NBA Free Agency Guide (prior to 2010 - 2011 NBA Season)

[Drew]

As highly touted as this free agency period was, it was pretty disappointing for a few of the main franchises who practically gave away their present for years in order to pick up guys for their future here.

I don't like LeBron's move....I never have liked him, I think he's way too self centered and egotistical and doesn't care about his teammates or fans...only about his own brand. I mean...an hour long special? seriously? We need two words, a city and team name...but we get an hour long special to do what people have been doing all summer...showing highlights and speculating.

Even though they traded Beasley to free up SOME cap room....they essentially have to fill in their roster with 9 minimum salary guys. TEAMS win championships. Yes the heat have a lot of talent, far more than most other teams aside from maybe the Magic and definitely the Lakers, but it takes role players to win championships too. Look at what D-Fish did to the Lakers this season. If the Celtics don't sign Posey and Brown in 2008, they probably lose.

I think the way LeBron piggybacked on with those two guys severely damaged his legacy. Assuming they all stay together, can you ever even call him better than Dwade? Who will always have 1 more championship..and be the guy who stayed with the team that drafted him and convinced others to come play with him. No way Jordan, Bird, Magic, Kobe, etc. piggyback on with other stars in the primes of their careers...that shit is for when you're pretty much washed up, on your way out of the league, just desperately trying to win a championship.

In my opinion this is going to be sort of similar to 04, except this current Heat team isn't nearly as good as that Laker team was...and the current Laker team is FAR better than that pistons team.


With the questions of
- who's bringing the ball up
- hitting an outside shot
- defending down low
- rebounding against other bigs (which all the real contenders have at least two of)
- taking the last shot

all unanswered....this team can't be the favorite. Granted they have the whole season to work all that out, and I definitely think they'll make the playoffs...but the Lakers, Magic, Thunder, Celtics (if healthy), and maybe even the Bulls if they get a solid shooter...are all still better in my opinion.

[Habib]

WoW Drew, I disagree (in a respectful manner) with 98% of what you said. Each to their own opinion I guess.

Let me make this clear: I am not a LeBron fan. However, that being said, I like to say the truth. All of this nonsense about LeBron's legacy taking a hit because of his decision to join Wade and Bosh is just garbage and is really irritating my ears right now. I know that Charles Barkley said that but then again he has a history of talking a lot of shit that is so untrue and senseless. This is coming from the same guy who said the Cavs will sweep the Celtics recently so I am not surprised. He is an idiot.

And just because Kobe, Jordan, Magic etc did not do what LeBron did, does that mean that LeBron cannot do it? I do not understand. Yes LeBron and Chris Bosh went to join Dwyane Wade in Miami but again, so what? I think it is pretty clear to everybody who the superior player amongst LeBron and D-Wade is. We have seen just about the best of D-Wade we can see, but LeBron has not even reached his ceiling.

I love the move LeBron made, I love it absolutely. This move gives him a chance to create a dynasty with his friends (who are great players) when he had the opportunity. And even if he does not end up winning a championship (which is almost unlikely), he can reflect back and know that he tried his best. He will not live with asking himself a bunch of "what ifs?" To me, he has really made great use of this opportunity that he had. He may never get this kind of opportunity again where he has a chance to join other great free agents. Say what you want, but in my opinion, the Heat are now the favorites in the east and I believe they should represent the east in the NBA Finals. I do not think they will win immediately like the Boston's Big 3 did when they assembled the team together, but that is okay. They are not really experienced yet. All of them are what, 25 years old? But they have time. In the next 2 years or so though, they should start reeling off championships.

I do not know if the Heat are now the "best" team in the NBA, but they certainly are by far the most "talented" team in the NBA by far now. No team possibly has more talent than a combination of LBJ, D-Wade & CB4 right now.

I am so surprised nobody is giving them credit for taking such a huge pay cut lol. To me it really shows their desire to win and leave egos out of the window. I mean, these guys have sacrificed millions of dollars just to win! They all could have stayed with their respective sucker teams and earned much more money but they did not do that.

I will help you answer some of those questions to the best of my ability and as a fan: hitting an outside shot = Mike Miller, Rebounding against other bigs = Chris Bosh.

With regards to your question, those guys will figure it out. They are all great players, they will figure it out. They understand they have to make sacrifices for this to work. They know that there is risk involved in all of this. But hey, to be successful in life you need to take big risks at some point right?

[Drew]

First off, I never knew Charles Barkely said that, I don't follow him religiously and just quote what he says....that is my own opinion of the situation....and on that note, just because he says it doesn't make it any less true...

And wait a second.... since when is it common knowledge who the better player is? Are we talking in terms of statistics, because then Bron gets it....but then, isn't Wilt the greatest player of all time? Being the best is about more than the numbers you put on a stat sheet. To me, Lebron has forever relegated himself to Pippen status against Wade's Jordan. Let us not forget in this whole "Seen the best of him" thing you brought up....when Wade was "at his best" you know what he did? Won a championship. And he probably could have won another on the year before if he hadn't gotten hurt. His supporting cast wasn't even as good as Lebron's was this year.

So if you're talking about "the best Wade has shown"....its far better than anything LeBron has done...and now that he's piggybacked onto the Superfriends, it's far better than anything he can do. He's no longer THE guy...he's just one of them. Wade is a better closer, and has shown that he has what it takes to win it all....Lebron hasn't...not even close.

I do agree with you about his reason for doing it. It sure does sound fun, living in Miami, partying it up and possibly winning championships with your friends. Nothing is wrong with the move from that perspective. But as fans...we're the ones who discuss and worry about legacies and shit like that. It's clear he doesn't care about that...which is fine, Shaq never really did either...neither did Wilt. But that's why when we talk about winners we talk MJ and Russell...they nearly killed themselves everynight to get a win.

I have no personal problem with Lebron's choice, because that just seems to be him....all about himself, having fun, making his brand....it's never been about winning to him. Without a doubt, Chicago would have been the best choice for winning...I just have a problem with him parading around acting like its not what it is...and referring to himself in the third person...and calling himself "King James"...and wearing "LBJ MVP" shirts around after his team gets eliminated from the playoffs. The decision didn't suprise me one bit...I just think he's an asshole, and it's a fittingly asshole move.

When I watch sports, I want to see athletes that want to win, that seem to take their jobs seriously, who respect the average joes who pay a month's or week's salary just to buy tickets to the games, who care about their legacies and their team's accomplishments and more than just "where can i get the most money and party the most"

But sports is broken that way, and fans always get the short end of the stick when it comes to the admiration and relationship they have with their favorite athletes.


They're all getting max deals...in a state that doesn't charge income tax....none of them took a pay cut lol...it's foolish to even bring that up like it's admirable or something..


If nothing else (and I don't know how many of you are familiar with professional wrestling) this is the greatest and grandest heel turn that real-life sports have ever seen. The dude instantly transformed into one of the most hated athletes of this generation, and the Miami Heat has instantly had a huge target placed on its back.

Hell, if nothing else, this is all great PR for Kobe and Durant...because they simply and quietly signed contract extensions with their teams...they didn't have to go out and have a one hour special for it...they're too focused on playing basketball and trying to win.

As always,

Go Lakers

[Habib]

I have a question, are you sure about what you are saying or are you just saying it?

To point out one of the many things that are so wrong in all what you just said, you said they did not take a pay cut. Well check this out: "Winning is a huge thing for me," said James, who left more than $30 million on the table by not signing with Cleveland -- From this article: http://www.nba.com/2010/news/07/08/lebr ... index.html
So how did you confidently say that none of them took a pay cut and are all getting maximum salaries? Where, exactly, did you get that from?

Okay, I will not push this any further, because this time I actually do not agree with anything you said. It will just keep going on and on which would not be nice. I will just leave it at this: you do not like what has happened with the free agency and I like what has happened with the free agency.

[Drew]

A max deal isn't the same thing as a bird's right max deal. The Cavs could offer him more money than any other franchise could because he played more than three consecutive years with them. With birds rights, a team can violate the salary cap in order to offer a player a higher contract to entice him to stay. So yeah, by the books he "left 30 mil" on the table...but that's only because the Cavs were the only team able to offer that much. His choice was between any other team at a max, or CLE at a max plus 30 mil.

Sure, by the books, he "took a pay cut"...but in actuality he just didn't get the extra bird rights money...which in my opinion isn't a pay cut. That's why I said "if you're getting a max deal, you're not taking a pay cut". It's not like he choose the Heat and then restructured the amount of money he was getting and lowered it so the other guys could also sign, to me that's taking a pay cut. The three of them are all getting max deals. Sure, their respective teams may have been able to offer them more money, but that's just an almost arbitrary option that doesn't truly filter in as much.

Clearly my perspective on this isn't a literal one...I'm aware that he didn't go where he could get the most money, and it's clear that he chose the Heat because he thought it gave him the best chance to win, but when you assert that people are taking paycuts, that is synonymous with unselfishness to me...and that isn't what is happening here.

When Gilbert Arenas declined the Wizard's offer a few years ago and took less money from them so they had more room under the salary cap to sign more players, THATS voluntarily taking a pay cut. Signing for the highest amount anyteam can give you besides your old team isn't.

Yes it's semantics, and it probably won't make sense to you, who seems to constantly take things literally, but there's a big difference between the two to me (the two things being taking a pay cut and signing a max deal with a team that can't offer you a birds right max)

[Habib]

Drew, what do you mean by "birds right max"? I do not understand. Can you explain please?

[Drew]

The Birds Rights allows a team to spend more money than regularly allowable under the salary cap to keep a player who has been with the team for three consecutive years. How much more they can spend over the salary cap is based on a whole ton of shit, but it basically makes max deals more lucrative.

so let's just say the max deal lebron could sign for is 100 mil. Under regular salary cap restrictions, no team can offer him more than that. so a max deal is 100 mil. Because of birds rights..Cleveland can offer him 130 mil. so 130 is what i've deemed " a birds right max" its just the max deal he can get anywhere else, plus the amount of extra money he would get because of his birds rights.



An update tho: All of the guys have actually agreed to take less than max deals in order to free up some space, so they've all slightly redeemed themselves and they seem pretty serious about building a team there to win even next year.

[AYHJA]

This will go down as one of the shittiest moves ever...This was not The C's bringing in KG...

To me, this reminds me too much of what the Lakers did that year when they signed all those guys...Seemed like a no brainer that they would win, and if I'm not mistaken, they got swept out of the playoffs...

This will be a mess, they'll win some games on sheer talent alone, but when it comes to crunch time, the shit will hit the fan...Whatever the guys name is who coaches the Heat, he may as well get ready to move down the bench, Pat is going to have to come back and coach this team, AFTER the best fucking scouts in the world find guys who can spell these guys without fucking up big time and playing for the minimum...

Lakers in 7 again, heh...

[Habib]

To me, this reminds me too much of what the Lakers did that year when they signed all those guys...Seemed like a no brainer that they would win, and if I'm not mistaken, they got swept out of the playoffs...

Hmm, I think this situation is a bit different because these guys are young when this move was made and there are in their prime. When the Lakers signed Malone, Payton and them, they were already past their prime and old.

This may work out differently, we will see. I look forward to the first Lakers/Heat or Magic/Heat or Celtics/Heat game next season though. The power has kind of shifted to the eastern conference now because of this move. Only the Lakers are contenders in the west.

LoL Miami will probably be on TNT/ESPN/ABC every fucking day now.

[Drew]

How has the power shifted to the East? It just changed from the Cavs being a contender to not being one and the Heat going from not being one to being one. The number of good teams actually decreased in the east with this. Now Toronto and the Cavs are both horrible....and the Heat I think will work out like the Cavs did....great in the regular season, but crumble in the clutch.

The West is still way better. The East only has four teams that are even decently good. Celtics, Magic, Bulls, Heat.

Every team that made the playoffs in the West last year won at least 50 games. The Bulls were .500 on the season and made it in. West >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> East.