Just going on the present it looks pretty bad for us right now. No question. Undisciplined play, too many sub-par players, not enough effort being done to work some of the younger guys in the lineup, you name it... I really can't see us as having that much more success than last year. I just got off the phone with my buddy, a huge Sixers fan, who called me to rub it in about the Charlotte loss tonight (Jay if you're reading this, kill yourself jerkoff, LOL) and I had no choice but to listen to it. You know what though, I really don't believe our situation is that bad moving forward here. I don't think LeBron James is completely out of the question. Let me explain...

Like most of you guys, my friend doesn't think there's a chance in hell LeBron's coming here. Call me an optimist but I'm still not sold on that. I really believe the King's mind is made up already, he's just gonna let it play out until the time comes. Real quick, let's just look over the whole situation again. First let's look at the Cavs' roster. The Cavs are off to a rough start at 1-2 themselves, having just got their first win tonight against the lowly T-Wolves. I gotta believe in my heart of hearts James knows damn well that his team still falls short when compared to other elite teams, even with Shaq on board (Shaq played only 18 mins tonight and scored 6 points with 7 rebounds - he's still more than serviceable and it was a good move by Ferry to bring him in but let's be honest, Shaq's a shell of the player he once was). LeBron's the best player on the planet and his presence alone on that team makes them a 55+ win club. Even still, pound for pound, they're not nearly as good as at least 3 other top teams in the league maybe more. I know we've been through this many times, but take a real good look at that roster - outside of Shaq, who's past his prime and Mo Williams who's a decent PG - better than Duhon - but not top tier, the rest of that team, top to bottom, is comprised of guy's that are either past their prime or role players. That's it. I've said it before and a few of you guys have agreed - our core guys that we'll be moving forward with are just as good as the guys LeBron is working with in Cleveland. Maybe their situation might look a little more secure right now (we might have to renounce a couple of guys) but you can't convince me LeBron's supporting cast is championship caliber. If it is it's because LeBron makes it so. If LeBron ever went down God forbid, that team even with Shaq wins 35, 40 games tops. In other words, same boat as us. No question in my mind. Conversely, the Celtics minus the Ticket last year for a long stretch were still a very competitive club, winning 62 games. And they just got better. So did Orlando and the Lakers..

Next, let's look at the cap situation for the two teams. I understand we may very well have to renounce some guys (Duhon, Nate, Harrington, Darko, maybe even Lee) but seriously, it's nothing we couldn't replace in time if we were left with no choice. Some are better than others and more important to move forward with than others (Lee) but none of those guys are all-star level players. Next year, we'll have a salary cap number of $27.3 million with a core of Curry & Jeffries, Gallo, Chandler, Hill and Douglas. With a max deal or close to it (and btw, would it be totally out of the question for LeBron, if he really wants NY, to possibly concede a little money his first year so we can add a little extra in addition to himself? I don't think so but for arguments sake let's stick with a max figure - say $16 million) that puts us at say $43, 44 million. In other words more than enough left over to seriously entertain the idea of bringing back Lee (say Lee accepts a long-term extention starting at $7-8 million. Now if the cap drops to $52 million, we're right there with LeBron & Lee. Being at the cap now the mid-level kicks in (Nate? Harrington? A PG?) and then we'd still have the LLE that we could use on another player (Joe Alexander? Darko? A PG). Or to keep max. flexibility maybe we pass on a mid-level player -- that'd be another $5-6 million we could put towards 2011...After that, we'd be able to go over the cap to sign draft picks, which is why I think aquiring another low pick or two in addition to our 2nd rounder might be in our best interest - maybe we pick up a PG in the draft (Collins, Wise, Randle, Vasquez), a SG (NY's own Lance Stephenson), another PF (Trevor Booker), and/or a center (AJ Ogilvy, Jerome Jordan). Believe me, if we had a top ten pick I'd be talking up other guys. Problem is we don't, Zeke traded it away, so these are the type of guys we'll need to be focusing on. You deal with it and move on. They'll be value lower; I like a lot of these guys projected to go that low to be honest. I said it last year that the draft was deep and got laughed at. Now people are realizing I wasn't on drugs. Well I expect there to be useful talent lower in the draft next summer as well... If we accomplished all of this so far, we'd be looking at a cap in the neighborhood of $60-62 million. Over the cap for the time being? You bet, but remember, the following year we'll have another $17+ million coming off the books with Curry & Jeffries. Cap goes back down to the $45 million dollar range (where hopefully the cap ceiling we'll have to work with climbs back up to a more team-friendly number, hopefully up to the mid-50s or higher). We'd be under the cap once again where we'll be able to do it all over again more or less - complete 1 high-level FA signing, another MLE/LLE signing if we so choose, draft picks (we'll have a 1st rounder this time and a 2nd rounder in 2011). Not to mention the team has a good trade asset right now in Wilson Chandler to use (I like this kid but if I could ever get something decent for him that makes more sense for us, I'd be inclined to pull the trigger -- I'm just not sure Chandler ever hits the big-time here with us, no offense to all the Chandler fans out there - What we might be able to bring back in a trade for Chandler might be able to help us more than Wilson himself)....Now just looking over the Cavs' salary situation for next year, it's not nearly as bright, not nearly the same financial flexibility as we'd have -- if they resign LeBron to the max. that puts them right over $50 million. And that's minus Shaq now, as he only has this year remaining on his deal. That's a few million to spare before their MLE would kick in. What could they do with that? Resign Shaq? Doubtful, if he plays well and doesn't retire, he'll want more than the mid-level. Sign a better player than Shaq? Don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. You see where I'm going with this though. Ferry will be limited next year on what he could offer LeBron if he stayed there. Now they have some nice flexibility in 2011 but so do we. Maybe not as much as them but enough -- if we do things smartly and make good choices, we'll have some decent flexibility in 2011 ourselves (hopefully at least $10 mil. dollars worth, more like $15, 16 mil. if we pass on a mid-level player next year). The Cavs will also have a few players they might have to renounce after next year and the players that will be coming backfor them in 2011, except for Mo Williams, aren't really anything special. Ferry will have the burden of trying to scramble to re-tool on the fly like the rest of us after next season. His home town still gets the edge (everything I've talked about us doing, they can basically do the same). But to me, the playing field suddenly looks a lot more level as far as what kind of team we could surround LeBron with and what they can do for him. Big plus too for us is coach D'Antoni. Players love this guy and LeBron was said to have gotten close with him at the Olympics. I really believe that MDA could help us attract a big time FA -- I think that was a big part of the reason he was hired here. We'll see soon enough if there's any truth to this theory. If his presence does help out in the FA process, even if it's not for LeBron, then hiring Mike to be our coach was well worth it...

Now I'm not saying it all goes down exactly like that, though it could. Why not? Hopefully the Knicks have an even better blueprint in place than the stuff I've talked about here. Hopefully they've got stuff in mind that none of us have even thought of (trade targets, ways to add that second star that would work out even better and sooner, etc..). Honestly, if they get creative like this and sit down and explain all of this to LeBron, everything they plan to execute with their upcoming flexibility, how does our situation here in NY not look that attractive? I think it definitely does. The King might see it that way as well. Have faith in this guy a little to understand what we are now and what we suddenly could become in a very short amount of time. You add LeBron to a re-tooled Knick team using anything close to what I just talked about here and we're back on the map in this league in a big way. Not to mention a successful team - a winning team. That's important. This notion that LeBron would somehow be coming to a losing situation here is bogus -- this guy could turn any team we put out there into an instant 50+ win team basically all by himself. Instant good team - just add LeBron, shake and stir. It's more than shooting for a good team though. We'll have to lay it out for him exactly how we plan to get him some good help. We've gotta pitch LeBron the idea that we can take it a step futher and be an even better club. Plant the idea that he'd be part of a club that has more talent than the club he currently plays for...Bottom line is there's no denying the obvious - he would definitely play for successful teams here and on the biggest stage in all of sports, the mecca, which might be something he secretly craves anyway.