You guys are all missing the point.
The Lebron to Miami sign and trade
was:
All in all, 2 seconds, 2 firsts, an almost valueless pick swap, and a trade exception. In other words, not a huge haul, but all assets a rebuilding team would want. And, most importantly.
no liabilities going back to Cleveland.
What is being proposed here (Fultz, Bayless, Covington) is for Cleveland to deal LBJ for, quite possibly, less than zero. I think the potential that Fultz pans out is not enough value to justify taking on a bunch of salary that is worthless to a rebuilding team. (Covington has value as a player but he's not someone you pay a lot of money to in order to try and rebuild around). If I'm Cleveland I think I'd rather Lebron walk away unless Philly adds some actual value to the offer.