2010 NBA offseason draft, FA, etc etc...

The Nets may have a chance to be relevant, especially with their eventual move to Brooklyn. If the Knicks continue as the Dolan Follies and the Brooklyn Nets end up pretty good with Lopez, Harris, and some other good players with the Russian owner, who seems like someone who will spend moeny, the Nets may end up taking over as the dominant team.

 

http://twitter.com/slmandel/status/18120977814

LeBron's decision got a higher TV rating (7.3) than 95 percent of actual NBA games.

 

$80 million for David Lee over 6 years is just crazy.

 

If you spend your entire time as an owner catering to the whims of a superstar player, eventually, some other franchise will figure out a way to cater to those whims better than you do. Gilbert is a fool. The Bulls always listened to Michael Jordan before and during the dynasty years, but they never let him call personnel shots. Red loved Larry like a son, but Red made trades, not Larry.
As a rule, I don't think fans have much faith in the future when the owner makes public statements that could be used as people's exhibits in a stalking trial.

 

He enabled LeBron. His fault.

That letter was high school jilted boy/girlfriend level of ridiculous.

 

Gilbert's frustration is understandable but look he knew the deal from the time he drafted LeBron, the guy gets free agency after 5 years of a locked in rookie salary structure; he got lucky that LeBron reupped for a couple more years. There were no promises or contracts otherwise. What if LeBron had somehow ruptured an achilles or needed microfracture surgery (Jonathan Bender) you think Gilbert would be giving LeBron a max contract then? No way. That's the bargain. LeBron did not owe the Cavs or Cleveland anything (other than a courtesy call which would have been the classy way to do it.)

LeBron goes to Miami and that's his right.

Gilbert got a franchise that was dormant and is now worth probably hundreds of millions more than when he bought it plus think of all the face time he got.

 

The Knicks have been fucking up their franchise for TEN YEARS in the hope of the magical Payoff Day when the One Big Free Agent comes down from the planet Krypton and walks through the doors of MSG.

All through the Isiah Thomas/Larry Brown reign of idiocy all you read was how they were stacking all their massive big-money player contracts for the day they could REALLY hit a home run in free agency. They've had to "tear their team apart" in the last three seasons to rid themselves of all the bloated contracts from THAT era.

Oops. Back to Square One. But remember: Kevin Durant will be a free agent in five years!!

 

The more I think about it, the more ridiculous that Gilbert letter is.

I think it joins the pantheon of Cleveland fail. The Drive. The Fumble. The Shot. The Move. The Decision. The Letter.

 

History will judge that. Unfortunately for Cleveland, it has always been a harsh judge.

If they couldn't get Bosh to go there, I have no clue how they'll ever do anything in free agency. It's going to be all draft, maybe some trades, and that hasn't worked out to this point.

 

There was a time when they were excited about Eddy Curry.
Clearly dumping Zach Randolph was a mistake.

I still say they never should have traded Mark Jackson and Rod Strickland.

The problems all started when ITT made Dave Checketts the President and they have never recovered.

 

Donnie Walsh on his way to meeting with Lebron.

 

To be fair, it had more hype and publicity than 99 percent of actual NBA games.