[Amick] LeBron James' free agency: Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul or Paul George could sway decision

sure, it’s not the end of the world, but we’re stuck placing all our hopes on CP3 staying healthy or Harden will be out there by himself carrying role players and our title hopes will be dead

Chris Paul will be 34 during next year’s playoffs and has gotten injured in 3 of his last 4 playoff runs

our window with just Harden, CP3, and role players is incredibly small...I don’t think it will extend past next season tbh

I can’t see 35 yo CP3, Harden, and role players winning a title. We gotta get that 3rd star.

 

We have until the deadline. In Morey We Trust

 

@justtxyank

Would you have expected the Rockets to say that we had a decent, good, or great shot to get Lebron James?

 

I remember Amick broke the news about Dwight to the Rockets, and I believe him. Not that I was holding my breath on the matter anyway.

 

Fair enough. We’ll find out where LeBron is going soon.

 

They said it about Chris paul.

A quote amick could have published is something like “rockets are optimistic they will ge to make their case” or “not ruling anything out” or “hopeful”

Instead he said “resigned” that he isn’t coming.

 

can't wait for morey to dump our liquid ass-ets, in the form of rhino diarrhea

 

Hold on to your butts if Melo gets bought out.

 

I think that will all be there no matter where he plays basketball. If he can do all of tha from Cleveland, he can do it anywhere. LeBron will make the maximum amount of money any team can pay him no matter if they are last place or a champiknship contender. So the money is there no matter what. And he's already won championships, so that's accomplished. At this point in his career I would assume he's chasing Jordan. In my opinion, you can't do that in Cleveland. I really don't think he can do it in LA, either. If he chooses either of those places, he's happy with his current spot in NBA history. Houston is really the only spot that makes sense to me if he's actually looking for rings.

 

Our recipe is tested to beat GSW, we were so close last season. a little help is enough, but LBJ is welcome.

 

Dude's a supreme optimist on this, that's for sure

Most of his claims are consistent with past trends of the party's involved though.

 

i'm almost at the point where i'm ready to look past Lebron. Our odds were never good to begin with, but the reality is ...we don't need him. We need to continue to improve our team, and we'll be right back where we were; with a legit chance to be champs.

The Western conference is probably gonna be even better next year than this year. You've got Minny and Utah that are both on upward trajectories; very young and talented -they'll both be even better next year. And you have LA, which has the ability to become a super-team in one offseason, with the cap room they have, the young talent, and probably Lebron as a magnet for other free agents.

Houston just needs to focus on improving the roster. Yes, i realize it's really hard to improve on a 60+ win season. But clearly we also have some gaps we need to fill. We have to find a 2-way player at the 4 spot. We have to find a way to resign Capela. And we need to find a way to replenish the critical depth we'll likely lose in free agency. If we can do those 3 things, we are back contending with GS for the annual right to pee on the eastern conference champs.

So assuming CP3 is back, the question i have is, how do we upgrade the 4? who is this year's PJ Tucker (or do we just bring Luc back with the MLE)? And will Tilman pay up for Capela?

 

True, u never know what might happen, but I’m just constantly worrying that this opportunity for a title is gonna slip away. I can’t help it. We’re so close, and these opportunities only come around every so often. Morey’s gotta get it done and get that 3rd star, and it’s gotta be soon.

 

I understand the concept, but here is the reality: There is NOTHING but LeBron.
There isn't another way.
It's LeBron and win
or Not LeBron lose in WCF.

We have no money to spend, we have no bi-annual, we have our vet mins + Tax Payer MLE (~5M)
EVEN if we purge Ryno, we are still capped. People need to realize this, we can't upgrade outside of a Opt N Trade.

 

That’s a fair point.

 

I can't wait till LeBron goes to the Lakers, lose in some round of the playoffs, then get criticized to death by the Lakers media and fans.

 

PG stays in OKC, Spurs refuse to deal with Lakers. Lebron goes to Houston.

 

Lakers fans spend so much time hating on bron they became closet warrior fans to watch him lose. Anything less than a ship they’re going to s*** on him. Mainly due to them hating he’s widely considered better than Kobe

 

And I hope Kobe continues to scorn him as well (as he's already started).

Ohhhhhh I can't wait.



https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...-teammates-kyle-korver-rodney-hood/686370002/

"It seems like he has some good talent to me," Bryant said in an interview with the New York Times prior to Golden State's Game 3 win at Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday night. "He’s got (Kyle) Korver, who’s a great shooter; J.R. Smith, who has always been a solid player — we focus on his one mistake and that tends to overshadow all the things he’s done to help them win a championship before. You’ve got Kevin Love, who was an All-Star and an Olympian; Rodney Hood, who was a 17-point scorer in the Western Conference; you’ve got Tristan (Thompson), who is back to playing like he played a few years ago.

"He’s got some workable pieces there. I don’t understand how, in order to talk about how great LeBron is we need to (expletive) on everybody else. That’s not O.K. Those guys have talent. I don’t buy this whole thing that he’s playing with a bunch of garbage."​

https://www.lakersnation.com/kobe-b...ba-finals-throw-game-on-teammates/2018/06/21/

“I would say he’s working too much,” Bryant told B/R prior to Game 3. “He should be doing less, actually. Phil used to say this thing to me a lot, when I was doing a lot on the court,” said Bryant, whose ESPN+ show Detail explores the technical aspects of the game. “He’d say, ‘You have to do less.’ And I’d say, ‘Well, my teammates got to step up more.’ Phil would say, ‘Well, it’s your responsibility to thrust the game upon them.'”​

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/new...e-nba-championships/x7vzq5zc1cll13xdcvybvhz7q

“All I thought about as a kid personally was winning championships,” Bryant said in the interview. “That’s all I cared about. That's how I valued Michael (Jordan). That's how I valued (Larry) Bird. That's how I valued Magic (Johnson). It was just winning championships.

“If I'm Bron, you got to figure out a way to win. It's not about narrative. You want to win championships, you just gotta figure it out.”

Bryant said he thought James was “working too much” in this year’s finals after Cleveland’s Game 3 loss to Golden State. The Warriors have defeated James' Cavaliers teams in three of the last four NBA championships.

"Phil (Jackson) used to say this thing to me a lot, when I was doing a lot on the court," Bryant said. "He'd say, 'You have to do less.' And I'd say, 'Well, my teammates got to step up more.' Phil would say, 'Well, it's your responsibility to thrust the game upon them.'"​

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2780523-kobe-bryant-nba-greats-get-lathered-about-lebrons-legacy

"I would say he's working too much," Bryant told B/R prior to Game 3. "He should be doing less, actually."

If James was to engineer a grand comeback, he'd need to empower his teammates.

Bryant, a five-time champion, took the hardest line—that legacies are built on titles, period, with no allowances for how or why James' teams lost. Others, including Isiah Thomas and Chauncey Billups, urged a broader consideration of James' career.

While many analysts blamed a poor supporting cast for the Cavs' defeat, Bryant stressed that James needed to take ownership for his teammates' performance. It's a concept Bryant himself struggled to embrace early in his career, despite repeated pleas from coach Phil Jackson.

"Phil used to say this thing to me a lot, when I was doing a lot on the court," said Bryant, whose ESPN+ show Detail explores the technical aspects of the game. "He'd say, 'You have to do less.' And I'd say, 'Well, my teammates got to step up more.' Phil would say, 'Well, it's your responsibility to thrust the game upon them.'"

B/R: LeBron has three rings. He's been to more Finals than any player in modern times. But he's 3-6 after this series. Does that matter to his legacy?

Kobe Bryant: All I thought about as a kid personally was winning championships. That’s all I cared about. That's how I valued Michael. That's how I valued [Larry] Bird. That's how I valued Magic [Johnson]. It was just winning championships. Now, everybody's going to value things differently, which is fine. I'm just telling you how I value mine.

If I'm Bron, you got to figure out a way to win. It's not about narrative. You want to win championships, you just gotta figure it out.

B/R: How should we weigh a star's supporting cast? Does LeBron get credit for carrying Jordan Clarkson and JR Smith this far, or penalized for losing with them? We saw how the role players blew Game 1 of the series.

Bryant: Michael gave me some really good advice after the '08 Finals: 'You got all the tools. You gotta figure out how to get these guys to that next level to win that championship.' Going into the 2010 series, I said, 'Listen, Boston, they got Ray Allen, they got Paul Pierce, they got [Kevin] Garnett, they got Sheed [Wallace], the talent is there. They're stacked.' That was the first superteam. [Michael] kind of heard me lament about it, and he just goes, 'Yeah, well, it is what it is; you gotta figure it out. There's no other alternative.' And that's the challenge LeBron has. You have pieces that you have to try to figure out how to work with. Excuses don't work right now. …

It has everything to do with how you build the team, from an emotional level. How do you motivate them? … Leadership is not making guys better by just throwing them the ball. That's not what it is. It's about the influence that you have on them to reach their full potential. And some of it's not pretty. Some of it's challenging, some of it's confrontational. Some of it's pat on the back. But it's finding that balance, so now when you show up to play a Golden State or a Boston, your guys feel like you have the confidence to take on more.

B/R: Is legacy only about rings? LeBron has been to eight straight Finals—no one has done that since the 1960s Celtics. Doesn't that mean something?

Bryant: You've known me long enough to know what my answer is.​