Where Will Lebron Land?

Ever since the Cavaliers were eliminated from the playoffs, ESPN and their talking heads have been chiming away non stop as to where they think King James will play ball next season. For several years the Knicks have been preparing for this opportunity, but a dark horse has emerged as the leading contender to win the Lebron Sweepstakes the Chicago Bulls. Will the Annointd One be able to live in the shadow of Michael Jordan? Or will he be the one to step out of that shadow and lead the Bulls back to the Promised Land?

NBA Balance Of Power To Shift Next Season

Will he leave? Will they leave? Those are the questions NBA teams are asking as the much-anticipated summer of 2010 draws near. A crop of mouth-watering free agents will be available to teams who want to spend big bucks.

Some of these players have an option to leave if they want. Others have an early termination clause in their contract. And the vast majority have no contract whatsoever and are looking to cash in this summer.

The impressive list looks to be the biggest change in the league since 1996 when a multitude of players switched jerseys with the biggest impact being the earth-shattering move of Shaquille O’Neal to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Shaq Tier
Lebron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

Only King James can have as huge an impact as Shaq’s departure from Orlando. Make no mistake, if James leaves, the Cavaliers will never be the same again. The Orlando Magic, although an NBA powerhouse right now, have missed Shaq greatly.

He has won four championships with two different teams (Los Angeles and Miami). Could James do the same? Possibly. The New York Knicks have the money to spend and they have been eyeing James for years.

But would James leave the Cavaliers if they win a championship this year? The Knicks are an atrocious team. They have been an NBA joke for quite some time. However, their situation might change as they can also sign another huge free agent.

The Knicks could be championship contenders overnight with the addition of James and someone else. The Chicago Bulls and New Jersey Nets have enough cap space as well, but this will probably come down to Cleveland and New York.

Top Tier
Joe Johnson, Atlanta Hawks
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks
Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat
David Lee, New York Knicks
Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix Suns
Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors

These players can carry teams and all of them, with the exception of Nowitzki, will probably leave. Lee is the least high profile out of this bunch, but he’s got plenty of game.

The other players, however, if teamed with James will make their franchise an instant championship contender for years to come. Wade and Stoudemire are the most coveted on this list. Bosh is on a team going nowhere and Johnson has already left a solid situation before (Phoenix) for more cash.

You’re The Man … Kind Of
Paul Pierce, Boston Celtics
Yao Ming, Houston Rockets
Tracy McGrady, New York Knicks
Allen Iverson, Philadelphia 76ers
Carlos Boozer, Utah Jazz

This is an interesting group. These players are either older or are known to get injured frequently. McGrady has no shot of returning to the Knicks and he won’t come close to the fat contract he received from the Houston Rockets in 2004 (McGrady’s salary for this year is almost $23 million.

Pierce and Yao have options to leave. Boozer is a force in the paint averaging close to 20 points and more than 11 rebounds per game. Will Utah open up its pockets or will some other team nab Boozer?

Iverson is a huge unknown. He can score with ease and maybe help a contending team, but his off-court problems and questionable leadership will be a hard sell.

Championship Piece To The Puzzle
Ray Allen, Boston Celtics
Tyson Chandler, Charlotte Bobcats
Brad Miller, Chicago Bulls
Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland Cavaliers
Shaquille O’Neal, Cleveland Cavaliers
Brendan Haywood, Dallas Mavericks
Udonis Haslem, Miami Heat
Jermaine O’Neal, Miami Heat
Michael Redd, Milwaukee Bucks
Peja Stojakovic, New Orleans Hornets
Al Harrington, New York Knicks
Channing Frye, Phoenix Suns
Grant Hill, Phoenix Suns
Marcus Camby, Portland Trailblazers
Richard Jefferson, San Antonio Spurs
Kyle Korver, Utah Jazz
Mike Miller, Washington Wizards

For a team on the cusp of a championship, these are the players that will get them over the top. There’s something for everyone: scorers, starting big men, veteran players with championships already, older big men who may be quality back-ups, spot-up shooters.

The Celtics’ Allen is the best player on this list (16 points a game, championship experience, deadly three-point accuracy). He can probably still score more than 20 points per game for a poor team, but on a contender, he could be the second or third scorer. Hill, Redd, Harrington, Miller and Jefferson fit that mold as well.

Shaq is the most decorated player on this list, but he has a ton of mileage. But he is a seven footer with championship experience, what team doesn’t want that? Camby is a great shot blocker and Haywood is the skilled center Dallas has been missing for years.

With all these big-name players available, the NBA will look dramatically different than it does right now. The regular season is over, get ready for a serious makeover with new elite teams, perhaps, in the works.

This Year The NBA’s MVP Should Be Unanimous

For the second year in a row King James will reign supreme. LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers has been the most dominant player in the NBA and the team will finish with the best record in the league.

Even though the most valuable player award won’t be announced for a few weeks, James has this locked up. The regular season ends this week and no one can catch the King. Every night James discourages opponents with his overall play, scoring whenever he pleases, distributing the ball to his teammates and harassing guys on defense.

Let’s not forget his frequent come-from-behind blocks, most of them in spectacular fashion as James swats the ball into the crowd leaving the offensive player wondering, “Where did he come from?”

Cleveland has won more than 60 games again, the first time a team has done that in consecutive seasons since the Chicago Bulls did from 1996 to 1998. James is the catalyst of this success, but Cleveland has also gotten better players the last two years, adding ballers such as Mo Williams last year and this season, Shaquille O’Neal and Antawn Jamison.

With these upgrades, James’ assist numbers have skyrocketed, averaging more than eight per game. If that average holds, James will have the NBA all-time record for a forward in a season, breaking Boston Celtic great Larry Bird’s mark of 7.6 in 1987.

James has said if he wanted to, he could lead the league in scoring, which few people would dispute. He still might as he averages 29.7 points per game. The closest competition is scoring dynamo Kevin Durant (30.1 per game), a second-year player on the youthful Oklahoma City Thunder.

Durant, although still a young buck in the NBA, is a legitimate MVP candidate as his team has improved tremendously, going from 23 wins last year to 49 with two games to go. But Durant’s overall play, while spectacular, doesn’t measure up to the consistency of James’.

Physically, no player is more imposing on his way to the basket. The Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard may be a beast in the paint, but he doesn’t possess the ball handling skills to create his own shot and drive to the hoop.
Every time James goes to the hoop it seems as if the end result is a layup, dunk or foul. No player in the league has the combination of sheer brawn and slashing to the basket. What brave player has the guts to take a charge from that freight train?

King James’ play is so dominating it demoralizes other teams the way Shaq did in his prime; the same way Wilt Chamberlain did in his. At 6’8” and a comic book character physique, defenders usually surrender the basket or foul to avoid being posterized.

His defensive presence is so great, players with wide-open lay-ups look over their shoulders in fear of being stuffed. Even then James sometimes makes a play that ends up on the nightly highlights.

Other than Durant, who else is there to challenge for the MVP race? Kobe Bryant, the last MVP other than James, has led the Los Angeles Lakers to the No. 1 seed in the Western conference. He has great numbers, but his team has underachieved, slumping at the end of the season.

For a while, Carmelo Anthony seemed like an MVP candidate. Although he is one of the top scorers in the league, his Denver Nuggets, once considered to be the No. 1 challenger to the Lakers in the West, have faltered down the stretch.
The Miami Heat’s Dwayne Wade? He has incredible numbers too (26.5 points per game, 4.90 rebounds, 6.6 assists). The team, however, is just average.

It seems as if the MVP award is James’ to lose. At 29.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 8.6 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1 block per game you can’t argue. Only all-time greats such as Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson put up those types of numbers. The only question is if James will be the NBA’s first unanimous MVP. James’ teammate, O’Neal, was the closest, missing out by one vote in 2000. Maybe the King will make it a clean sweep this year.

Lebron James Sucking Up To Michael Jordan

After putting on a show for the great one Thursday night in Miami, Lebron James made the surprise announcement that he, on a personal level, would be retiring his number 23 jersey next season. The change, James said, was purely to honor the memory of Michael Jordan… his favorite player growing up.

Not only did Lebron say he would be switching numbers (no matter where he plays next year) but that he would be starting a petition amongst all NBA players currently wearing jersey’s with the number 23 to do the same. After all, if the chosen one isn’t going to wear Jordan’s old number, then why should anyone else?

Ordinarily I would think this is a great idea… honoring the memory of our sports legends is important. But to be perfectly honest, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Jordan’s Hall of Fame induction speech. That lack of humility makes me not really care about his legacy.

Frankly, I hope the NBA doesn’t retire the number 23… at least not until Jordan starts acting a little less like a douche bag!

Around The Association 11-10-09

Iverson is acting up, the Clippers and Knicks are horrible, and Stephen Jackson is pouting. Things are pretty normal in the NBA this week.

Lebron
One thing we can count on this season is that pundits, commentators, announcers, and Craig Sager will all hit us over the head with the fact that the 2010 class of free agents is the greatest class of all freaking time. One free agent in particular will be under a microscope. LeBron James will be dissected for any hints of his intentions to flee Cleveland.

This past weekend, King James claimed that he will choose his next team based on their chance of winning. I would think this would preclude the Knicks from the discussion but you never know. Sure they will have the cap space for a generous offer but there are no guarantees that any supporting cast would like to join LeBron in one of the two worst teams in the NBA.

Clippers
This brings me to the end all be all of horrible franchises. The Clippers started off the season with evidence that god does not like them. This came in the form of injury to their latest first round pick Blake Griffin. Things looked promising when they were able to cap off three consecutive wins. That all came to a halt on Monday night when they were pummeled, at home, to the Hornets, by 28 points. On paper the Clippers look like a seven or eight seed. But it’s hard to win when you are pre-ordained to be miserable by a higher power.

Stephen Jackson
In his latest effort to get traded, Stephen Jackson’s agent Mark Stevens made public attacks on Warriors head coach Don Nelson and questioned his trustworthiness. It seems that Jackson has had about enough of the Warriors and really wants to leave. He probably could have helped himself out by not signing a three year $28 million contract. If things have gone south, the best way to get what you want is not to scream and shout like…wait, no that is precisely how you get what you want in the NBA. Look for Jackson to be traded shortly.

NIKE should release the tape… JUST DO IT!!!

With a clap of his hands and a cloud of chalk exploding over his head, the King decreed “Thou shalt no dunk on me and have it viewed by millions on YouTube!”

By now we’ve all heard the story… Nike showcases one of their top pitchmen by putting on the Lebron James Skills Camp in his hometown of Akron, OH. It’s a camp that features some of the top basketball prospects from around the country… prospects that are supposed to learn from the great King James… not upstage him. But that’s exactly what happened in a pick up game when Xavier’s Jordan Crawford drove from the right wing and dunked over Lebron’s head. And, as you also know, the footage of that event will never see the light of day because Nike confiscated the only two tapes in existance… after conferring with Lebron, of course!

A spokesperson for the shoe company claims they have a long standing policy to never allow the pick up games from such camps to be taped. Why that’s the case, no one has made clear. But to anyone with a brain, the answer is simple… they’re protecting their investment. Nike doesn’t want their customers to see their hero made to look like a punk… especially when the one doing the punking is wearing (Gasp) Adidas!

Whether that part is true or not, we’ll never know. But Lebron would be well served to come out and meet this growing controversy head on. Because as it stands now, he looks like a petulant (sorry for the big word) child on the verge of throwing a tantrum… you know, like he did after losing the Eastern Conference Finals when he refused to address the media and left his teammates to handle all the dirty work.

Then again, maybe Nike is playing it smart. Maybe we’ll finally see the footage in one of those Lebron and Kobe Muppet commercials. I can see it now… muppet Kobe and the muppet kid from down the hall are laughing at the video of Lebron getting dunked on by Crawford. And then a muppet Shaq comes out to protect his new teammate from the mean bullies.

Oh Nike… if ever you would head your own advice, now is the time… Show the tape in a new muppet commercial!

JUST DO IT!