LeBron James Warriors Pipe Dream: How Golden State Could Swing For The Fences (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @supremediting)
LeBron James opted out of his contract with the Miami Heat yesterday, making him an unrestricted free agent. So the pipe dreaming begins, yet for the Golden State Warriors to end up with the greatest player on the planet, it might not be as big of a pipe dream as it is for other teams.
Chad Ford summarized it for Bill Simmons on his podcast the other day, which started with a discussion about the alleged imminent trade for Kevin Love with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“If you have Stephen Curry and if you have Kevin Love, why isn’t Golden State a compelling destination for LeBron?” Ford said, “Because of the great market, Steve Kerr‘s a good coach, Stephen Curry and Kevin Love are great players right now.”
“Stephen Curry is better than Dwyane Wade, Kevin Love is better than Chris Bosh,” Ford explained, “If Golden State does that deal and doesn’t take on (J.J.) Barea, they can move Andre Iguodala to a team with cap space to move him. They can move other players. They can move Harrison Barnes to a team with cap space if they need to, or they can do a deal with Miami if they want to do a sign-and-trade or what have you. They can get Lebron in.”
“Interesting,” Simmons replied, “Miami is not helping, though. Miami’s going down with LeBron ‘ship’. If you’re leaving, your’re leaving.”
“There will be a general manager who will take Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes for nothing,” Ford added, “If money is needed, there will be someone to take Andrew Bogut for nothing. There is so much money in free agency this year and so much cap space. Golden State can do that if that’s what they wanted to do.”
Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group examined further:
If the Warriors get word from LeBron that he’s interested, they can quickly pull the trigger on David Lee and Klay Thompson for Kevin Love (and the 2015 first rounder, if required). That would make the Warriors an even more attractive option. They could probably pull the trigger anyway — as a way of making LeBron interested.
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Not only then could the Warriors give LeBron another Big Three to marquee, but it would be younger and on the way up. When the Big Three is old, the pressure to win is always on. With a younger click, it can be a five or six-year window. James can afford to lose in the second round like the Spurs have. The window is wider.
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Plus, Stephen Curry has already taken the major pay cut for the whole group.
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Since Curry’s extension averages only $11 million, LeBron could be part of a Big 3 without taking less than the maximum. In Miami, his best bet is to take another pay cut. He deserves way more than the maximum, so constantly having to take a pay cut will get old, certainly. He wouldn’t have to.
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James averaging $24M, plus Love averaging $18M, and Curry averaging $11 million — that’s only $53 million of the cap. By comparison, James/Wade/Bosh trio made $57 combined last year.
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Throw in Andrew Bogut’s average of $12M, and the Warriors’ four-man core (James/Curry/Love/Bogut) would cost $65 million over the next three years. (And that’s a high estimate because Love would actually make two million less than $18 in his first year with Warriors).
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With the increased salary cap, that leaves the Warriors with $12 million before the luxury tax to fill out the roster. So there’d be plenty room to lock up Draymond Green, get a back-up point guard, keep Festus Ezeli, etc.
[NOTE: Of course, if Thompson’s scenario occurred, James would have to retain his No. 6 jersey rather than the No. 23 depicted in @supremediting’s graphic used at the top of this post.]
But fellow Bay Area News Group reporter Tim Kawakami felt that obtaining James is unrealistic, stating the Los Angeles Clippers as both a more attractive destination for James as well as a better trade partner with the Heat:
Any LeBron deal would have to start with either David Lee or Iguodala going to Miami for salary balance, and if Miami is keeping Chris Bosh (opt-out decision TBA), there would be zero reason for them to want Lee or probably even Iguodala.
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It would also have to include many other valuable players to entice Miami, and that would presumably have to start with Thompson and you can keep on naming all good Warriors players except Curry, because Miami would want more than just Lee/Iguodala + Thompson…
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Why could Miami theoretically demand all that? Because the Warriors almost certainly wouldn’t be James’ top option. (Important separation point: It sounds like the Warriors are either Love’s first or second option. That’s what gives them more traction in a possible Love deal.)
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So yes, James could threaten to sign with another team outright (say, Cleveland or the Lakers) unless Miami signs-and-trades him to a team that is not under the cap…
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But if that happens, it probably wouldn’t be with the intent to get him to the Warriors.
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It would be the Clippers, most likely. And the Clippers have Blake Griffin to use in such a proposal — a young star forward Miami can theoretically build around.
[NOTE: Riah Brooks contributed to this report.]
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