Could the Big 3 become the Big 4 next year?

[truthiness]

Arison took no gamble whatsoever. There is no way to lose money owning an NBA team. Literally every owner has made money on the team they have owned. Considering Arison got the team for free from his dad, there really is no risk of losing money. Every single owner would have taken the "risk" of signing the big 3.

Except when they didn't.

Chicago had a half assed attempt at liberating 2 max slots - in the end they only had 1.5 or so - and that's because Reinsdorf doesn't REALLY want to spend to win. The Bulls have been the most profitable team for a 10 year period, averaging something like 50 mil/season in profits. And they still didn't want to pay the tax.

NY tried to get under the cap, but by when Donnie Walsh was calling the shots, Isiah had already done too much damage, so they only had 1.5 or so max slots.

The Clippers had some room, but they still were the old Clippers. The last 2-3 years where they actually tried to compete won't erase my memories of the old Sterling.

The Nets had room, but they lacked the credibility (in regards to building a contender) that Riley brought. Since then, Prokhorov had proved he'll spend to win, even if not necessarily very smart.

The other about 25 teams were just content to sit and watch.
And that's when a guy who was already considered a potential 2nd GOAT was available.

So NO, most other owners did not take the risk.
Especially since this has been a 2-3 years plan, and it risked alienating your best player by not putting a good team around him for 2 years in a row.

By my calculations, there are a handful of owners willing to spend, only few of them are spending smart:
Spending smart:
- Arison
- Buss Sr
- The Spurs guy - well, not spending much, but they are a small market and yet they have been contenders for 15 years in a row

Spending meh:
- Cuban
- Prokhorov (could move up or down)

Spending stupid:
- Dolan
- probably Buss Jr

So Arison is pretty much by every metric you want a top 3 owner in this league.

[Heat fan06]

Doubt we get anybody of major note.

[Miaheatfan3]

Lol at Lebron being paid 8.6$, it should be 17-18 for lebron, 12-13 for Wade and 10 for Bosh, 40 for all.
That would still leave some cap open for a good C like Bogut.

[Heat_Fan_87]

Lol at Lebron being paid 8.6$, it should be 17-18 for lebron, 12-13 for Wade and 10 for Bosh, 40 for all.
That would still leave some cap open for a good C like Bogut.

10 for bosh? that's funny.

[Tony15]

Lol at Lebron being paid 8.6$, it should be 17-18 for lebron, 12-13 for Wade and 10 for Bosh, 40 for all.
That would still leave some cap open for a good C like Bogut.

10 for bosh? that's funny.

Dude will just opt in before that becomes a local narrative lol....

[Hoopz Afrik]

Melo aint coming here, it's a pipe dream. And we dont need him either. I would much rather add Kyle Lowry + Gortat, would make much more sense. would give us a killer starting 5 with great depth on the bench.

If there was a way to get Gortat on this team without giving up any of our marquee guys (ie Big 3, Rio, Shane, maybe Birdman), we'd be in a very good position moving forward.

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

The big offseason was 2010, not 2011.

Anthony will opt-in.

Wade and Bosh won't accept such low salaries when they can get more elsewhere.

IF we had all that money, we need a Center.

[DEEP3CL]

Wow this topic is way out of left field. Look I have no problem with teams trying to continue their success in winning titles. But the dynamics of this topic is so far off you don't have to be a Heat fan to see it.

First off why in the hell would Riley give Bosh more money than Lebron ? Then to say Lebron has to sign for about $8.6 mil is ridiculous, Lebron is clearly the face of the Heat and I'd say the overall Heat earnings have tripled over with him being the lead guy.

Secondly I think the OP over thinks the whole Laker situation going into the summer of 2014, I hope he realizes the Lakers DON'T have to sink all their hopes into that summer. The 2015 class is going to more of a reality for many reasons. To me the free agency in 2014 is more of a pipe dream for some fans and teams. The Laker front office is way too smart to just dive in on the first class coming up. But there will be no "striking out" either, people seem to think just because one guy choose to be different that our brand has been tarnished for some reason.

When you have cap room nobody gives a damn what happened the years before. Miami fans themselves can attest to that. As the old saying goes " money talks, BS walks". The Lakers will be fine, I don't say that as a homer fan I say it as from just knowing NBA business.

Another thing the OP is over thinking is the Kobe situation, in a nutshell Kobe ain't leaving LA. He's said so a million times already but people still think it's a possibility.

Just like how I respect the fact Lebron ain't leaving Miami, makes no damn sense to be real about it.

But I do credit the OP for saying he doesn't think a Big 4 could happen, the variables are just too rigid.

Even though the NBA is on a tax killing mission to make sure these types of teams can't happen, in reality the teams with smart owners and teams with the money resources will puff the tax sanctions like cigars. You really think teams like Miami, the Lakers, Brooklyn,Bulls and Knicks care about the tax....hell no they don't.

We'll eventually see a Big 4 one day, in my opinion the core of such team will be younger than what we see now.

[Shuttlesworth34]

There is a better chance of someone from this forum signing on to play PG than the OP's scenario playing out.

It's a nice dream, but the only way a 4th true superstar joins the heat is if they get ridiculously lucky in the draft.

[truthiness]

...

I agree this thread is dumb.
Trying to get Melo would be dumb in general. He'd be a horrible fit.

But I disagree with some of the things you say:

The Laker front office is way too smart to just dive in on the first class coming up. But there will be no "striking out" either, people seem to think just because one guy choose to be different that our brand has been tarnished for some reason.

Dwight's departure is not seen as a catalyst for anything, but rather as a SIGN that the current Lakers FO is nowhere near what it was under Dr Buss. Jim Buss looks more like James Dolan than Dr Buss. An entitled, spoiled brat with a huge ego, who can't admit when he is wrong.

I know the Lakers/Kobe fans' favorite sport this summer was "Bash Dwight". We'll see if for Thanksgiving they eat turkey or crow.

When you have cap room nobody gives a damn what happened the years before. Miami fans themselves can attest to that. As the old saying goes " money talks, BS walks".

You're fooling yourself if you truly believe that.
It wasn't the money that talked. It was Pat Riley. Riley has the "cred" amongst players.

You might remember that the Nets, Knicks, Bulls and Clippers also had cap space (the Raptors and Cavs too, for that matter). Yet the Bulls landed Boozer (who they'd like to get rid off), the Knicks landed Amare and the Nets landed JJ. All 3 already are bad deals, and there still are some years left on those deals.

Remember when Kobe was a FA and the Clippers and Suns had cap space ?
It wasn't the money that talked then, either. It was Dr Buss.

If it would have been the money talking, Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Miller and Haslem wouldn't have taken (massive) pay cuts. Neither would Battier and Ray Allen.

Let me remind you that Haslem gave up probably about 35 mil in total just to stay with the Heat. Ray Allen took half the money compared to what Boston offered. And all of Lebron, Bosh, Wade and Miller took at least a 10% cut. Lebron and Bosh even took it for a team/city they had no previous allegiance to.

You know who pulled a similar thing off ? Dr Buss when he got Malone to take an 18 mil cut (well, at least 10, really) and Payton a 5-8 mil cut to join the Lakers in 2003.

Do you really think Jim Buss can pull something like that off ?
To answer this question, ask yourself if you see Dolan pulling off something like that.
And then check how he gutted his team to get Melo, and now they'll be a 1st round victim again.

Sure, you can turn a blind eye and pretend everything will be like before.
But that is called "living in denial".

[DEEP3CL]

Dwight's departure is not seen as a catalyst for anything, but rather as a SIGN that the current Lakers FO is nowhere near what it was under Dr Buss. Jim Buss looks more like James Dolan than Dr Buss. An entitled, spoiled brat with a huge ego, who can't admit when he is wrong.

I think it's too early for anybody that hasn't really been in tune with our management to judge Jim.B. Truthfully his only mistakes have been on the coaching hires, but at the same time Dr.Buss also signed off on those hires. Yet he took all the heat for it which is cool. But Jim is good in my book because I'm to judge him on the players I see step on the floor.

I know the Lakers/Kobe fans' favorite sport this summer was "Bash Dwight". We'll see if for Thanksgiving they eat turkey or crow.

I doubt that was the case, maybe from people you know in your hometown, but here in LA we've pretty much dismissed it the minute it was over. I don't know if it was a Laker/Kobe thing......too many guys are hung up on dividing our fanbase on those two fronts.

If you don't believe me go search the Howard topics on our board, we probably had like on concerning him. Then the minute he signed with Houston most of us started to let it go.

And as far as Jim, I get it's easy for outsiders to bash him on anything he does or says. But the man tried on several fronts to hit the homerun, he gave the go ahead for Mitch to make the CP3 trade, he took the gamble on Dwight. So he tried to set the franchise up long term, can't do nothing about the things that happened after the fact.