2013-14 General NBA Discussion Thread

Chris Broussard ‏@Chris_Broussard

Cleveland has replaced Miami as my frontrunner to land LeBron James...

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA

In pursuit of max slot for LeBron James, Cavs searching for team to take Nets' Marcus Thornton in deal to unload Jarrett Jack, sources say.

Originally posted by Jcool:

Chris Broussard ‏@Chris_Broussard

Cleveland has replaced Miami as my frontrunner to land LeBron James...

Lolebron

Eric Stangel ‏@EricStangel

BREAKING: Anyone can report anything. #NBAFreeAgency

I hope he goes back to Cleveland.

Originally posted by Muggins:
I hope he goes back to Cleveland.

You think the fans that booed him when he left will still boo him? Probably not. They'll take him back with open arms. Haha

If Lebron goes back to Cleveland will he be seen as the "good guy" again?

Originally posted by ninerfan4life:

If Lebron goes back to Cleveland will he be seen as the "good guy" again?

Not sure but it'd sure make for a warm, fuzzy story if he went back to his hometown team (that he previously spurned in a not so great fashion) and won a ring for the city.

That's so gay if he goes to Cleveland lol

Originally posted by sacniner:

Originally posted by GEEK:
So if you were Flip Saunders, what would you do to trade Kevin Love and put your team in the best position to compete in this upcoming season?

If the Cavs can land LeBron James in free agency, I think Kevin Love instantly becomes a target for them. Once they get rid of Jack's contract, they can do something like:

Waiters + Thompson + Bennett + 2015 Draft Picks for Martin and Love.

PG: Rubio/Shved/Barea
SG: Waiters/Levine
SF: Brewer/Budinger/Moute
PF: Bennett/Thompson
C: Pekovic/Dieng/Turiaf

You got younger talent and draft picks to provide potential now and multiple options in 2015.

Can the Cavs afford three max deals? (Love, LBJ and Kyrie)

I don't think the Cavs make any move for Love unless they know he'll sign there long term. And then they'll have to hand out three max deals in your scenario... but, don't worry. LBJ ain't going to Cleveland.

I'll be really surprised if he goes back to Cleveland. But...he needs to leave Miami if Bosh and Wade are unwilling to take less. Wade is worth 12-13M a year and Bosh's value is around 15M a year. If those guys want more money (and I don't blame them at all) then Lebron should go to Suns, Rockets or Cavs.

Cavs do make sense because a) it's home and he still spends a LOT of time there in the off-season. b) They finally got couple of things right...sign Kyrie to max deal, drafted Wiggins, and hired a well respected coach.

...as to your point about 3 max deals, they're not really 3 max deals if they sign Lebron and trade for Love. Love is making under 16M in 2014-2015 season...any extension will kick in next summer - so his cap no. is under 16M this year. Same with Kyrie - he signed an extension...money kicks in next year. So, he counts only 7.5M for this year's cap.

So, Cavs can trade - Waiters, Thompson, Bennett + 2015 1st round picks from Miami and Memphis for Love and still have 16M in cap space. Trading Jarrett Jack should be fairly easy and you got 22M + in cap space to sign Lebron. They can even trade Varejao's (9.8M) expiring contract to create more cap space for another player or keep Thompson and/or Bennett.

Options are endless for Cavs (and this is true for Suns too). I'd like to see him join the Suns. It'll be fun to see him and Bledsoe play together.

I still have hope that James will end up in Phoenix.

The Houston Rockets have ramped up their pursuit of Chris Bosh and are, in the words of one source, "heavily engaged" in trying to convince the All-Star power forward to leave the Miami Heat in free agency.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11184392/houston-rockets-ramp-pursuit-chris-bosh

Iriving, Wiggins, Lebron...

Every Cleveland Fan + Every home team playing Cleveland =

Originally posted by GEEK:
So if you were Flip Saunders, what would you do to trade Kevin Love and put your team in the best position to compete in this upcoming season?

If the Cavs can land LeBron James in free agency, I think Kevin Love instantly becomes a target for them. Once they get rid of Jack's contract, they can do something like:

Waiters + Thompson + Bennett + 2015 Draft Picks for Martin and Love.

PG: Rubio/Shved/Barea
SG: Waiters/Levine
SF: Brewer/Budinger/Moute
PF: Bennett/Thompson
C: Pekovic/Dieng/Turiaf

You got younger talent and draft picks to provide potential now and multiple options in 2015.

If you mean compete for a lottery slot, then yes that team would do it. What I don't get is if Flip was interested in rebuilding, why didn't he take the Celtics deal?
Also, Minny fans seem to think they'll get Wiggins for Love. LOL. If they get Wiggins for Love, God bless Flip.