04/23/24
July 08, 2006
Lebron agrees to an $80 million dollar extension: Great news for the Cavs. They have LeBron locked up for a while... but are they really contenders?
posted by redsoxrgay to basketball at 05:01 PM - 10 comments
well i think cleveland is gonna win there division next year cause detroit is falling apart an none of the other teams are on the rise well the chicao bulls are kinda but they still arent good enough to win the division so i think if cleveland can beat miami they gonna go to the finals
posted by lbjisnxtjrdn23 at 06:09 PM on July 08, 2006
Bill Simmons pointed this out "The Cavs blew their cap space last summer (more than $160 million spent on Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Damon Jones and Hughes) and have no real way to improve. If you remember, by the end of the Detroit series, poor LeBron was a one-man show." I don't think will be contenders unless they get him a better supporting cast. Even Jordan can only carry a mediocre supporting cast so far.
posted by jc at 07:21 PM on July 08, 2006
Cleveland will not win the division! They may win a few more games than they did this past season with Hughes being healthy, but not the division. I think that Detroit will win it again because they will get a better mix from Nazr M. than they did from Ben. Don't misunderstand me, Nazr is no Ben, but he shoots it better from the charity stripe and can score better.
posted by bkdet at 11:52 PM on July 08, 2006
Jesus, 21 years old and signed a contract for sixteen million dollars a year. Maybe I should have concentrated on my jump shot a little earlier in life...
posted by dusted at 01:47 AM on July 09, 2006
in the playoffs cleveland was one late offensive rebound away from beating detroit and that was when detroit had the best defensive center in the league!!! i think if you take ben wallace away their chemistry goes down the tube, these were the guys who played in 70 some consecituve games there is no way they can make up for the loss of a center of ben wallace's calliber granted offensively they were playing 4 on 5 but he made up for that with 4 defensive player of the year award so for that reason i still think cleveland wins the division
posted by lbjisnxtjrdn23 at 02:57 AM on July 09, 2006
From the article: Cleveland's All-Star forward agreed Saturday to sign a contract extension of up to five years and worth as much as $80 million with the Cavaliers. The keys are "up to" and "as much as" since LeBron signed a different deal. What's interesting is that Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh are following LeBron's lead.
posted by bperk at 10:06 AM on July 13, 2006
UPDATE: Nope. Attention Cleveland - you have 3 years to prove to the Mighty One that you are worthy of his splendidness. And even if you win championships, he'll still leave. I fail to see how this turns out otherwise. Nike wants him in a major market, he wants to be Puffy, or Diddy or whathaveyou, and there's nothing that can stop that from happening. Winning just changes the speech from "We tried to make the best of it" to "We've accomplished what we wanted to". And it's sad.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 11:18 AM on July 13, 2006
Ok, yes LeBron signed a 3 year deal...but what we are all forgetting is that the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement ends when LeBron's "3 year deal" is over...so he could be setting himself up to jump ship...but he could be setting himself up for a different contract...I think that LeBron is not doing this to hold Cleveland ransom...Hughes is a solid player. Z is slow and needs to go...put Andy V out there with LeBron...but they need another piece (someone like Flip Murray...but not Flip himself) who can put some points on the board and is versatile...and is taller than 6'4". Cleveland is in good shape though...LeBron will get better...
posted by chemwizBsquared at 11:33 AM on July 13, 2006
Yes, I agree that the deal is motivated more from the CBA standpoint than anything else - but it also segues nicely into his leaving without having to make a trade demand. I think Lebron really wants to win in his hometown. I also think that anyone who believes that he'll spend his whole career there is nuts. This guy is going to LA or New York. The persistent rumors of this doubling the price of his Nike deal (into the stratosphere of > $100 million) are too numerous to dismiss.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 11:57 AM on July 13, 2006
yeah i agree he should have signed it sooner but we should just be glad he did sign back