"The Decision" Part 3
Back on August 17th 2017 I wrote an article about where LeBron James could play in the 2018-19 NBA season as I had listed some options for him. A lot has changed in the last ten months so I am going to re-examine his options and think of where is the best place he can play next year.
First of all if you do not know who LeBron James Jr. is you should look him up. Actually you probably don't need to look him up because I think you can figure out by his name that LeBron James Jr. is the son of LeBron James. LeBron James Jr. is currently thirteen years old and just finished seventh grade. He will be starting high school in the 2019-2020 school year and wherever LeBron James Sr. decides which team to play in the future is where LeBron James Jr. is going to have to live and attend high school at. To make things easier for all of you we're going to call LeBron James Sr. "Senior" and LeBron James Jr. "Junior". So Senior has a decision to make in where he wants to see his older son attend high school at. Does Senior have the heart and move Junior away from his friends again or not? Or actually does Junior really care if he moves away from his friends?
We all know however that Senior does want his son Junior to have the best education.
Okay now we can call LeBron James Sr. by just "LeBron" and not have to mention about his son anymore. Now LeBron's wife Savannah grew up in Akron, Ohio and LeBron did as well. Also, whenever LeBron made his decision to play for the Miami Heat in 2010 LeBron and his whole family moved to Miami and his wife Savannah did not like moving down to Miami because she had to move away from her home town. I am not sure however if Savannah eventually got used to living in Miami or not but I know is that when they moved back to Cleveland in 2014 that she was happy. So wherever LeBron decides to play in 2018 he needs to make sure his wife and family will like living there.
Now all the media has been talking recently is whether or not LeBron will decide to sign with the Lakers this offseason so he can get some of his friends like Paul George and perhaps Chris Paul to join him in Los Angeles and win some games together. But actually more importantly for LeBron to play with Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball. I feel like that the media wants LeBron to play in Los Angeles because the whole media wants to see the Lakers become dominant again like they were when the they went to three straight NBA Finals from 2008-2010 and when Kobe Bryant was on the team. I feel that if LeBron moved to Los Angeles he would either be moving there to help support his brand or to win more championships. All I know is that the city of Los Angeles would love to have LeBron in their city. I am pretty sure that every Lakers game was sold out in the last three years even though the team was not doing so good and if LeBron joined the team then the prices of tickets would increase a lot and all of their games would actually be sold out faster than turning on a lamp. The Lakers were 35-47 this past season. If they have LeBron next year the Lakers would probably have at least 55 wins next season but you have to think that someone currently playing for the Lakers has to be gone in order for LeBron to enter Los Angeles. Unless a lot of the team takes pay cuts or something like that.
Now you know that LeBron would love to stay in Cleveland but the problem with him staying in Cleveland
is that he probably cannot attract a lot of players to come to Cleveland. If LeBron would want players to come to Cleveland he would have to restructure his contract very low so other free agent players would want to come to Cleveland and get a respectable contract by the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers salary cap does not look good as George Hill, Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith are definitely making too much money in my opinion.
If LeBron wanted to win championships for the rest of his life he could go to Golden State. But I don't think the Warriors front office would want LeBron for no matter how much money he would want because they already have a starting five that can win championships and they do not want to ruin that chemistry that Curry, Durant, Thompson, Green and Pachulia all have together. And then later on I thought that LeBron is not just trying to win championships but he is also trying to prove to the Warriors that they don't have his number because right now the Warriors do have LeBron's number.
I honestly thought that if "King James" really wanted to challenge the Warriors that he could go to the Houston Rockets and play with James Harden and Chris Paul. Chris Paul would love to play with LeBron and I feel like that their chemistry would be strong, even stronger than LeBron and Kyrie Irving or even LeBron and Dwyane Wade. I know James Harden and Chris Paul have played multiple positions this year and I don't think Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni would mind moving Harden and Paul to different positions to make room for LeBron. But I wonder if James Harden would mind not being the top guy in Houston and having all the attention go to LeBron instead of himself.
I also thought he could go to Oklahoma City and play with both of his friends Paul George and Carmelo Anthony if one or both of them decided to stay in OKC. But then I realized that I don't think it would be a good idea because if James joined the Thunder because some contracts might have to be re-structured especially Russell Westbrook's contract. I also feel if LeBron joined the Thunder there would be a conflict between LeBron and Westbrook like the Durant and Westbrook jealousy conflict those two had when Durant was still playing for the Thunder. I don't think the problem would be George or Melo switching positions if LeBron joined the Thunder, but the little incident between Westbrook and LeBron they might have because LeBron would have the ball more than Westbrook and we all know Russell wants the ball in his hands. Let me tell you I don't think George and Melo would mind too much getting paid less and winning championships with LeBron.
I like how some people would think LeBron would join the Los Angeles Clippers out of all the teams. I see if Blake Griffin and Chris Paul were on the team but they both play with different teams now and I am not positive how much LeBron wants to play with just DeAndre Jordan. I actually think DeAndre might be trying to leave L.A. pretty soon and then once he leaves then the Clippers will turn into a team like the Sacramento Kings.
I also know already that LeBron won't be joining the Celtics or the Raptors anytime soon. There is no way that LeBron will go to Boston because he knows Kyrie Irving hates his guts. I also don't think LeBron feels like moving out of the country to play with the Toronto Raptors in Canada. So that's basically two teams I know he won't join.
I am not sure if LeBron wants to go back to his old home in Miami but I personally would love if him and Dwyane Wade play with each other in Miami again and every Heat game would be sold out.
I don't see him playing with the San Antonio Spurs because I don't think LeBron and Kawhi Leonard would have a good connection. Now they probably could play together but I don't they could have a close relationship and go on a cruise together or anything like that unless they dominate against every team in the NBA and decide to become best friends. But you know LeBron does praise Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich a lot so you never know if LeBron would decide to join a team with average players and be coached by one of the best coaches ever in Popovich. I guess LeBron could also try and fit in with Pau Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge.
LeBron joining the New Orleans Pelicans is very unlikely as he either would have to take less money offered by the Pelicans or the Pelicans would have to get rid of DeMarcus Cousins and I am pretty sure if LeBron would consider to play in NOLA it would be to play with DeMarcus Cousins and not Anthony Davis. The Pelicans could also have Cousins, Davis and James all play together and just rid of their whole entire bench. But we all know in reality that an NBA team cannot get rid of their bench.
Now I think the most likely place I could see LeBron go to is Philadelphia. If LeBron would go to Philadelphia every 76ers game would be sold out and I feel like he would fit in good. If he joined the 76ers the Raptors and Celtics would get smacked by them each time and LeBron would be playing with good players that would not mind passing the ball to him. If the 76ers have to get rid of Covington or Saric in order to get LeBron you best believe the 76ers would not mind shipping one of those guys out. If you happen to remember during the 2016-17 NBA season LeBron said he would like to play with T.J. McConnell because of how good T.J. is when it comes to passing the ball. You could put LeBron, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, T.J. McConnell and J.J. Redick as your starting 5 and the 76ers would be winning games. With LeBron on the team Embiid could focus more on his defense and let LeBron, Redick and Simmons do all the scoring. Then T.J. would be the fifth man passing James the ball. I really don't think LeBron would mind taking less money to play with the 76ers and play with Ben Simmons who is part of LeBron James' agency.
Family, money, chances of winning championships and his brand are all components in deciding where LeBron wants to play in the 2018-19 NBA season. But no matter where he goes he'll find a way to keep playing at a high level.