There's a good chance the entire landscape of the League could be changed in a matter of weeksDwyane Wade I think he stays with Miami. Tired of leading the retard crew, he'll get his wish when the front office signs.......Amare Stoudemire Never really meshed with Nash personally even though they were one of the most prolific offenses in League history. Tired of getting blocked in his route to the Finals by the behemoths out West, he'll seek refuge in South Beach and embrace (and routinely get dominated in) a new rivalry with Dwight Howard.LeBron James signs with the Chicago Bulls. The money doesn't matter, because the contracts from NY, NJ and whoever else will alll have the exact same dollar value, besides the extra year and 30 mil on Cleveland's offer. But LeBron feels he's outgrown Cleveland, and Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao weren't the complementary players he felt he could win titles with. In the Windy City, he teams up with young studs Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, along with......Chris Bosh to instantly form the best starting 5 in the East, if not the entire NBA, with Luol Deng as the 5th wheel. The Bulls are a lock to win 55+ games for the life of James and Bosh's contracts and become the top draw in the league on par with LA. Championships are another matter entirely, something no one can predict, but I think LBJ thinks this is his best bet to be in position to win a title each year going foward.Dirk Nowitzki stays with Dallas, and I can't really fathom any other outcome. Mark Cuban has some of the deepest pockets in the league, and although he hasn't proven you can ride him to a title, Dirk remains one of the top players in the game, and Cuban will be more focused with finding the pieces to surround him.Joe Johnson is destined to be overpaid. He is a good, not great, player, and with so many teams clearing cap space in hopes of signing Lebron or Wade, someone will be left at the altar and give Johnson a max deal for 2/3 max production. I see the Knicks signing Johnson and......Carlos Boozer as their fans light themselves on fire. They move from being a terrible team to a middling Eastern Conference pseudo-contender and hover around the 45 win mark for the next several years. Not good enough to contend for a ring, and too good to get a high enough draft pick to land an impact rookie. Similar to the situation of the Charlotte Bobcats, Houston Rockets, and a handful of other teams.And I haven't even touched on Rudy Gay, Ray Allen, David Lee, or John Salmons. When the clock strikes midnight on Thursday, the madness begins.
6/28/2010 2:55:40 PM
not a free agent, but I'd like to see Charlotte get ball punching Chris Paul
6/28/2010 3:13:48 PM
I hope teams avoid joe johnson, it definitely seems like he's going to be that one annoying player every off season that will demand a max contract (even with everyone around him snickering) and will probably go to a desperate bad team and make their situation worse now if he accepts a lesser contract to make a title team with lebron or someone else then I'll change my mindray allen could be a great pickup provided he takes a much lesser contract, he proved in the finals that he isn't a go to scorer anymore so I'm going to be disapointed if he demands a ton of money, I think boston should definitely let him go regardless and try to find a younger explosive scorer they can put in their starting lineup instead[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 3:20 PM. Reason : k]
6/28/2010 3:17:03 PM
I think Lebron stays with Cleveland and Wade stays with Miami.Miami signs either Amare or Bosh. I think Amare is better, so would therefore be the better fit. I kinda wish Amare would stay with Phoenix and they could give it one more run. I think if Artest doesn't make that stupid ass last second shot, then they take that game in overtime, take the series in LA, and make the finals. But that's speaking from my bias.I'm not going to even try and predict anything else. Although it would fall in line with all of the moves they've made in the past decade, New York would be retarded to sign Joe Johnson. Actually, most teams would be retarded to give him max money after this year's playoffs flameout.I still think Boozer would be a great pick-up for any team, as long as that team has a solid center. He killed it in Utah, he just couldn't be the only Big going against other solid frontcourts. Okur wasn't enough.
6/28/2010 3:18:24 PM
I see Ray signing a 2-3 year deal with one of Boston, Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Orlando, Denver or whichever team gets LeBron.No way he signs with a team that doesn't have a great chance of contending next year.The dollars will be interesting...I see him getting about 8 per year.
6/28/2010 3:26:21 PM
I really hope lebron leaves cleveland at this point, he needs another star not a supporting cast, my hope is for a bosh/lebron combo somewhere, the problem is I'm just not sure new jersey has the prestige that will sway lebron and the knicks I just have no faith in, they have got to have the worst management in the league if they can't make something work this off seasoncan anyone post the teams with the major cap room? I think chicago now is clearing space to possibly get two free agents and a team like miami is clearing pretty much their entire team so the competition is getting even hotter, it should be really interesting
6/28/2010 3:38:29 PM
Still holding out hope that LeBron goes to the Knicks, but I guess it isn't happening.
6/28/2010 3:51:43 PM
agreed slave, i have also been speculating on amare joining dwade in miami.. he loves it there and they love him so i do not see him leaving in the near future.at the same time, i think fantasy monsters chris bosh or david lee could also sign with the heat and prove to be good fits.
6/28/2010 4:06:07 PM
Chris Bosh comes to Cleveland in a sign and trade with toronto. Lebron loves the move and staysseriously, as a Cavs fan, if Lebron leaves I'm probably going to stop watching the NBA altogether
6/28/2010 4:08:39 PM
Good idea. I mean, who needs the NBA when you have the epic Jake Delhomme/Seneca Wallace QB battle to look forward to?
6/28/2010 4:12:22 PM
LeBron going to the Bulls would be the stupidest move he could make. He'll never be able to escape the Jordan comparisons and the fans will expect him to win 6 titles. He should go to Miami and run with Wade. He ain't going to NY.
6/28/2010 4:12:49 PM
I hear Craig Ehlo Jr., Mark Price III, and Larry Nance IV are getting ready to graduate high school pretty soon]
6/28/2010 4:13:16 PM
^^^^you and the rest of the state of OhioI, however, plan to keep my LeBron Cavs jerseyI'm a Hornets fan and we won't really do shit. We can offer someone the MLE, which I'm just hoping we don't use on someone stupid.[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 4:27 PM. Reason : f]
6/28/2010 4:13:25 PM
Just throwing this out thereDennis Horner is available
6/28/2010 4:18:37 PM
TWW is jaded by Jordan's impact. I'm 25, and Jordan was last relevant as a player in Chicago when I was 13. Kids younger than me have spent their formative years rooting for Kobe and Lebron. Michael Jordan, the basketball player, is getting less influential by the day. If it was just a few years ago that Jordan left, then yeah, the comparisons would be fresh. But its been 12 years. The Bulls have gone thru Elton Brand, Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, Ron Mercer, Jalen Rose, Jamal Crawford and a host of other bums since 1998. LeBron won't soured by Jordan's legacy, just like Ichiro wasn't ruined by Griffey Jr. and Tony Romo's wasn't ruined by Troy Aikman. 12 years, in sports time, is an eternity.[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 4:21 PM. Reason : x]
6/28/2010 4:20:23 PM
You're right, but that is not going to be how its universally viewed.
6/28/2010 4:26:38 PM
Mainly because the views we hear and read will be those of obese middle aged men, not the 18-24 demographic that really matters.LeBron will not win 6 titles...I think he gets 2 or 3. There is too much parity in the league now a days for a juggernaut to run roughshod over everyone else like the Jordan-Pippen Bulls did so easily.
6/28/2010 4:32:00 PM
theres also the UNC slant on Jordan, which we all get to hear about ad nauseum in this area
6/28/2010 4:36:08 PM
6/28/2010 4:36:51 PM
Of course Jordan is bigger than the aformentioned, but I think his Wizards comeback makes some of you think he's closer to relevance than he really is.Remember, his last game with Washington was a mere 7 years ago, in 2003. We all know he was a fraction of the player then, but the memory is fresh, and we associate that Jordan with the dominant Chicago Jordan, when in actuality he was an overweight ballhog trying to run a team with Kwame Brown and Larry Hughes (both who have websites dedicated to their ineptitude.)If Jordan stays gone after '98, doesn't buy the Bobcats, and fades into the limelight, I think its much less of an issue. Now, because he's so ubiquitous, be it with sneakers, Charlie Sheen, or his new video game cover, he's a lot more in the limelight as a person, but not as a basketball player.[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 4:46 PM. Reason : x]
6/28/2010 4:45:33 PM
i agree that enough time has passed where the fans shouldn't really compare the two, especially considering how they haven't done dick since '98 and should be grateful to have a player of his caliber (lebron)
6/28/2010 6:00:50 PM
Its bad enough that people think of south beach when they think of miami but when people go out of their way to call miami "south beach" when they aren't even talking about south beach or miami beach at all, its raelly annoying. I don't blame op. Stuart scott does the shit all the time and thats probably where he picked up on it from.
6/28/2010 7:31:11 PM
6/28/2010 7:38:20 PM
Screamin' A Smith reported on his show this afternoon that Lebron is set to sign with the Heat.He is annoying as fuck, but has connections in the association.
6/28/2010 8:03:35 PM
Ive said all along that the Heat make the most senseLebron wants INTERNATIONAL fame...not just American.but the KEY is that he wants ownership...he wants his brand and his own team eventually. He wants what jordan has.THe knicks cant do that neither can the clippers or Chicagohis best bets are NJ and Miami. Him and Dwade plus another big man...they can sign 3 after all...would be the most astounding team in the NBA no doubt.the Heat is throwing away their whole team and rebuilding. They will prolly get someone like Reddick to hit the kickout 3s and then a center.great idea and thats what they will do i feel.
6/28/2010 8:29:45 PM
Admittedly I haven't seen Wade play a lot recently. About how many good years do y'all think he has left?
6/28/2010 9:25:53 PM
At 28.5, with a playing style that yields itself to injury, as well as a recent history of injury, coupled with a game that relies on quickness, a lack of good shooting range and less than ideal height for an NBA shooting guard...I give him three more years at an elite level, two more after that as a very good player, and then rapid descent to league averageSo if he signs a 6 year deal as expected, he should be very productive for the vast majority of it, barring major injury
6/28/2010 9:30:19 PM
Dan Patrick made a good point yesterday morning. He compared the combination of Lebron, Bosh, Wade to that of Allen, Garnett, and Pierce a few years ago. Everyone thought that mutiple titles were a given, and that nobody in the league could touch this team. They have only won one title since they were brought together and it is very likely that all 3 of them will not be back next year. Yes, the Celtics were just at bad as the Knicks and Nets before getting Garnett and Allen, but they haven't lived up to expectations.Soooo.. when all 3 of them sign with the same team, let's not declare them NBA champions.
6/29/2010 8:04:37 AM
If Lebron goes to Miami he will forever be told that he couldnt win a title without Wade, while Wade could win a title without Lebron. In Chicago he will always be in Jordans shadow, I dont care what spin you try to throw on it Slave, Jordan is still God in Chicago and always will be. Unless LBJ brings them 10 titles, he will never eclipse the mark Jordan made.here is a good story talking about the tension within Team Lebron, World Wide Wes, etc.:http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-lebronpower062810
6/29/2010 8:32:54 AM
NBA is as bad as soccer.Call me when March Madness starts. It's the only basketball worth watching.
6/29/2010 8:38:10 AM
^Wade won one without Lebron, but Wade will be linked with Shaq just like Kobe was before he won one without him. Wade will be "you needed Shaq to win your first and you needed LBJ to win your second." You can say that about anyone though, that's why it's a team game, no one did it by themselves, Kobe and Jordan included.But I do believe the MJ legacy in Chicago will keep him from going there despite having Rose and Noah there to help.And ^^ yeah those 3 are starting to fall apart, but in their 3 seasons:Championship2nd Round exit(7 games)Finals(7 games)I wouldn't really call those bad seasons. They were one game away from championships 2 out of 3 years and these 3 free agents are younger. I'm not saying those 3 on the same team will be an automatic championship or anything, I'm just saying those 3 together would instantly make any team a contender. And more importantly, the franchise would instantly become more marketable.
6/29/2010 8:46:18 AM
6/29/2010 8:54:18 AM
All in the same draft, yesBut Wade turning 29 next year is the sneakiest subplot of this whole thing. Bosh is '84, Bron is '84, and Wade is '82, and January '82 at that. He will be the first of the three to fall off, and probably several years before the others.
6/29/2010 9:04:54 AM
Everyone still expected them to win multiple NBA titles.... They will also not likely be dominent in the paint, which hurt the Celtics (until the emergence of Perkins this year). All I am saying is I'm not convinced that these 3 will be able to live up to expectations and they will be in trouble if they run into a big team in the Playoffs.
6/29/2010 9:07:12 AM
They're not going to take a paycut to all be on the same team, so the point is moot.
6/29/2010 9:11:07 AM
I heard on the radio today that Chicago couldnt offer them (LBJ and Bosh) two max contracts either, they would have to take $15 mil each instead of the $16.5 mil max
6/29/2010 11:28:51 AM
said this morning that the Raptors pretty much know they're not getting Bosh back and are open to a sign and trade. You know he wants that extra money and the Heat dont have any people to give them.
6/29/2010 11:39:20 AM
Finding concrete salary cap room and information is proving difficult. Most of what I've gathered is through a series of tweets and blurbs.
6/29/2010 1:56:25 PM
pretty sure lebron and bosh both end up in chicago and dominate the NBA for the forseeable future.It'd be tough for that team to not win ~70 games. Also, Rose would be by far the 5th best player on that team. He would be the only hole in the lineup and they'd probably be better off trading him for a reliable point guard that can shoot and not turn the ball over constantly.Noah is an absolute stud and Deng is an above average starter. You add a star in Bosh and a megastar like Lebron and all the sudden you are wiping teams off the face of the earth.In that situation I would pray the Lakers made the Finals just so they could get demolished in front of the whole country.Also, who in the fuck thought the Celtics were going to win tons of titles? No one thought that, thats revisionist history. Everyone was saying their window was probably three years max. If Garnett doesn't get hurt last year they had a really good shot. He obviously wasn't able to recover fully and the decline of Pierce/Allen was too drastic for Rondo's emergence to overcome. Now if they'd spent the Rasheed Wallace, Shelden Williams, and Marquis Daniels money better, they'd have another banner this year.I think we end up with JoJohnson and Amare in New York which will make them still pretty much suck. Maybe 40-45 wins. Johnson simply isn't that good and to pay him off is simply insane. Atlanta won't really even fall off next year if he leaves, he's their third best player. If they lose D.Lee the Knicks won't even make the playoffs.I think we get Boozer in Miami which makes them better but not contenders.Dirk stays in Dallas, but without adding a major piece they are in trouble due to age.Rudy Gay is pretty irrelevant because he never got good (ill admit i loved him coming out of college, i was wrong but still correct to take a legit starter over Morrison)John Salmons is totally irrelevant.I think Ray signs in Boston but to give him more than the MLE is a mistake because he's not that good and too much of an injury risk.David Lee is a great player to target. Not only is he actually good, he won't get overpaid like most of the players on this list.[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 7:01 PM. Reason : you guys make the weirdest statements sometimes]
6/29/2010 6:52:05 PM
Dirk already said today he was opting outso therefore you are wrong on that...and you have mentioned some of the most random players. you forget theres ppl in play like Reddick...CP3 and even Shaq.
6/29/2010 8:23:17 PM
^ Uh?I think its pretty obvious I said I think Dirk will re-sign with Dallas. He said he was going to opt out almost a month ago.I named all the players who were named by the OP. It wasn't random. These just happen to coincide with the biggest NAMES on the market.CP3 is not a free agent by the way.I keep up with this stuff 12 months a year. I could probably tell you 80% of the entire league's contract status in the NBA within a few percent of total $ and length. It's just kinda my thing. I'm not the one you wanna call out on FA and trade scenarios.And you're right the entire landscape of the NBA might be changed by where J.J. Redick lands. I can't keep my eyes off the news ticker.[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 9:01 PM. Reason : WEIRD]
6/29/2010 8:58:01 PM
I wonder if JT3 has a girlfriend or a mentally disabled nephew that posts using his nameThere's no way anyone who even casually follows sports could post the sheer volume of retarded shit he does
6/29/2010 9:00:14 PM
I hear Redick, Shaq and Raymond Felton are having a summit at an undisclosed location to decide where they will take their collective talents next year
6/29/2010 9:04:37 PM
Anybody know the math difference in what Lebron would make overall if he stayed in Cleveland, versus if he went to Miami (no state income taxes in Florida)?
6/29/2010 9:11:12 PM
Would you rather consistently bang chicks from Akron OH or South Beach?
6/29/2010 9:13:14 PM
Damn, Ernie.
6/30/2010 1:20:48 AM
rose would be the 5th best player on the bulls?? he averaged 21, 6, and 4 last year while shooting almost 50% from the pg position. and he's 21 years old. he's a better player than deng or noah. rose who "constantly turns the ball over" averaged .6 TOs per game less than lebron.he might not be a better fit with lebron and bosh who will both require a bunch of touches and a knockdown three point shooter would be desireable...but he definitely wouldn't be a hole in the lineup.
6/30/2010 6:43:37 AM
Paul Pierce decided to opt out for free agency as well.I don't know where all this money to pay these fools is gonna come from. You're gonna see 6 really good teams and a majority of shitty ones. Don't know how that can be good for the league.
6/30/2010 8:08:07 AM
Rose and Lebron is a weird mix. Remember several years back, Cleveland really wanted a knockdown shooter to help LeBron, so they tried desperately to sign Michael Redd. He ended up staying with Cleveland, so they thre 70 million at Larry Hughes, and because he couldn't shoot, he fit horribly on that team. They went out and got Mo Williams specifically because he's a great shoooter, if only an average at best pure point guard.Because LeBron handles the ball so much, you don't need a typical Nash/Paul/D-Will PG to succeed...basically you need what Kobe has in Fisher and Farmar, a knock down shooter who can create offense a few times a game when your star is on the bench. With Rose, he's just a slightly better shooter than Rondo right now. If they get LBJ, he needs to be in the gym all summer working on his 18 footer out to 3 point range, because he won't have the ball in his hands leading the offense nearly as much.
6/30/2010 9:08:53 AM
What I am interested to see is if players who claim they are all about winning are willing to take some cuts in pay to put together a winning team. This is what New York is betting on at this point. From what I have read they are going to pitch to LeBron, Bosh, and Johnson that while they may have to take a bit of a pay cut the opportunity for endorsements and such in NY will far and away overcome the cut in salary. Also they are using the whole MJ thing to their advantage basically saying if you 3 come here and bring NY a title you will become God's in this city whereas a place like Chicago you will never be as loved as MJ. Its sad I am looking forward to this offseason drama more than I was the playoffs this year.
6/30/2010 9:28:19 AM