LeBron's (Bad?) Decision
Friday, July 9, 2010Posted by Jeremy Conlin
At 9:27 PM, EST on July 8th, 2010, the future of the NBA changed drastically. Whether it changed in a good way or a bad way remains to be seen.
When LeBron made it official that he would be teaming up with Wade and Bosh in Miami, I wouldn’t call myself disappointed, I would call myself bummed out. After Game 5 of the Boston series, I was disappointed. I was expecting a better performance out of him, and I knew he was capable of more. This time? I was just bummed. I knew he was making the wrong decision, but the difference is that HE thought he was making the right decision. Ultimately, I can’t fault him for that.
The right choice was to go to Chicago and play with Rose, Boozer, Noah, and discount Free Agent Guard X (J.J. Redick, anyone?). Or staying in Cleveland and pulling a mega-trade (there were whispered rumors of a Shaq for Josh Smith swap). Or going to New York and pulling a mega-trade (like Eddy Curry, Danilo Gallinari, cash, and picks for CP3, Emeka Okafor, and James Posey.
The wrong choice was to team up with Bosh and Wade, and nobody else.
I know, I know, LeBron, Wade, and Bosh, ON PAPER, looks like a pretty formidable trio, and everyone is making comparisons to the 2008 Celtics, but I see a few very, very, VERY important differences.
First, the 2008 Celtics already had talent IN PLACE, and got more after the KG and Ray Allen trades. They had Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins already on the roster. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 now that we know that Rondo has emerged as a top-5 point guard in the league and Kendrick Perkins is one of the best defensive centers, but at the same time, we can say with basically 100% certainty that they are still better than Mario Chalmers and Dexter Pittman. After the trade for Garnett, Boston was able to sign James Posey and Eddie House, two extremely valuable role players that rounded out Boston’s bench. The only problem is, Boston signed them using part of their Mid-Level Exception, which allowed them to exceed the salary cap to sign them. Miami doesn’t have that flexibility. Because they entered the free agency period under the salary cap, they aren’t allowed that exception. So basically, Miami’s team consists of LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Mario Chalmers, three second-round draft picks: Dexter Pittman, Da’Sean Butler, and Jarvis Vanardo, and whoever else they can sign to minimum contracts to fill out their roster. And considering there is a lockout expected following the 2011 season, most worthwhile players will be looking to secure larger, long-term contracts, not one-year deals for less than $1.5 Million.
Furthermore, going forward, I don’t have any certainty that Miami will be able to add any significant pieces. Normally teams over the salary cap can use their Mid-Level Exception to bring in new talent (like Los Angeles did with Ron Artest). However, if there is a lockout following the 2011 season when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires, there’s a good chance the league would move to a hard-cap like the NFL has, which would effectively be the end of the current cap exceptions like the Mid-Level. If the NBA moves to a hard cap (say, $65 Million), and Bosh, Wade, and LeBron take up nearly $60 Million of that by themselves, how exactly is Miami supposed to improve the supporting cast?
Second, the 2008 Celtics were so successful because they had three star players that were just past the prime of their careers and each had something to prove. Because of that, they were each willing to re-invent themselves as pieces that compliment each other. Garnett became the defensive enforcer, the vocal leader, and unquestioned alpha-dog. Ray Allen became the 3rd-banana efficient scorer that took nothing off the table. Paul Pierce became the emotional rock of the team and killed himself defensively. On top of that, they had Doc Rivers, a coach that figured out how to motivate this group of veterans, and KG brought in a defense-first mentality and pounded it into the ground from Day 1. Am I really expected to believe the same things out of this Miami trio? Who is the alpha dog of this team, LeBron or Wade? Is either one willing to take a backseat to the other? One of them needs to become the Uber-Pippen to the other’s Jordan. But who should be Jordan? Should it be LeBron, because he’s the slightly better player? Or should it be Wade, because for better or worse, it’s his team? As for Chris Bosh, are we sure that he’s going to be fine and dandy with becoming the 3rd option and still giving 100% every game, every quarter, on both ends of the floor? It seems a bit far-fetched to me.
Third, the 2008 Celtics won the title because of three things: defense, rebounding, and protecting the rim. After Garnett came on board, there was a fundamental difference to the team’s identity. He got everyone to give a crap on defense, stop playing “hero-ball,” and established a defined pecking order. Who is that guy for this Miami team? Who is going to be the ringleader of this Miami defense? Who is going to keep Dwight Howard off the boards? Who is going to guard LA’s three-headed monster of big men? Those guys just don’t exist on Miami’s roster.
Add all of these things up, and I don’t see how the 2011 Heat are all of a sudden a lock for the title like so many people are making them out to be. Yeah, of course Wade, Bosh, and LeBron have the potential to be the greatest offensive trio in the history of the league, but, as several people have said, is it possible to be so good offensively that defense, rebounding, and role players don’t matter? Sorry, but the previous 60 years of NBA history says otherwise. You can’t possibly tell me that role players don’t matter when Robert Horry, Derek Fisher, and Steve Kerr have 16 more combined championship rings than LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. You can’t possibly tell me that defense and protecting the rim don’t matter, because there hasn’t been a team in the last 30 years that won the title without those things. Frankly, the 2008 Celtics aren’t the team we should be comparing this Miami group to. The most logical comparison is the 2004 Lakers. It’s a group of All-Stars coming together that form an incredibly top-heavy team with no role players or any guys to do the dirty work. And what happened to the 2004 Lakers? Egos clashed and they lost in the Finals to a great defensive team that punched them in the mouth over and over again.
That’s why I thought LeBron should have gone to Chicago. He would be the unquestioned Alpha Dog, and there would be a clearly defined pecking order, with LeBron at the top, Rose and Boozer as the sidekicks, and Noah, Gibson, and Deng (or whoever they trade him for) filling roles and cleaning up messes. It just makes more sense. That’s the reason why I don’t believe LeBron when he says his decision was motivated by winning. Maybe he convinced himself that Miami has a good a shot as Chicago to win both short-term and long-term, but I personally disagree. I think LeBron’s main motivation was to play with his friends, and any winning was simply a consequence of that. He knew that he could sell the winning angle by teaming up with Wade and Bosh, but ultimately, if winning was the most important factor in LeBron’s decision, he would have gone to Chicago. Everyone will say that playing with Wade and Bosh will make everything easier, but in fact, it’s going to make everything harder, because he’s going to have to re-invent his game on the fly and still deal with the pressure of being expected to win every single time out on the floor. In Chicago, he wouldn’t have to tailor his game to accommodate the playing styles of his teammates. At the end of the day, LeBron cared more about playing with his buddies than he did about winning. Does that mean that he doesn’t care about winning at all? Of course not. But his decision to play in Miami definitely says something about his career goals. Clearly, winning doesn’t dominate his thought process the way it did with Jordan, Russell, Bird, or Kobe. With those guys, winning was the only goal. With LeBron, winning is just one of many goals.
Along a similar path, many people are now saying that LeBron’s decision paints him as a coward. As the argument goes, LeBron chose to play in Miami because he was afraid to play against them, and in doing so he did something that Jordan or Kobe never would have done. To this argument, I say bologna. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say that Michael Jordan becomes an unrestricted free agent following the 1987 season. Through three professional seasons, he has yet to win 50 games in a season or a single playoff game. Also, let’s say that Boston and the Lakers have enough resources to sign him as a free agent. Is there anyone in their right mind that would think that Jordan would go back to Chicago in that scenario? As for Kobe, I seem to recall him vetoing a trade to the Bulls back in 2007 because Chicago would have been left too depleted of talent. By that same logic, wouldn’t that make him “cowardly” for not accepting the challenge of re-building Chicago into a contender? It just seems like a double standard. Signing in Miami with Wade and Bosh was cowardly but signing in Chicago with Rose, Boozer, and Noah wouldn’t have been? Sorry, but I don’t buy this argument.
At the end of the day, LeBron made his decision with his heart, not his head. And this phenomenal was consistent throughout the whole free agent process. In doing so, he left himself open to some blame. I don’t blame him for leaving Cleveland, because I would have too and he seemed genuinely remorseful about leaving, but I do blame him for stabbing Cleveland in the heart on national television, as well as stringing them along for nearly a week before slamming the door in their face with no warning. I don’t blame him for choosing to play with his friends, but I do blame him for claiming that Miami gave him the best opportunity to win. I don’t blame him for signing with two All-Star teammates, but I do blame him for claiming that winning is his #1 goal. I can’t blame him for chasing money (because he didn’t), but I can blame him for chasing ego.
Ultimately, he’s going to have to live with his decision. I think he made the wrong one.
Only 16 weeks until basketball season.
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