Friday, July 02, 2010

07/02 Quickie: LeBron, July 4, More

Sorry for the late post: Had an early-a.m. meeting, then got sucked into Holland's fairly epic upset of Brazil (which was my pick to win the World Cup....whoops).

Has LeBron signed yet? Ha, just kidding. Looks like he'll take this into next week -- wouldn't want to make his big announcement during a low-news-cycle long holiday weekend.

Today's SN column caps LeBron Week. Hopefully, we won't have to extend it too far into next week.

I will repeat my claim: If the Nets were already in Brooklyn, both LeBron and Bosh would be going to the Nets, period. The two years in Newark are a deal-breaker.

I don't understand the Rudy Gay deal, except that I guess the Grizzlies feel like they need a franchise player and Gay -- rather than, say, OJ Mayo -- is that guy. Strange.

I don't get the Knicks signing Amare to a max deal, beyond the ability to prove to LeBron that they have one of the three top PFs in hand. Otherwise, Dwight Howard is going to kill him.

There is an interesting thing going on here: If Amare is in New York and Bosh, as expected, goes to Miami, then unless LeBron wants to play in NYC or Miami, who is the PF he is paired with?

I guess Boozer would be the guy, and -- if LeBron wanted to be in Chicago -- he would convince both the Bulls and Boozer to sign Boozer to a big deal.

But what if the Nets grab Boozer? Would LeBron go to a team without a big-man running mate? Doesn't that seriously hurt his chances of winning a title?

(That gets even sketchier if/when Joakim Noah leaves Chicago for, say, New York or Brooklyn -- either next summer as a restricted FA or summer 2012 as an unrestricted FA.)

We might be starting to see the peeking of LeBron... getting boxed in? Maybe.

Anyway, it's a loaded column today, full of NBA FA, Phil Jackson's return (THE storyline of the 2010-2011 season), Josh Byrnes getting canned (I'd hire him for my team in a second), my All-Star ballots (totally conventional... no Zobrist-like mania this year) and more.

See the whole thing here. Daily updates throughout the long weekend. Otherwise, have a terrific July 4th and celebrate responsibly.

-- D.S.

1 comment:

Sean McGurr said...

If Boozer is the big man for LeBron to match up with, they could have done that five years ago when they were both with the Cavs and LeBron would have 1 (2, 3, more?) rings by now.