Lebron put up 27/8/8 last year, it's not like we're talking about 1987 Artis Gilmore here.
I don’t expect anything from LeBron next year but continued greatness. He’s a machine of basketball excellence.
It's not a cliff, but there's a clear decline relative to the heights he used to be at (green is overall PIPM). He's gonna be another year older. I'd bet against him returning to form, and instead likely continuing the decline. Your mileage may vary.
8000 more career minutes played than Jordan (playoffs included) and playing a more physical game than Jordan.
The Mavs can sign a max guy before signing Porzingis, in fact that's likely the plan. I wouldn't be so sure about either of the others, there have been some Pelicans rumors.
We're also not talking about 2008-2017 LeBron, which is the going assumption in a few of the posts above. The number of NBA players who are anywhere near as impactful at age 35 as they were at 25-30 is vanishingly small. James could end up the NBA version of (cough) Barry Bonds, but the better bet is that he'll continue along the path of (mild) decline that started a couple of years ago. (See Bowiac's chart).
That’s OK, I’m still trying to figure out why anyone would want to give a semi-retired professional wrestler (D-Lo Brown) a max contract.
Especially given that, in that latter scenario, there is very little doubt that LeBron will have his own guys in mind - guys who may or may not actually be good fits for the team.
Slight if we're talking about traditional numbers, which largely ignore defense, which is half the game. More pronounced if we look at numbers which attempt to measure on-court impact, as shown in Bowiac's chart above. If if the PIPM/RAPM numbers are a bit too abstract, we can also just look at his actual on-off numbers from the past five seasons (per 100 possessions):
Haha. Fair enough - could just have easily used RAPM or any of the other advanced plus/minus metrics out there. PIPM is probably the easiest to use these days, so it's become my default for quickie looks like this.
Do the Celtics need one of these guys? Pierce? KG? Tommy? Eddie House?
Heh, KG was the guy on-air this winter pleading for AD to listen to him and get to LA. Not sure we want Kevin involved in any of our recruiting.
He asked them to meet his people to be more accurate. I don't think he goes back to TOR, but I think it's 50/50 which LA team he goes to
Certainly seems like this may be heading that way. Would be most undeserved dynasty ever although the injury histories of AD and Kawhi along with LeBron’s age would give a sliver of hope.
Because a Kawhi, Lebron, AD trio has three of the best 5 or 7 or whatever basketball players in the world and would be an awesome team regardless of the dregs they sign on veteran minimum contracts?
From Windhorst:
he would 100% stump for LeBron and Klutch, his entire career is built around access to LeBron
Middleton is unrestricted. He's just expected to stay in Milwaukee for the max.
Should we add Brogdon to the list? They certainly need a guard who can shoot and they can make him an offer in the ~$20 million a year range that Milwaukee may not match and then still have more space to fill in the rest of the roster beyond the room MLE and minimum guys.
Brogdon would be a killer fit. After Kawhi and Middleton he's probably their third best option (given Kyrie's history with Lebron).
Sure, why not?
Would cross two options off the list for the Lakers, if it works out that way.
This is the problem for the Lakers. If they don't land Kawhi or Butler (and neither look likely), their options are D'Angelo, Brogdon, Redick, Danny Green and that's about it. Most of the top FAs are front court players who can't play with the Lakers three best players. Would people be excited if Jeremy Lamb or Terence Ross were the starting 2 on this team?
I’d love to know the behind the scenes negotiiations / tampering that has occurred.
Do you really think that some of these players waited until contracts expired to start recruiting? The NBA is not likely to go after the players for violating these types of rules, so they should just take them off the books for current players.
The Moratorium starts June 30th at 6pm EST (in previous years it was 12:00 am July 1) and extends until July 6th, so deal cannot be made official until July 6, and players and teams are not supposed to be in negotiations before June 30th, because the previousNBA year hasn't ended and all of these players are under contract.
