LeBron James back to Cleveland??

There is a lot of discussion about where LeBron James will be playing ball next season. Will he stay with the Heat even though he thinks they need to "improve at every position" or will he make the great return to the Cleveland Cavaliers where he has unfinished business? The four-time MVP has made no public announcements yet, but all sources point to a "Great Return" to Cleveland. Rumors suggest that Nike has recently purchased a tremendous amount of advertising space (billboards, etc.) in the Mid-West and that the Cavaliers made a cap-clearing trade on Wednesday that took $21.7 million off the books which will allow them to sign a big contract with LeBron. If this is the case, it is expected that Cav's tickets will become the most expensive in the NBA at $230 a piece on average.

To me it sounds like LeBron has given up on his chances of winning another title with the Heat and has elected to take the next best option: return to Cleveland and try to lead them to a title. I think that he is a sore loser and no matter how great of an athlete he is he will never be considered to be a better play than Jordan because of his lack of commitment to his team and players. Who knows, maybe he'll win a championship with Cleveland...maybe not.

Thoughts Monkeys?
Can LeBron win with the Cavs?

Will this announcement be broadcasted on ESPN also?

 

He can go rot with his talent-less crew in South Beach. If the Cav's weren't as bad as they are they should not want him back but they are pretty low on the totem pole so gotta take what you can get.

No doubt in my mind this "Decision 2.0" will be broadcasted on Lebron Center....errr I mean Sports Center.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if he does return to Cleveland. Main selling point would be the potential to grow with a young team - Kyrie Irving, Andrew Wiggins, Tony Bennett (well okay maybe not Tony, but he has room to improve), etc. in upcoming years. Assuming Bosh leaves for Rockets, which seems pretty likely given his prospects there, I think Norris Cole and Josh McRoberts would be the only young dudes on contracts.

Media will play up the Cavs fans vs. LeBron angle but seems to me that's water under the bridge. I suspect LeBron could care less about the aftermath of The Decision though he at least recognized what a devastating blow it was to many Cleveland fans. If he comes back to Cleveland it won't be to regain some sort of hero status, but for the same reasons he went to Miami.

LeBron could probably care less about achieving Michael Jordan status, whatever that means. I sympathize with Jordan's view that the good players back in the day would not do what LeBron did, but nowadays probably more than ever you can have plenty of supporting cast sitting around earning healthy paychecks but not necessarily developing themselves into better players. Which of the Lebron James Era Cavs players developed into arguably better players to this date? Rarely can you have that good of a team if the individuals within it don't commit themselves to personal excellence, LeBron probably recognized that.

And yeah I think it will be broadcast on ESPN from the UN. Believe the Beijing Ducks is also approaching him about an opportunity to play with Stephon Marbury in the Chinese Basketball Association.

 

(McRoberts isn't even that young though. 27.)

Anyway I agree with everything you've said basically... just wanted to throw this out since I'm on ranting mode.

Jordan is a bonehead. He's the best ever, but he's a bonehead. It's not some generational defect that players want to play with their pals nowadays. It's always been like that. But here's the thing:

When Jordan played, players didn't just hop on a charter to get to their game in Seattle. They scrunched into a Le Bus or into coach seats on an airline. They couldn't just skype their family from a smart phone in their pocket. They had to use payphones. The world was less global, travel was less accommodating, and moving was more permanent. That's point A: players didn't collude because moving was a huge deal during the 80's and early 90's.

Also, just because Lebron heading to the Heat was so high profile (a different story all together) doesn't mean this is the first times that teams go for the absolute best talent they possibly can. Shaq went to the Heat for that same reason in 2004 and nobody bats an eye. But even that wasn't the first time this happened... Aging stars went to the teams that gave them the best chances of winning all the time. Malone to the Lakers. Barkley to the Rockets. Drexler to the Rockets. Payton to the Heat. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

Anyway, players move around all the time. Why does the chance to play with friends or win a championship make so many fans' skin crawl, but tanking to get Duncan only gets the Spurs a ton of love and accolades for being the best team in a decade?? Because fans are fickle and naively, hypocritically, and erroneously idealistic. The Spurs deserve every bit of love they get, and so should any team that wins a championship because it's hard to do with or without "collusion".

Don't get me started on the "it is an easier game today" theory either. Is it less rough today? Marginally, but why don't you ask Shaq or any other large center about how rough it's not. But fine, it's less rough. Does the hand check rule make it easier to play nowadays? Emphatically, NO. Sure you can't hand check on the perimeter emofficially[/em], but watch a game and you'll realize it definitely still does happen. The key, though, is illegal defense. Now teams can play zone and collapse on the drive in seconds. It opens up three point shooting a little bit (not much more than standard p&r and draw and kick plays) but it makes driving to the basket much harder than it was for players before 2001. Proof is in the pudding: of top scoring seasons, only 3 of the top 30 happened since 2001, and that was Kobe and Lebron in '05-'06 and KD in '13-'14. Kobe and KD with the help of lots (and lots) of 3 pointers which were significantly less common before 2000.

Anyway... Sorry about the rant. Just thought I'd add that in case anyone is a basketball nerd like me.

 

only following woj and stein breaking stuff, everything else is garbage and fluff.

Lebron's obvious choice is to play the best team that can get him the max in the eastern conference. Ideally, he can go back to the Heat and not re-sign Wade. Build a core with Bosh and get Stephenson. That team def has more title equity than Cavs, but we know Riley isn't going to screw Wade and Haslem.

So that leaves Lebron with couple of options: 1) sign short-term max deal with Heat with Bosh and Wade, hope McBob, Napier, and Granger can fill holes that led them to the destructions vs the Spurs. If that doesn't pan out, bolt in 2 years. 2) sign short-term max deal with Cavs, force trade for KLove without giving up Wiggins, start Kyrie-X-Wiggins-Love-X.

Either way, whatever team he goes to is the instant favorite in the East. Whether or not they'd be favored over whoever comes out of west is TBD.

note: this is all based on the premise that it's either title or bust for LeBron.

 

Can you get mad at Lebron for wanting to win? Dan Gilbert had 7 seasons to put anyone else on the court with Bron and the best he could do was an Mo Williams and Delonte West?? So Lebron should come back to Cleveland, now that they actually have some talent and could win the East with him if Wiggins turns out to be decent and Bennett starts playing better

 
NebraskaHoosier:

Can you get mad at Lebron for wanting to win? Dan Gilbert had 7 seasons to put anyone else on the court with Bron and the best he could do was an Mo Williams and Delonte West??
So Lebron should come back to Cleveland, now that they actually have some talent and could win the East with him if Wiggins turns out to be decent and Bennett starts playing better

While LeBron's delivery of the announcement left much to be desired, I think far too many people overlook this. One of the better all time players going into his prime was stuck on a team that was doing nothing to win. Nothing. I'm not a LeBron lover or hater but I can completely understand why he did what he did.

And it could be interesting to see how Cleveland welcomes him back. Really interesting.

 

I can understand his desire to go to Cleveland since they have a great talent pool; but I dont know how either LeBron or Dan Gilbert can ever work together after the childish-stuff they each pulled. LeBron has never formerly apologized for his Decision, and Dan Gilbert wrote that hate letter about Lebron that he had up on the Cavs site for the last 4 years up until last week

As a Bulls fan, I really hope he goes to the Cavs, it makes the Central Divison that much more competitive next year (assuming Indiana doesn't completely deteriorate), and the Bucks should be somewhat interesting to watch with Jabari, although I would not expect them to be much competition. You would have 3 of the 4 teams from the East in the Central Division (I'd almost argue they'd be the Top 3 but want to play it safe). It should make for a more interesting regular season since they'll play eachother 4 times each.

Hugo
 

This. There is no way he goes to that shitty team. He will most likely play it safe and remain with the Heat and try to get a few more role players that are better than Cole and Rashard. I can see the Rockets making a serious run now that they lost Parsons to the Mavs. Hell, even the Lakers have a better chance than Cleveland does. LA can throw money at any player Lebron wants, and Gasol said he'd instantly sign if they got Lebron or Melo.

I'm too drunk to taste this chicken -Late great Col. Sanders
 

Houston/Dallas are obviously better fits but he won't risk being publicly shamed once again. A core of Ellis-James-Dirk-Chandler with Marion, Felton, Harris, Carter, and Blair AND Carlisle as the coach is just unfair. So is a "Big Three" of Harden-James-Howard, although I'm not sure how Harden and James would work. It's either Miami or Cleveland and it seems like Cleveland has actually done more than Miami to bring him back.The best Pat Riley could do was Josh McRoberts and Danny Granger, while Cleveland cleared away some cap for a max deal and added Wiggins through the draft.

What's crazy is that LeBron will be shamed at this point by Cleveland if he doesn't come back now and he hasn't said a word yet. This is all purely speculation and still he might get hit hard by the media. I think he'll sign a 2 year max deal with Cleveland, Bosh will sign a 4 year deal in Houston, and Carmelo will sign that massive 5 year deal with the Knicks.

 

If he joins the Cavs they are far from shitty team, LeBron and Kyrie tandem will probably be the best 2 player combo in the NBA (right up there with Durant/Westrbrook), add Wiggins and possibly Bennett into the mix you have a strong core of young talent that will be good for next 5 years. Remember LeBron took a Cavs team with Eric Snow, Larry Hughes, Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall to the finals. A bit of a different Cavs team now. Even as a Bulls fan I would say Cavs are best fit for him to win multiple titles.

A key factor though is what Dan Gilbert had to give up to get to LeBron to agree to maybe come back, more than likely a future partial ownership role. Thats the only way I see LeBron forgiving the letter that Gilbert put out and had on the Cavs site until yesterday.

"When you expect things to happen - strangely enough - they do happen." - JP Morgan
 
eignenvector:

A key factor though is what Dan Gilbert had to give up to get to LeBron to agree to maybe come back, more than likely a future partial ownership role. Thats the only way I see LeBron forgiving the letter that Gilbert put out and had on the Cavs site until yesterday.

Footage from the Lebron/Gilbert meeting

And so it goes
 

The only way I think he could go to the Cavs this year is if they could cut a trade for Love while keeping Varejao. Then they would need to go after role players that Lebron loves, namely Ray Allen and Mike Miller. That would give him the players he wants and would probably be the only incentive to go back to Cleveland today. Kyrie and Wiggins are at least a few years removed from being championship ready.

 

The only issue that should stop Lebron from going back is Dan Gilbert. He is a clown and was instrumental in Lebron's departure in the first place, and that was before making a fool of himself with his comic sans "letter to the people" that illustrated only that A. he can't write, and B. he is woefully under-qualified to make basketball decisions and should stick strictly to sitting back and letting Donald Sterling put dollars into his wallet by inflating the value of all teams.

Disclosure: I'm a fan of any team in which Lebron is a player, regardless of how bad the organization is (Cleveland) or how unlikable the other players are (Miami) and have been for 13 years. This is not an exaggeration, I have followed his career since the tail end of his sophomore year in HS following an article I read in Slam Magazine Issue #54 called Ohio Player at a grocery store. So you can call me biased but don't call me fair-weather. I missed all but the tail end of Jordan's career, and our generation needs a basketball hero.

As for which team is better for Lebron, the fact is that only Chris Bosh is capable of multiple years of playing at a high level. Dwyane Wade will continue to decline, as will Birdman Anderson. Ray Allen can still play at the level he's been playing, probably for two more years, but he might go to Cleveland anyway. Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers are not capable of the offensive output needed to put pressure on opposing guards, and the Danny Granger pickup was a waste of 2.8 M per year; he can't move, and hasn't been able to shoot for a year, so he's like the corpse of Shane Battier but with non defense.

Cleveland has a young core with chronic under performers in Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters, a fragile center who can rebound and nothing else in Varejao, a fragile but talented budding star in Kyrie Irving who needs to tighten up his game or risk becoming a turnover prone chucker, and an unproven Andrew Wiggins who could be really good but so far hasn't shown any proof that he has the desire to play with any degree of aggression or passion. Refusing to mention chronically overweight Ant Bennett who is essentially Dan Gilbert's 2013 NBA Draft lovechild.

Neither are great options if you ask me. Best option would be Phoenix (not an Arizonian so I'm not just plugging my own team) but that isn't in the cards, so if I'm forced to pick, I think he should go to Cleveland but force Dan Gilbert to give him some GM-type decision power so he can avoid Dan Gilbert pretending to fill the team up with talent but actually only providing has-been psuedo-stars like Antawn Jamison. Plus Dan Gilbert should decide to just not show up to any team events because he will have had everything to do with Lebron's departure and nothing to do with his return.

TLDR: Big fan of Lebron, think he's going to Cleveland despite Dan Gilbert sucking.

Special shout out to @TheKing because I couldn't agree more.

 
TheKing:

Apparently Kevin Love would be down to go to the Cavs and sign an extension. They'd probably have to trade Wiggins to get him, but that could honestly ensure the Cavs would be title contenders for the next 5 - 6 years.

Couldn't agree more. Love fixes so many of their problems (floor spacing, three point shooting, rebounding, passing out of the post, starting fast breaks by anyone other than LBJ) and while he doesn't fix interior defense perfectly, he isn't a slouch either.

As for Wiggins, I'd trade him any day if I have a shot at luring Lebron and Love.

Kevin Love is 25, and I estimate he has at least 7 more years of his prime if he can stay healthy. Lebron is 29 and has 5 more years of absolute dominance and probably another 5 years of very slow decline the way his game keeps evolving. The rest of the team is young and has a chance to really blossom with Lebron's leadership.

I talked myself into it. If Love is involved, sign me up! I'll have another Cavs jersey to hang up next to my Heat jersey to make it a Lebron James Jersey Palindrome.

 

I agree with the OP that Lebron's career will be historically diminished if he switches teams here. Nothing relating to his amazing talent and his further potential career, but the greatest players are usually recognized for building team dynasties or brining a team to multiple championships (which he has already started doing for the heat). Due to already being 29, Lebron might only win a championship or a couple with the Cavs (considering that the odds for them winning the first/second year he's back would be unlikely and fittingly so.) Staying with the heat, he has a chance to bring them back again to the finals and possibly win another couple championships before he gets too old. James is a great player regardless and I still believe he will go down in history as best of all time.

 
Best Response
sjl1009:

I agree with the OP that Lebron's career will be historically diminished if he switches teams here. Nothing relating to his amazing talent and his further potential career, but the greatest players are usually recognized for building team dynasties or brining a team to multiple championships (which he has already started doing for the heat). Due to already being 29, Lebron might only win a championship or a couple with the Cavs (considering that the odds for them winning the first/second year he's back would be unlikely and fittingly so.) Staying with the heat, he has a chance to bring them back again to the finals and possibly win another couple championships before he gets too old.
James is a great player regardless and I still believe he will go down in history as best of all time.

I think he'll take an unbelievable amount of crap if he switches teams here or not. But I disagree that his career will be diminished historically simply because I doubt people will remember all that. Barkley was an all-timer, and nobody remembers that he was indicted for assault, fought with teammates, fans and coaches in Philly and left on bad terms to Phoenix because his playing and his persona spoke for itself.

Haters still sometimes bring up Kobe's historical missteps but it has by and large been forgotten. Jordan made some weird decisions, like quitting to play baseball (defensible) and having serious gambling issues (less defensible) and those same things are nearly deified now. Even Lebron's "Decision", while still hotly debated, registers way lower on the Richter scale compared than it did before the Heat's first championship with Lebron.

 

@"Mr. Manager" - "thank you for sayin' what needed to be said"

Anyone arguing against LeBron potentially moving is a fool. People on this forum would decapitate their parents if it meant they could leave their job for KKR, so let's not act like LeBron testing the market as a free agent is out of line. Why not put yourself in a better position going forward?

Also, let's not act like all-time greats don't change teams. How about Wayne Gretzky? The Great One was traded, for god's sake. We're talking about the best player since Jordan exploring options because he wants nothing more than to win titles, and somehow he is faulted? Please. The guy is a role model - married, good family, incredible work ethic, no off the court issues whatsoever. What the hell do people want?!?

 
TheKing:

@Mr. Manager - "thank you for sayin' what needed to be said"

Anyone arguing against LeBron potentially moving is a fool. People on this forum would decapitate their parents if it meant they could leave their job for KKR, so let's not act like LeBron testing the market as a free agent is out of line. Why not put yourself in a better position going forward?

Also, let's not act like all-time greats don't change teams. How about Wayne Gretzky? The Great One was traded, for god's sake. We're talking about the best player since Jordan exploring options because he wants nothing more than to win titles, and somehow he is faulted? Please. The guy is a role model - married, good family, incredible work ethic, no off the court issues whatsoever. What the hell do people want?!?

@TheKing No, thank you. It's clear we see eye to eye on this one.

 

According to Chris Sheridan, he's made his decision.

http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2014/07/10/sheridans-top-25-free-agents-ju…

Makes sense from basically all points of view. Eagerly waiting for the Dan Gilbert memes to start rolling out...

This probably means Bosh signs with Houston and the Rockets have the next iteration of the Big 3. Will be interesting to see if they become a dynasty or if the rest of the West can keep them in check.

 

Lebron is no doubt coming back to Cleveland. He told his coach/trainer/friend in Akron three years ago that he was planning to return after his Miami contract was up. He expressed that he didn't care for the Miami lifestyle, wasn't a beach guy, didn't like that he couldn't go anywhere without being mobbed by fans, and that he received some bad advice and guidance around his departure from Cleveland to Miami. Lebron has already crossed NBA championships off of his list of things to do. He is a guy who was raised by Akron and understands that the greatest accomplishment he can possibly achieve at this point is being the hometown boy who brings a championship to a city that has not won one in 50 years. Lebron is returning home.

 

I am so fucking tired of Chris Broussard. Do you really think Lebron gives a shit about a letter that was written 4 years ago? I guarantee they resolved their differences several years ago or at worst, within the last year.

To all of you saying that Dan Gilbert is an idiot, you're retarded. Is he an idiot when it comes to basketball personnel decisions? Probably. Is he an idiot when it comes to business decisions? No way. You don't become that successful without having the ability to swallow your pride and make some tough decisions. He wrote that letter when an entire state felt betrayed after having invested so much in making sure Lebron was happy. Both Lebron and Dan Gilbert know Cleveland is the best situation and story, so they will put their differences aside for the greater good. This letter is such a non-story it pisses me off that Broussard keeps perpetuating this bullshit and gets paid to do it.

 
CorpFinanceGuy:

I am so fucking tired of Chris Broussard. Do you really think Lebron gives a shit about a letter that was written 4 years ago? I guarantee they resolved their differences several years ago or at worst, within the last year.

To all of you saying that Dan Gilbert is an idiot, you're retarded. Is he an idiot when it comes to basketball personnel decisions? Probably. Is he an idiot when it comes to business decisions? No way. You don't become that successful without having the ability to swallow your pride and make some tough decisions. He wrote that letter when an entire state felt betrayed after having invested so much in making sure Lebron was happy. Both Lebron and Dan Gilbert know Cleveland is the best situation and story, so they will put their differences aside for the greater good. This letter is such a non-story it pisses me off that Broussard keeps perpetuating this bullshit and gets paid to do it.

I feel vindicated. Especially after ESPN royally fucked this up. They had NO CLUE.
 

First: Congrats to Cleveland; you guys are lucky.

Second: I love how I contribute to this forum in a positive way and in 6 months of membership, some life changing news, lots of uplifting and (hopefully) useful advice, many well-received blog posts on topics relevant to the forum I rack up lots of SBs, a couple of friends, and very little MS. And then I make a few remarks about being a fan of, oh, only the best basketball player in the last 15 years, and the MS starts raining.

Third: I don't even care because it's the same ignorant weirdos who hate on Lebron. Let it rain! And some parting advice to you weirdos: if you still blindly hate Lebron, and especially if you hate the teams he's on simply because of him, and lastly if you argue like a lunatic with anyone who happens to think he's a good ball player or (heaven forbid) a decent person, you are wasting a LOT of your time on negative emotions. People don't generally get where they want to go powered only by a bunch of negativity.

 

anyone agree that Cavs are now gonna flip Wiggins for KLove? seems to me as this is as good as done. redundant to have wiggins with Lebron jumping on, and they could use Klove to complement lebron's game of needing stretch shooters

 

KLove would have to commit to a long term deal after opting in his current contract. Cleveland can take the risk but Love could leave after a year. Who knows what will happen now, Wiggins wouldn't be too bad in CLE tho

 

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This to all my hatin' folks seeing me getting guac right now..

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