IF U WERE LEBRON WHAT WOULD U DO

I think the Nets are a much better option than the Knicks or Clippers, but a worse option than the Cavs or Bulls.

OR MIAMI.

tbh i think if the move to brooklyn was happening next year instead of the year after the nets would make a ton of sense as the riskiest but highest-reward team for lebron. i mean how zeitgeist-y is this scenario:

- move to brooklyn

- best player in the world coming in

- no 1 draft pick

- crazy russian billionaire doing whatever lebron asks

- steal huge amounts of the new york fanbase from the knicks

and yeah lee and lopez would be great complementary pieces. i just don't think he would spend the first year of his new contract in limbo in new jersey.

i wonder if out of all the potential teams, lopez is the player that would make most sense for him to go play with

obv he's not better than wade or d rose, but they're both backcourt guys -- actually the answer is blake griffin but obv he's not going to clips -- couldn't even imagine those two together

i've been thinking about that a lot--ppl all being like "lebron and bosh" or "lebron and boozer" but lopez seems like a much better fit than those guys

meh. the scenario for a juggernaut built to win many championships is available (but only in miami, and i suppose to a lesser extent chicago, tho i don't see how they get all three).

it's not really feasible in miami for various reasons

i.e. you're assuming that there's a team just willing to take all of the heat's crap off their hands for next to nothing

i feel bad for non-magical unicorns

well, yeah, via a sign-and-trade that includes beasley. why, aside from that, is the scenario infeasible?

YES I ALSO FEEL BADLY FOR NON-MAGICAL UNICORNS.

ALL UNICORNS SHOULD BE MAGICAL. IT IS UNFAIR AND WRONG FOR ONE TO BE OTHERWISE.

- both lebron and wade would want to play the rest of their primes with each other, which seems nice in theory but means that both guys are severely limiting the career numbers that they could put up, and both likely feel that they could win a championship w/o the other -- i.e. getting their cake and eating it too

- someone would need to take the heat's mid-round pick, also next for nothing, because if the heat draft someone in the first round, they have to pay him regardless

- someone would need to take james jones and his awful contract off their hands, also for next to nothing

it just, it doesn't make sense -- they're gonna end up with wade & bosh and that should be okay

i don't see those as major impediments. i mean, there are 1,000,000,000 nonsense articles speculating on james and wade's frame-of-mind and ego-issues, but it's all unsupported (or, it's supported by cherry-picking circumstantial evidence of the author's choosing). if the three of them want to form a dynasty, this is the path to accomplishing it -- i don't know if they want that, but it seems like winning championships is largely why stars play pro sports (aside from getting paid, which isn't an issue here, since we're talking about max contracts). i'm sure there are ways to give away the mid-round pick (someone will want a draft pick, if nothing is asked in return). i can't really evaluate the jones contract -- maybe that's an insurmountable impediment.

and yes, i'd also like a magic unicorn.

not one of the non-magic types. those are worthless.

i think most people agree that players like wade and lebron wouldn't want to play together for their careers because each wants to be "the guy" -- it's not like baseball where everyone gets up 4 times a game, or football where a star rb & star wr can coexist or even like kobe & shaq where one guy is the outside player and one guy is the inside player -- unless both lebron and wade say "i will forgive my chances to reach a ton of individual statistical plateaus and win a few championships myself for the opportunity to maybe win 4 or 5 titles" then there's really no way such a pairing could happen

i think maaaaaaaaaaybe if wade hadn't won before, there might be a slight chance that they would do this crazy dynasty agreement, but if you're wade, wouldn't you say to yourself "i don't need another me, i need another shaq" (i.e. chris bosh)

i think i'd say "the players on the celtics dynasty are considered amazing," i've won championships, i'm young, and i want to win a lot more. how do i best do that?

daniel i love ya but you're nuts--the idea of two top-5 backcourt/wing players pairing up in their primes is essentially unheard of. nba teams need a pecking order and i can't imagine either james or wade happily deferring to the other.

if lebron really wanted to go this route chicago is still the answer because he'd have clear alpha dog status over rose. there's no choosing between wade and james--and wade is the guy with the nba championship.

it's v. hard to find a comparable situation because james and wade do really, really similar things offensively

now maybe there are game-dynamics that would make a pairing of the three stars (or even james/wade) unrealistic. maybe they both need the ball in their hands in most of the offensive series to be effective. but i just don't see why that's true.

btw, kareem/magic; kobe/o'neal; duncan/robinson; any number of celtics pairings. top-tier stars coexist all the time (tho maybe not star nos. 1 -- 2 in the league).

kareem/magic and kobe/o'neal worked because it was a guard-center combo

david robinson was not a top-tier player at the time

garnett, pierce and allen had never won anything by themselves, and all were in the final 5 or so years of their careers -- wade has already won and i think lebron thinks he can win without being part of some nuclear dynasty -- i think you're overestimating the allure of winning 5+ championships

drats, you may be right (for the "both do similar things offensively" notion).

let's just agree that the 1980s celtic frontcourt, for example, is something that will never, ever happen again

cad otm -- wade & lebron are seriously essential the same players -- it's not even like one is carmelo anthony who pretty much just scores and would actually be the perfect second player to lebron/wade

i think you're overestimating the allure of winning 5+ championships

i might be but that's shocking to me. they'll earn the most one can earn. they'll have hall-of-fame careers no matter whom they play for. i can't see why winning championships isn't occupying the top spot on their priority list, perhaps after the first two items i mentioned.

wade and carmelo would destroy the league. never even thought about that.

cad otm -- wade & lebron are seriously essential the same players -- it's not even like one is carmelo anthony who pretty much just scores and would actually be the perfect second player to lebron/wade

wade often functions as a de facto point guard, tho i know noting that isn't necessarily helping my case.

carmello isn't a FA this year (or even next, i don't think).

let's just agree that the 1980s celtic frontcourt, for example, is something that will never, ever happen again

probably right.

xxp yeah he does and his options are basically shoot sick 3s over someone, drive hard, or find a shooter to kick to. sounds familiar imo.

yeah i know melo isn't out there just think it would be sick

wade and carmelo would destroy the league. never even thought about that.

― call all destroyer, Saturday, May 15, 2010 3:06 PM (31 seconds ago) Bookmark

the reason why carmelo is so good on team usa but will prob never win a title as the #1 alpha dog is cuz on team usa he can just lay back as a "second tier player" and just destroy who ever is guarding him cuz you can't divert your best guy to him

wade often functions as a de facto point guard, tho i know noting that isn't necessarily helping my case.

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, May 15, 2010 3:06 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

so does wade, is the problem

lebron obv

i wonder why carmelo isn't a FA now, btw? odd coincidence that 3 of the top 4 picks in that draft are all suddenly free-agents, but melo isn't. (he was in that draft, right?)

but lebron is much bigger. he can do different things.

melo will be a FA the year after, along with chris paul

yeah i could see melo winning a title in his paul pierce years with a dynamic younger team around him where he can just do his thing and go off for 30 every once in a while

yeah melo has a player option for 11/12 that he should probably not take

there are minute differences b/w wade and lebron -- wade is a better jump shooter, lebron is a better rebounder -- but they serve the same function

lebron COULD do different things but he doesn't right now

dude needs to really woodshed and develop his game

really what the heat's problem is that for as touted as this free agency class is, it has a bunch of the same players -- wade and lebron are both wing players, and then joe johnson and rudy gay are wing players who are slightly worse -- bosh & amare are both slightly built PFs who can score like crazy but are prob a bit suspect on the defensive end. if there was a true center in this class, or a true point guard (chris paul), then the idea of a three-player dynasty would be much more feasible

i guess yao could opt out

otm

can't see amare going anywhere at this point (unless the suns conduct a fire-sale for reasons having nothing to do with on-the-court success or chemistry)