Where Should LeBron Go? Part I

Well it’s finally time for the next part of LeBron week/weeks here at NbaNflNobody. In the first part of the series, we decided that LeBron should leave the Cleveland Cavaliers this summer in free agency. If you want to read the borderline novel that talks about why it’s time for LeBron to move on, here’s the link: Yellow Legal Pad: Cleveland or Leaveland? So LeBron James is leaving Cleveland. The question now is where is the best landing spot for him? That is definitely a loaded question to say the least, and there are many different things that you have to consider when trying to evaluate the different options from LeBron’s perspective. The thing you have to remember about his free agency is that it isn’t as simple as putting him on the best team. LeBron will most likely demand a max deal, so actually fitting him on a roster without completely getting rid of all the other talent will be difficult to say the least. In terms of how much money this max deal will be, I am going to assume that it will be 2 million higher than Gordon Hayward’s contract of 32 million a year that he signed this summer. It is really tough to know what the max will actually be for LeBron as the salary cap totals for the 2018-2019 season aren’t official yet, but this should be a pretty close estimate. If anything, it is most likely an overestimate of the deal, as Hayward received the most money ever by a guy joining a new team, and the cap is unlikely to rise enough that the max deal will increase by over 2 million.

That being said, a major focus of this writing is going to be on how easy it will be for teams to create space, and what the final roster would look like if they took on LeBron. Now while that is going to be tough to predict what will actually happen, I am just going to put myself in the shoes of the GM in question, and do what I think is the best for the team. Another important factor will be the head coach. This seems to be incredibly important to LeBron, and all we have to do to see that is look at how he basically forced out David Blatt midway through his first season back in Cleveland. The general stability of the organization will also be critical, as I’m sure LeBron is sick of all the crap he’s had to deal with in Cleveland. The last factor we’ll consider is the quality of day to day life in the new city he’s picking. We have to remember that LeBron has a wife and kids, and he needs to make sure that they are happy with where they end up going. So without further ado, let’s break down each destination that I would be seriously considering if I were LeBron James.

Boston Celtics

I know everyone reading this collectively rolled their eyes the second they saw the Celtics even mentioned here but just bear with me. Before we talk about why this won’t happen, and throw the idea out as stupid, let’s look at what the roster would look like with LeBron in the fold. The Celtics would have to do some jettisoning of talent to say the least in order to bring in LeBron. The major cap casualty would be Al Horford. As a Celtics fan, I absolutely love Horford and appreciate everything he has done for the Celtics in his time here. He was the first big free agent signing they’ve had in my lifetime of being a Celtics fan and paved the way for Hayward to arrive this year. Getting rid of Horford would be tough, but it is impossible to bring in LeBron without doing so, so Al is out. Due to the fact he has only 1 year left on his deal, I’m sure that someone out there would throw Boston a package of picks for a rental of the big man. Every year teams strike out in free agency and need to bring in some talent, and Al would absolutely fit that mold. The next cap casualty would be Marcus Morris. Morris has played pretty well in his brief time in Boston, but won’t be needed on the new Celtics due to the fact that LeBron plays his position. In terms of getting rid of his deal, trading him should be very easy as he is worth much more than his contract of less than 6 million. Last and certainly least, the Celtics are going to need to get rid of Nader and Yabu, 2 promising young players that I’m sure a bottom feeding team would be happy to take off their hands.

Once these moves are made, the Celtics will be able to sign LeBron. Once that deal happens, they will be able to go over the cap to resign Marcus Smart because he already plays for them. So without any additional moves being made, the Celtics now consist of LeBron, Hayward, Kyrie, Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Smart, Rozier, Semi Ojeley, and Daniel Theis. If you factor in the fact that they’ll have the midlevel taxpayers exception at their disposal, they’ll be able to add a veteran big man willing to take a discount to compete for a title. I feel like the perfect man for that job would be Nerlens Noel. After a very promising start to his career, Noel’s recent couple of years have been disastrous to say the least. Currently, he is on a horrible Mavericks team and isn’t really getting any significant minutes. If you look at his per 36 minutes stats however, he is still a dominant defensive presence in the paint. He is averaging roughly 11 points, 12 boards, and 2 blocks per 36 and those numbers would all be higher if he was receiving any real playing time. It is so tough to play your best when you don’t have enough minutes to get in a rhythm, and that is what I think is happening to Nerlens. The bottom line is that if Nerlens just shows up on the Celtics as he currently is, he’ll be the perfect big man to anchor their defense. That being said, Nerlens is just 23 years old and still has a ton of room to improve. If he were to come to Boston, then he would almost certainly improve with more playing time and Brad Stevens, but more on that later.

So with Nerlens in the fold, we now have our official starting lineup. At center from Kentucky, Nerlens Noel. At one forward from Saint Vincent Saint Mary High School, LeBron James. At the other forward from Butler, Gordon Hayward. At guard from Cal, Jaylen Brown. At the other guard from Duke, Kyrie Irving. That is an absolutely terrifying starting 5 to say the least. Usually when you have a starting lineup loaded with that much talent, the bench is absolutely awful. Fortunately for the Celtics however, this is not the case with this team. The Celtics might actually have the best bench in the league, with Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, Semi Ojeley, and Daniel Theis. This roster is an absolute monster to say the least, and I actually think that it might be better than the Golden State Warriors. Kyrie and Curry are close to a wash as are LeBron and Durant. The Warriors have an advantage between Klay and Jaylen, but it is actually a lot closer than you think. Brown has been great this season, and is also becoming a lockdown defender. In my opinion, the Celtics have one hell of an advantage when it comes to Draymond vs Hayward. There is a reason that the Celtics signed Gordon to that massive deal. He is a true Swiss Army Knife of a basketball player and thrives on both ends of the court. In terms of Nerlens vs Zaza, Nerlens is clearly the better player. If you look at the bench, it isn’t even close as Tatum, Smart, and Rozier are all great players who would be starting for a ton of teams. The bottom line here is that this version of the Celtics would be the NBA’s best hope yet of taking down the Warriors, and they would be a ton of fun to watch.

So now that we’ve assembled the new Boston Celtics in a vacuum, we are going to talk about why this may not work. The first reason is incredibly obvious. Kyrie Irving left Boston to get away from LeBron, so I’m sure he wouldn’t be pissed to say the least if LeBron were to come to the Celtics. In my opinion however, this is absolutely a fixable issue. If I’m Celtics GM Danny Ainge, I know that Kyrie is the most important guy on the team with or without LeBron. Kyrie is a 25 year old superstar, and Danny’s number one priority should be keeping him happy and in town. What I would do if I was Ainge is meet with Kyrie before making any of these moves. In that meeting, I would present the plan to him, and tell him that I know he doesn’t want to play with LeBron again, but this team would give us a great chance at winning a title. I would tell him that LeBron is only going to be signed to a 1 year deal if he comes, and if Kyrie is unhappy with the situation, LeBron won’t be resigned in 2019. So the bottom line for Kyrie is that he could try this out for 1 year, and make a run at a championship. If he is unhappy with the situation, all he has to do is say the word, and LeBron is gone. However, I believe that winning fixes a lot of things in the NBA, and if the Celtics didn’t have any injuries, this team would walk to the NBA Finals. As I’ve said before, once they get to the finals, I think that they have a great chance at taking down the Warriors. Without LeBron, the Celtics have almost no chance at winning the title. So it all comes down to what is more important to Kyrie, his ego or winning a championship. If after laying all this out for him Kyrie told me that he didn’t want to give it a shot, then no worries, and I wouldn’t offer LeBron a deal or make any of the trades to clear space. If Kyrie said that he was open to try playing with LeBron again for 1 season in order to win a title, then we are good to go with the plan.

Unfortunately for the Celtics however, there is another major roadblock to this actually happening. Throughout his career, LeBron has had major rivalries with in my opinion 3 teams. The first being the Spurs, as they traded Finals Wins when he was with the Heat and gave him his first Finals loss when he was young and in Cleveland. The second would be the Warriors as they have clashed with LeBron in the Finals for 3 consecutive years, and will probably have their 4th meeting this season. In the East however, there has only been one team to ever be a threat to LeBron. This of team of course is the Boston Celtics. In LeBron’s first stint in Cleveland, the Celtics dominated the rivalry to say the least. They bounced LeBron from the playoffs twice in 3 years, including the series that ended with LeBron taking off his Cavs Jersey for the last time before going to Miami. Once he went to Miami however, the rivalry shifted to say the least. LeBron and his new team beat the crap out of the Celtics in his first year in Miami, taking the series in only 5 games. In the second year however, the Boston Celtics bounced back to say the least. They had a 3 games to 2 lead heading into game 6 in Boston with a chance to close out LeBron and the Heat, a feat that once seemed impossible. Unfortunately for the Celtics however, LeBron wasn’t going to let that happen. What ensued was the single greatest basketball performance I have ever seen in my entire life. LeBron went into an incredibly hostile environment in a must win game, and absolutely buried the Celtics. He finished with an absurd 45 points, 15 boards, and 5 assists in the blowout win.

The thing that was even more impressive however is that he shot a blistering 73 percent from the field. I looked on in absolute horror as I watched LeBron hit tough shot after tough shot. The craziest thing was that the Celtics were doing a great job of defending him, but great offense beats great defense, and that was absolutely true here. It was just plain demoralizing watching LeBron hit contested shot after contested shot, and he just absolutely put them away. This is a performance that gets forgot about a lot when people talk about his best games ever, but in my opinion, it was clearly his best game ever and the best game I’ve ever seen by a player. Coming into a hostile environment and shutting everyone the hell up is a great accomplishment, and that was exactly what LeBron did. The Celtics put up more of a fight in game 7, as the game was tied at 83 with only 7 minutes remaining. At that point however, the Heat went on an impressive game clinching run led by LeBron. The moment I knew the game was over as a Celtics fan was when LeBron drilled a deep 3 with his defender in his jersey as the shot clock expired. To this day, I believe that this was the best series I’ve ever had the privilege to watch, as LeBron absolutely buried my hometown team.

After that season, Ray Allen actually joined LeBron in Miami, and the Celtics were never the same after the loss. They would lose in the first round to the Knicks in 6 games that year, and it would be the last of the Garnett and Pierce Era in Boston. That offseason, Pierce, and Garnett were traded to the Nets while head coach Doc Rivers was traded to the Clippers because he didn’t want to rebuild. At that point, a baby faced young coach came on the scene. Brad Stevens had taken perennial underdog Butler to the National Championship Game twice, and Danny Ainge decided that it was worth taking a shot on the young coach. So the rebuild was underway in Boston, and it was painful to say the least for us Celtics Fans. In just the next season however, the Celtics were actually able to make the playoffs behind incredible coaching from Stevens and great play from deadline acquisition Isaiah Thomas. Unfortunately for the Celtics however, they drew the Cavs and LeBron in the first round. The Celtics didn’t look worthy of even being on the same court as the Cavs as they were beat to a pulp in just 4 games. Although it was encouraging to have made the playoffs, it was a brutal ending for Boston, and must have been great for LeBron to beat up on his old rivals. They would meet again in last year’s Conference Finals, but LeBron again proved to be too much for the Celtics. They would lose this time in 5 games, and it appeared once again that they didn’t belong in the same stadium.

That is the extent of the LeBron vs Celtics rivalry as it stands today. In my opinion, I’m going to have to do some adding to this section by the end of the season, as the two teams look like they are destined to clash once again in this years playoffs. So in summary, the Celtics dominated early, and LeBron dominated late. The fact that LeBron dominated the rivalry late however is the key part for him talking himself into coming to Boston. After so many years of battling the Celtics, LeBron deciding to play there would in theory get him absolutely ripped by fans and media alike. If you rationally think about the situation though, this isn’t something that fans should get upset about at all. If LeBron goes to Boston in 2018, then he will be simply joining a team that he has dominated since 2010. Although this move would definitely be compared to it, LeBron going to the Celtics would be nothing like Durant joining the Warriors. Durant joined a team that had just beaten him, not a team that he had dominated for years and years. You also have to look at the fact that even though Durant was called a snake and roasted throughout the 2017 season, winning ultimately cures everything. Although there are still plenty of people who make fun of him, there is a far greater number who only focus on the fact that he won a championship and seemingly outplayed LeBron in the Finals. Although LeBron is judged through a much harder lens then Durant, the situation isn’t laughable like Durant’s was. At the end of the day, LeBron should swallow his pride and not worry about his rivalry with the Celtics. Pierce, Garnett, Allen, and Rondo are long gone, and LeBron should aim to be right next to Pierce in the rafters of the most winning franchise in the history of the NBA.

So now that we’ve debunked the two major reasons why people would say this would never work, let’s take a deeper look at why this would be a perfect fit for LeBron. Something that I’m sure would be very important to him is the stability in the front office. Danny Ainge has proven to be a great GM over the years, and has the full support of ownership. Their coach Brad Stevens also has complete support, so the duo should be around for years to come. Aside from pure stability however, Brad Stevens has already proven to be one of the league’s best coaches throughout his short time in the NBA. If you look at the things he has accomplished, it is absolutely baffling. First, he took a team that was picking 5th in the draft that offseason to the 8th seed in the East with a 5 foot 9 point guard who is currently untouchable as his best player. Next, he led pretty much the same team plus Al Horford to the Eastern Conference Finals last year. Although this might not seem to be a very impressive accomplishment on the surface, keep in mind that they managed to come back in the first round against the Bulls after it looked like they were going to lose early on. After that, they won an incredibly tough 7 game series against the Wizards behind unlikely hero Kelly Olynyk. Although they did lose in 5 to the Cavs as mentioned earlier, they did manage to win 1 game in hostile territory when the series seemed over behind another great performance by an unlikely hero in Marcus Smart.

The bottom line is that from his time at Butler and with the Celtics, Stevens has been able to accomplish a lot with a little. To see an even better illustration of this, just look at how players have fared once they left Stevens. As mentioned earlier, Isaiah Thomas went from a 6th man to a guy who finished 5th in MVP voting back to a 6th man once he left Stevens. Jae Crowder went from an afterthought on the bench of a bad team to a solid starter whose contract was regarded as one of the best bargains in the league to a fringe starter on a bad team who is now considered overpaid. The reason for players having incredible success under Stevens vs elsewhere is that he is incredible at putting guys in a position to succeed. The biggest cliche with players in the NBA is that you have to be able to do everything well to succeed. Although it is nice to be able to do everything well, I have always thought this philosophy was incredibly stupid. Why would you have a player do something that they aren’t good at? It is much better to have them do what they are good at and hide their deficiencies. Some of the coaches out there are seemingly trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. Stevens on the other hand is gently sliding his square peg into another square peg. That is why when I see 3 new, incredibly talented guys coming to the Celtics in 2018 in LeBron, Nerlens, and Hayward, who I am counting because he didn’t really play this year, it is terrifying to think just how well they will perform under Stevens. Think of it this way, if Stevens was able to lead a team consisting of Crowder and Isaiah to the Eastern Conference Finals, he would easily be able to lead a team of LeBron, Kyrie, Hayward, Nerlens, and Jaylen to an NBA Finals Win.

In terms of LeBron actually moving his family to Boston, and their day to day life, I couldn’t be more confident of them absolutely loving it. I have lived in the Boston Area my entire life, and I can honestly say that there is no place like it. In terms of his kids, the schools in the area are some of the best in the entire country. This is especially true if LeBron decides to send his kids to one of the many prestigious prep schools in the area. In terms of things to do in the Boston Area, the list is almost endless. In the summer, you can visit one of the many beaches including Martha’s Vineyard, a place I’m sure LeBron would love due to his love of wine. In the fall you can look at all the amazing foliage that people travel long distances to see. I’m not going to lie and tell you that the winters don’t suck, but it seems like global warming is starting to do its thing. Hell, I’ve only had to break out my snow blower three times so far this year. There is also the fact that it seems like LeBron doesn’t really mind the cold as he’s lived in Cleveland for so long. Boston itself is also filled with so much history, museums, and some of the best Italian food the United States has to offer. Another thing that I’m sure LeBron would find very attractive is the fact that the fans are absolutely rabid to say the least. It just seems like sports matters a lot more here then it does in other parts of the country. A great example of that was when I left the Divisional Round Game Watch I was at during the Patriots’ run this year. When I was driving home at halftime, there wasn’t a single car on the road! The bottom line is that living in Boston would be an unbelievable experience for LeBron as well as his family, as I’m sure guys like Garnett would definitely tell you.

So now that I’m done rambling about how great Boston is, it’s time to wrap up why LeBron to the Celtics would be such a great fit. First, you have what I rambled about in the last paragraph. Also, you have the potential resolution of the Kyrie situation by convincing him to suck up playing with LeBron for one year for a shot at beating the Warriors, and actually having it work long term if they find success in that first year. The other narrative of him never going to Boston due to the fact that they are his rival is also dumb as we’ve discussed, with LeBron dominating the rivalry since 2010. Next, you have Brad Stevens, a guy who consistently elevates the play of all of his players. It is truly scary thinking about how much LeBron could improve with Stevens constantly working to put him in the best position to succeed. Honestly, I feel like Nerlens Noel would improve enough under Stevens to give them 7 legitimate pieces who can finish games for them in LeBron, Hayward, Kyrie, Jaylen, Noel, Smart, and Tatum. Considering the Warriors only have 5, and no I’m not counting Zaza, it would seem that the Boston Roster would actually be better than the Warriors on paper. The disparity grows even larger when you look at the bench depth, as Rozier, Theis, and Semi are all incredibly underrated players who I think could help contribute to a championship.

Boston also has the advantage of being in the much weaker Eastern Conference, so they can come into the Finals well rested as opposed to the Warriors who will have to battle a bunch of tough teams out West. At the end of the day, LeBron is in the legacy stage of his amazing career, and it is all about winning titles at this point if he wants to catch Michael Jordan as the best player in NBA History. Due to the fact that the Warriors have assembled possibly the greatest team in NBA History, LeBron needs a ton of firepower to take them down, and this hypothetical Celtics team has a ton of that. While it must be said that the Warriors have been playing together for a long time and team chemistry is huge in the NBA, I seem to remember people seeing that about a Celtics team almost exactly 10 years ago. All that team did was win a title in their first year together. Chemistry isn’t an exact science, and it can form very quickly, so it might not be as much of an issue as you would think. The bottom line is that if LeBron truly wants to have the best shot at winning not one but multiple titles, the Celtics seem to be a great choice.

So I’m going to be completely honest here, this was not what I was planning on doing for this. I had 6 potential destinations written down, and was actually planning to slide them into one blog. After sitting down and doing it for one team however, I have realized that this is something that needs to be dissected with more detail than I had initially anticipated. It is because of this that I am going to stop here for now, and we are going to discuss the other potential destinations in a different blog. Although at this point I’ve thoroughly convinced myself that the Celtics are the move, I entered this blog thinking that a different team would be the best place for LeBron next year. In other words, actually doing the research and thinking about LeBron in Boston greatly swayed my opinion on what his decision should ultimately be. So with that being said, I will probably convince myself that the other 5 teams are great destinations as well. The bottom line is that this blog was a ton of fun to write, and I’m sure a ton of fun to read, so buckle up, because we still have 5 more teams to go!