After reporting that LeBron James was telling teams he wanted to make a decision by July 5, Ric Bucher is now saying that LeBron not expected to shut down this free agency circus by Monday.
The source said although James wanted the interview process to be finished by the Monday deadline, he may not decide on a franchise until later in the week. Previous reports had James making a decision by Monday, but the source said no specific reason was given for the delay.
Sigh.
Joe Johnson gets it. He has a max offer from the Hawks on the table, but hasn’t agreed to sign it just yet. He wants to see which big-name free agents land where, to see if there’s a secondary or tertiary role for him on a championship contender.
Sources said Johnson was still considering whether it would be a better career move to play in New York or Chicago, and his ultimate decision would hinge upon which of the top free agents make commitments to those teams.
Johnson’s decision is this — would he rather be the best player on a good-but-not-great Atlanta team or the second- or third-best player on a Finals-caliber team?
Maybe he’s reading the LeBron/Wade tea leaves and realizes that LeBron’s ego may not accept the perception that he needed Wade to win a title. Johnson is the next-best shooting guard on the market, and would be a decent fit alongside LeBron in New York, New Jersey or Chicago.
Writers like to throw around the phrase “leaving $30 million on the table” when referring to home/away max contracts, but that number is misleading. Through the first five years of the deal, the difference is ‘only’ $4 million. It’s that (extra) sixth year that makes up most of the difference in the total value of the contract, but players would presumably still be able to re-sign for a good amount of money. So really, the difference in the home/away contracts is this:
Diff = $4 million + $25.3 million – E
where:
E = expected value of first year of next contract
For a player like Johnson, who would be 33 after the final year of a five-year contract, the value of E would be quite a bit less than someone like LeBron, who would be 30 after the final year of a five-year deal. Assuming both players stay healthy, Johnson would be leaving more money on the table than LeBron would by signing a max deal with an away team.
Before free agency started, Stephen A. Smith reported that a LeBron/Wade/Bosh combo in Miami was pretty much a done deal.
As everyone knows, I reported last week on my morning drive show on Fox Sports Radio that LeBron James would join Dwayne Wade in Miami and take Chris Bosh with him to join the Heat.
Now, of course, that trio joining forces in Miami doesn’t seem to have legs, and Bill Simmons had some fun at Smith’s expense on his Twitter feed:
Stephen A. Smith is reporting that Stephen A. Smith’s report was incorrect. http://stephena.com/?p=953
Oldest trick in book: Report something is done, and if you’re wrong, claim it WAS done but something last minute derailed it. Child please.
What is Simmons talking about? Here’s what Smith said ‘derailed’ the deal:
At the moment, that is still very possible, but there’s been a potentially huge monkey wrench thrown into the equation — with (understandable) greed on the part of Bosh being the main culprit.
It was shocking news at the time, so it’s not a huge surprise that the report seems to have fallen apart at the seams.
What’s interesting is that Simmons has been silent on Dan Le Batard’s report that there was a trade in place bringing Chris Bosh to Miami.
Ira Winderman reports the following on his Twitter feed…
Potentially staggering news, Dwyane Wade is poised to meet again tonight with the Bulls, likely in the presence of his agent.
For a time, it seemed like Wade was one of the few top free agents that would stay put. Now it looks like he may bolt to Chicago after indicating all summer that he planned to stay in Miami.
This is a strange turn of events, and Pat Riley has to be feeling the heat. (No pun intended.) Not only is he potentially going to lose his star player, but Wade’s free agency courtship is undercutting the Heat’s ability to sell the idea of playing with Wade in South Florida.
And didn’t he just badmouth the Bulls franchise a few days ago?
Update: Chad Ford has a source that says that Wade is leaning towards signing with the Bulls.
I took a lot of heat (pun intended) over my assertion that the Raptors should have thought about trading Chris Bosh at the trade deadline instead of waiting for the summer.
Now the franchise is coming to the realization that Bosh is very likely on the way out, but they still hope to work out a sign-and-trade with his new team so that he can get a max contract and they can get something in return.
[GM Bryan] Colangelo told radio station Fan590 in Toronto that the Raptors still hope to keep the All-Star forward, but if Bosh does want to leave, he will try to work a sign-and-trade arrangement that could help both sides.
“As we look at Chris as a potential free agent, our own free agent, wanting to re-sign him, I still have that intention and desire,” Colangelo said. “But it’s becoming more and more clear that that’s not going to happen. Now we need to decide what the best way is to come out of this.”
A sign-and-trade would allow Bosh to get an extra year on his contract while enabling the Raptors to receive something in return for losing him. If Bosh simply signs with another team, it could cost him about $30 million.
I still think the chances of a sign-and-trade are relatively slim. That $30 million number is always thrown around, but it doesn’t take into account the money earned in the first year of the player’s next contract, so really the difference is about $10-$12 million. It’s still a consideration, but when a player says his #1 goal is winning titles, it doesn’t make much sense for him to force a sign-and-trade and effectively fleece his new team of its young prospects and draft picks.
The only type of sign-and-trade that make sense for Bosh and the Raptors this summer is one that brings back a player that plays the same position that Bosh does. For example, if Bosh decides to sign with the Knicks, the Raptors could work out a sign-and-trade that would include David Lee. This is about the best case scenario for Toronto, as the other players in the Bosh sweepstakes simply don’t have players of Lee’s caliber.
The Bulls have Luol Deng, but he’s more of a small forward and his salary is pretty steep — I’m not even sure the Raptors would want to take it on. Miami’s Michael Beasley makes sense, but his stock is awfully low right now and the Raptors don’t seem all that interested. Besides, if Bosh leaves, they’d like to move Bargnani to power forward, which seems to be Beasley’s natural position.
Predictably, Colangelo tries to spin the current situation:
“It’s the perfect storm for Chris Bosh to leave and unfortunately we’re possibly going to be on the short end of that, but we will evolve,” Colangelo said. “We will have to evolve and move forward.”
This didn’t happen overnight. If I could see the writing on the wall late last year, then surely Colangelo did too. The sign-and-trade strategy makes sense when there aren’t very many teams under the cap, but with this much cap space floating around, Bosh has plenty of options to sign with another team free and clear, and that may very well leave the Raptors out in the cold.
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