The question is... If he leaves Cleveland “IF” he does it will be the Rockets or Philly. Less likely Philly. But the big IF is because it makes no sense for him to leave The eastern conference on a Cleveland team that has dominated the east. What sense does it make for Lebron to come to the West on a team like the Lakers to compete with the Warriors,Rockets,SA.....plus a few more in that order of rank. Seems silly to leave to come over and get beat before you even reach the finals!!!! I THINK HE IS SMARTER THAN THAT AND KNOWS THIS.So “IF” he leaves it will be a eastern conference team or the Rockets. Blast Off
Where in the world did this Kawhi Leonard and DeAndre Jordan talk come from? The Lakers are an under-the-cap team. No exceptions. To go after Jordan, assuming the scenario where they sign LeBron and PG, he'd have to opt out of a $24M salary and sign for the minimum. Seems unlikely, to say the least. As for trading for Kawhi, other than San Antonio taking Luol Deng (probably a worse contract than Ryno), how in the world is that supposed to work? Here are the salaries: https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/LAL.html LeBron's family might want LA, and there's a path for LA to sign both LeBron and Paul George. That's reasonable. But the Kawhi/Jordan stuff is off the reservation. Now, maybe in 2019 when Deng will be an expiring, and the Lakers would presumably have all their exceptions... I could see a route to contention from 2019-20 onward. But is LeBron willing to sacrifice a whole year at age 34 to get to that point? He might do it, particularly if his family loves LA and is pulling the strings. But let's be realistic about things. It's more likely that Daryl Morey could dump Ryan Anderson into cap space without giving up any future assets (he can't) than it is the Lakers could acquire Kawhi Leonard or DeAndre Jordan this summer (in the scenario where they get both LeBron/PG). I know everyone wants to draw a parallel to when LeBron chose Cleveland and they got Kevin Love, but that was when Cleveland had the No. 1 pick in the draft in Andrew Wiggins to trade. That's as great of an asset as there is — like a new car that hasn't been driven off the lot yet — and it was a part of why LeBron chose Cleveland. This is a night and day different scenario.
You can say that about Harden. But I think Harden is the one trump card to this whole situation. Paul George is not going to beat the Warriors. Chris Paul i suppose is equal to Chris Paul. Lebron needs a top 5 player. Harden is that.
You come West to have a clear route to dethrone GS. All that Lakers talk has a lot of unknowns. Rockets do not.. we’re in the driver’s seat.
Has to make it Houston before July 1st. If not, he's either staying or signing a max FA deal with someone else.
The most plausible way for him to come to Houston is to opt in before June 29 and then get traded. So if he doesn't opt in and hit the FA market, we are most likely out.
They could. But we would be hard capped at apron and would severely hurt our ability to retain CP and Clint. So LeBron has to opt in.
@The Cat do you really think it's impossible that the Lakers trade for Kawhi this summer? Personally i wouldn't be shocked, looking at what happened with Leonard this season i would guess he already asked for a trade, and we also know the Lakers already tried to get him, if i'm not wrong cyberx said this...? Spoiler: My idea comes from here btw http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php...s-summer-trade-for-kawhi-sign-bron-pg.289511/ At that point, it would only take Kawhi to ask for a trade to L.A to see that happen, sure, Deng contract is bad, worse than Anderson (because he's literally not playing for two years, even though in terms of salary it's still a bit better), but the Lakers have more and better assets than we have, at least if the Spurs would go for a rebuild (which is the big question here imo). In that scenario i can really see a deal getting done. The Spurs would take on Deng contract for one or two future picks (and that's why the Lakers got the Cavs 1st rounder imo), while they would also get Ingram, Kuzma and Hart with 2nd rounder/s eventually...i don't really see this that impossible tbh. Sure, there're some (big) "ifs" here, cause it's possible the Spurs won't move Leonard at all or until the deadline, other teams (Boston or Phila) will eventually offer more, but it only takes Leonard to ask for a trade to the Lakers and that may very well happen imo. And i'm not even sure they would be forced to trade Deng to the Spurs btw, they could probably dump him in Atlanta or Chicago just like we would do with Ryan.
can you clarify if you mean kawhi in addition to lebron AND pg13 (not sure how this even works capwise), or just kawhi + lebron? i'm actually not sure pop would even keep kawhi in the west, i could see him dealing with ainge instead. and tatum fits perfectly in his system. also don't see him eating deng's contract, but maybe fakers can use their many trade assets to get some expirings to include for kawhi instead. if both kuzma and ingram are headed to SAS, then that leaves the fakers with no depth whatsoever. i still think only lebron + pg13 to the fakers is the most likely scenario out there
Sorry you lost me. I diont believe I said a negative about Harden. I said he would get along with LeBron. LeBron would take issue with Harden.....as far as it being Hardens team. But, I don’t know if you saw the clip of CP3/Harden getting into it on the sideline. CP3 offering a fist bump. Harden swatting it away and then arguing some more. CP3 looks at Ariza. Ariza rolled his eyes. CP3 needed Harden and let it go. What do you think would happen if LeBron was there in the huddle. 2 (LeBron/CP3) against 1 (Harden). They would have told Harden shut the F up or go to the locker room. Not sure what you mean Paul George could beat the Warriors? Klay Thompson is part of a team. So would Paul George. Klay Thompson doesn’t beat the Rockets......the Warriors beat the Rockets. Paul George is one of the best defenders in the game. He does well against Durant and Harden individually. Plus gets his points. Don’t let playing next to Westbrook cloud your judgement.....Paul George is better than last year. Harden is 1 or 2 in the league..................................LeBron is 1 or 2 in the league CP3 is about 12 th best player in the league...........Paul George is about the 8th best player in the league. Next superstar?........................................................DeAndre Jordan?.....Kawhi?........CP3?......Cousins?.... Advantage Lakers. Maybe. Kawhi is maybe 3rd best player in the league. Maybe higher. Remember CP3 didn’t make the all star game (which is bs). They tell me CP3 gets hurt every playoffs. I don’t know if CP3 goes to Lakers, but if he does it hurts Houston and helps Lakers be better (duh).....I don’t know if Kawhi gets to Lakers via trade, but if he does....they would one more superstar than the Rockets. DeAndre Jordan and Cousins are centers so they don’t currently fit with e Rockets, but could help the Lakers tremendously during the season and playoffs. Vs the Warriors LeBron becomes their center vs Draymond. As if Capela plays lights out vs the Warriors. They shut his offense down. So you have to tell me what the counter to the Lakers 3 Stars. If there are no more stars out there in Free agency to counter. I think the topic is dead anyway. Threads are showing since that the Rockets because of Cap holds have to renounce rights of players......which removes bird rights......which probably spells no LeBron. I order for it to work the Rockets have to pretty much trade Tucker/Gordon/Ryno and lose Ariza/Luc in the process....which was the lure of coming to the Rockets in the first place. LeBron would want assurances they can be replaced with shooters.
I had this conversation with @aelliott at page 8 in this thread, just give a look there cause i would've to quote to many posts, especially look for post #160, my understanding is that it's possible on paper for them to get all three, but they would need to be somewhat creative and also able to beat other offers for Kawhi which is realistically possible only if he wants to be in L.A no matter what (a George like scenario instead of a Irving like scenario) cause other teams should offer more. And after that they would need to fill the rest of the roster with minimum guys, even though they should still be able to use also their room exception (around 4.5M) but yeah...overall i think they could be able to put together something similar to this (again, if the Leonard situatuion works on their favor): Noel/Dedmon (4.5M) Lebron (35M) Kawhi (20M) George (30M) Ball (7.5M) ...plus minimum salaries for the bench. Is that enough to compete? Maybe not, even though you never know who they could eventually get to sign for the minimum, let's say they can get Dedmon, Ilyasova, Jeff Green, Wade, Nelson...is that an horrible bench considering the starters? Maybe not.
ok thx, that post explained a lot. so it looks like they could theoretically do it, and then just dump lonzo for a 3&D point guard. kawhi/pg13/lebron would be the most suffocating perimeter defense since jordan/harper/pippen. and even if they can't beat GS next year, they could add more role players the following summer. that core would be insane for at least 3 seasons. also regarding the question of cp3 re-signing here, i don't see how it's not 100%. the guy moved his entire extended family here, won 65 games, and then unintentionally let the team down with his injury. no way he's leaving
Your idea is wrong because Spurs would prefer to trade him to the East then the west. This would happen if pop is retiring this off season. Pop is about winning another ring not rebuilding the team. The scenario is more likely for Lebron to join the Spurs than kawhi to Lakers.
LeBron might not be scared of teams, but he also might not want to play heavy minutes, which he will need to do on the Lakers, playing Western Conference teams all the time.
