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 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.
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.
Expect Riley will kick the coach to the curb and take over a situation when success is a sure thing and then resign down the road when the team starts aying poorly in a couple of years like he did when the Heat got Shaq and then Riley dumped Stan Van Gundy.
I dunno... this is capitalism, but it all feels so... unseemly.