Chris Haynes: “I’ve been told Houston is not a realistic option for LeBron”

Lebron is the tightest lipped when it comes to choosing new teams so everyone will be guessing until the Players Tribune article comes out on the 4th of July

 

I missed this. U got a link?

 

It was an article during the finals about how awesome he was and how he is a basketball purist at heart.

 

Lol, I'd laugh if he went to Philly because that puts him in the exact same position he'd be on the Cavs.

 

Yawnnnnn I guess he will just have to be wrong

 

Breh. I'd rather hurl myself from my balcony than watch Trev in a Warriors uniform next season. That + Bev would be too much.

 

Anyone else think philly is the smokescreen to get the Cavs to agree to trade with us so they get something instead of nothing

 

No.

 

TBH I rather have PG13 over LBJ who comes with a lot of baggage. PG13 fits perfectly with HOU while LBJ is def not an ideal system player with MDA. I’m 99% sure that LBJ is looking at the system HOU runs and is asking himself how TF he could fit here. Meanwhile in PHILY Bret Brown managed put Ben Simmons in positions to succeed even with a broken jumper.

 

He may love motion offense but he doesn’t have the skills for it.

You need to be able to dribble more than twice and pass the ball well.

Two skills Luc is better at than him. I’ll be ok if he leaves

 

If Ariza goes to the Warriors...he immediately ascends to Parsons status of shame. Would be an unforgivable move.

 

Lol, that's a whopper there.

 

A ****9ng men. What I've been saying all along. They'll be playing 4 on 5 on offense with Simmons standing around watching LeBron while simultaneously being a horrible even worse than Roberson shooter.

 

I’m waiting to respond to everyone at the same time. I was on vacation for like a week and a half with no forum time and I have about 40 mentions waiting on me.

Need a big chunk of time to do it.

 

Ariza would not do that, I want to believe he had way too much pride for that.

 

From Ben/@The Cat

THREAD: Be wary of rumors aggregated from a radio show or podcast, particularly if the radio show/podcast doesn't belong to the source of the alleged news. This has come up quite a few times with NBA stories this week. If a reporter has solid intel, they're going to break it on a platform where they can monetize it. That's the business. For example, I've had dozens of NBA reporters on @LockedOnRockets, but I don't expect them to break news there. Because that's not where they make $$$ from it. What often happens in these spots: A reporter says something that's some combination of opinion, intuition, or second-hand or third-hand gossip that isn't strong enough to be a story. And they know this, and those *actually listening* to the shows have a good idea of it, too. But aggregation sites hungry for clicks (or RTs) take words out of context, slap a buzzworthy headline on it, and it takes on a life of its own.

The #Rockets are the Vegas favorite for LeBron James by a decent margin. Tons of money has already been wagered. Considering this, if an ESPN reporter has strong intel that Houston isn't really in play, it's a story. Both the reporters and their editors understand this. The info might sometimes turn out accurate. Maybe it does in this case. But there's a reason it was only mentioned in passing on someone else's podcast or radio show. I'd urge caution before jumping to any conclusions on stuff like this. Chris Haynes is a really good reporter, by the way. Has great NBA connections. I wouldn't ignore the information. I'm just urging context based on the choice of medium. He's going to break it on an ESPN platform if he has something he fully trusts.

My personal take: "Not realistic" is an odd phrasing. If you don't want a job offer, you'd say you don't want the job. If LeBron simply weren't interested in Houston, just say he's not interested. "Not realistic" feels like a question of logistics. There are lots of very real salary-cap questions about whether HOU can make it work, and my hunch is that that may be the question here. That said, as for my personal belief, Daryl Morey is really good.

 

Chris Haynes is fat. The only fat dude I trust is the Potato. And Murray.

 

Thanks for the transcription, @J.R. Aside from the whole business of modern media stuff, which I know many don't care about, the phrasing was what most struck me.

If you're on the job market and you don't like a certain offer, I don't think you'd characterize it as "not realistic." You'd just simply say you're not interested. "Not realistic" is something you typically say when there's an issue of logistics — i.e. money, location, family objections, etc.

I don't think there's an issue of LeBron having some behind-the-scenes problem with Houston, Texas, the Rockets franchise, or anything like that — and if he did, I'm thinking Chris Bosh would know. What I suspect, based on the hundreds of other articles written to this point, is that people (including connected ones) are questioning the salary fit after taking an initial look at the situation on paper (i.e. what does HOU have to do to get $30 million under the cap?) without considering the more complex scenarios.

(And yes, I know Haynes mentions a couple minutes later that teams can and will clear room for LeBron, but the HOU salary situation is obviously much more extreme than most.)

 

I'm pretty sure Romona is very fond of Whoppers...

 

I shall certainly give a vote of confidence to the BSPN Warriors beat writer regarding Rockets' free agency, shan't I?!