Category: NBA (Page 149 of 595)

      How World Wide Wes’s agenda affects LeBron

      June 29, 2010 /

      Adrian Wojnarowski writes that ‘World Wide Wes’ wants LeBron out of Cleveland…badly.

      For basketball’s biggest dealmaker, there’s little personal benefit to James re-signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers. To team executives in the chase and those familiar with the dynamics of James’ inner circle, World Wide Wes’ agenda is clear: Get LeBron out of Cleveland and push himself into a prominent place of power.

      To be considered the architect of the sport’s grandest transaction, World Wide Wes needs James out of the clutches of the Cavaliers.

      “If LeBron leaves, Wes is going to get carte blanche wherever he signs,” one source told Yahoo! Sports. “He’s going to have the run of the place, and he doesn’t have that in Cleveland. He has access there, but Maverick Carter is the guy with the keys there. …[Carter’s] much more influential, and would always be in Cleveland.”

      This is the push and pull on the inside of Team LeBron, sources say – agendas colliding in self-interest as the start of free agency creeps closer on Thursday. In the end, James is too strong to let someone else make a decision for him, but there remains strong influences deeply immersed in this process with him.

      Wojnarowski goes on to say that Carter and the rest of LeBron’s childhood crew have tremendous stature in Cleveland that probably won’t be the case if LeBron signs elsewhere. This may be why World Wide Wes has been telling people that LeBron and Chris Bosh are going to Chicago, even though they took the time to meet with Dwyane Wade in South Florida about joining forces in Miami.

      If there is indeed an internal struggle going on within LeBron’s camp, it may explain why the messages have been so mixed.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Sources: Free agency summit happened over the weekend

      June 29, 2010 /

      LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh apparently met over the weekend in South Florida to discuss the possibility of playing together next season for the Miami Heat.

      Sources close to the situation said Monday night that three of the biggest names in basketball — Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James — met over the weekend in Miami to seriously discuss their futures, with a focus on the increasingly plausible possibility of those three teaming up with Wade’s Heat.

      One source did label Miami as the new frontrunner to land James in a package deal with Bosh and a re-signed Wade but also cautioned that James was “non-committal” with the start of free agency fast approaching.

      Earlier Monday, Fox Sports Radio’s Stephen A. Smith reported on his morning radio show and via his Twitter feed that James and Bosh have committed to joining Wade in Miami. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, in a report on its website Monday afternoon, quoted a source close to Wade as saying that the 2006 NBA Finals MVP “believes his team is poised to pull off a free-agency coup” by signing James and Bosh and re-signing Wade.

      Chris Broussard is on SportsCenter as I type saying that the trio left the meeting “without a verbal commitment” because LeBron has been “non-committal.” He’s torn about leaving Cleveland and is intrigued about playing for the Bulls.

      Unless Pat Riley is able to move Michael Beasley, this trio would currently have to take less-than-max money to play together in Miami. Currently, the Heat have enough cap space to sign three players at contracts that start at $14.7 million per season, but the fact that Florida has no state tax is a big ‘pro’ in the Heat’s favor. If pragmatism outweighs egoism, the trio could create a dynasty for the next five seasons in South Florida.

      I wonder about LeBron’s willingness to join a franchise that has won a title recently and is known around the league as ‘Wade’s team.’ If he’s mainly interested in winning championships, Miami may be the place to be, but there are other factors involved, no matter what LeBron and his camp say. The other issue is that if the three do join forces, the expectation will be that they will win a title every year, and anything less will be a major disappointment.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Knicks facing a tough sell in free agency?

      June 28, 2010 /

      Ken Berger writes that the Knicks could have a tough time selling big-name free agents on playing in New York:

      Word circulating over the weekend was that Knicks president Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni faced a “very tough sell” to the top free agents, according to one rival executive monitoring the free-agent buzz. The reason, according to an agent involved in the process: “They’re going to have a lot of convincing to do for guys. There’s not a lot of pieces there to make it attractive.” According to other sources, it’s even worse than that for the Knicks. A representative for one prominent free agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiating period hasn’t begun, said the Knicks may have as hard a time – or even harder – persuading second-tier free agents to go to New York. “If you come in there, expectations are so high you almost can’t – unless it’s LeBron, anybody else will have a really hard time living up to it,” the agent said. “What if the team makes playoffs and loses in first round? Is that a success? Probably not. You’re starting off negative. That’s the way you want to start off? Everybody should be happy about getting two All-Stars, but they’re not the ones you thought you were getting or were sold on getting.”

      As the year has worn on, the luster has slowly but surely worn off the Knicks as a free agent destination. This is largely due to a couple of factors: 1) the salary cap estimate came in higher than expected, creating more cap space around the league, and 2) teams with better pieces — Chicago, New Jersey, Miami — have made moves that have created enough space for two max (or near-max) free agents. Part of the attraction of the Knicks in the middle of last season was that they were the only team with enough cap space to sign two max free agents outright. This is no longer the case.

      I still think that the Knicks are an interesting free agency destination for LeBron if he wants to be the hero. If he goes to Chicago, he’ll be playing in Michael Jordan’s shadow. If he goes to Miami, he’ll be joining Dwyane Wade’s team. If he goes to the Clippers, Los Angeles will still be Kobe’s city.

      If he wants to (figuratively) own a franchise, he should stay in Cleveland or head East to New York (or New Jersey/Brooklyn). If he were to bring a championship to the Knicks, he’d create a massive legacy in New York. If he brings a championship to the Bulls, people will say, “Good job, now get us five more.”

      The biggest problem with the Knicks is the pieces that are already in place. Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari are nice prospects, but they pale in comparison to the Bulls (Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah), the Heat (Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley) or the Nets (Brook Lopez, Devin Harris).

      If LeBron’s #1 priority is to win championships, he should hook up with Chris Bosh in Chicago or Wade and Bosh in Miami. If his ego requires that he also be viewed as a franchise savior, then he will sign with the Knicks, Nets or Clippers, or re-sign with the Cavs.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Source: LeBron and Bosh to Chicago ‘a done deal’

      June 28, 2010 /

      Per the NY Times…

      The executive, who did not want to be identified discussing a player who is not yet a free agent, said he had gathered from discussions with his fellow N.B.A. executives that James was strongly leaning toward joining the Bulls in tandem with another free agent, Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors.

      “I think it’s a done deal,” the executive said.

      He said he thought James was going ahead with the meetings in Ohio “to be respectful to all these teams who jumped through these hoops,” a reference to the clubs, like the Knicks, who traded reasonably talented players like Jamal Crawford the last two seasons in an effort to open up as much salary-cap space as possible. But if James and Bosh are indeed going to Chicago, moves like the ones the Knicks made will have been done at least partly in vain.

      This jibes with what LeBron confidant World Wide Wes has been telling people, and intuitively, it makes sense. Only Miami (with Dwyane Wade) could offer the kind of supporting cast that the Bulls can, and LeBron may not want people to think that he joined ‘Wade’s team.’

      The surprising thing about a potential move to Chicago is that it would indicate that LeBron does not care all that much about how his legacy will compare to Michael Jordan’s. James would have to go on an unprecedented run to even get into the same conversation as Jordan, and barring five or six championships, it’s likely that he’ll always be regarded as the second-best Chicago Bull.

      The move would be especially painful for Cavs fans, who would have to watch LeBron play for a division rival. Instead of seeing LeBron in Cleveland once a season, he’d visit Ohio two or three times, maybe more if the two teams meet in the playoffs.

      The other thing about this LeBron/Bosh line of thinking is that Bosh has said all along that he doesn’t want to play sidekick and that he wants to be ‘the man.’ Following LeBron to Chicago doesn’t accomplish that goal and says something about Bosh, since he is the one who keeps saying that a franchise should build around him.

      If the duo does indeed head to Chicago, the Bulls can start a lineup of Derrick Rose at the one, LeBron at the three, Bosh at the four and Joakim Noah at the five. One worrisome thing about a Rose/LeBron combo is that both players are at their best when they have the ball in their hands, so unless LeBron (finally) develops a post game or Rose becomes a great shooter, it won’t be an ideal fit.

      As for Luol Deng, he would likely come off the bench or be moved for a quality shooting guard who can space the floor (Kyle Korver, Mike Miller, Ray Allen?) LeBron will benefit most from playing with a knockdown shooter at the two, especially since Rose and Noah are not known for their outside touch. Deng’s contract (four years, $51 million) will be tough to move, but he essentially plays the same position as LeBron and the Bulls won’t want to tie up that much cap space in LeBron’s backup.

      Ric Bucher’s take on the rumor. (YouTube)

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      T-Wolves’ plan in free agency

      June 28, 2010 /

      Per the Star-Tribune…

      Kahn said a staff member spoke up in a draft meeting last week and expressed the same doubt.

      They pulled out a list and went through the possibilities one by one. They crossed off free agents deemed too old to fit the Wolves’ rebuilding plans and came up with a short list of players the team’s staff collectively considered out of their reach.

      “We counted three players we didn’t think we could get,” Kahn said. “By the way, I think you could put us in 92, 93 percent of the league.”

      Three players?

      Really?

      That excluded short list — presumably James, Wade and Bosh — would leave the likes of Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, David Lee and Rudy Gay possible.

      “I don’t want anybody here to feel like we’re some poor stepchildren,” Kahn said. “We’re not. We’re building something of great value that will be sustainable. I think we have a chance to have some serious discussions with free agents after July 1.”

      If nothing else, Minnesota’s David Kahn is one of the more entertaining general managers in the NBA. Last year, he drafted three point guards in the first round — passing on Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings in the process — and traded the one that was most NBA-ready (Ty Lawson) away. He’s still waiting on the promise of Ricky Rubio to run his club.

      This year, he drafted for need (Wes Johnson) and passed on arguably the best player in the draft (DeMarcus Cousins), even though he’s trying to trade away his best player (Al Jefferson). Passing on Cousins may ultimately be the right move, but centers who can score and rebound like he can don’t come around very often. There’s also a school of thought that his best chance to thrive is in a smaller city where there aren’t as many ‘distractions.’

      It sounds like Jefferson is being dangled in order to acquire a top-notch center or power forward, even though the T-Wolves already have the promising Kevin Love playing that position.

      The T-Wolves do have a chance to sign a quality free agent, but chances are that they’re going to have to overpay. That means a max contract for a second-tier free agent like Carlos Boozer or Rudy Gay, who may have to decide if they want to take near-max money to play in New York, New Jersey or Miami, or max money from Minnesota.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, NBA Draft, Rumors & Gossip

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑