Hehe. If they all opted out just to divide the cap space up to give Lebron a bigger chunk that is awesome. LOL.
If that's the case then why in the world would Bosh and Wade take less money? I would rather have the $5,305,000 non-tax payer MLE than the $4,400,000 in cap space... ...unless I'm just trying to save the owners money.
Huh? Lowry's off the table? I kind of call BS on this. Who else is there if Lowry's not available and Melo isn't taking a big paycut? I don't see LeBron staying because they added Ariza. It has to be Lowry or LeBron should be taking a flight to Houston tomorrow.
Woj: Spoiler <iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/VLAPhzCETx4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Phoenix Suns, best chance with roster, coach, money, infrastructure to lure LeBron and Carmelo? They'll try to go hard after them. The Miami thing may be so far down the road. Phoenix is putting themselves in position like Houston did a few years ago. The first year or two of free agency, Dwight Howard never wanted to consider Houston. He never wanted to. They forced him to because of the infrastructure and pieces they had in place. That's what happened. Phoenix knows it's a long shot. If they did want to play together this year, it's the one place they can do it. They can get three bench contracts off and have $44 million to sign both to a max deal. I don't believe it will happen but it is the one place where they could have a pretty good supporting cast around them if they want to play together. ... Miami situation went as scripted. Grand plan here? They'll, I think soon after July 1, you'll see an agreement in place. Other teams feel the Miami guys, once Wade and Haslem opted out, the sense was LeBron is staying. It's a matter of how much money those three... Does LeBron want max money? I'm told it'll be max or close to max. You can't do that if you want to build... Sure you can. You gotta get Wade, Bosh and Haslem to take less. If they can get another contract in that $9-10 million range, Kyle Lowry, Luol Deng, Trevor Ariza, for me, he's the best player in the league. He should be the highest paid player. Jordan wasn't always the highest paid player on his own team Adrian. Michael had years of making over $30 million. These guys are going to devalue themselves. The star player in the NBA, no one wants to hear it but the star player in the NBA is the most underpaid star in pro sports. They fill arenas, they drive TV ratings, they make difference between winning and losing unlike anyone except a QB in football and the owners have to love they keep taking less instead of getting their value. LeBron would be worth $50-60 million a year. You seem down. I'm trying to gather some steam here.
More Windhorst: No discounts from LeBron. Full max contract to get him. Want to pitch LeBron? Better have the full max. LeBron has never been the highest paid player on his team. LeBron will be the highest paid player on his team, Miami or elsewhere. Houston Rockets wants to get into the bidding but no max contract slot. If LeBron is committed to the max, it will require more moves. Same with Chicago. Phoenix, Atlanta have full max slots or can get there. Lakers will try to get a meeting. These will all be filtered. They'll deal with his agent and maybe if interested, then LeBron. All signs point to Miami.
Yeah the Lebron idea is over. Really it was over as soon as they had that lunch meeting in Miami and Bosh left for vacation afterwards. That said it all.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>LeBron James will demand max salary & will not schedule pitch meetings as free agency opens: <a href="http://t.co/zbsDdS2IiO">http://t.co/zbsDdS2IiO</a></p>— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/WindhorstESPN/statuses/483657471358402560">June 30, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I don't think offering the max is even an option for us. Guy makes bukkoos of money.....I'm surprised that it must be MAX!
I believe the max Lebron can sign for is $20.02 million. Here's how we could do it..... $63.2 - Projected cap line $21.44 - Howard $14.73 - Harden $1.76 - Parsons (minus qualifying offer) $0.92 - Beverley $4.08 - 8 cap holds Remaining Cap = $20.27 Beverley Harden Parsons Lebron Howard We'd have the Room MLE ($2.7 million per year over two years) and vet minimum contracts to fill out the roster.
More important to me is the report that Lebron isn't even meeting teams himself. Even the remote chance of winning him over when it wasn't his first choice goes out if he is going to hear the sales pitch second hand from his agent.
As Harden said in his small QA at the Microsoft store. These guys know what they want to do at this stage in their careers. Dwight was a special case because he wanted to be loved. He had gotten a lot of slack through the media for how he handled Orlando and that really affected him. Dwight is clearly a guy who used to go with his heart and going to Houston was a decision that Parsons helped happen and with us Dwight used his heart and his brain to make a rational decision. Melo is going to go where Melo wants and I don't believe a pitch is going to change that. LeBron is the same way, except I think he stays in Miami because that is the logical thing to do for his legacy.
Nevermind......his max salary is 35% of 63.2.....or $22.2 million. If that's the case, we can get close by renouncing everyone but Harden and Howard, but cannot get to the full $22.2.
The report seems to indicate this first wave of meetings is a filtering process. If you fit his criteria after meeting with his agent, he'll then visit/meet you. He is the best player in the world, for all we know all 30 teams are trying to meet with him.
