Want your guys' opinions about next years Cavs team if Lebron leaves...

• lhslep134

  

  Okay, so IF Lebron leaves, and at this point he's done nothing to convince me he's staying because of how it seems that he puts business before basketball, that leaves the Cavs in a hole, what do you think will happen?
  
  Definitely on our roster:
  Mo
  Green
  Boobie
  Hickson
  Varejao
  Jamison
  Moon
  Parker
  
  Jawad is a restricted FA
  
  
  I'm assuming we don't resign Shaq and that Z retires.
  
  If I'm correct, that leaves us with enough money to sign 2 max players, because the max contract assuming the salary cap doesn't increase significantly for a player with 7-9 years of experience is around $17.5 million.
  
  So if Lebron leaves, what do you think the Cavs will do, since I believe we'll have the money for 2 max players (Shaq's $20 mil off the books, Lebrons $15 mill off the books).
  
  I personally wouldn't mind a combination of Amar'e and Ray Allen. Ray Allen hasn't lot a step or his deadly jumper.
  
  Please don't turn this into a thread about Lebron, I just want to discuss a post-Lebron world if that happens.
• krazie45

  

  It would be interesting to see what kind of moves they would make. I think the roster would be competitive enough to get the 7-8 seed in the East, but that also depends on who's coaching.
• IggyPride00

  

  Even if Lebron leaves, the Cavs still have roughly $48 million in committed salaries for next year. The cap is projected to be somewhere around $56 million.
  
  That is almost no cap room when you consider that $8 million dollars has to fill about 4-5 roster spots.
  
  The team you saw on the floor last night is largely the one you will see next season whether Lebron stays or goes.
• lhslep134

  

  Hm after doing much internet research it appears the only way to sign another max player is through a sign and trade.
  
  Wonder if there's any possibility of that.
• lhslep134

  

  IggyPride00 wrote: Even if Lebron leaves, the Cavs still have roughly $48 million in committed salaries for next year. The cap is projected to be somewhere around $56 million.
  
  That is almost no cap room when you consider that $8 million dollars has to fill about 4-5 roster spots.
  
  The team you saw on the floor last night is largely the one you will see next season whether Lebron stays or goes.

  Well that Cavs team salary this year was $84.5 million, so obviously Dan Gilber knows how to stretch the soft cap as far as it will go lol.
  
  http://hoopshype.com/salaries.htm
• Al Bundy

  lhslep134 wrote: Hm after doing much internet research it appears the only way to sign another max player is through a sign and trade.
  
  Wonder if there's any possibility of that.

  I'm not sure who they really have that could return much in a trade. Teams in a sign and trade situation would have better offers from other teams.
• IggyPride00

  

  Sign and trades only work when you have something a team wants. Outside of Lebron, everyone on this roster is way overpaid. No team is going to trade us a super star and take our junk back in return.
• j_crazy

  

  I think if Lebron leaves, ownership does a salary dump. maybe not a dump, but definitely no max deals and probably sheds some dollars at the deadline if the team is not in contention. in short, I think they'll be the 2008 pistons all over again.
• Al Bundy

  j_crazy wrote: I think if Lebron leaves, ownership does a salary dump. maybe not a dump, but definitely no max deals and probably sheds some dollars at the deadline if the team is not in contention. in short, I think they'll be the 2008 pistons all over again.

  I think will be very hard to do a salary dump. No one is going to take the contracts. They would have to wait from some of the contracts to expire before they could do much.
• IggyPride00

  

  Al Bundy wrote:

  j_crazy wrote: I think if Lebron leaves, ownership does a salary dump. maybe not a dump, but definitely no max deals and probably sheds some dollars at the deadline if the team is not in contention. in short, I think they'll be the 2008 pistons all over again.

  I think will be very hard to do a salary dump. No one is going to take the contracts. They would have to wait from some of the contracts to expire before they could much.

  Yeah, they are really land locked next year as they have literally no expiring contracts to use as assets.
  
  In 2011-12 they have Jamison's $15 million coming off the books I am sure someone would take at the deadline, but it is a tough sell to try and tell Lebron he is going to have to wait a minimum of a season and a half for help to arrive, and then hope whoever comes in integrates within that 30 game period before the playoffs. I just don't see him doing cartwheels given that scenario.
• jpake1

  

  lhslep134 wrote: Okay, so IF Lebron leaves, and at this point he's done nothing to convince me he's staying because of how it seems that he puts business before basketball, that leaves the Cavs in a hole, what do you think will happen?
  
  Definitely on our roster:
  Mo
  Green
  Boobie
  Hickson
  Varejao
  Jamison
  Moon
  Parker
  
  Jawad is a restricted FA
  
  
  I'm assuming we don't resign Shaq and that Z retires.
  
  If I'm correct, that leaves us with enough money to sign 2 max players, because the max contract assuming the salary cap doesn't increase significantly for a player with 7-9 years of experience is around $17.5 million.
  
  So if Lebron leaves, what do you think the Cavs will do, since I believe we'll have the money for 2 max players (Shaq's $20 mil off the books, Lebrons $15 mill off the books).
  
  I personally wouldn't mind a combination of Amar'e and Ray Allen. Ray Allen hasn't lot a step or his deadly jumper.
  
  Please don't turn this into a thread about Lebron, I just want to discuss a post-Lebron world if that happens.

  Your numbers are waaaaaaaaaaaaay off man. Might want to look more stuff up and become more aware of the salary rules. Like somebody said, you'll have around 8M if SabTel picks up his option.
• IggyPride00

  

  if SabTel picks up his option.

  That's as good as done. No chance he earns anywhere close the $2.7 he could make on the open market. Cavs are stuck with him.
• jpake1

  

  Oh yeah, he'll be laughing the whole time too.
• Writerbuckeye

  

  What will happen (if he leaves) is years of irrelevance again -- with it unlikely Gilbert will hang around to own a franchise that is going nowhere fast (assuming he can even find a buyer to sell at a loss).
• gut

  I can't believe people are letting Lebron off the hook here.
  
  You're basically giving him a free pass to go be a mercenary. Whatever happened to playing for a team and a city and waiting for the window? He's got plenty of good years left. The idea that the team is cap crunched for a year or two and so he is justified in leaving is misguided and wrong.
  
  This isn't the NFL where guys can get bigger contracts and so you can't fault chasing top dollar, to some extent. But Lebron is a primadonna punk if he leaves and I don't know how you could paint it any other way.
• Al Bundy

  Writerbuckeye wrote: What will happen (if he leaves) is years of irrelevance again -- with it unlikely Gilbert will hang around to own a franchise that is going nowhere fast (assuming he can even find a buyer to sell at a loss).

  I don't think Gilbert would sell the Cavs. NBA franchises increase in value over time.
• IggyPride00

  

  Whatever happened to playing for a team and a city and waiting for the window? He's got plenty of good years left. The idea that the team is cap crunched for a year or two and so he is justified in leaving is misguided and wrong.

  Kevin Garnett said it best last night.

  “Loyalty is something that hurts you at times because you can’t get back youth,” Garnett told reporters Thursday night when asked about LeBron’s free agency. “If I could go back and do my situation over knowing what I know now, I’d have [left] a little sooner.”

  Lebron is at his absolute physical peak right now as a basketball player. Staying in a dead end situation in Cleveland out of loyalty to the city is what KG did in Minnesota through his physical prime.
  
  People are going to measure Lebron's greatness based on titles, and they won't care he did the noble thing by staying in Cleveland even though it was apparent a title probably wasn't realistic here anytime soon.
  
  You get the John Stockton/Karl Malone award (and would have been KG in Minny had he finally not forced his way out) for that of being a great player but not a champion.
  
  I don't love it, but if I was Lebron I would probably go if the situation I was going to had brighter prospects for my future as some of the rosters on these other teams do.
• se-alum

  

  Dead end situation??
• IggyPride00

  

  se-alum wrote: Dead end situation??

  What do you prefer to call a team with no cap space, no draft picks, no stand-out young talent, and no trade assets?
  
  They showed pretty clearly they are not anywhere close to a championship right now, and with no way to materially improve the team it seems like a dead end for the next few seasons.
• sleeper

  

  If Lebron leaves, this team wins under 30 games guaranteed.
• Cleveland Buck

  

  23-59
• Sage

  

  They should sell all their guys for 20 cents on the dollar and try to win the lottery ASAP. But yea, their roster does not look bright for the post-Lebron cavs.