duncan228
11-22-2008, 10:22 PM
Cavs hold the key to keeping LeBron (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/34940504.html)
No fans around the NBA can relate to what Cavaliers fans are feeling these days quite like Spurs fans.
The trades the Knicks pulled off Friday have put them in the catbird seat for the summer of 2010, when LeBron James will be a free agent. They in position to have oodles of cash available to sign James, and possibly even another player from the talent-rich 2010 free-agent class that may include, besides James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson and Dirk Nowitzki.
Cavs fans may wear the prints off their fingers wringing their hands between now and July 1, 2010.
Spurs fans, though, remember the summer of 2000, when Tim Duncan was a free agent. Then, the presumption was nearly as strong that Duncan would depart San Antonio as it seems to be now that James will bolt Ohio for the Big Apple.
It is instructive to recall that summer of South Texas angst:
•The Orlando Magic, jilted by Shaquille O'Neal in the free-agent summer of 1996, putting on a dog-and-pony show for the player most apt to be turned off by such things.
•The Spurs flying David Robinson back to San Antonio from Hawaii for a one-on-one with Duncan.
•The loyalty and low-key factors ultimately winning the day for San Antonio.
Clevelanders can only hope James, who calls himself an Ohioan through and through, will see things as Duncan did.
Thus far, though, there is one huge distinction between Duncan's free-agent summer and the one James faces in 2010: Duncan already had won a championship with the Spurs, the team trying to retain him.
James has made it only as far as the NBA Finals in 2007, but he left that series with a bad taste after the Spurs exposed the Cavaliers' every deficiency and swept them.
This is why Danny Ferry, the former Spurs player whose tutelage as a basketball executive was under Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford, has to hope he still has a shot at convincing free agent Antonio McDyess to join the Cavaliers this season, rather than seeing him return to the Pistons.
The longer McDyess, cut loose by the Nuggets after the Pistons traded him to Denver on Nov. 3, waits to decide where he wants to continue the 2008-09 season, the more it seems he has made up his mind to return to Detroit, which has to wait 30 days before it can re-sign a player it traded.
Reportedly, only the Cavaliers and Bobcats have a shot at keeping him from Detroit. Both teams have more than $5 million, from the mid-level salary cap exception, to offer a player who gave up $9 million to buy out of his contract after the trade.
McDyess, more than most, is a player who wants a title more than money, but money still screams when you've left behind $9 million.
The acquisition of Mo Williams already has enhanced James' game in Cleveland, and I picked them to win the East title before the regular season began. Signing McDyess would make the Cavs the favorite to get James his first championship ring.
If it means Ferry must guarantee McDyess a multi-season deal, starting at $5 million-plus, he should regard it as a risk well worth taking.
No fans around the NBA can relate to what Cavaliers fans are feeling these days quite like Spurs fans.
The trades the Knicks pulled off Friday have put them in the catbird seat for the summer of 2010, when LeBron James will be a free agent. They in position to have oodles of cash available to sign James, and possibly even another player from the talent-rich 2010 free-agent class that may include, besides James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson and Dirk Nowitzki.
Cavs fans may wear the prints off their fingers wringing their hands between now and July 1, 2010.
Spurs fans, though, remember the summer of 2000, when Tim Duncan was a free agent. Then, the presumption was nearly as strong that Duncan would depart San Antonio as it seems to be now that James will bolt Ohio for the Big Apple.
It is instructive to recall that summer of South Texas angst:
•The Orlando Magic, jilted by Shaquille O'Neal in the free-agent summer of 1996, putting on a dog-and-pony show for the player most apt to be turned off by such things.
•The Spurs flying David Robinson back to San Antonio from Hawaii for a one-on-one with Duncan.
•The loyalty and low-key factors ultimately winning the day for San Antonio.
Clevelanders can only hope James, who calls himself an Ohioan through and through, will see things as Duncan did.
Thus far, though, there is one huge distinction between Duncan's free-agent summer and the one James faces in 2010: Duncan already had won a championship with the Spurs, the team trying to retain him.
James has made it only as far as the NBA Finals in 2007, but he left that series with a bad taste after the Spurs exposed the Cavaliers' every deficiency and swept them.
This is why Danny Ferry, the former Spurs player whose tutelage as a basketball executive was under Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford, has to hope he still has a shot at convincing free agent Antonio McDyess to join the Cavaliers this season, rather than seeing him return to the Pistons.
The longer McDyess, cut loose by the Nuggets after the Pistons traded him to Denver on Nov. 3, waits to decide where he wants to continue the 2008-09 season, the more it seems he has made up his mind to return to Detroit, which has to wait 30 days before it can re-sign a player it traded.
Reportedly, only the Cavaliers and Bobcats have a shot at keeping him from Detroit. Both teams have more than $5 million, from the mid-level salary cap exception, to offer a player who gave up $9 million to buy out of his contract after the trade.
McDyess, more than most, is a player who wants a title more than money, but money still screams when you've left behind $9 million.
The acquisition of Mo Williams already has enhanced James' game in Cleveland, and I picked them to win the East title before the regular season began. Signing McDyess would make the Cavs the favorite to get James his first championship ring.
If it means Ferry must guarantee McDyess a multi-season deal, starting at $5 million-plus, he should regard it as a risk well worth taking.