his investments and come 2010 I believe LeCrab will be one of his players that he will try to sign. From what I hear Jay Z is pushing this as well.

With a player like James, the system has to be catered to him, unlike a player like KG which you could drop in any system and he'd be successful.

I think a good place for him go go is the Clippers. Think about it,

Davis
Gordon
James
Griffin
Kaman

with Thornton, Jordon, Camby and Telfair/Ricky Davis to sweeten the pot.

The Clippers would also be adding a top 10 pick and playing in one of the biggest markets in LA, he'd be on national TV all the time. That's a good young core to grow around James.

If the Nets move to Brooklyn, that's also be a good place to go.

If he's so money and image driven, he'd be better off making more money in Cleveland and not looking like a guy who betrayed his hometown.

He's already so big that he transcends his location, it's not like he's some borderline star that would get exposure in NY. He'll get exposure anywhere. If anything, he's more iconic as THE athlete in the history of Cleveland (apologies to Jim Brown) rather than just another star who played in NY.

It would be terrible for the league to have the heart of a team ripped out like that.

For us, instead of one great team and one truly horrible team, the Eastern conf would now have one fairly horrible team and one half decent team; so it would help us to get both teams out of contention.

NJ is definitely more of a worry because of the Jay Z connection; and they have a decent core with Lopez and Harris. But, they would be a step behind where Cleveland is now.

Cleveland should only worry if they somehow collapse and these first two losses portend a bad season. If they regress to 50 wins, 4th seed, or any worse than that - I could see him leaving.

Just one more for the "He'll go to Brooklyn, not New York" bandwagon.

More cap room, better players (than Knicks as well as Cleveland), friends with Jay-Z, more endorsement $$$, can probably get Bosh as well as with some sign-and-trade finagling and a new stadium and move to Brooklyn that will be marketing gold.

Cavs are in trouble.

Back to the question at hand, and amending it; Where do WE want Lebron to go? What will be a tougher team NY, Nets or Cavs with Bron?

The tougher team will be Brooklyn, but it's really not up to us.

Starting 5 if he flees to Jersey:
Devin Harris
Terrence Williams
LeBron
Bosh (sign-and-trade for Yi)
Lopez

Plus:
A top 5-10 draft pick in 2010
Dallas' 2010 pick
Golden State's 2011 pick
Billionaire owner, plus Jay-Z, who LeBron is tight with
New stadium in Brooklyn
Whatever coach he wants

Well Brooklyn is a better roster but the Knicks with Lebron win 60 games right now. David Lee, Duhon, Al Harrington, Gallanari - its not half as bad as you guys think. Cleveland without Lebron is far worse then the Knicks would be.

.

I really believe he wants to bring a title to Cleveland. He won't leave town until that is achieved. Maybe he will sign for only two years with a player option for a third.

^^^ Have you been to Cleveland? LMAO. Dude will happily get out. I live in NYC and while its not truly nice IMHO, if your loaded its pretty awesome..it caters to the rich and wealthy in a way Cleveland can't dream of.

Captain_Caveman wrote:Bosh (sign-and-trade for Yi)

Ha, why would Toronto do that?? He's likely enough to leave that I could actually see them making some kind of move, but not for Yi; I don't even know if NJ has the expirings to make a move like that work anyway - but either way Yi + 15 mill in salary and maybe luxury tax is probably worse than the nothing they'd get if he left as a FA.

If they signed and trade to NJ in this scenario, it would be some Chris Wallace level "we''ll take an awful deal because we want to create a really stacked team in Brooklyn"

the thought of a young core including Lebron,Harris,Lopez is pretty crazy.

chakdaddy wrote:

Captain_Caveman wrote:Bosh (sign-and-trade for Yi)

Ha, why would Toronto do that?? He's likely enough to leave that I could actually see them making some kind of move, but not for Yi; I don't even know if NJ has the expirings to make a move like that work anyway - but either way Yi + 15 mill in salary and maybe luxury tax is probably worse than the nothing they'd get if he left as a FA.

If they signed and trade to NJ in this scenario, it would be some Chris Wallace level "we''ll take an awful deal because we want to create a really stacked team in Brooklyn"

NJ has more cap room than NYK. They also have extra draft picks in the next few years. I have to check the dollar figures, but they might be able to send something like Yi, Dooling and $3 million cash to TOR along with a 2010 and 2011 pick (since they have Dallas's pick this year), then the Raptors would definitely take that over losing Bosh for nothing. If the cap is $50 million I think that works and set NJ up for a Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, LBJ, Bosh, Lopez core. Very impressive, balanced, athletic, and young. Add in some MLE vets and Brooklyn sounds pretty appealing.

The Knicks don't have space to sign two MAX contracts unless they can ditch Curry/Jeffries. They also are going to have problems putting a team around LeBron since their cap space is contingent on renouncing Duhon, Harrington and Lee.