He'll soon be gone, and you can go back to enjoying a mediocre team that won't make the playoffs.

Yea I heard that too. That's even worse than Smith running out the clock in game 1 in my opinion.

Cricket

Relax, have some tea. If we don’t finish the match today, we can finish it in the morning.

Not 'Cricket'...

CRICKETS (pipped in sound effects, please)


.

You are ungrateful and don't deserve that championship (that LeBron won for you). I really hope that he does leave the Cavs. At least the Raptors will be able to beat you guys in the playoffs then - oh wait! What am I saying? You guys won't even make the playoffs! :D

We'll see. If they follow the model of the Celtics, I think they'll be just fine. Me personally, once LeBron leaves, I'm firing Lue and heading to Philly to speak with Jay Wright. I'm handing him a blank check and telling him to write whatever number it will take to get him to coach the Cavs.

Agreed. How juvenile.

Ungrateful? Beyond the one championship, what should I be grateful for? The 4 NBA Finals losses? Taking to National TV for The Decision to let everyone know he won't be a Cavalier, completely embarrassing the Cleveland fan base? Doing The Decision so late in free agency that the Cavs had no time or options for a Plan B? Punching a whiteboard after a Game 1 loss, breaking his hand, and then dogging it in Game 4?

I'm thankful for the economic impact on NEO, and the championship. But I refuse to buy into the narrative that we owe LeBron everything.

I'm surprised you like LeBron as a Toronto fan, considering he stole Chris Velociratpor Bosh from you guys for his own selfish agenda.

Making it to four finals in a row is pretty damn good for a fan. How many fans ever get anything close to that?

The Decision was ridiculous, I agree with you there. A low point for him.

The Cavs go to the Finals four times and win one championship; and we have the Knicks and the Nets, two of the most dysfunctional franchises in all of professional sports. You want to swap?

You're not wrong, but I also view basketball a bit differently, especially with LeBron. I don't see that as much of an accomplishment with the state of the NBA right now and its very few number of teams that actually have a shot.

No thanks. I had 4 years of the worst team in basketball and have the Browns. Not to mention the amount of heartbreak I've endured with the Browns, Indians, Cavs, and my favorite college (Akron Zips).

And I was hoping this would be my chance to dump those two franchises. Darn.

My friend it's about to get worse. Welcome to a .500 team a best, IMO. You'll be missing LeBron, flaws and all.

See I don't think so. When he left before, what did we have? Nothing.

This time, we have Love and the 8th overall pick. Two good building blocks, should we choose to keep them. If we don't keep Love and/or the 8th pick, we'll turn them into a good building piece. It's different this time. It's going to come down to who our GM is (if it's Altman or not), and who we hire as our new coach (no way do we keep Lue if LeBron leaves).

I don't understand your line of reasoning. 4 straight appearances in the finals doesn't impress you because few times are good enough to reach the finals? What would it take for you to view what they achieved as an accomplishment?

I have no idea why everyone keeps talking about this 8th pick like it is some Holy Grail. Typically a pick that far down will not be consequential to a teams future. Take a look at previous draft history of similar spots...not pretty. Sure, a diamond can be found, but the odds say it’s not likely. The value of the pick was lost with each Nets victory this past season. Cavs will be an ‘also ran’ without LeBron for quite some time.

Agree completely. If you're pinning your franchise's hope on the No.8 pick then heaven help you.

The odds of any draft pick aren't good. However, with proper scouting, the right, young talent can be found.

It would take a more competitive NBA and a lack of super teams. 7 of the 8 straight Finals he's too, he's had two of the following: Wade, Bosh, Love, Irving.

Not pinning my hopes on the No. 8 pick. Just saying it could be a valuable asset that keeps the floor higher without LeBron his time.

I think Stephen Curry went #7 or 8. And Giannis Antete-whatever went #15. So it's possible to get someone great at #8, but nothing is guaranteed.

Who s this giant ant of whom you speak?:D

If I could pronounce it I would tell you.:(

Agree completely, maybe you get an offensive guy that cant play defense..

Heck Cleveland had the number one pick overall and got Andrew Wiggins in 2014.....i dont think you can get anyone better than him 99% of the time with a #8 pick pick and he wouldnt be enough even now with 4 years experience to get cleveland more than 30 wins without lebron.. so good luck with a rookie..'

The way to go for superstars with the #8 or or so is just reach for a guy thats in high school or europe with no film or guys that can be super super offense.. (stephen curry type..good...jimmy fredette not good)...90% of the time they will flame out or suck but maybe you hit lightening in a bottle to get a superstar...if you take some safe guy like Frank Komiinsky, Stanley Johnson type, yeah most of the time he will be better than than the reach guy but he still isnt going to help your team get to the next level anyway so who cares......all or nothing is fine for me when you picking #8 or so....no value guys there..all or nothing.

Dirk Norwitzki pick number 9 all or nothing.....all


The last 6 Number 8 picks....all things being equal salary cap wise etc...would you rather have Lebron even at his age versus those 6 guys? Yeah number 8 picks really means its franchise changing...

Frank Ntilikina
Maquese Chriss
Stanley Johnson
Nick Stauskas
Kenivaus Caldwell-Pope
Terence Ross



Lebron James and 5 best D-Leaguers are better than those 6 guys

Chances are if Lebron leaves Cleveland is a lottery team, or maybe an eighth-seed playoff team. Glory days will be over. That said, they should still draft a quality player with their #8 pick.

No way playoff team....they are a bottom 5 team for sure, maybe worst team l..... cleveland has quality players now on roster., ..but quality players dont win you 45 games..you need all stars......Triston Thompson next year will likely be better than whoever plays for them with the number 8 pick......it was really bad for cleveland that brooklyn couldnt get them a lottery pick...

You may be right.

For those of you focused on the #8 pick, I need to clarify apparently that I'm not building my team around the #8 pick. I'm building around Kevin Love and a free agent or two, however we choose to split up the salary cap space we get with LeBron leaving.

So let's say you have Love, a good 6th man or two, and the #8 pick. That's a playoff 4, in my opinion, assuming you don't completely whiff with the pick. Plus, it all comes down to coach/system.

I suppose if you come up with a major star free agent anything is possible, but I would bet no playoffs at this point. The draft pick I see as essentially meaningless until proven otherwise.

We'll see.

By the way, Joe Johnson and Paul Pierce were each selected #10 overall. The pick isn't meaningless.

I am not making fun of Cleveland at all, but Lebron came back home, won the city's first major championship in 50 years and you are really bitching about him and what he did over the past four seasons.

Without Lebron, when exactly would Cleveland get its first championship sine the Browns in '64?

I said, until proven otherwise. The odds are very long it's going to yield a legitimate star player. Anything is possible of course.

They'd be building a statue of Kevin Love. :eek:

Yes, because when I have the best player in basketball (possibly ever) on my team, I expect to go better than 1-4 in the finals throughout his 11 years with my team; two of those losses being sweeps, one loss being a 4-1 series loss to boot. God forbid I hold LeBron - the self-anointed "King" - to a higher standard than the average player.

Like I said, I'm thankful for the Championship. His antics, the constant drama, and the four finals losses are a lot to put up with, and don't warrant further gratitude. When he took "his talents to South Beach" and delivered two titles for them, completely transforming the NBA, it doesn't bode well in my eyes to then come back and go 1-3 in the next four finals, losing to a team he essentially created via his own selfish actions.

It's a team game. Great as one player is, it's a team game. The Warriors have the far far better team. IMO it's a testament to James that Cleveland even beat them once. You could swap out LeBron for Jordan or Magic or whoever you like and they still win one at most, or maybe none.

No way. They probably win at least 2, maybe 3. Remember, LeBron had Kyrie & Love for three out of the four (one of them had injuries though) before he ran Kyrie out of town. The Warriors are good, but they're beatable, and I expect the best player in the world to figure out a way to beat them more than once.

Well neither of us can prove it of course, so we can just disagree. From my perspective if either Jordan or Magic was better than LeBron, it was by a hair only. Jordan had Pippen (worlds better than Love IMO) and Rodman, Magic had a guy named Kareem and a slew of other All-Stars.

With paul pierce..you needed ray allen and keven garnett.....plus like peter said..its long odds...... getting someone like Paul Pierce is an exception not the rule ...you can also pick up a free agent nobody like Whiteside that turns into a good player as well....but again thats an exception....

Jeez, the roster of Golden State is better than the Cavaliers. With the talent the Cavs have, they really didn't have any right to get to four straight Finals. They reached the Finals four straight years because of Lebron James. Bitching about the guy who single-handedly took the team to four straight finals just really seems like awful fandom to me. You honestly feel that the Cavaliers went 1-3 in the Finals because Lebron James didn't do enough for them to win?

The "taking my talents to South Beach" was bad. No one disputes that, but the guy also came back home and won the city it's first title in 50 years. I suspect you would not have had much of an issue if the press conference was an announcement that he was "taking my talents back to Cleveland."

He delivered two titles to Miami because he had better players around him in Miami. Like I said earlier, I am not making fun of Cleveland. But it is never going to be one of the top-flight choices for NBA free agents.

1) 3/4 Finals included Kyrie on the Cavs roster, and all four had Kevin Love. They had the talent.

2) I'm not saying he didn't do enough. I'm saying some of his decisions were ultimately detrimental to the Cavs' success in the Finals. i.e. Pushing for JR & Tristan Thompson to get massive contracts, pushing Kyrie out, pushing for Ty Lue to be hired, his style of play/game plans, etc.

3) Ridiculous statement. Anywhere LeBron goes is attractive to players, especially players that fit the 6th man role well, something we could have used. Also, Cleveland isn't as "ugly" as it used to be - 4 straight NBA Finals, 2016 World Series, RNC, revitalization of the night life with The Flats restoration - it's been a happenin' place. The other issue was, after all of these big contracts that LeBron pushed for "his boys" to get, the Cavs were handicapped salary wise. The Cavs are DEEP into the luxury tax.

We will just have to disagree that the Cavaliers had equal talent to the Warriors. The Cavs do not have a second superstar on par with Kevin Durant. History has shown over and over again that you all but need a second dominant superstar to win the title in the NBA.

I don't understand your point at all when you say any place Lebron goes is attractive to players, yet earlier in the thread you made the case that him leaving would be the best thing that ever happened to the franchise. Cleveland was attractive to Lebron James because he grew up in Ohio. It is still a cold, northern city without any history of winning.

In a larger sense, I think it is a problem for the NBA that so many of the cities have almost no chance of ever winning unless they get incredibly lucky in the draft.

Yeah 30 is sure a lot of teams. There's almost nothing worse than an NBA game between two bad teams, IMO.

1) Two out of the four years they had healthy, equal talent and split 50/50, only winning 1 game one of those years. I would also venture to say that the talent gap this year didn't warrant a sweep.

2) Both statements are correct. You said Cleveland isn't an attractive destination for free agents. Any place is attractive with LeBron. Also, I think a fresh rebuild with a better system would be the best possible thing for the Cavs because I don't think LeBron's way of doing things is the most lucrative from a basketball-success standpoint.

3) Agreed.

I think this is a very good take. Lebron was the first to create the "Super" team. And now it is coming back to bite him. He can't beat the "Super" team.

I love Lebron. I think he is one of the best, maybe the best ever to play the game. I hate his constant crying. He is incredibly strong, and doesn't get all of the foul calls he deserves, but he also looks like a big baby after every single play. Running around with his hands out, and like he may actually be on the verge of tears. It gets tiring to watch.

Magic, Jabbar and Worthy were not a super team? That's two top 10 all time players and one who at least when the list came out years ago was top 50. Or decades earlier, West, Wilt and Baylor.

I took him to mean that LeBron created the super team through "The Decision", not that it was the first super team.

Got it.

Magic and Worthy were acquired through the draft. They didn't all call each other and say, "Hey, let's go to the Lakers and beat everyone for not 1, not 2, not 3 etc...."

Yeah, different age. And another media circus likely is upon us for Lebron's next Decision.

I swear, if he drags this out like he did last time... :mad:

....you will say negative things about him ? :)

Funny though..now Golden State is this big titan.....but if they lose to Houston because paul doesnt get injured...we are all saying whats wrong with Golden State and they need to add someone to compete with Houston like Lebron.

Houston was up 3-2 when had a healthy paul and had another home game...a


no way they lose game 7 at home with healthy paul...

Correct.

Well LeBron is a Laker...4 years, $154 million.