Lebron, Wade, and Bosh all on the same team. That'd be crazy! http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/colu...i_gene&page=wojciechowski/100223&sportCat=nba
From the article ... This is going to really hamper a lot of teams. Luxury tax is going to be through the roof.
It amuses me that he focuses on NY, saying Miami already has $30M committed, conveniently ignoring the fact that $17.1M of that is committed to Wade via the player option he would have to wave to become a free agent, and another 4.6 is a team option on James Jones (whom they'd probably waive). The Heat could offer 12M to each player--in a state with no income tax--adding them to a roster including Beasley, Chalmers, and Cook, and still have 5-10M left over to round out the roster with rookies, min-sal vets, and D-leaguers. Sounds like a much more attractive situation than playing for Antoni in New York.
If that were to happen, I could imagine a few teams just closing operations all together. There would be no point to playing, especially considering that team would set records for fouls against.
There's an implicit assumption that Bosh and Wade are comfortable being the second bananas to LeBron. Those are three massive stars still on the upside of their career. Usually in these kind of free agent superstar get-togethers it's one young superstar (a la Wade) and one seasoned one looking for a final hurrah (Shaq). Or a couple of seasoned stars trying to just win once (Garnett/Allen/Pierce). Last time I remember this sort of speculation was when McGrady, Duncan and Grant Hill were supposed to all join forces in Orlando. Didn't quite work out. I have a hard time seeing how this one will be much different. The egos and salaries are even bigger.
Hmm, but it didn't work out because Duncan chose to remain in San Antonio and Hill was injured. Had Duncan signed in Orlando and Hill been healthy, would it have worked? I think so, since Duncan was a dominant inside force, McGrady was a dominant perimeter force and Hill played more of a Scottie Pippen role on offense...able to score at need, but also willing to pass and facilitate the offense. The three players seem to fit well together. I think James/Wade/Bosh could work, though they don't fit quite as neatly. There's a lot of overlap between what James and Wade do and a lot of overlap between what James and Bosh do (James is such a freak). I think they'd probably win a title, because it's just hard to imagine all that talent failing, even if they weren't all optimizing their abilities. But I think there'd be a lot of clashes, especially after the first title. Of course, the first three-superstar experiment didn't work...Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain. The Lakers only won a title, as I recall, after Baylor retired and it was just West and Chamberlain.
My opinion is James would not go anywhere besides Cleveland unless it was the Knicks. Bringing a championship to the Garden after 40 years......those three would own that city. It's NY or nothing for the 3-pack IMO It all comes down to the pay cut. I don't see it happening either.
Yeah, I'm not sure I see it. Wade already has one ring, as well. Minor correction (unless I'm wrong): it was "just" Duncan and Hill - they only signed McGrady with the money they saved because Duncan didn't sign. (And it was thisclose - supposedly it was only because Robinson flew in from vacation in Hawaii to lean on Duncan that he stayed.)
That would make a really awesome fantasy basketball team. I don't know if it would really work out as an actual basketball team. Two of the three alpha dogs would have to play second fiddle. If they can, great. But if they can't then you have a colossal meltdown.
Yeah, I can kind of see maybe Bosh and LeBron on the same team. Bosh would get so many easy looks that he probably wouldn't mind being a second banana. Especially after being on some pretty bad Raptors teams. In the Olympics he seemed to always have this "I'll do whatever it takes" attitude about him. But I don't really see Wade and LeBron working long-term. Both guys would want the ball too much. You might be right. I do remember the three names all linked to Orlando. But it's been a while.
I was thinking the same thing but if that is the case I think NY will come begging for Rudy. Sergio/Rudy/Joe Johnson May not win a championship but they would be a fun team to watch.
Orlando could only have signed two. They wanted Hill and Duncan, they ended up with Hill and McGrady. Duncan spurred them (pun intended) to stay in San Antonio.
We could see two of them on the same team, but I don't think all three would be willing to take big pay cuts to play together. If the Cavs win a title or are in the finals Cleveland has the best shot at resigning James. If Toronto continues to play decent and ends up ~4th in the east Bosh might resign. The current team has an enormous advantage because they can offer more money than a new teams max. In the end players have almost always taken the most money.
Exactly. And when you consider that Bosh would be a 3rd option - not very enticing for him. I didn't think there would be enough shots to go around in Boston when KG & Ray-Ray joined forces with Paul Pierce, but this is a whole other animal. You are talking about 2 of the top 4/5 scorers in the league in Lebron and Wade. Then you have Bosh, who probably would see his production suffer the most of the 3. Would he be okay with scoring 15-18 PPG like KG does for Boston? At 25 years old? It's hard to imagine. That would be fascinating to watch - if that team only won 60 games, it would be considered a failure. People would expect them to challenge the Bull's record of 72 wins and breeze through to a title. Anything less would be an epic failure.
