http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/14995597.htm NBACW: Free-agent guard MikeJames, the best point guard available this summer, will end up with Houston, Dallas or Minnesota. Could be true. But don't forget one other team: Miami, which is making an effort to repatriate James to South Florida, where he broke into the league as an undrafted free agent in 2001. The Heat have at least a puncher's chance for four reasons: 1. Miami's now the defending champion, and never discount that as a factor for a player. 2. James immensely enjoyed playing for Pat Riley when he was with the Heat and often has said that Riley helped him believe he could play in the league. 3. With Gary Payton on his last legs, Miami needs a third guard to rotate with Wade and Jason Williams. 4. The Heat owe James' agent, Bill Duffy, a monster favor. Three years ago, Duffy's office failed to inform the Heat that his client, then-Heat guard Anthony Carter, wanted to exercise a player option in his contract. That mistake cleared more than $4 million in unexpected cap room for the Heat that summer, which allowed Miami to make a play for Clippers free-agent forward Lamar Odom. Odom signed with Miami. And without Odom, there's no way the Heat could have put together a package attractive enough to the Lakers to acquire Shaquille O'Neal in the summer of 2004. General managers rarely forget when player agents help them out, willingly or unwillingly. Lord knows Duffy probably hasn't.
Riley claimed (no link available, sorry) that Heat were not going to use their MLE this year, and would stick with Payton and another 'cheap' veteran.
we will find out the answer on July 12th, so just wait for two more days. BTW, maybe Rudy Gay will stay!!! GOd bless!
The Rockets will pass on James, will sign Marcus Banks and, by the end of the season, we all will be ecstatic they didn't fold and give James the 5 year deal he demands and which he will most likely get from someone else. Banks will be a nice addition as a backup point, they will go out and get another player or two to improve the depth and all will be good in Rocket-land.
No chance the Heat go after James, unless Toronto is willing to take back some contracts. The Heat are on a specific budget and you better believe that they will only go so far into the luxury tax. They'll do the same as the Lakers in keeping the core together, but only going the cheap route in upgrading around them. Besides, if playing for a title team was such a big draw for James, he never would have left Detroit.
At this point I am Mad and fustrated by James choice because he was talking bout comin back home and this and that and now a few teams are on his tail and he doesent know what he wants. I feel insulted when a guy says ill make my choice after I speak to dallas I mean isint it kinda like Ill try dallas once more and If cant go with them I guess its you guys and Miami want him too we will have to wait more and not even get him so is there anybody out there that can help like James can and we can get?.
No. He won a ring with Detroit, and then signed with Milwaukee that summer. And later on Milwaukee traded him to us for Reece Gaines and a couple of 2nd rounders. http://www.nba.com/bucks/news/sign_james.html Maybe he left because Detroit wasn't going to offer him much (most likely), but it certainly wasn't because of a trade.
Don't be silly. When millions of dollars are being thrown around, especially to an athlete who will not have a professional playing 'big money' career beyond the next five years or so, you better believe he will be listening intently to every offer out there. Loyalty to a home-town team is nice and all, but absolutely no one should fault him for making sure he explores all his options. Most likely he will end up here anyway, but don't think he is insulting YOU by making sure he doesn't leave potential millions on the table. You or I would be doing exactly the same thing.
Playlife, James left Detroit via free agency and signed with the Bucks, then was traded to the Rockets later in the season.
Okay yeah its true but the money is the same from everyone unless sign in trade thing and thats doesent seem likely to happend because toronto is not interested so he know the price he is getting its only a matter of teams who does he want to play for, he would be slaping Htown on the face by going to Dallas cuz he knows we are rivals and we need him to help us compete I dont know if I am thinking correctly at this point its just we have YAO and Mcgrady and I feel like we should be contending this year, just fustrated with the team I guess.
Then they better make a decision quickly. It looks like Cleveland is fixing to make a run at him. If we lose out on MJ (plan "A") & since we lost out on Claxton (plan "B"), losing out on Banks (plan "C") would leave us with plan "D", which I doubt we even have. Once again, the Rockets are being held captive by a free agent. http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/sports/columnists/terry_pluto/14999673.htm • The Cavs have also been looking at Marcus Banks, a backup point guard and unrestricted free agent. Another player they might be considering is Jackie Butler, a center who averaged 5.3 points and 3.3 rebounds off the bench. He is a restricted free agent with the New York Knicks, meaning they can match any offer he receives. But the Knicks are in such a salary-cap mess, they might just let Butler go.
You should not be frustrated. After what the Rockets did to him, we are lucky that he is even considering us.
Yeah thats true but I like everyone had high hopes last year and everything came crashing down I only hope we can get players good enough for our stars and be good again cuz I dont want to go back to the Franchise era ever agin.
I doubt that James would enjoy being a third string player, which is what he would be with Miami and Dallas. I also think he wants to earn a ring, in the sense of being a major contributor to a championship. He doesn't want to be there just for the ride, because he has already been there and done that with Detroit. So this is another strike against Miami and Dallas. Another point is that MJ had a lot of fun playing with T-Mac and Yao. You could clearly see it in his play, and in how upset he was to be traded to Toronto. So the Rockets still look like the best choice for MJ. But he wants most of all to be paid, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.....
James WOULD start for Miami. He is a better player than Payton or Jason Williams. I agree on Dallas. Dallas is one of the few teams where Mike James role would be the most muddied because Terry, Harris and Stack all do so much of what you would expect James to do.
That's debatable, so I'll debate it. Will Mike James give up the ball to Dwade? I think it would be quite a tussle, which is why MJ will be 3rd string behind JWill and even Payton. Yep.
