Don't count out olshey. He got a meeting with lebron last time he was on the open market and that was when the clippers had nobody. There's a whole article about how olshey did it to build a relationship with lebrons agency. Check it out: http://m.espn.go.com/nba/story?storyId=7879732&src=desktop
If Lebron signs here we should rename the city after him. Lebronland! The Lebronland Trail Blazers! No other team and city would offer to do that.
Let's say olshey sells lebron on playing with Lillard and LA. It would have to be a sign and trade right? What would it take financially? Batum and who else
Batum makes 12mil a year, which is maneagable, but I don't see how we could trade enough pieces to make Miami happy. Especially if Melo comes in to Miami to fill the SF hole.
Batum can play SG. Hell, I think that's his best position. It's not really about making Miami happy if lebron wants Portland. Something is always better than nothing.
Basically, the only way this could work (which is so extremely unrealistic, one could argue it's not showing how it works financially) is for Lebron to tell Miami to work out a sign-and-trade or I'll sign for the MLE. At that point, all leverage is in Portland's hands. But a guy like LBJ would not do that, not to play here in Portland. So yeah, that's about the only way in hell that works.
Absolutely. But Lebron telling Miami this in order to force a sign-and-trade with Portland seems even less likely than the scenario I presented. It wouldn't be the first time such a scenario has happened, but it's not very common.
Since Portland doesn't have the cap room, a S&T would be the only option but for Portland to still have a team that he would want to come to means Miami isn't getting back much. All of these work from a cap standpoint: Matthews, Wright, CJ and Leonard Batum, CJ and Leonard Batum and Matthews Matthews, T-Rob, Freeland and CJ But to look at all of those, why in the name of Ted Stepian would they do that unless LeBron was forcing a trade or just walking where they would get nothing?
When it comes to dealing with guys of LeBron's caliber, capspace doesn't mean anything. He will go where he wants to. Look at how MIA cleared up room to absorb their three guys (giving away Beasley for nothing, etc) or how HOU cleared room to absorb Dwight last year (giving up TRob for nothing, etc). If LeBron wants to come to PDX, it will happen.
I'd probably do all of those trades - though Nic & Wes would be last on the list, and I'd have to give it a second thought. And if we were to get to that point we wouldn't need to give up both of those guys - we would be able to dictate the terms of the trade and it'd probably be that first option.