I've been following this offseason like crazy ever since the Pelicans acquired Omer Asik.

re: the Cavs, I think it's worth it to move those pieces to make space for LeBron even if they end up striking out. It's not like Cleveland had a championship roster as it stood. It barely has a playoffs roster. I think if you can find a way to get LeBron and Love on the roster without giving up Wiggins you do it, if you can't then it's a hard call. Irving, Wiggins, LeBron and Love is a hell of a core.

Over on our side, like I said, Pelicans got Asik, and I'm hype as hell about it. I'm holding out hope that with the rampant salary inflation so far, someone who strikes out on free agents is gonna make a desperate move and take Eric Gordon off our hands. Right now our core group looks good: we've got two good guards in Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday at what's turning out to be reasonable prices; we picked up Omer Asik, whose interior defense will make a huge difference (seriously, we were a sieve there last year); we have a pretty good second unit with Austin Rivers and Ryan Anderson; and of course the NBA's next superstar in Anthony Davis (and hell, averaging 20/10 a game, he might already be justifiably called a superstar). Adding Asik without disrupting that core is going to be difficult, but we can probably make it happen.

The Suns are going to land Melo and Lebron, obvs.

I think the Pelicans are going to be a much better force next year, even in the crazy west, you guys could make it to the playoffs (no further than first round yet, but the promise is their for the future).

The big thing about trading and getting excited over LeBron is that that shit in 2010 is still a scar on the franchise - getting hyped over a return and then getting rejected after not only making overtures, but making moves, right or wrong, it won't sit right with most of the fans. Irving, Wiggins, LeBron and Love with a few back ups is great. Losing Wiggins, and all our good role players will probably just put us in a position to lose in the NBA finals, and even if we do better, I think we get rid of the chance of a dynasty - not that I would complain with that, 1 championship is infinitely more than 0, but I think we have a real chance to become a championship team now, and to establish a dynasty.

Just Melo and LeBron? I expected you guys to get at least Bosh and Love too.

No they're going to the Mavs.

In reality what's going to happen is this. Lebron will return to the Cavs with much fanfare. One week later, Dan Gilbert will trade him to the Bucks, preferring revenge over money or success.

Knicks fan here.

Shoot me now.

That is all.

In all seriousness, I don't envision a scenario in which Melo comes back to NY. LA has Kobe (and an aging, hobbled Kobe is still better than Iman Shumpert) and the future Z-Bo, Chicago has whatevers left of D-Rose, the DPOY in Noah, and a great young forward in Gibson. New York has an untested head coach, no draft prospects, no point guard, and Andrea Fucking Bargnani.

As far as the Cavs go, its not that bad a situation, especially in comparison to everything else in the East. Indiana is probably going to lose Lance, Miami is in turmoil, and the 3-8 seeds are a toss up, so with one key free agent signing (LeBron or Love), combine them with Kyrie and Wiggins and the Cavs could sneak into the 3, 4, or 5 seed this year. Give them two or three years and they're going to be an East powerhouse, especially if Bennett gives them anything resembling lottery production. However, I don't think Cleveland is the right move for LeBron, mostly for what Socrates pointed out, but also for the fact that LeBron is 30 years old and can't spend the next three years tutoring a young team. He wants to win now.

If Cleveland wants Kevin Love they should trade Wiggins and Waiters in a SECOND. Waiters is never going to be the complement to Kyrie that they envisioned and I have a hard time seeing him as a reliable 6th man. I don't think Wiggins has as high a ceiling as many predict (he's the next Rudy Gay), but if you have the chance to turn a disappointing lottery pick and this year's #1 into Kevin Love, who I should remind you is only 25 years old, entering the prime of his career, and is already the next Charles Barkley, then I make that trade without a question. Even if Wiggins turns out to be a superstar in five years, K-Love is ALREADY a superstar, and pairing him with Kyrie is the core that will put Cleveland into a 1 or 2 seed in the East depending on how the cards fall in Indiana and Miami.

melo will go chicago or ny, i would go chicago but ny somehow seems like real possibility.

right move or not he (lebron) might still come, and i am very hopeful. As for Love, he only has 1 year on his contract, you trade wiggins and waiters for Love, but not for a year rental!

I see no way Carmelo doesn't return to New York at this point. He's said it's not about the money before, but I can't see how anybody walks away from a guaranteed $130 million. The Lakers are the other competitor because they also offered a max but it's only 4 yrs

chicago is his only chance at a ring, if he doesn't pick the ring he will pick the money of NY

Hey Socrates, which one were you in this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVtqZgfFKgQ

don't bully a fan of such an unsuccesful team :(

Considering I'm a Pacers fan, I'm pretty miffed. Larry Bird is standing behind George Hill, who doesn't do much of anything, and Roy Hibbert, who I know pretty well and love the hell out of him but not worth nearly what he's getting paid, yet he won't pay Lance Stephenson, the only guy that even cared in the second half of the season. This comes after he bails out on his only draft pick at the end of the second round for cash and says the core group "deserves another shot" - so why isn't he paying Lance? If he's actually doing what he says, he'll offer Lance whatever he can and Herb Simon will back him up and pay the luxury tax (doesn't he know his last name is Simon? Anyway, he'll make that tax back in profits on Lance's play alone). If he's not, he should have made up a sign-and-trade deal to the Celtics for Lance and gotten Marcus Smart, who is basically Lance Stephenson without the defensive concerns, for four years on a rookie deal. It's really unfortunate that the potential second coming of the Bad Boys from the 90s with a chance to dethrone the usual hierarchy is going to die because the front office and the owner aren't on the same page and aren't willing to compromise with each other.

Otherwise, our division is getting superbly competitive with Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins both landing in it, with Melo potentially ending up with the Bulls (though unlikely) it could get even more competitive, and if Lebron goes back to Cleveland, Paul George's legs are going to give out by the halfway point of the season having to defend him so much. There is absolutely nothing positive to take away from our offseason so far.

Fortunately for us it's Colts season pretty soon.

The Heat are just punking everybody. I don't think there's any way the Heat don't come back. I don't know what the hell the Cavs are doing. They're crazy if they think LeBron comes back after they insulted his mother.

76ers might get Lin. I'd be very happy if they did.

Mark Cuban is my hero this offseason. Forcing Houston's hand by getting Chandler Parsons to sign an offer sheet with the Mavericks just sped up the timetable on Chris Bosh big-time as to whether or not to return to Houston. This means two things that are great for my Pelicans:

1. Forcing Bosh to speed up his decision puts more pressure on LeBron to make a decision sooner. I think everyone benefits from this lol, we can get to the actual meat of the offseason soon.

2. Forcing the issue like Cuban did makes it significantly less likely that Houston can execute all the moves they need to make to keep Parsons and bring in Bosh. In order to have the cap room to sign Bosh and then use their Bird rights to retain Parsons, Houston has to complete both the Lin and Asik trades in 72 hours after formally receiving Parsons' offer sheet. Asik is still held up because New Orleans doesn't actually have the space to take him on, and we're waiting ourselves on being able to free up cap space with a trade... and iirc Houston is using the draft pick we're giving up for Asik to deal Lin, so if the Asik trade doesn't go through then Houston can't clear room and ends up striking out on Bosh and paying Parsons $15M more than they had to this year.

Houston did the same thing with Lin two years ago to the Knicks. GM karma, bitch. Offering a big PPP contract to ruin free agent plans. Apparently, the Mavs have contacted Houston regarding a sign and trade before the offer sheet expires, so I don't think we've heard the last of this deal.

Meanwhile, the Spurs quietly have their whole team back so it doesn't really matter what anybody else does.

Lets not forget that Dallas took the Spurs to seven games in round 1, although they're still the top team going into next season.

When Houston stacked themselves with contracts, they made this scenario inevitable. They've had to go from a player in the Melo competition, down to Bosh, and now they're going to have to keep Parsons and gain nothing while still likely losing Lin and Asik (you can't keep either of them after the disrespect they've been shown so far). They might end up gaining only a lottery pick out of all of this.

The Spurs will always be good as long as their core plays.

You can keep Lin and Asik... as long as they're on contract it doesn't matter how disrespected they feel, they're on the team. But both are expiring and not worth keeping around given Houston's roster. Lin is an average PG and not worth what he makes, Asik is a great center but Dwight Howard makes him redundant.

And I think Parsons and Bosh is better for Houston than Carmelo and <insert Houston Rockets PF here>. Carmelo is obviously better than Parsons, but both of them are pretty good wings and Houston doesn't have a power forward anywhere close to Bosh's ability and fit with the team.

So IF they can juggle everything properly and keep Parsons while signing Bosh... that's a hell of a team. Just look at that starting five -- Beverley (eh), Harden (best SG in the NBA), Parsons (top-10 SF), Bosh (top-5 PF), Howard (best C). That's a team that, with some efficient bench signings (that is, minimum/near-minimum players that can put up 15-20 mpg and score more than like 2-3 ), is competing for titles. I like what Houston's trying to do here as an observer, I just hate it because there's no way in hell New Orleans can match up to it lol.

Although if we could get a good wing player, like Contract Year Trevor Ariza level, we could do it. That's not happening this year and who knows who will be available in the next couple though

With Parsons and Harden bringing the ball up the court and Beverley popping corners 3s a couple times a game, that team's pretty freaking good, especially for a team with four exclusively perimeter players. Usually that leaves you at a disadvantage inside but Dwight Howard might as well play both interior positions with his rebounding ability.

Lin and Asik will both be gone, but the Rockets have a shot at getting some decent backups for them. That might help the bench.

Bosh isn't exclusively perimeter though, which is big. If they need two interior players Bosh can play that role pretty well from the PF spot. He struggled some in Miami and developed a stretch game because Miami doesn't have a center worth a shit.

And yeah, it really is gonna come down to how they fill out the bench, assuming they juggle everything right and get that starting five back. I'm hoping like hell that Bosh ends up not in Houston and they end up burning their cap space on Parsons though

Yeah, that point about Miami's lack of a decent center is fair. Still, in the Heat games I've seen (which happens to be many because ESPN broadcasts half their games), he makes a living with his jump shot, pulling bigger guys outside that don't know how to defend him. Once he figures out his 3, which was too inconsistent to use this season but he had no choice given Miami's lack of offense outside of Lebron, he'll become a stretch forward like Parsons.

Yeah, I think ideally he'll be shooting corner 3s or midrange shots to help with spacing. It's just that if they're facing a team like, say, Memphis with a traditional two-big lineup with Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, Bosh can still play competent interior defense. He's not like Ryan Anderson for instance, who's a fantastic stretch 4 on offense but a liability on defense (not big/aggressive enough to defend interior guys, not quick enough to defend wing/perimeter guys).

Another fun but relatively unheralded free agent -- Pau Gasol. Your mileage may vary on "fun" because the Spurs have a good shot to sign him and so help the NBA if they pick him up...

Well, Ryan Anderson isn't good for anything but 3s. I don't know why New Orleans doesn't play him at the 3 to be honest so that there's at least some degree of interior defense (Anthony Davis can't do it on his own). When he and Dwight were together with the Magic, Dwight was almost always in the game with him to help (Dwight Howard *can* do it on his own). The Rockets have Dwight down there still, so Bosh can play that spread role like Anderson did with the Magic.

Pau is overrated. He has his good days but his play isn't nearly consistent enough to garner the kind of money he could get. The Spurs would be an excellent fit if he's willing to take a cut for a title shot, though.

At this point in Pau's career, he's a very good role player on a contending club but he's definitely lost a step or two since the Lakers' last title. He'll make a nice piece for a top club in the West - he may end up as a consolation prize for Houston or Phoenix. He's unlikely to end up in San Antonio, given the contract they just have Boris Diaw to fill the same role as backup PF, plus they still have Patty Mills as a free agent and they're over the cap as it is.

Fun side note, Pau Gasol was my favorite big man in NBA Live '03, which I played for probably the better part of a decade without upgrading.

As far as Bosh goes, bo_sox is right in that he's not a traditional post guy and he's really transformed his game over the past few seasons after he developed his jump shot. His lack of a back to the basket game is the main reason why he can't be counted on as the only big man but makes him an excellent compliment to a team that already has a center in place (cough cough Houston). But I agree that lacking a true big killed Miami at multiple times over the Big 3 era. I'm a basketball traditionalist and I think having a good center or strong PF is more valuable than having a top tier PG with no big. That, IMO, is the reason OKC will never win a title (Perkins is a fucking lump) but why Timmy can still be a force even in his late 30s.

"Timmy" also has Tony Parker, so that's a top tier PG with a HOF big, as well as one of the best bench rotations in the history of the league. Not that I disagree entirely, but I think the recipe for success is having both, not one or the other.