CHASING THE CROWN
KING JAMES AND THE ROCKETS ARE TRYING TO CATCH THE WARRIORS. COULD THEY JOIN FORCES?
Etiquette is complicated in such situations, undefined without the lessons of precedence that usually drive customs and courtesy, even between friends.
With LeBron James’ season complete, when Rockets guard Chris Paul next calls his friend, how long does he wait before he talks about becoming teammates?
Paul can congratulate James on a great season, as James likely did for him. He can ask about James’ battered right hand, as James might have about Paul’s strained right hamstring. But at some point, Paul can pivot to “Hey, here’s an idea …”
Either that, or nothing need be said, with it clear James has career and life decisions now that the Warriors have completed their NBA Finals sweep and James can become a free agent.
Paul and James speak so often, James could fill in the blanks of anything that can be said. There will be much more to consider than just the inside information or recruiting pitches offered by a close friend. And Paul did not need to watch a news conference to know James is “even more hungry” to win another championship, a goal he seems increasingly unlikely to achieve in Cleveland.
“I mean, I have no idea at this point,” James said of his career choices and priorities he will weigh.
He was similarly noncommittal in 2010 and 2014, but this felt different. In 2010, he left Cleveland to form a championshipcaliber force in Miami. In 2014, he returned to take care of unfinished business. This summer, he can consider himself free to pursue whatever moves him, having won two titles in Miami and delivered Northeast Ohio its longsought championship.
But he did offer ample clues about what he wants.
Not that there was any doubt, but James made it clear he wants to be a part of a championshipcaliber team. The Cavaliers reached the Finals, but they could only get that close because James carried them through one of the greatest individual postseasons in NBA history.
“I still have so much to give to the game,” James, 33, said. “When you have a goal and you’re able to accomplish that goal, … it made me even more hungry to continue to try to win championships, and I still want to be in championship mode. I think I’ve shown this year why I will still continue to be in championship mode.”
James on Thursday, in what sounded like a concession speech with enough precincts reporting to forecast a winner, said that to win it all, teams need to be filled with players who think their way through the game on a championship level. James has long been purposeful in his comments and was clear that he wants teammates who know more than the score with four seconds left.
“Not only do you have to have the talent, you have to have the minds as well,” James said, citing his move to Miami to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. “I played with D-Wade, I played with Bosh in the Olympics. I knew D-Wade for years. I knew their minds. I knew how they thought the game, more than just playing the game. Obviously, we all knew their talent, but I knew their minds as well. So I linked up with them.”
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey had to love that, and not just because James wrote some of his recruiting pitch if he gets to give one. Few players have been as cerebral on the floor as Paul, 33, and few teams are more intellectual in their approach than the analytics-driven Rockets. James played with Paul and James Harden in the 2012 Olympics when Mike D’Antoni was an assistant.
Cavaliers depleted
He left more breadcrumbs that could lead him to Houston, or at least out of Cleveland. When the Cavs traded Kyrie Irving and the addition of Isaiah Thomas did not pan out, James was left as the only reliable creator on the floor. Kevin Love remained skilled at playing off James, but in the era of the Warriors, there was nowhere near the star power needed for James to “continue to be in championship mode.”
“Obviously, from a talent perspective, if you’re looking at Golden State from their top five best players to our top five players, you would say they’re stacked better than us,” James said.
There are a variety of directions he could go to level the playing field, but that might not be the greatest obstacle for the Rockets to land James. With the cap holds to keep their own free agents, or even just their primary free agents, the Rockets are far over the salary cap. To add James, they would have to gut the roster to create that kind of cap room or work out a deal with Cleveland, either with James opting in to the final season of his contract or in a sign-andtrade deal as a free agent.
If he opts in, he would have to make that move by June 29. He has never opted in to the final season of a contract, but this time, it would not cost him a great deal of salary. He would make $35.6 million in the final season of his contract and because the salary cap has not increased since he signed that deal, he would not earn substantially more in the first season of his next contract.
The Cavs might not be inclined to make it easy for James to leave, but if he decides to move on and makes that clear, they could seek to start rebuilding with a trade.
The Rockets don’t need to be the team with cap room for that threat to feel real because there are teams with the space for James’ max contract. As long as there is that option and James tells the Cavaliers he would take it, they could work with him to go to his preferred destination, as the Clippers did with Paul.
Tear up the franchise?
The next problem could be the Rockets’ lack of prospects to kick-start a rebuilding. The players they would have to deal to match a $35 million, one-year contract are unlikely to grow into contenders without other stars. When the Rockets made the deal for Paul, they traded an All-Defensive team player (Pat Beverley), the sixth man of the year runner up (Lou Williams) and players on their rookie contracts. Without those sorts of assets, the Rockets would likely need to involve other teams, complicating a deal if they even get the go-ahead from James (through the Cavs) to make one.
James could earn $152 million over four seasons with a new contract or could earn $205 million over five years with the Cavs. If he opts in and is traded, he could receive as much with his next team as he could have in Cleveland by signing an extension six months later.
James has said on several occasions he would like to finish his career in Cleveland. Given his other goals, that might not be an option with the Celtics and 76ers ascending in the Eastern Conference and the Warriors’ dynasty in the Western. Most teams with max-contract cap room are not contenders, but the Sixers can get there. The Lakers have space for two max-contract free agents and James owns homes in the neighborhood.
“Sitting down and considering everything, my family is a huge part of whatever I’ll decide to do in my career, and it will continue to be that,” James said.
Returning to Cleveland worked for his young family, but when he left the court with 4:03 left in Game 4 on Friday to an MVP chant, Cleveland seemed to be saying goodbye.
Target of more criticism
The idea of James joining a team as loaded as the Rockets would draw criticism from some, if perhaps not with the same ferocity when he formed the Miami alliance or when Kevin Durant defected to the 73-win Warriors. But the supremacy of the Warriors might argue that it will take enough stars to carpool to games to dethrone the champions.
James might be better than ever, scoring 51 points in Game 1 before he lost a fight with a whiteboard. At 15 seasons into a career like few others, he played in every game this season and will likely be the MVP runner-up.
Still, he has lost to the Warriors in three of the past four seasons and watched the Warriors add Durant while the Cavs lost Irving.
“I made the move in 2010 to be able to play with talented players, cerebral players that could see things that happen before they happened on the floor,” James said Friday night. “So when you feel like you’re really good at your craft, I think it’s always great to be able to be around other great minds, as well, and other great ballplayers.”
Soon, James concluded with a phrase he used often. He’ll eventually have more to say to Paul in private, as he will with “family and the folks that have been with me for the last, you know, 20 years.” For everyone else, he left all the clues he would, adding, “We’ll see what happens.”