The title of Marc Berman’s New York Post piece — “LeBron-to-Knicks hope fading” — says it all.

With each passing day, as the Knicks disgrace themselves and the Cavaliers march to their potential first NBA championship, the Knicks’ chances of free-agent glory in landing LeBron James this summer gets more remote.

A bit dramatic, don’t you think? What if the Cavs lose in the Eastern Semifinals — wouldn’t all this talk just start back up again?

James clung to his mid-November policy of not talking about his free-agent options, but he has left enough hints to New York fans that the Knicks’ bid is a longshot.

In his lone appearance at the Garden, Nov. 6, James said in strong terms the only factor is whether he can win at his new destination. At All-Star weekend, he reiterated, “It’s all about winning.”

Well, it’s not all about winning, is it? I thought LeBron’s #1 goal was to become a “global icon.” But there’s a strong argument that says that to truly become a global icon, LeBron needs an NBA championship.

As bad as the Knicks may be, if LeBron sees a scenario where he and, say, Chris Bosh can play in New York (or even the LeBron-Wade-Bosh trio) then it’s hard not to think that the Knicks would be vastly improved in just one season. Throw in a few savvy vets willing to play for the minimum for a shot at the ring and suddenly the Knicks are an Eastern Conference power.

Team sources indicated D’Antoni would be very pleased to add overshadowed free agent Joe Johnson as a fallback. D’Antoni thinks Johnson is a great piece to build around.

But Johnson, the potential re-signing of David Lee and another mid-level free agent, does not put the Knicks in position to compete for a championship.

No, it doesn’t. I like Joe Johnson, but he’s turning 29 this June and Basketball Prospectus predicts Johnson’s three-year value to be the least amongst this summer’s big-name free agents.

It sounds like the Knicks are already doing some damage control in case the Cavs win a title this summer and LeBron stays put. In that case, I suspect Chris Bosh would join Dwyane Wade in Miami and the Knicks would be looking at the likes of Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, David Lee and Rudy Gay. Two of those players would probably get the Knicks to the playoffs, but they aren’t going to win a title anytime soon.

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Gene Wojciechowski makes a strong case that this summer’s three biggest free agents should put their salaries aside and team up in NYC.

But if James, Wade and Bosh truly want to make history, they could do the unthinkable and split the Knicks’ $33 million three ways. It would cost them salary money, but can you imagine how much they’d make on the back end if they started reeling in NBA titles? In New York?

Whatever they’d lose on their paycheck stubs, they’d make up in endorsements. And it’s not as if they’re filing simple federal tax returns these days. According to a 2009 Forbes analysis, LeBron earned about $42.4 million in salary and endorsements — more than Britney Spears, Jay-Z or Tom Cruise and almost as much as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie combined.

Wade was No. 12 on Sports Illustrated’s 2009 Fortunate 50, earning $26.4 million in salary and endorsements. Bosh didn’t make the top 50, but he is making $15.7 million from the Raptors this season.

Anyway, they all can afford to do something daring. Just think: James, Wade and Bosh at Madison Square Garden.

Seriously, who would touch them? Wade at guard. LeBron at point forward. Bosh in the post or on the wing. Three good guys who could handle the New York media. Three seven-year veterans who understand you get only so many chances to hug the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Three singular players who know careers are defined by championships, not just checkbooks.

It’s fun to think about, but does anyone believe this is actually going to happen? Will these three NBA superstars put their egos aside and take $5-$6 million less per season to team up in New York? Wojciechowski’s point that they’d make even more in endorsements is completely valid, but leaving $30-$35 million on the table is a tough pill to swallow.

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So says Barry Jackson, of the Miami Herald…

“They’re going to get a feel for who they have the best shot at and will craft their strategy accordingly,” a source close to the Heat said. “They will pursue more than one guy. James is their top choice, but if they get a yes from Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire, I’d be shocked if they told either to hold on so they can wait on LeBron” — unless Miami has strong reason to believe James is coming. “If they get one of those three, they would feel confident they can keep Wade. Their biggest anxiety is losing Wade.”

Here is what would have to happen for the Heat to land LeBron:

1. The Cavs lose in the Eastern Conference Finals or earlier. I have a hard time seeing LeBron leave Cleveland if the Cavs make an appearance in the Finals, unless they’re swept and look terrible. The two conferences are pretty close in strength, at least at the top, so the possibility of that happening is slim. These aren’t the ‘07 Cavs. If they get past the Celtics and/or Magic in the playoffs, they’ll be battle-tested and ready to compete.

2. LeBron decides to leave Cleveland. This will be a tough decision, as LeBron has spent several years in the city and is basically the franchise. He’s comfortable there and knows what to expect. The Cavs can also offer the most money, though I doubt this will be the deciding factor for the mega-wealthy LeBron.

3. LeBron picks the Heat over the Nets and Knicks before Dwyane Wade signs elsewhere. These look like the other two franchises that have a real shot at signing James if he were to leave Cleveland. Obviously, if LeBron were to head to Miami, it would largely depend on Wade’s presence. Wade has already said that he and LeBron are going to discuss the possibility of teaming up after the season is over, so they’ll definitely be in contact. I wouldn’t expect another Baron Davis/Elton Brand debacle.

4. LeBron picks the Heat before Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire sign with the Heat. This one’s a little dicey. If the Cavs go deep into the playoffs, LeBron’s availability will be up in the air. (See #1.) Presumably, the Raptors and Suns will be done playing, and the speculation will start for Bosh and Amare. (Hell, it’s already started for Bosh!) At that point, one or both of the players could express, through the press or via Twitter, a desire to play for Miami, so the groundwork could be laid for that player to strike a deal come July 1. They can’t officially start negotiating until that date, but does anyone really think that Wade isn’t going to touch base with Bosh and/or Amare if the Cavs are playing in the Eastern Conference Finals?

In short, a lot has to happen for King James to head to South Beach.

This is clearly a make or break season for the Cavs. Even with the salaries of Shaq and Zydrunas Ilgauskas coming off the books, Cleveland will be able to re-sign LeBron, and that’s about it. The team was positioned well prior to the economic downturn, but by bringing back Anderson Varejao, and the expected drop in the cap to $50 million, the Cavs simply won’t have the cap space to add another big-name free agent. (That’s why they brought back Varejao; they need to get to the Finals — now.) If the Cavs lose in the Eastern Conference Finals again and LeBron and is facing another few years of Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao and Delonte West as the next best players on his team, will he really pass up an opportunity to play in sunny Miami with Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley and whatever talented, in-search-of-a-ring vet the Heat could sign for the mid-level exception?

Or he could join Wade/Bosh/Amare in New York (if the Knicks can shed Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries) and play for Mike D’Antoni…or he could go to New Jersey/Brooklyn and play with Brook Lopez and Devin Harris.

One thing’s for sure — it’s going to be an interesting few months in the NBA.

Of all of the big-name players that will become free agents this summer, Chris Bosh’s situation seems to be the most delicate. The Raptors are playing pretty well — they’ve won eight of their last 11 and are currently the #6 seed in the East — but it’s not clear what his threshold is for staying in Toronto. A postseason berth? It’s probably going to take more than that. 50 wins and an appearance in the Eastern Conference Semis? Maybe.

But with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade basically untradeable, and with Joe Johnson and Amare Stoudemire playing well on winning teams, Bosh’s situation is the most fluid.

Toronto GM Bryan Colangelo told Peter Vescey of the New York Post the following via email:

“For the record, I am not actively seeking a deal or discussing Bosh with any team, much less the Lakers.

“I haven’t traded him yet and our position has been the same. We will not make a deal just to make a deal. Our intention is to keep him here long term.

“Additionally, I have not yet offered an extension as Dwyane Wade and LeBron James both received [from their respective teams]. So technically he has not said no.

“I honestly don’t think C.B. knows what the future holds, or what he wants to do, so I would say we’re still in the game as far as his pending free agency.”

Colangelo’s language is interesting: “I haven’t traded him yet.” Yet. That means he’s open to trading him, right? The Raptors are under the gun because they face the prospect of losing Bosh with zero compensation this summer. The deal that Vescey discusses in his article is a Andrew Bynum-for-Bosh swap with the Lakers. That deal would be feasible in the summer if the teams executed a sign-and-trade with Bosh. Otherwise, I don’t know that there’s a scenario where Bosh would agree to a sign-and-trade because he’d be effectively decimating his future team. The Lakers are the exception due to the presence of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. The deal makes some sense because the Raptors would get a true center with All-Star potential to play alongside Andrea Bargnani, who would be able to play his natural position — power forward. For the Lakers, the deal makes sense because while Bynum has played well in spurts, he and Pau Gasol don’t work all that well together when they’re both on the floor.

Chad Ford writes (via TrueHoop) that other teams around the league are reacting to the news that Bosh might be on the move:

A source close to the Nets’ thinking told me that they are concerned that if they don’t land LeBron or Bosh, they may be stuck in the same situation the Pistons were in last summer — with no elite free agents on the market, the Pistons were forced to overpay role players to fill out their roster.

“Because of our record we are going to be forced to overspend on guys like David Lee and Rudy Gay and perhaps Boozer if you can’t land LBJ,” the source told ESPN. “I don’t want to be like Detroit and spend just to spend.”

That position has prompted the Nets to begin looking at other possibilities, including using their expiring contracts at the trade deadline to bring back players that can help their team now.

The same source said that the Nets might be willing to move Devin Harris, along with an expiring contract or two, if they could land an All-Star and another young asset. The source said Brook Lopez was the only untouchable on the team.

The thinking is that if the Nets can land two good players now, that might be better than having to overpay to good players this summer out of desperation.

It’s interesting that the team seems to have soured on Devin Harris, who was an All-Star last season. He has struggled with a bad wrist and is shooting just 38% this season.

Ford goes on to discuss the Knicks (staying the course), Bulls and the Thunder. But the most interesting tidbit was about the Heat:

The Heat believe they have a real chance at landing LeBron this summer, regardless of what Bosh does, but also feel their hand would be dramatically strengthened if they could add Bosh and James to a team already anchored by Dwyane Wade.

Whaaaa? LeBron, Wade and Bosh?!? Fiscally, I don’t know how they can possibly make that happen. The Heat are currently on the hook for $13.5 million next season. That leaves around $37 million to sign LeBron, Wade and Bosh. They’d all have to agree to take less money (~$12 million a piece) to play together and the Heat would then have to fill out the roster with a mid-level player and a bunch of guys willing to play for peanuts (or the NBA’s version of peanuts).

That’s one of the wilder NBA rumors I’ve heard in the last few months. I guess it’s possible that those three would sacrifice some cash for a chance at a dynasty, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski…

Several sources believe the Bulls are agreeable to a package of Thomas and Jerome James(notes) for Knicks forward Al Harrington(notes). Thus far, Walsh has resisted parting with Harrington, but discussions are still active and the teams have explored different combinations in recent days that would ultimately deliver Thomas to the Knicks.

Intuitively, this deal makes some sense. The Bulls are going to have to shed some salary in order to have enough cap space to offer a max contract to someone like Dwyane Wade, LeBron James or Chris Bosh, and Thomas’s name is the one that most often comes up since he’s nearing the end of his rookie contract. The Bulls would need to give up their rights to Thomas (or hope that John Salmons exercises an early termination on the final year of his contract) to have enough cap space to offer a max contract. Jerome James is only included to make the numbers work since both teams are over the cap.

For the Knicks, Thomas would be another piece to the puzzle, though he would eat into the team’s projected cap space. Right now, assuming a cap of $50 million, the Knicks would have roughly $23 million to spend, which is enough for one max contract, but not two. A trade for Thomas would reduce that cap space to $16-$17 million, so they would add a talented up-and-comer (who looks to be a perfect fit at power forward in Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system) and still be able to sign LeBron or Wade (or some other big-name free agent). All at the expense of Al Harrington, whom the Knicks aren’t going to re-sign anyway.

Another angle on this deal is that the Knicks are essentially assisting the Bulls in becoming a competitor for LeBron and Wade next summer. However, the Bulls could simply hold onto Thomas and let him become a free agent next summer, so the upside for the Knicks is that they get the rights to Thomas knowing that the Bulls are going to be a competitor anyway. By trading for Harrington, the Bulls’ prospects for this season would improve. So since they’re probably going to lose Thomas anyway, they might as well improve in the short-term.

One the Knicks have to consider is the chances that they can move either Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries. If they’re able to unload one of those players for expiring salary, they would have enough cap space to offer two max contracts next summer, so LeBron/Bosh or LeBron/Amare suddenly becomes a possibility. The likelihood of the Knicks moving either player seems slim, unless they are willing to give up David Lee or Danilo Gallinari in the deal.

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Delonte West misses practice (unexcused) again. All right, one unexcused absence I can understand, but after he was MIA yesterday, wouldn’t the Cavs track him down to find out why he was absent? Of course they would, which is why he is either completely unreachable or the Cavs don’t approve of his reasons for missing practice. This is worrisome, but expect the team to give him a lot of leeway to get his life straightened out.

The New York Daily News thinks there has been another sign that LeBron is headed to the Knicks. His name is William Wesley and apparently he has LeBron’s ear. He was at Knicks camp this week and some conspiracy theorists believe his presence is a sign that LeBron will be playing in New York next season.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Joe Johnson will not sign an extension this season. Instead, Johnson is going to become a free agent next summer when a number of teams are going to have the cap space to offer a max deal. After LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and (maybe) Amare Stoudemire, Johnson is the next biggest prize in the free agent class of 2010. He’s one of those players that isn’t quite worth a max deal but he’s going to get one anyway. (Think Michael Redd circa 2005.)

Byron Scott told the Times-Picayune that the Hornets’ starting small forward job is Julian Wright’s to lose. This is about a year too late. Wright was quite productive (PER: 15.48) in his rookie season, but the Hornets went with James Posey instead, thinking that he’d be the missing piece to the championship puzzle. Wright is one of those young, talented players that is going to see a big increase in minutes, so fantasy basketball owners should take note.

- SPORTSBYBROOKS discusses why the vast majority of sports talk radio hosts are white men.

- FIVE TOOL TOOL has a great list of 10 Lame NFL Excuses.

- BALL DON’T LIE has video of Jon Stewart trying to woo LeBron to New York on an episode of “The Daily Show.”