Stephen A. Smith says LeBron and Bosh to join Wade in Miami

[truth serum]

You people are so gullible. It's sad.

[jond1960]

Lots of people are saying this would ruin LeBron's legacy. I STRONGLY disagree. This absolutely will not ruin LeBron, or anyone else's legacy. If anything, it is going to create the greatest most memorable story in sports history ever. That's what these guys have a chance to do.

1. Going to Chicago would ruin his legacy. He will forever be compared and contrasted with Michael Jordan. It's a discussion LeBron will never be able to win. Going to New York would ruin his legacy. Half of the NBA press comes from NYC and he will be scrutinized and be miserable. All the attention is on the Knicks, but that is not a good thing when it puts such immense pressure on the players that they simply aren't happy anymore.

2. You need a championship coach. How many minds are there in the NBA that have lead teams to championships? There are very few. Phil Jackson. Doc Rivers. Greg Popovich. Larry Brown. Pat Riley (who said he is willing to come out of retirement). These are the only coaches to win a championship since over 15 years ago.

3. You need to team up with other stars. Like the Lakers and Celtics, and to an extent the Magic. These are the only successful teams in the leagues, the ones where a few stars aligned.

As far as legacy goes, if these guys join, it will be the most incredible sight to see ever. They will break records and win championships. It will be the most powerful dynasty in sports history. And everyone would remember the Amazing Trio: LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade. The greatest legacy ever, of putting egos aside and teaming up to form the most powerful team in the history of sports.

Now, it's still speculation at this point. So we'll have to see...

agreed. it makes no sense to me that he would go to the bulls or the knicks. for the reasons you said, his legacy would always be beneath mj in chicago and his legacy in ny might not happen because of all that pressure. but yeah, still gotta wait a couple days before anything gets agreed to officially.

[KHeat]

One major problem is Wade's health. His style of play makes him somewhat injury prone. Even Bosh still hasn't played a full 82 game season. If they go the 3-max route, that team will be screwed bigtime if they face any injuries at all.

I also wonder how all 3 would work together. Players regress playing next to Lebron, will he be happy averaging 23/7/5?? Will Wade be happy dropping to the 22 ppg range? will Bosh be happy being the 3rd wheel when recent comments suggest otherwise?

And one last thing, how does this team match up against the Magic, Lakers, or any team with a decent frontcourt?

I would think having 3(well, maybe 2.5) first options playing together would help Wade and Bosh stay healthy. They wouldn't have to work as hard. They could coast the regular season, and still end up with the best record. You could say the same thing about Lebron. He is logging some pretty hefty minutes as well. This could extend all of thier careers.

I also think the whole "Who's team would it be" Is blown out of proportion. I think these guys would come in to as equals(regardless of how we view it). I think it would give them all a chance at a title. Wade has one, but is hungry for more. Bosh still needs one, and this will probably be his best chance as a main contributer. Lebron needs one as not to become the greatest "should have" of all time. You can argue he can still get one as the main option after this contract.


With all that said. I really doubt this happens

[NADALbULLS]

If LeBron wants to overtake Jordan the best way to do that is play in Chicago, because their stats will constantly be compared, and stats of course favor LeBron at this stage. MVPs look very likely to favor LeBron too. The only area he's struggling with in the comparison is rings, which could come every year if he has an all-star line-up.

[cdouglas]

I just cant see LeBron being Dwyane Wade's robin..

It's Wade's team but I think no matter how you look at it the media will see it as Wade being Lebron's robin. The NBA isn't nowhere near the Jordan era because they were rivalries and no matter what they're relationships were off court, on court they acted like they didn't like each other. This is a new era where they are buddies and that really took the excitement out of the NBA. Does anyone else think this way? Well I guess Lebron, Wade and Bosh decided the only way we have a chance to win a championship while our legs are still fresh is to come together as a team. Will there be chemistry??

[jeffjtk1234]

It is funny because everyone seems to know where Lebron is going. Smith says Miami, Broussard says Chicago, Jalen says Chicago. No one really knows other than Lebron. These threads about who says what about Lebron are useless.

[Reservoirdawgs]

agreed. it makes no sense to me that he would go to the bulls or the knicks. for the reasons you said, his legacy would always be beneath mj in chicago and his legacy in ny might not happen because of all that pressure. but yeah, still gotta wait a couple days before anything gets agreed to officially.

Yeah, it makes no sense for Shaq and Kobe to want to go to the Lakers, always having to live in Kareem and Magic's shadow and all...

[MaxRider]

FINALLY
now we got a chance to break Boston's record of winning 8 champ in a row

3 near max deal Wade+LeBron+Bosh

all those ring chasing veterans will sign for veteran-minimum

C - Shaq, Jermaine
PF - Bosh, Haslem
SF - LeBron, McGrady
SG - Wade, Allen
PG - Chalmer

trade Beasley for someone to fill their need

[B-Ball Freak]

LOL WOWOWOWOWOW if that's true, might as well pencil them in as champions right now

[Bubstubbler]

I don't get the big deal. Sure they are great players. But basketball is a team sport. they will have crappy role players filling out the rest of the squad. They cannot play 48mpg each They will have to get thier chemistry just right and agree on what they are trying to achieve and how. 2 former #1 option guys are going to have to learn to be 2nd and 3rd options, likely going from 19-23ish shots per game to something more like 12.

Your post makes no sense whatsoever.

First, you say the role players behind LeBron/Wade/Bosh would suck. Then you say that 2 of those three guys would have to cut their shot attempts down to 12 (while 1 of them gets to keep taking 20 shots), meaning that those shots will be given to "crappy role players" instead.

20+12+12 = 44 shots per game for the superstars (via your strategy). Since they'd have about 84 shots per game to divvy up (most teams take over 80 shots/game, e.g. Lakers took 83.8), your strategy would carve out about 40 shots per game for the scrubs.

My question is this: Why the hell would you want to limit your superstars' shot attempts in order to give 40 shots per game to the scrubs, especially when you started off by saying how crappy they'd be?!? That makes no sense whatsoever.

Here are the fga/game for the big 3 this past season:

LeBron: 20.1
Wade: 19.6
Bosh: 16.5
TOTAL = 56.2

Wouldn't it be FAR more reasonable to have the three superstars continue to take 56 fga/game and have the scrubs get the other 28 fga/game?

If you've got 3 superstars and a bunch of scrubs, the correct strategy is to lower the fga attempts of the scrubs, not the superstars. I cannot fathom why anyone would instead think that the proper strategy is to take shots away from LeBron/Wade/Bosh and give them to "crappy role players."

[BballerShotCaller]

3 max players on 1 team? Is that even possible? lol

The rest of the roster will be scrubs or people close to the minimum and the MLE.

Or according to flash3, Any free agent vet is gonna go to miami for the minimum to chase a ring..

I don't think Bosh is a Max player and he is not guaranteed to get the Max.
Donnie Walsh said the same thing about Bosh not being a Max player.
I'm sure Riley is smart enough to see Bosh is not a Max player and would not
offer Bosh a Max contract along with two other Max contracts on the roster.

Bosh would have to take less than Max.

[LApwnd]

3 max players on 1 team? Is that even possible? lol

The rest of the roster will be scrubs or people close to the minimum and the MLE.

Or according to flash3, Any free agent vet is gonna go to miami for the minimum to chase a ring..

I don't think Bosh is a Max player and he is not guaranteed to get the Max.
Donnie Walsh said the same thing about Bosh not being a Max player.
I'm sure Riley is smart enough to see Bosh is not a Max player and would not
offer Bosh a Max contract along with two other Max contracts on the roster.

Bosh would have to take less than Max.

If Mia isn't willing to offer Bosh max, theres at least 2-3 other teams that will.

[The Skyhook]

you guys dont understand how good lbj is...and wade

my god those 3 alone would be unstoppable and every role player would have wide open 3's all game

their defense would also be unstoppable

I can see where you are coming from with Wade and Lebron but Bynum will still eat Bosh's punk ass alive.

[Bubstubbler]

^ let's be real... if that trio is put together, Shaq is going to Miami for pennies. Best shot at a ring? Check. Rivaling Kobe's team? Check. Plenty of playing time? Check.

I don't know what else he'd be looking for in a team, that is, assuming the Heat wanted him.

^^this^^

Bosh doesn't want to play center. Shaq likes South Beach. Shaq wants championships and would be valuable when facing teams with big centers (Howard/Bynum/Perkins/Yao/Oden/etc). Shaq is mega rich and could afford to take a small deal to get a couple more titles (and to keep Kobe from getting them).

Chalmers
Wade
LeBron
Bosh
Shaq

I would really like to see that lineup. They'd be crazy fun to watch.

[Sebastian]

Any other source and I'd be worried, but Stephen A has an impeccable record when it comes to the reportage of misinformation and general wrongness.

[Flash3]

Shaq burned his bridges in Miami. He's not going to be welcomed back even at the vet min.

[Reservoirdawgs]

Any other source and I'd be worried, but Stephen A has an impeccable record when it comes to the reportage of misinformation and general wrongness.

^^^^^^

There's absolutely no reason to believe anything he says, particularly when he concludes with "I think I'm right, I hope I am."

[Kosar86]

So the Heat would have a roster of:

Chalmers/
Wade/
LeBron/James Jones/Jarvis Varnardo
Beasley/DaSean Butler
Bosh/Haslem/Dexter Pittman

That leaves a pretty open roster to fill...maybe they can re-sign Ray Allen at the vet min, Steve Blake for part of the MLE ($4M/yr), Craig Smith to a $2M/yr deal with the remaining part of the MLE.

Could be an interesting team, especially if they decided to run. I'd love to see LeBron as a PF with Bosh next to him at Center. It'd be like a track event where they dunk the basketball at the end of the race.

There would be no haslem and either jones or beasley would have to go to....

[DirtyDez]

I hate how people smash sources when the news doesn't benefit their team. But when it does the source is credible.

[lakegz1]

As a Laker fan, I am not afraid. I say bring it on. Basketball is a team game and no matter how many glamorous stars you pack onto a team, you still need valuable role players and guys willing to play defense and get dirty when it matters. I thought we had a guaranteed championship when we brought in Karl Malone and Gary Payton to team up with Shaq and we saw what happened. Play the games!