Yep. That’s why there is no chance it will happen. If he goes anywhere else in the east I would say philly.
If the rumor that Boston is worried Kyrie is gone after this year is true than they may just flip Kyrie.
Yikes, if they somehow turn Kyrie into Lebron, its RIP for the rest of the east. Gawd I hate the Celtics.
I seriously doubt they're going to trade Dragic in a salary dump situation. If they move him, it will be for a good player IMO. I think they'd love to move Whiteside, but that could be hard, and TJ, who will be even harder.
So apparently Wade went on a radio show today and said he hasn't made his mind up about what is to come, but he would only continue his career in Miami. He also apparently said he didn't think teaming up with other stars was going to be a priority for LeBron. He said making his family comfortable and happy will be top priority. That could be the in for Miami. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but if that is true, and Miami can find a way to land Melo (and Wade comes back) also, they could be a contender for him. LA also.
If Melo gets you LeBron, you get Melo. Obviously in their prime stars would be the ideal situation, but that's not very realistic. You're selling LeBron on coming back to a great city, to finish out his career playing with his friends, and only playing for two teams in your career. I honestly don't care if Miami wins any championships the rest of his career. Him finishing up in Miami would be more than fine with me.
And honestly, there are situations where we end up with Melo, even without LeBron, that I could live with. If you can shed long term contracts for a year of Melo, opening up space to sign a max player in 2019, I'm more than ok with that.
Ultimately, I do not think LeBron wants his kids to have to endure the pressure of playing in his shadow in NE Ohio. And I certainly can’t blame him. It’s LA or Hou if you ask me.
If his priority is winning more championships, it'll be Houston or Philly (hopefully for former). If it's about living comfortably, and happy, and not making the decision for basketball reasons, like Wade said, I think it's Miami or LA. Part of me wonders if the LA thing is just leverage, though. I honestly don't see him winning there. They have the money to pay him outright, though. That could force the Cavs to do a sign and trade with teams like Houston or Miami, that can't afford him without some cap gymnastics. You know Gilbert isn't going to want to do a sign and trade, but if the LA threat is there, I think you'd rather get back what you can, especially in a place like Cleveland where it's going to be hard to sign players on the open market. LA is obviously a great place to live (that's why I moved here), and he could go a long way towards setting himself up for a life after basketball with all of the opportunities out here, but it would be kind of a weird way to finish his career.
Here is the Wade interview. https://foxsportsradio.iheart.com/content/2018-06-10-chris-and-caron-dwyane-wade/
That would be dope. I love New Orleans personally but can’t see LeBron choosing to live there. He’s not about that salt life.
I still think Paul George should be NO's top priority because he's far more consistent from deep. There's not a lot of shooting in NO's projected rotation right now, and I think that team will have a lot of minutes for lineups with both Rondo and Holiday, which means no shooting from the back court. LeBron makes any team better, but I have the same concerns with him in NO as I do with him in Philly. Both teams would maximize existing talent more with a somewhat less (than LeBron) ball-dominant wing who can catch and shoot at a reasonable clip but handle the ball and create offense when needed. LeBron clogs up either team, but especially NO with Rondo as the PG.
Why? Currently, the Heat won't have cap flexibility for a couple more years. If they could move Whiteside for an expiring contract (like Dwight Howard), and move TJ for Melo, now you have tons of cap space in 2019 when guys like Kyrie Irving and Kawhi Leonard are up, and realistically, your team is at worst, just as good as they were in 2017-2018.
TJ for Melo is reasonable I guess if you can convince OKC to take TJ on. I could see them doing it only if PG commits to returning though. Otherwise they're going to be rebuilding. Whieside for Dwight is fine if Charlotte is interested. I feel like we'll have to push another piece to OKC in that trade, which I'm not averse to depending on who it is.
Also, if you really don't want Melo in a scenario that gets you LeBron James, I'm not really sure what to say.
Maybe. If you can convince them that TJ is an ascending player, and closer to the 2016-2017 player that was one of the better 6th men in the league, than the one in 2017-2018 who was banged up an inefficient, then a rebuilding team might have some interest in him. I mean, the Nets, a rebuilding team, were the ones that offered him that deal in the first place. Also, if OKC is in a rebuild, they might be a market that has trouble landing free agents, so they might have some interest. Overall, I'd say it's a long shot to trade him to anyone without a sweetener, but hopefully Riley can work his magic.
If Riley can dump Tyler Johnson he will be a genius otherwise I can never understand matching that contract offer a couple years ago.
I think if melo shows up he kills your lockerroom. And that’s separate from all the bad shot selection and zero effort on d. That dudes a cancer. I don’t know a thing about the heats players so I can’t speak to that. Whiteside early on looked like he may play to a max contract. Guess that went belly up.
I think the locker room stuff with Melo is overblown. In the right situation, he'd be fine. The Heat culture would probably do him some good, and if Wade and LeBron were there, I don't think there would be any issues. Go back to what he did on the "Redeem Team". He was one of their best players, and a real team guy.
Didn’t seem like the okc chemistry with melo was all that great to me. But we are talking about teams in different stages and being a Boston fan I’d have zero interest in it.
rumors that boston is concerned that kyrie will end up signing with the knicks after this coming season.
You know how I interpret that? We realized we don’t necessarily need him and we don’t want to pay him Max money with a potential degenerative knee issue. We are shopping him, this is our story and we’re sticking to it.
If they're shopping him, they should really get pennies on the dollar. They gave a pretty unimpressive return to get him in the first place. Trading him after having him for only a year, and a year in which his season ended with an injury, should really hurt his value.
I think other teams would be interested, unless he really does make it clear he will sign with the Knicks next summer. I would be interested in bringing him to the Heat if they can't land any other "whales". But I can't see how the offer would be anything great. I don't think it would even be half of the package we were talking about last summer.
Hearing LeBron to Lakers is likely going to happen. Paul George is likely to join him there or stay in OKC. Rockets have moved on to trying to organize a trade for an unhappy Jimmy Butler. He has one more guaranteed year, then he will likely opt out anyways...so, maybe Minny will take a deal. Eric Gordon + 2 firsts would likely headline that trade, and the Rockets will make a hard push for Tyreke Evans to take over as the new sixth man. There is mutual interest there. Keep competing, Morey.