POLL: Will you blame Lebron if he leaves this summer?

[Walter White]

LeBron hasn't been perfect, but he is the one guy you can't really blame.

To me, I think the situation is very clear. LBJ wants to stay, for a multitude of reasons. But he is leaving if we can't get him the talent he needs because we don't even have close to enough. Cut and dry. He is going to give the org. one last chance to redeem the Kyrie situation.

I don't think he necessarily needs an insane talent boost here to appease him. We just need enough. Getting someone like PG13 I say is enough to give him the excuse to stay, whether or not it's enough to beat GSW I don't know. Maybe someone like Kemba or McCollum is enough to appease him as well, although I don't think it gives us a great shot to beat Boston, GSW, or Houston.

If we fail to do that, he is kind of forced to leave if he wants to make the most out of the next 3-4 years of his career.

 

[The Wizard of Moz]

That scenario is not even remotely on the table. LeBron wasting his 34 year old season is not happening. If He stays with the Cavs, DG will have to eat even more money to improve the team, making our salary cap situation even worse going forward.

neither of us have any idea what LeBron's intentions are so I'm not interested in ruling out scenarios.

Ohh, I don't think Kawhi would come here in free-agency.

Kawhi wants to go to a place where he will be marketed. His group ie his uncle and rest of his entourage feel he isn't getting as much props as he deserves because he is playing in a small market like San Antonio.

I feel either Pop makes it work with him and Kawhi signs a super-max or something or Kawhi leaves for somewhere like Lakers.

That's definitely possible. But I think the allure of playing with LeBron and winning another title will be one hell of a sales pitch to him

 

[mrWalrus]

LeBron wants a stake in ownership. The Cavs are the only team that would give that to him. Dan would be dumb not to offer it.

 

[cavsfever]

Truthfully, it will take a bit of a long game approach. My eyes are on Kawhi

The cap in 19-20 is projected to be 108 million. So we would have 4 million in space.

George Hill only has a 1 million dollar guarantee for 2019-20. See ya George. Up to 21 million in space.

JR is only guaranteed 3.87 million for 2019-20. Sad to see him go, but see ya Swish. Now we have 33 million in space.

Tristan will be an expiring at this point and I think he has played well enough this postseason that he won't have negative value. If we trade him that puts us at around 51 million in cap space.

Truthfully Clarkson kind of fucks this up. Wish we never traded for him. Hope cap space is at enough of a premium that expirings matter enough that we can move him. Assuming we can then we are up to around 65 million in space.

The salary of the 8th pick in the draft in his second year should be around 4-5 million.

So we are basically looking at 60 million for Kawhi and LeBron. It'll involve a bit of a cut, but so would going to Houston for LeBron.

It also involves gutting the team (Hood and Nance are not re-signed in this scenario), but a core of Love/LBJ/Kawhi would fucking carve through any opposition as long as LeBron is even 90% of his current form

It also involves one more "growth" year. It requires a little bit of patience. But teaming Kawhi and LeBron up I think would pay off handsomely in the future. I just can't see anyone stopping those 2. For my money they're the 2 best players in the NBA... put a fucking pine cone and a traffic light at the 1 and the 2 and it would barely matter with that LBJ/Kawhi combo

good post, very informative. But I don't see this happening -- either Lebron sticking around to burn off one of his remaining years without roster support, or Kawhi coming here when SA could trade him before he becomes a UFA to any one of a number of teams with more to offer than we do.

BTW, we can also save half the Korver contract in 2019-20, he is guaranteed $3.4 million that year. So that adds $4 million more.

 

[Jontibs]

Purely on an individual level a move might be the best thing for him, new challenge in a new environment, revitalize him. I would like to see him willing to play off ball more( which certain reports have mentioned as possible), if he found the right team-mate or system, sacrifice his stats somewhat to play a more team orientated game, focus more on defense. Unspoken truth over the last 2 years is that LBJ's effort on the defensive side has been at times deplorable and has undoubtedly contributed to the inability of the Cavs to find any stability on that end of the floor. I know he has to carry a massive load on the scoring side but it almost becomes self fulfilling.

Ideally all this happens with him in a Cavs uniform but the likelihood is along same lines as him winning a ring this year. Will wish him well if he goes and look forward to an exciting new era(in about 5 years)

 

[Triple-S]

"Don't hate the player, hate the game"
I hate the game very much right now.
LeBron is not someone I hate.

The league...yeah...

 

[fan0283]

Truthfully, it will take a bit of a long game approach. My eyes are on Kawhi

The cap in 19-20 is projected to be 108 million. So we would have 4 million in space.

George Hill only has a 1 million dollar guarantee for 2019-20. See ya George. Up to 21 million in space.

JR is only guaranteed 3.87 million for 2019-20. Sad to see him go, but see ya Swish. Now we have 33 million in space.

Tristan will be an expiring at this point and I think he has played well enough this postseason that he won't have negative value. If we trade him that puts us at around 51 million in cap space.

Truthfully Clarkson kind of fucks this up. Wish we never traded for him. Hope cap space is at enough of a premium that expirings matter enough that we can move him. Assuming we can then we are up to around 65 million in space.

The salary of the 8th pick in the draft in his second year should be around 4-5 million.

So we are basically looking at 60 million for Kawhi and LeBron. It'll involve a bit of a cut, but so would going to Houston for LeBron.

It also involves gutting the team (Hood and Nance are not re-signed in this scenario), but a core of Love/LBJ/Kawhi would fucking carve through any opposition as long as LeBron is even 90% of his current form

It also involves one more "growth" year. It requires a little bit of patience. But teaming Kawhi and LeBron up I think would pay off handsomely in the future. I just can't see anyone stopping those 2. For my money they're the 2 best players in the NBA... put a fucking pine cone and a traffic light at the 1 and the 2 and it would barely matter with that LBJ/Kawhi combo

From LeBron's perspective this isn't a very attractive pitch. He'd be signing on for another year of carrying this lot for the chance of Kawhi joining a year later. He's 34 and now in a race against father time. If he didn't stay with Wade in 2014 I just can't see him staying with Love and JR in 2018. Not when he could be teaming up with Harden and Paul, a far better counter move to KD joining GS.

He only joined us because he saw a chance to win with a younger more talented team.

 

[Walter White]

I also find it impossible to vote right now because this isn't the roster we will present him with to stay. For this current roster? He would be gone for sure. But I need to see what moves we make before I vote.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

LeBron wants a stake in ownership. The Cavs are the only team that would give that to him. Dan would be dumb not to offer it.

The NBA makes it illegal for players to have any ownership interest, and that rule has been very strictly applied. It would include any deal for ownership interest in the future as well.

That being said, nobody would be the wiser if there was some "secret" agreement, but it wouldn't be legally binding anyway. So....does LBJ trust Dan enough that 5-6 years down the road, he is confident that Dan would follow through with selling LBJ a controlling interest?

I'm pretty skeptical that LBJ has that much faith in Dan Gilbert.

 

[RonG]

There is a lot of blame to go around and yea some of it falls on LeBron and his contracts his talking out of the side of his mouth ect.

That doesn’t mean i don’t understand or I’ll be mad. I’m glad we got the title, even appreciative.

I blame KD and Irving a lot more than anyone else but truth be told I’m positive Lebron had plenty to do with how Irving felt as well.

 

[cavsfever]

The ban on player ownership interest is A REAL THING people. The owners have a *huge* economic interest in making sure none of them circumvents the salary cap that way. It would really endanger the owners' wealth if they had to start competing by giving away chunks of ownership. Rules involving stuff that endanger owner wealth are the most important rules of all. It would be easier for Lebron to get permission to dance naked at halfcourt during the national anthem than to get an enforceable deal for ownership interest as part of his compensation, under the table or not.

 

[Triple-S]

My feelings would be in theory...both parties do not have much trust in each other.

If they did? The rumored Deandre Jordan move would have likely happened, and we'd probably have already heard LeBron James in talks to sign for another couple of years.

Gilbert thinks LeBron is gone at the end of the year and LeBron probably thinks that there is no trust on Gilbert's side.

The only way of salvaging this is if LeBron and Gilbert meet. Maybe Gilbert can tell him he can make a few moves, but he's going to need LeBron to put some trust in him in the short term.

In 2010? LeBron pretty much didn't give Gilbert the time of day. If we hear that? It's over.

If we at least "hear" there's some form of a discussion or willingness to do as such (LeBron has pretty much heavily implied that in press conferences, interviews that have all but called this out). He'll stay and retire a Cav.

That's what it boils down to. I think the Rockets are the "leader" in this race but we're not out of it.

 

[cavsfever]

I'm not sure the Rockets would be the smartest move. Chris Paul is old and made of glass, how many playoffs in a row now has he gotten injured in? Harden is not a fully reliable star in the playoffs and I wonder how he would adjust to playing with Lebron. Beyond that they have Gordon, Ariza, Capela, PJ Tucker. I'm pretty sure that they would have to give up at least one of those to get Lebron -- they are in salary cap hell so it won't be easy. Plus Tucker and Ariza are getting old along with Chris Paul. Houston is a lot more fragile than they appear, if they were going to do it then it needed to be this year.

Plus, Houston is a miserable city that floods all the time.

 

[godfather]

Depends on how he handles it. If he screws us over like the first time where we basically had to waste a summer because we didn't know his intentions, I'll be annoyed.

If he comes up to Gilbert after the finals and says "hey man, I'm gone, plan accordingly", then no, I won't blame him or be angry at him a bit.

I agree. I don't really mind if he leaves, but if he does it in a way that hurts us.

Or the franchise, then yeah, I kinda will. I think he should make it known instantly he's gone.

So the franchise can move on, he can move on, and we can move on.

We know he's gone. No point leading people on, and getting some fans hopes up.

Other than that, not only do I not blame him, I think he should leave.

There's nothing left to stay for.

 

[Triple-S]

I've been tempted to look at the "Rockets" board, but I'm all but guaranteed that reading it will be like that one scene in "Air Force Once" where General Radok is released

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKEDgbDuuBk&t=1m51s


(I'm the the Russian general drinking Vodka and knocking down the flags)

Which fanbase is the most cocky about possibly landing him at this point?

(and if someone with talent could? Please do a gif of that but have it be with Cavs flags instead)