OT: Where Should LeBron Go?

[pistontr]

I would say houston. they have a great shooter (harden) and a great rim protector (howard) which miami never have. lebron and wade aren't a good fit. they won two championships because of lebron's effort.

miami project was a disaster. they won only two championships and last year they were insanely lucky.

[Pharaoh]

Riley needs to get all 3 to take even less money again so they can actually get some quality younger players.

Lebron can't bail on them though....can he?

What would that do to his image?

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[ImHeisenberg]

He should sign with the Clippers or Rockets and leave the Eastern Conference.

[hoophabit]

I think Houston would be the smartest bet. I don't know that it's fair to call Miami a disaster as they've been right at the top of the basketball world since forming that team. Two championships is bad? However, yes the three main players are eating up too much cap and so they don't have a great bench. With both Wade and Ray Allen fading it doesn't look good unless some major restructuring can be done.

LeBron pitched his chance to be the "hometown hero," and so I expect it wouldn't make much difference if he moves again. Those who resent his move from Cleveland will always view him as something of a mercenary, and his dyed in the wool fans will forgive him about anything.

[ImHeisenberg]

Lebron can't bail on them though....can he?

What would that do to his image?

Can he? Yes. Will he? I don't know. This season ended on a sour note, but he did win 2 championships in Miami and 4 consecutive finals appearances. That's incredibly impressive.

If he leaves and continues to win titles, it really won't damage his image as a whole. Miami fans will be mad at him, but most of them are bandwagon fans anyways.

[The Penguin]

He should not take the opt out, exert pressure on Bosh/Wade (especially Wade) to opt out and massively restructure their contracts and put pressure on Riley and Arison to pull out all the stops to reload on the fly this summer.

If Bosh/Wade won't play ball and Arison goes the cheap route to duck the tax/shave salary then he should go to the Clippers in summer 2015. That gives the Clippers time to work out the Sterling situation and bring Balmer into the fold and allows them to shuffle some salary around.



On a semi related note, I have a CBA question. If the Clippers dealt Jordan, Redick, Crawford etc for picks to get under the salary cap, do they pick up TPEs for those players salaries? If that's the case, Lebron and the Clippers should make their play this summer, move Jordan/Redick/Crawford/Dudley/Barnes for future draft picks, pair Lebron with CP3/Blake and then turn around and deal the TPEs to fill out the roster.



I don't really care where he goes, so long as it's not Cleveland. First off, screw the Cavs, beyond that I'd lose any remaining respect for Lebron if he went back to play for Gilbert on a team of vastly overrated young guys, with a young GM and "new to the NBA" coach.

[Sheedpocalypse]

First off, screw the Cavs, beyond that I'd lose any remaining respect for Lebron if he went back to play for Gilbert on a team of vastly overrated young guys

Don't forget Gilbert's 'angry cotton plantation owner' gem in Comic Sans. God, I hate that guy...

[The Penguin]

First off, screw the Cavs, beyond that I'd lose any remaining respect for Lebron if he went back to play for Gilbert on a team of vastly overrated young guys

Don't forget Gilbert's 'angry cotton plantation owner' gem in Comic Sans. God, I hate that guy...

Or "Cleveland Mavs" or his tweets celebrating the Mavericks and saying "There are no shortcuts" or referring the Lebron as "The Player Who Left" for over a year.

[joeposh]

Detroit, obviously. Just to piss off Dan Gilbert and every citizen of Ohio that much more.

Seriously though, I'm not sure there's an obvious choice here. Most of his options out West are superior teams, but play in a much tougher conference. If he stays in the East, there's not much in the way of a sure thing.

Only Chicago seems particularly poised to contend, and there may be too much bad blood there for him to make that leap. Wizards lack the inside game and a strong coach, much like the Heat, the Cavs have a caustic locker room and a lot of open questions in terms of talent, and we have Drummond and some solid pieces, but lack outside shooting and haven't sniffed the Playoffs in some time.

Ultimately, he's probably best off waiting a year to see how things shake out.

[DBC10]

The thing is, why would he leave the East when it's virtually an easy run to the Finals every year for him while in the West, anything goes and it'll be at least twice as harder to carry a team to the finals in the West?

The West is stacked with talent and scoring. While the East is extremely top heavy with only 1 or 2 contenders at the most. I think Lebron stays in the East, and ultimately stays in Miami. If he goes to CHI, you'll never hear the end of it with Jordan/Lebron comparisons since Jordan IS the Bulls legacy. You thought this year was bad with Jordan comparisons, it'll be even worse if he's in CHI-town.

[paQo the BAWSER]

If LeBron moves again, he's going to be remembered like the losser bi**h, he needs to stand like a man.

[dVs33]

If Lebron wants to keep any shred of credibility he better stay in Miami.

[Kilo]

Stay in Miami, but if it's a normal as possible life he's after than I might suggest Portland. Miami should trade Bosh though - James plays the 4, get a true center in there. Maybe Bosh to Houston for Asik, Lin and a first or something. Flip Lin and first for cap space - sign Melo. I dunno.

[Snakebites]

If Lebron cares about his legacy he won't leave Miami for an even better super team in LA or Houston. Chicago is questionable in that way, too. I don't view him leaving Miami as something that kills his legacy or credibility in and of itself, but if he leaves for a team that is already near contention with 2 major stars on it (Harden/Dwight or Paul/Griffin) then that's another thing entirely.

He might not, or he might not see jumping to the next best team as something that damages his legacy. Its hard to say.

IMO the only team he could leave to that wouldn't damage his legacy is Cleveland.

At the moment I'm still on the "I'll believe him leaving when I see it" bandwagon.

[Lionlifer]

I don't see any way he goes West. Teams are tougher, he'd have to play that much harder, and lets be real, Houston isn't that great a fit. They do have Howard, but Harden is entirely too ball dominate, without it he is useless. Their bench/role players are legit, but they'd have to let some of them walk or move them to get enough space for Bron Bron.

Miami or Chicago are the best bets, but I don't think he'd want to live in Jordan's shadow out there. I think the idea of him going back to Cleveland is a pipe dream, he's in his prime, and they are too young to win. They'd contend for sure, but win it all, I just don't see it.

[paQo the BAWSER]

The best team for LeBron in the whole NBA is GSW, but they must need to trade Lee or Iguodala, and get a defensive center.

[The Penguin]

The best team for LeBron in the whole NBA is GSW, but they must need to trade Lee or Iguodala, and get a defensive center.

I've been wondering about them. If they were to do Lee/Thompson/Barnes for Love they'd be dumping Bogut or Igoudala plus Speights away from having nearly $20 mil in cap room. I don't know why they aren't ever mentioned in the Melo/Lebron rumors.

They could have Lebron/Melo - Love - Curry - Bogut/Igoudala - Green

(shudders)

[Q00]

I would say houston. they have a great shooter (harden) and a great rim protector (howard) which miami never have. lebron and wade aren't a good fit. they won two championships because of lebron's effort.

miami project was a disaster. they won only two championships and last year they were insanely lucky.

If 4 Finals and b2b championships in 4 years is a disaster, what do you call what the rest of the league did during that time?

I don't think you understand how rare it is to win b2b championships (or even to win one championship). You're talking like its easy to win a championship or something.

Only 9 franchises have won championships in the last 35 years.

Only 5 teams all-time had ever won b2b before Miami, making them the 6th in history. That is what you call a disaster?

Winning b2b and making 4 straight Finals is an amazing accomplishment.

[Notanoob]

The best team for LeBron in the whole NBA is GSW, but they must need to trade Lee or Iguodala, and get a defensive center.

The Dubs have Andrew Bogut, who is one of the best defensive centers in the game and perennially underrated and passed on for All-Defensive team nods. They don't need that, and oddly they had one of the best defenses in the NBA. Their problem was their offense. Despite the talent they had, they didn't have a good ball-handler outside of Iggy and Curry, and they ran too many isolation plays and post-ups for guys who simply were not that great in isolation or the post. They need an offensive system to take advantage of Curry's ability to warp the court with his shooting and move the ball around.

LeBron's ideal situation would be for Wade and Bosh to opt-out and accept less money because they aren't that good anymore. Not even really star players at this point, especially Wade. That way they could rebuild with a great owner and GM. He stays in the East and continues to collect ring-chasers, but this time he might finally get a legit center to allow them to play a less aggressive defense. Alternatively, they get some slightly younger guys so that they can increase the pressure to what they were doing in the 2012 season.

However, Bosh in particular does not get the kind of money from endorsements that LeBron does, so he might want to get paid one last time. If he can't get them to take less money this year, they could just sort of give up for this season and reload next offseason, just waiving the white flag by resting LeBron so that he doesn't pick up extra miles carrying a scrub-squad.

That seems a bit unlikely, so his next best option would be to go to the Clippers, who are utterly loaded as a team and would really benefit from having a legit wing player, instead of throwing out Barnes, Dudley, Bullock, and whoever else they have to play at SF. His impact on their defense, especially backed up by a legit rim-protector, and an excellent coach, would result in the most loaded team we've seen in forever. They'd be great from a pure basketball perspective, but while they'd have 2 of the top 3 players in the league, they'd also be in the West, and so long as the Sterling situation remains unresolved, they'll be in limbo.

I'm not as big of a fan of the Rockets situation either. The defense outside of a slowly declining Howard is poor, and Howard is significantly less likely to be happy about fewer touches than Bosh. I don't think Howard's stupid, childlike behavior would fit well with LeBron at all. Howard wanted to be the man too IIRC, so he wouldn't appreciate the spotlight James would attract.

Cavs are not a good idea, they simply aren't a good team and haven't proven that they can put together a better roster than they did while he was there. No point in returning now.

[E-Z]

LeBron should probably stay in Miami given the lack of parity in the East. Almost another sure-fire title run, even if Miami made no changes to their roster, similar to last season.

Sure, he could join the Rockets, Warriors, or some other power in the West, however, anything can happen out there in a seven game series. Also, who'd want to run into the Spurs before or in the Conference Finals?

LeBron's legacy is already tarnished in the eyes of many (if not most). He may as well embrace that, and place himself in position to run off as many titles as he can. Traveling to the Finals from Miami probably presents the easiest road for him. The youth (or tank) movement is almost in full effect in the East.

The Heat will probably re-arm itself with pay-cuts from their stars, and additional free-agents (barring any other superstars joining), and they're right back on the whole "not 5, not 6, not 7" train.