DanTown8587 wrote:If Miami gets LeBron, they can still sign a decent option with their cap space and still have the MLE. And they can get ring chasers. And they can get "hey its Miami and its Wade and LeBron" chasers. And if Toronto makes the playoffs, Miami gets their pick. So they could legitimately add LeBron, two #1 and two decent rotation guys and only lose JON, Haslem, Richardson and Anthony (who they could keep) from their rotation. Sorry, you put LeBron with any top 5 or 10 player in the league, its over.
The Wild Card team: New Jersey. Could add both LBJ and Wade and a top pick and then you are talking about an owner (crazy Russian guy) who would obviously pay the tax. You put those four (Wade, Harris, LeBron, Lopez) together they might a cool six in a row.
Miami won't be able to just pick up another player like that. If they add another max FA, they have around 10 to 12 million left where they are going to need fill their roster with mediocre players otherwise they will be short 12 players. Expect Miami to have one of the worst benches in the NBA next year. This will be one of the major turn offs as they really do not have much there after this is all done and said. It will take a couple years even after the signing for them to contend just because they will not have the proper role players.
New Jersey cannot add two max free agents if the cap drops to 53.6 million unless they are willing to take a slight paycut. Nobody is going to join NJ, when they can make more signing in Miami (no state income tax), on a currently better team, with a good reputation. I cannot see how New Jersey can favor Miami even with JZ being close to Lebron just on the basis they can make more money playing in Miami, and the fact it will be hard enough for NJ to recruit 2 players, much less 1 where Miami already has 1, they just need to add another.
The way I see it with Chicago is that we have the talent to S&T. What could happen is before trade deadline we add another star, or we do or don't do that and we still do the same in the summer. An example scenario is we go out, and Wade verbally agrees to sign with Chicago. Then we get say Lebron to agree to the same thing, and these teams either S&T their bird rights, or they gain nothing out of it.
People are completely insane to think these players are going to take pay cuts to join another team. It maybe about winning, bu the #1 factor is money. Nothing can beat that, and these guys want max contracts, and the max money possible. After that, they obviously want to win in a major market. Unless they are going to have their bird rights traded, they are likely not going anywhere. The only exception is forcing their current ball club to trade their bird rights. The odds of New Jersey/Chicago doing that is slim, and with Miami they only need to do it once so they have a much higher chance and they can actually make them earn more money long term as their is no state income tax in Flordia.
Overall, I think Miami has the best shot at landing Bosh or Lebron. We're likely going to be left with the leftovers which is going to make losing Ben Gordon much much worse. Personally, I cannot see us getting either one of Bosh, Lebron, or Wade. I think our best bet is
Joe Johnson - Overpaid, may get the max
Amare - Overpaid, may get the max
Boozer - Overpaid
Rudy Gay - May sign extension now
Dirk - Will get max
These are the likely players above that us along with a few other teams are likely to throw money at. We may end up gaining nothing out of 2010 summer free agency in the end.