Cleveland seems like a no brainer now. The best place for long term success and the best way to rebuild his image.

How pissed will Wade be if he opted out for LeBron, and he left anyways. No way anyone wants to pay a 32 year old with bad knees a max deal. Plus Miami drafts the guy LeBron wanted them to draft.

NBA Legion @MySportsLegion · 18m

Things are about to get crazy. Rockets & Cavs have trades lined up that'll create a max contract slot. Both believe they can sign LeBron.

'The return is near' according to the Cavs twitter page......the return of the summer league!

Damn, Cleveland would have a nice team. Irving, Wiggins, and now Lebron.

I'm wonder if that guy got that from Wojnarowski. Either way he tweeted that the Rockets and Cavs are trying to open up max space earlier. Woj also said the Heat's issue is they can't give concrete numbers to FA's because they don't have precise figures on Bosh/Wade.

He also said Bosh is fishing around, and teams are telling him he can get a max contract.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Chris Bosh's reps have made recent calls on market to reconfirm that max slots would be available to him, sources tell Yahoo. Answers: Yes.</p>&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/statuses/485470728477630464">July 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Teams are stupid if they give Bosh a max contract.

This is all really good information. I can't wait for next season's first tipoff.. Giddy, I am, just giddy..

Lebron is coming home

We let Darren Collison walk and used the full MLE on Hawes instead.

We still have to get a decent starting small forward and a backup PG, so we're not too stacked yet. :)

Let me just agree with TBG of his assessment of the Lakers. As a Lakers fan, it's easy to think that everyone wants to come here because it's always been that way. The Lakers always get what they want.

Until now. I fully expect the Lakers to strike out on all their free agent attempts and scrap the bottom of the barrel again.

I'd love LeBron (who wouldn't?), but if he goes back to Cleveland that would be pretty cool.

Not the rockets. He is perfect there

Houston is offering Bosh the max deal, so I'm assuming he takes it.. LeBron goes to Cleveland, and it sounds like Carmelo is going back to NY.

Nobody wants to play with Kobe Bryant if they don't have to.

My friend is a Lakers fan and he thinks they are going to hire Byron Scott. Kind of funny hiring another Cleveland cast off after Mike Brown.

Granted I would have much rather kept Scott than hiring Brown... But I'm ecstatic for Blatt/Lue now.

Only reason why Scott went to Cleveland was to land Lebron doing that ****ing fiasco. Im fine with Scott. I think he's a good coach. No one wanted Brown or D'Antoni, we were forced to root for them though.

I think Scott is a garbage coach. He hasn't gotten a single interview for another job outside the Lakers.

Byron Scott is the Frank Haith of NBA coaches.

Seriously, why do the Lakers hire coaches like they're the Jaguars?

100% spot on.

He's horrendous on a ton of levels. Awful offense with no real identity. He's had Chris Paul, Jason Kidd and Kyrie Irving as his point guards and his offensive gameplans were awful.

If he wasn't a past Laker, he wouldn't even be mentioned.

Kupchak better be working behind the scenes at someone bigger, because Scott is another long list of Laker coach abortions waiting to happen.

Besides Phil, this organization has hired the following over the last 18 years:

Del Harris
Rudy T
Kurt Rambis
Mike Brown
Mike D'Antoni

****.

Excellent point.

I wish I knew. They just can't hire coaches to save their lives.

The D'Antoni hire over Phil is going to set this organization back 10 years.

not really. Phil didnt even really want to coach! Even if Phil did coach it was going to be for the 2012 season ONLY, besides Phil was sick and it would have been really tough on him.

He said himself he was going to take the job in 2012 and it wasn't going to be just for that year. He would have had accommodations made to give him some time off here and there, but this team would be far more attractive with him at the helm then any of the complete jokes that have been really linked to the job so far.

Well, im for one glad he didnt take the job, that might have meant Dwight Howard would probably have re-signed. I am glad that did NOT happen. Plus Phil dealing with Chemo plus coaching? thats not good especially a guy his age.

@chicagobullsbot: LA Lakers interest in Carlos Boozer could help the Chicago Bulls - (Article: K.C. Johnson) - http://t.co/BxVNJX9nTI

I'd take my chances with Phil coaching him.

Looks like the Warriors will be the same team as last year. We will be lucky to finish in the top 6 of the west.

People are way too hard on Melo. His supporting cast in New York was absolutely brutal, Chris Paul would've had a hard time getting assists on that team. Even in advanced stats he's a top 10 player guaranteed every year. Defensively he can play hard when it matters. Any team would be insane not to want him.

Come on TBG. You are smarter than this. No one wants to coach Kobe. Why? Because only Phil had enough rings and big enough balls to put him in his place. That's why.

I'd keep Chandler Parsons over giving Bosh the max. I hope they get Bosh.

The same supporting cast that helped the Knicks finish second in the easy the year before? The same cat that before the season Melo said was good enough to win the east? He advocated then re signing Jr Smith.

Bosh is the perfect compliment for Dwight. The rockets badly wanted ryan Anderson. They need a stretch four to clear the post for dwight.

That team would be so soft. Go right ahead with that.

I read a great comment about Melo. Melo's game is to hold the ball while 4 guys watch. Melo doesn't just take a lot of shots. He holds the ball for a million years, then shoots. He's not a good passer. His assist % is astronomically low. His usage rate is off the charts high. And as you said, for the most part, doesn't play defense as much as he should. And even if he's, from what I hear, a good guy, he isn't a natural leader.

Say what you want about that supporting cast, but they looked really good when Jeremy Lin was at the point. And Lin isn't even that good. They won because Lin was creating shots for his teammates. Melo is never going to make teammates better. Which is why it's really hard to build the case that his teammates weren't good enough. Maybe they could be, but it's kind of hard to get teammates going when they don't touch the ball and it's kind of hard to run a set offense when it revolves around one guy holding on to the ball and draining the shot clock.

100% don't agree. None of the coaches they hired were worth shit.

Kobe demands a shit ton out of teammates and if you're a coach who's clueless like Brown and DAntoni, it's not going to work.

There's probably a ton more coaches out there looking to coach Kobe than you realize.

Who needs NBA beat reporters? This is from a Cleveland area cupcake shop.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Just texting with a friend who is directly tied in with Lebron and his camp, and he swears on his life <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheReturn?src=hash">#TheReturn</a>... <a href="http://t.co/5Kw232fMys">http://t.co/5Kw232fMys</a></p>&mdash; Jonathan Gotschall (@lovethatcupcake) <a href="https://twitter.com/lovethatcupcake/statuses/485451107662311424">July 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
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http://msn.foxsports.com/ohio/story/...ces-say-070514

This is from a reporter at FOX Sports Ohio, he reports that Bosh is definitely interested in the Mavs and Rockets and has "zero knowledge" of what LeBron is going to do. He also says if the Cavs sign LeBron they could make an attempt to sign Bosh too.

I wonder how much Dan Gilbert has apologized to LeBron already. Probably sends him an apology text message every morning.

If you watched the Knicks last year, you would see that Melo was the least of their problems and the absolute last reason they didn't do as well as the year before.

Psh. No one wants Bosh. Lebron tried to bring bosh back in 2010. Bosh didn't want to play in Cleveland

Melo is overrated and the Lakers lost. They will get the #1 pick and it will be a bust.

There was a tweet from a Cleveland sports radio guy that Gilbert was flying to Miami today. Gilbert directly responded to the guy saying he was enjoying the weather in his backyard today.

Still, there are a TON of rumors flying about. Some people thought it was odd Gilbert directly responded to some sports jock in the first place, and that it was fishy. The Cleveland fans appear to getting their hopes up. They seem to be well beyond "Chiefs and Hugh Douglas" frenzy level at this point.

His plane is supposedly being tracked.

I think many people forget this but Melo has been to the WC Finals with the Nuggets and it was a year that Melo, JR Smith, Chauncy Billups, Nene and Kenyon Martin all had 1000+ points for the season.

Billups had 17, Nene had 14, JR Smith had 15, Kenyon had 11, and Melo had 22 points per game.

4 guys had DOUBLE DIGITS in scoring averages for that season with "ball hog" Melo on the team.

Do you know how many 1000+ point scorers were on the Knicks last year besides Melo? One. And it was JR Smith.

That team had nobody and you can call Melo a possession eater all you want, but when he has some sort of semblance of NBA talent around him and not bum knees Amare and Andreas Bargnani and Fat Ray Felton, he can do more as a teammate.

Yeah, the Cavs fans have resorted to plane tracking. Who knows if it's legit... there is definitely a plane on it's way to Miami, and it's registered to an address that appears to be similar to the address of Dan Gilbert's company in Detroit. The internet is a crazy place.

Everything about LeBron returning to Cleveland makes perfect sense just like I've been saying for two years. The writing has always been there, and adding Wiggins just gives him even more reason to return.

When you're in the league for 9 years and are considered one of the game's elite, you have to do better than just 2 years out of 9 where you make it out of the first round. That was one of two playoff years where Melo had a respectable assist %.

I just think the 2011 season said a lot about Melo. When he was on the bench, the team played great team basketball. Guys like Tyson Chandler, JR Smith, Novak, Stoudemire, Lin… these guys started to play terrific. When Melo came back, it went back to one-on-one basketball and he was a little bit pouty about the success the team was having. That's the big difference. KD and Kobe are ball hogs, but they make much faster decisions and are looking to pass. More importantly, you just don't sense that Anthony believes he can win through his team. Regardless of who you put around him, he's probably always going to believe that the game is one with him controlling the possession.

Exactly right. The Spurs have shown you dont need "hero ball" to win. Kobe is more efficient than Carmelo, plays better defense, and has some distribution skills. Melo is a black hole. He needs to learn how to be a second option and to be more efficient offensively to make a team better.

Personally I think Bosh is a perfect fit for the Rockets.

I agree.

So do I. Much rather have him and be able to keep Parsons than add Melo and in the process lose Parsons. If they don't make a play for Kevin Love, I hope they look to Bosh.

Diaw back with the Spurs. 3 years at 22mil

Despite all the jokes we make every time a dumb rumor about airports and Best Buys and buying houses in Leawood comes up, this Cleveland plane thing might actually be legit.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Been working on this for two hours but can now confirm from second source that LBJ's friend and former Cav Zydrunas Ilgauskas was on plane</p>&mdash; Anthony Lima (@AnthonyLimaFAN) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyLimaFAN/statuses/485937575383670785">July 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
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James going back to Cleveland would just be...odd. That's like an asshole leaving his wife because he found someone hotter, then that girl gets ugly or fat or something so the asshole goes back to his ex-wife because she looks better in comparison now.

Except the guy paid for the exes new tits on the way out...
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Cleveland is seemingly making its pitch. Wonder if it will be enough.

Cleveland should tell James to go **** himself, but that's not going to happen.

uh, no. He's the best player on the planet and they have a shot to sign him. Don't be stupid.

Our former C and his good friend Big Z is one of the people who flew down to south Florida today on the Cavs jet.

The LeBron hate is strong in this one.

From rapper Q Tip

I'm hearing from inside sources that lebron is heading back to Cleveland ....

I will be an LBJ fan once again if he indeed returns to Cleaveland.

What a great mentor for Wigs.

This could be fun....

Per Chris Fedor


Can confirm the report from @AnthonyLimaFAN through a source that Zydrunas Ilgauskas was on the plane to South Beach.

Wow this Lebron to Cavs thing is gonna happen

WHOOPTY ****ING DOO.

The prodigal son returns.

Indiana vs Ohio could turn into a nice little border war of a rivalry if LBJ heads to Cleaveland and Lance Stephenson returns to Indiana.

The Cavs need to trade Dion Waiters now they have Wiggins and especially if they get Lebron. And inside reports suggest Qaiters is somewhat of a cancer in the locker room

If LeBron goes to Cleveland, it will be interesting to see what Cleveland has planned next. They are probably going to dump Jarret Jack. But they have some interesting trade chips with a few first rounders, Tristan Thompson, Waiters, and Varejao, and I'd bet they'll be actively shopping them around.

I hope you Cavs fans aren't getting your hopes up. I think the safe money is on him returning to Miami. I just don't see the Cavs as currently structured being able to win championships even with Lebron. Miami can easily get back to the Finals as is.

Ummm....

Who is currently on that roster?

Which team? The Heat IIRC only have Cole and Shabazz currently. Of course if Lebron decides to stay they will all come back with a new addition or two

I don't think anyone's saying anything.

But I think anybody who doesn't live in Miami or any of the 2 or 3 other markets competing for LeBron's services knows that Cleveland is the best move for LeBron for a wide variety of reasons. He may choose to stay loyal to Miami and that's a very respectful decision, but I think most people see this move as sensible because his family gets to move back home, he probably ends up with a better supporting cast, and it looks really good on his legacy because he gets to heal old wounds + this doesn't look like championship chasing. He actually gets a chance to shape a young team from the ground up. It makes sense for too many reasons.

ESPN going to air the decision part 2?

The Cavs would immediately call the Wolves and ask what it would take to trade for Love. Love said he'd sign long term in Cleveland if LeBron was there. Having a rebounder like that spacing the floor on the offensive end with two creators like LeBron and Kyrie? Would be perfect for Love. I assume Wiggins would need to be a part of that deal. Waiters too perhaps along with another pick?

I think his best move would be Phoenix. I'm not a Suns fan.

Except perhaps Bosh, who might smartly take a max contract somewhere (which I think he absolutely should if available).

Any team that LeBron is on has a good chance of making the East finals (as he showed in Cleveland the first time around). His presence alone is what makes a team a contender.

This is why LeBron's camp has been so quiet. The last thing he wants to do is spurn the Cavs twice.

Are you stupid? Irving was the All-Star MVP, Wiggins is the best prospect since Durant, Waiters has All-Star potential. Bennett, who was last years top pick showed flashes but didn't have much of a chance since Mike Brown doesn't like to play youth. Oh and that's actually the biggest problem, Mike Brown is a god awful coach. He didn't even instal an offense the first portion of the year because he wanted the team to just focus on defense.

Cleveland is a young and super talented team. They also have the chips to make another big move if they get LeBron.

Chiefs fans should know what bad coaching and youth together does for a team.

It's not LeBron hate, at all. LeBron did what he did. A principled Cleveland owner would have nothing to do with him after that. This is not an issue for the other teams in the league. It won't happen that way, though, because they'll overlook the past and focus on James' ability.

Well, they would if James were actually going there. Since he's staying in Miami, though, it'll still simmer on the burner.

An owner turning down cash... sure.