NBA Screwed?: James Leaning Towards Heat

[Dirtbag59]

Personally I think this would screw the NBA. The League already has such a low rate of parity as it is. Put together a super team of two top 5 players and another top 10 or 15 player and the NBA Finals becomes an afterthought.
2010 NBA free agency: Sources: LeBron James leaning toward joining Miami Heat - ESPN

If it does happen it'll be good for the first year or two as the Lakers could still compete with team absurd, but after Phil leaves and Kobe ages the lack of contenders would make the NBA monotonousness.

I thought this was pretty funny though:
"Outwardlycalm (7/8/2010 at 3:05 AM) Report Violation
Lebron will announce that he has decided to play with himself."

[/CENTER]

[tryfuhl]

still guessing knicks

not because of a couple of key people who said it.. because of the market

[dmek25]

i say cavs. but who am i?

[SmootSmack]

I still have no clue where he's playing, as late as this morning I've heard equally reliable people say Knicks, Heat, Cavs, Bulls, even Nets. The only team that seems to be out is the Clippers...which means he'll sign with them. Maybe I'll swing by his announcement tonight and make a last minute pitch to him to join the Wizards.

I don't believe him signing with the Heat will have any negative impact on the league, but I do question James' decision to sign with the Heat (if he does). I'm not a LeBron hater by any means at all. But I don't know how signing with the Heat and joining a team led by D Wade that has already won a title would help James in his bid to be considered on of the greatest all time. I think if he goes somewhere like New York and leads them to their first title in 30 some years that's one thing, joining Wade in Miami and winning a title is another.

This isn't like the Celtics where none of the Big 3 had won a title yet, or Houston where Pippen and Olajuwon already had titles and Drexler was looking for a ring to end his career (or even LA, with Shaq, Kobe, and the Mailman).

[MTK]

If he really wants a ring, Miami is the obvious choice. My darkhorse is NJ.

[Nomad]

He should go to Orlando with Dwight Howard, he be King of Florida

[Schneed10]

I think one of the reasons I really like the NFL is because it's so hard to win by building a team through free agency.

It just rubs me wrong that an NBA team can work years just to position itself for all contracts to expire in order to clean the books ahead of the arrival of three superstar free agents. And poof, championship caliber team. It's just too easy. There's no in-house development of players like you have in the MLB farm systems or on the depth charts of NFL teams. In those sports, you can't just add one or two superstar free agents and expect to be necessarily any better than you were the year before. You have to develop depth, draft well, coach well.

It's lame. If LeBron joins the Heat and wins 5 rings with Wade and Bosh, he'll never measure up to Kobe Bryant in my mind, who currently has five rings. Kobe won three with Shaq, true. But the other two were won without the superstar talent that LeBron will have around him in Miami. It's just lame.

I hope he goes back to Cleveland. I still think there's a good chance of that. How do you go on TV for a special centered around you, and announce that you're leaving the city you grew up in? Talk about an image-killer in your hometown. Supposedly the guy is all about image, if that's true, his image will get destroyed if he announces anything but a return to Cleveland on prime time TV.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

If he really wants a ring, Miami is the obvious choice. My darkhorse is NJ.

If he wants a ring, then I think Chicago is the best choice. Derrick Rose, James, Boozer, Noah, Deng, Gibson, that's not bad at all.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

I think one of the reasons I really like the NFL is because it's so hard to win by building a team through free agency.

It just rubs me wrong that an NBA team can work years just to position itself for all contracts to expire in order to clean the books ahead of the arrival of three superstar free agents. And poof, championship caliber team. It's just too easy. There's no in-house development of players like you have in the MLB farm systems or on the depth charts of NFL teams. In those sports, you can't just add one or two superstar free agents and expect to be necessarily any better than you were the year before. You have to develop depth, draft well, coach well.

It's lame. If LeBron joins the Heat and wins 5 rings with Wade and Bosh, he'll never measure up to Kobe Bryant in my mind, who currently has five rings. Kobe won three with Shaq, true. But the other two were won without the superstar talent that LeBron will have around him in Miami. It's just lame.

I hope he goes back to Cleveland. I still think there's a good chance of that. How do you go on TV for a special centered around you, and announce that you're leaving the city you grew up in? Talk about an image-killer in your hometown. Supposedly the guy is all about image, if that's true, his image will get destroyed if he announces anything but a return to Cleveland on prime time TV.

Well in the case of the Heat, they drafted Wade. But whether it's through the draft or free agency the NBA is a different animal simply by the fact there are only five players on the court and one player can make all the difference in the world.

I mean let's compare Albert Pujols and Kobe Bryant for example, each arguably the best in their sport. Pujols can only contribute so much (3-4 at bats/game). On the other hand, Kobe can basically be "at bat" every time in his sport.

As for staying in Cleveland, I think he's past the point of being concerned about his image in Cleveland.

[mredskins]

I say he stays in Cleveland. If LJ stays in Cleveland that is a pretty good mix in the East. The west needs to build up some of their teams to make a run at the Lakers.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Well in the case of the Heat, they drafted Wade. But whether it's through the draft or free agency the NBA is a different animal simply by the fact there are only five players on the court and one player can make all the difference in the world.

I mean let's compare Albert Pujols and Kobe Bryant for example, each arguably the best in their sport. Pujols can only contribute so much (3-4 at bats/game). On the other hand, Kobe can basically be "at bat" every time in his sport.

As for staying in Cleveland, I think he's past the point of being concerned about his image in Cleveland.

Definitely agree. In basketball if you have a great 1-2 punch it's all you need. It's just not the team focused sport that football and baseball are.

And I don't see how his image will be destroyed by not going back to Cleveland. He's making a business decision, I think most (outside of Cleveland at least) will understand that. He doesn't owe Cleveland anything. If anything, getting out of Cleveland is only going to increase his exposure and hype.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Definitely agree. In basketball if you have a great 1-2 punch it's all you need. It's just not the team focused sport that football and baseball are.

And I don't see how his image will be destroyed by not going back to Cleveland. He's making a business decision, I think most (outside of Cleveland at least) will understand that. He doesn't owe Cleveland anything. If anything, getting out of Cleveland is only going to increase his exposure and hype.

I think you guys are really discounting the bench in NBA. To win a championship you need a proven bench and great role players. I watch a lot of NBA basketball and I can tell you one of the main reason the Cavs got beat by the Celtics in the East Finals was becasue of there lack of a bench. LJ was just plain beat by the end of that series.

The NBA season is a long long season and no one or two players can carry entire team.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by mredskins

I think you guys are really discounting the bench in NBA. To win a championship you need a proven bench and great role players. I watch a lot of NBA basketball and I can tell you one of the main reason the Cavs got beat by the Celtics in the East Finals was becasue of there lack of a bench. LJ was just plain beat by the end of that series.

The NBA season is a long long season and no one or two players can carry entire team.

Of course, you need a bench. I wasn't trying to say depth isn't important, just that one superstar in the NBA has a bigger impact than one in the NFL or MLB

[MTK]

^^ Exactly. We're talking about star impact. Toss 2 great NBA players on a team and even with an average cast around them chances are they can still carry that team pretty far.

Toss 2 great NFL players on a team with an average cast, and they're going probably nowhere.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Well in the case of the Heat, they drafted Wade. But whether it's through the draft or free agency the NBA is a different animal simply by the fact there are only five players on the court and one player can make all the difference in the world.

I mean let's compare Albert Pujols and Kobe Bryant for example, each arguably the best in their sport. Pujols can only contribute so much (3-4 at bats/game). On the other hand, Kobe can basically be "at bat" every time in his sport.

As for staying in Cleveland, I think he's past the point of being concerned about his image in Cleveland.

Re: the bolded portion, that's exactly my beef. It's not the structure of the NBA or the way the business model is set up that causes the problem, it's just a sport that revolves around star players. Coaches come second to star players. One star player makes a gigantic impact. In that way, it's much less of a team sport, and hence a lot less appealing to me.

As for James' image, Cleveland will never forgive him. The rest of the country won't care, and as soon as James wins that first title in Miami, he won't even care about Cleveland anymore. He'll feel the love and adulation from Miami fans, and that will help him move on from the bad breakup with Cleveland.

But I'm just turned off by the ego involved here. He's purposely keeping his lips sealed as to where he's going (or at least telling Broussard not to reveal the information and thus managing the message), so that he can go on TV for an all-about-me hour dedicated to revealing where he'll go. He's got a marketing team to push his "brand".

Can he do that? Hell yeah, it's his way of making a buttload of money, and I can't fault that but so much. But the ego of it is overwhelming.

I just prefer the NFL, where superstars make an impact, but still recognize that as great as they are, they aren't bigger than the team.