I think the plan in place here is sound. The target is LeBron James as it should be. He's the best NBA FA I'll probably ever see in my lifetime and our GM has put us in a position to make the best offer possible to the man when the time comes. I appreciate that. Don't see how you can argue with the logic there. Now if he decides to stay in Cleveland all is not lost IMO. I don't see it as LeBron or bust. Never did...I see it more like LeBron or continue to be patient...
First, I'd pass on all these other top 2010 FAs if I can't get LeBron -
Wade (great player but has the creaky knees, he's a little older now, he's not leaving South Beach anyway).
Bosh (snickered at & all but dismissed the thought of coming to NY not too long ago which I didn't care for at all -- as good as he is, I honestly don't feel like he brings that much more production to the table than David Lee - why give this guy $14 million when you could prossibly start Lee in the $7-9 million dollar range to return?).
Amar'e (racking up quite the injury history, not nearly as explosive as he once was, a little older now).
Joe Johnson (he's OK but not nearly on the same level as some of these other guys - no way I'd give this guy huge money. This guy's not a #1 for a team, barely a #2 type really. Played poorly against the Celtics in the playoffs last year from what I saw).
With LeBron back to Cleveland, these other four top guys just don't do it for me. Instead, I'd immediately switch gears to a plan B that involved retention of all of our own key FAs, namely Lee, Harrington, Nate and possibly Darko if he plays well and manages to have some kind of an impact and I'd look to bring all back to sensible deals where hopefully I could get them to concede a little money in 2011 (2011 would then become my big FA splash year). Duhon I'll probably pass on - this guy's OK but I can't see giving him anywhere from $5-7 million a season to return which is what he'll want. Might need to look elsewhere for another veteran tide-us-over PG for next year...Next, I'll be looking to amass as many additional draft assets as I can get my hands on. We don't have our own 1st rounder but that doesn't mean we can't have a successful draft next summer provided we really do our homework on some of the nice talent that'll be available a bit lower. Like we just did this year, I'd look to purchase a 1st rounder and possibly even an additional high 2nd rounder - that would give us 3 picks which would be instrumental in helping with the on-going rebuild. I'd love to come away with a PG, possibly even 2, and a big man. The PGs I like that should be available a little lower are Sherron Collins, Nic Wise, Jerome Randle and Greivis Vasquez. And the big guys I have my eye on right now are C AJ Ogilvy and PF Trevor Booker. SG Lance Stephenson is another guy I'll be keeping an eye on - if he doesn't have a great freshman year he probably goes back to school, but if we could get him low first round, he might be an option at the 2 for us. Might be interested in coming back to NY to play at the Garden too... I'll continue to keep an eye on all college talent, but as of right now, I feel like these guys would be nice fits here...If we lost out on LeBron but turned around and retained most of our own key free agents, drafted hopefully 2 or 3 of the guys I mentioned and then turned our attention to the 2011 FA class (where we'll have even more flexibilty when Curry and Jeffries come off the books), I don't think that's a terrible plan B...The last thing I wanna see them do though is panic and throw a ton of money at Joe Johnson just because they can...
