Posted on 07/07/2010 9:41:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have committed to Miami, two league sources confirmed, which leaves LeBron James and Carlos Boozer as the last two big-money free agents on the board.
The important specifics of the Miami agreements were unknown on Wednesday, the day before new contracts can officially be signed. Will both Wade and Bosh receive max deals, or are they planning to accept less money in order to create room for James to join them? Will the Raptors accept Michael Beasley in a sign-and-trade for Bosh, which would clear space for Miami to offer near-max deals to James, Wade and Bosh altogether?
To view it from Toronto's perspective, will the Raptors receive compensation for Bosh that would enable him to earn a six-year, $125 million max deal, or will Bosh settle for five years and leave the Raptors with nothing in return?
Wade and Bosh were expected to make an announcement at 12 p.m. ET on Wednesday. ESPN first reported the two players' decisions.
James plans to announce his decision Thursday night during a one-hour special on ESPN -- commercial proceeds to go to the Boys And Girls Clubs of America -- with the setting of the announcement suggesting in and of itself that he will re-sign with Cleveland.
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
If James stays in Cleveland, the most promising suitor to be left behind will be the Bulls, who two weeks ago were viewed as a heavily rumored favorite to land both James and Bosh. Unless they can swing James to Chicago, the Bulls will have struck out on the top eight free agents, leaving them with the option to sign Boozer, a 28-year-old with a history of injury troubles. The Nets and Clippers will have signed no elite players either, while the Knicks -- who for two years have been viewed as the main contender for James -- enter the next round of free agency hoping to build around the five-year, $100 million deal they gave to Amar'e Stoudemire.
Should James not join Wade and Bosh in Miami, the Heat will have more than $10 million in cap space to fill out their roster (and even more space if they unload Beasley in a sign-and-trade with Toronto). The quality of those moves will decide whether Wade and Bosh are surrounded with enough talent to challenge the Celtics, Magic and Cavaliers or Bulls (depending on James' choice) at the top of the East next season.
Bosh's veiled signal that he will be willing to accept a five-year deal that leaves Toronto without compensation is the equivalent of holding a gun to the head of the Raptors. They can either take on Beasley in a sign-and-trade or accept a draft pick along with a $16 million trade exception that can be used over the year ahead -- an asset that could have enormous value at next year's February trade deadline, when teams are seeking to dump salary. The option that could help Toronto while providing Miami with the least cap space would be to acquire the trade exception and leave the Heat with the burden of Beasley's contract.
If signs with a team in Fla as opposed with a team in NY, he will save $9,000,000.
MIAMI HERALD WRITES A COLUMN ASKING LEBRONE JAMES TO JOIN THE HEAT :
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/07/1719375/dear-lebron-come-to-miami-and.html
Dear LeBron:
We admire your loyalty, your allegiance, your sense of hometown.
Now get the hell out of Cleveland as fast as that private jet will fly.
Don’t look back.
Don’t look back to the franchise that couldn’t surround you with enough talent.
Don’t look back to the city that required you to wear four layers of clothing to drive to wintry practices.
Look forward.
Look forward to multiple NBA championships in the luxurious surroundings of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Look forward to Miami and South Beach, where the models are still wearing bikinis in December.
OK this concludes the `Dear LeBron’ portion of our column.
Now I’d like to address Heat fans:
Dear Miami:
Jackpot!
The Heat have hit it big with Wednesday’s news that Wade reportedly will re-sign with Miami, after all, and that he’s bringing Bosh with him. That’s a jackpot with or without LeBron, who by all accounts is deciding between re-signing with his Cavaliers or jumping to the Heat as he prepares to make his nationally televised announcement Thursday night.
Adding LeBron would give Miami a true Dream Team. It would make the Heat bigger than the Dolphins, or at least sexier and noisier, turning games into events.
You know what, though? Either way, I say Dwyane Wade and Pat Riley have come out OK after all of this drama. More than OK.
LeBron is a bonus at this point, albeit a King-size one.
Getting Wade to re-up and adding Bosh alone makes this a monstrously successful free agency period for the Heat and roster-architect Riley.
Keep in mind those two guys were the realistic goal originally, long before the possibility of LeBron came into play.
James, Wade and Bosh were the summer’s top-three free agents without question, and Miami will have at least two of them.
By my math, that’s a win. A giant one.
There are questions looming beyond LeBron’s decision, of course.
With or without James, the Heat will need to fill out a roster that now includes only Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers beyond the free-agent guys.
Add James and there won’t be much more money to spend. Add James to Wade and Bosh and they could get by with you and I as the other starters.
Without James, Riley still would have a nice pile of cash to go get one or two more solid free-agent pieces. Here’s hoping they re-sign Udonis Haslem, who’d be terrific off the bench or maybe even as a starter at small-center.
Another question that will be ever-growing is whether Riley will want to coach again, taking the reins from Erik Spoelstra. I don’t think that’s a given as most in the national media seem to. I also don’t think a coaching change would come from any mutiny at the player level; Wade and Spoelstra get along fine. A change only happens if it comes from Riley getting the itch again.
That’s getting ahead of us, though. Who’ll end up coaching and how the roster will fill out — that’s down-the-road stuff.
What matters right now is that the Heat has put itself in a tremendous position, no matter what.
If LeBron joins, it’s the Dream Team.
If not, Wade and Bosh are enough to let Miami dream big.
With Stoudemire going to the Knicks, I figure NY is the most likely destination for James. James/Stoudemire could easily rival Wade/Bosh ... and would be better than any combination of James and players on the Bulls.
He might stay in Cleveland and try to coax Boozer to Cle. I don’t see the Bulls as a likely destination at this point ... I think James might’ve gone to the Bulls with Wade or Bosh, but not by himself.
SnakeDoc
>>>If signs with a team in Fla as opposed with a team in NY, he will save $9,000,000.<<<
He would very likely more than make that up in addtional endorsements, in NY, in his first year. Of course, if he joined Wade and Bosh in Miami, that might increase all their endorsement money, but it is still a much smaller market.
It does feel like Cle, Mia and NY are the three front runners right now.
Chi, NJ and LA Clippers are the longshots.
I’m surprised that Dallas hasn’t explored a sign & trade. They have assets that Cleveland could build with, and it would team LeBron with a legit star.
If Lebron:
a) Wants to be loyal, but probably never win an NBA Championship and severely limit his endorsement/business opportunies - He should stay in Cleveland.
b) Wants to play with 2 other superstars on a potential dynasty, in a city with great weather (especially during basketball season, he should go to Miami.
c) Wants to go to a team with a great chance of contending right away, and has more cap flexibility, in a large market, and he won’t mind always being second to Michael Jordan, he should go to Chicago.
d) Wants to maximize his endorsements, be able to meet regularly with giants in media, business, finance, advertising, etc. to help achieve his stated goal of being a mega-billionaire mogul, and play for a team with a reasonably good chance of winning some titles, and OWN that city if he does win a title, he should go to New York.
e) If he wants to tear his ACL he should go to the LA Clippers.
You have just summarized the decision making process a big corporation tends to go through when deciding where to put their HQ or Company Office in the USA.
The one factor Lebron should not overlook is TAXES.
RE: If he wants to tear his ACL he should go to the LA Clippers.
I have always wondered — what is the rationale for having the Clippers ? Why the need for two basketball teams in Los Angeles ?
The main rationale for me is — they’re trying to be like a Yankee-Met Subway series sort of team.
But heck, I might be wrong — I believe the Clippers have NEVER, EVER in their history of existence made the playoffs.
I would like to see him remain in Cleveland for loyalty reasons, however, you know if he goes to Miami, Pat Rilley will return.
WILL SOMEONE TELL ME JUST WHY WE SHOULD SHIVE A GIT ABOUT SOME OVERPAID GIANTS WHO CAN PUT A BALL INTO A NET BY SIMPLY REACHING FOR IT?
Rome perished as its citizens rampaged for more "bread and circuses" while the barbarians stormed the gates.
I guess this is the "circuses" part.
I’m a Bulls fan but I’m afraid you’re entirely correct. They created salary cap room to sign both, but may not get either. It could be a bonanza for them to sign both but I don’t think they’ll get just one. The carrot has to be a championship ring. If either signs with their old team, the Bulls won’t get squat.
We enjoyed the Michael/Scotty years but we’ve been in purgatory since. I pray that things will work out for us.
The LA Clippers have been to the playoffs a few times, but very rarely.
Bill Simmons has written that the Clipper franchise could be potentially extremely valuabe if they got a new owner and changed their name (I think he suggested Hollywood Stars). I tend to agree.
That said, the word is Donald Stirling would NEVER sell the franchise for any price. Apparently his image as the sleaziest and worst owner in pro sports is very important to him.
I don’t believe in sports “curses”, but the unreal volume horrible trades, horrible draft choice and horrible luck that the Clippers have had almost make me believe in them.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090624&sportCat=nba
I guess the same question you asked of basketball can be asked of any sports — Tennis, Soccer, Baseball, Football, etc.
For that matter, we can ask the same question of people who do nothing but play make believe on screen.
For that matter, let’s extend the question even further — why do we pay millions to executives who gamble with investment money and then when they lose, ask taxpayers to bail their bankrupt companies out ?
The Bulls with Rose, Noah, Deng, plus cap room for LeBron and Wade or Bosh would have seemed to make a great deal of sense.
Assuming he does not end up there, I would guess either the bad reputation of Bulls management (everyone associated with the 1990s dynasty seems to hate the franchise now) or the idea of always being in MJs shadow turned LeBron off.
Well, you cared enough to come in and tell us what to do. So its obviously important. I think the real question is why should we care about the opinions of someone who goes around telling people to not care about stuff?
>> If signs with a team in Fla as opposed with a team in NY, he will save $9,000,000.
As a Knick, he’d probably quadruple in endorsements what he’d save in income taxes. He’ll get some endorsements wherever he goes ... he’ll get TONS of endorsements out of NY.
SnakeDoc
Maybe you should change your screen name to Chicken Little. I don’t like O’Suckface, either, but the sky is not falling. This is a sports thread, if you don’t care, don’t comment.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAC/
91-92: Lost to the Utah Jazz in the first round.
92-93: Lost to the Houston Rockets in the first round.
96-97: Lost to the Utah Jazz in the first round.
05-06: Won against the Denver Nuggets, Lost to the Phoenix Suns.
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