We’ve resisted as much as we can, and to quote Popeye, “(We) can’ts stands no more”. You can’t follow the NBA and not have this season’s free agency period in the back of your mind. LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Johnson. We all know the names, what we don’t know is where they’re going. It’s still early days, and these might change but here is where I think they’re going currently.
LeBron James
"Cavs, Clippers, Bulls, Heat...."
Cleveland Cavaliers. Whether the King wants the money, or he wants the best chance to won, it doesn’t really matter because his best destination for both is right where he is. The Cavs can offer him the most money thanks to the Larry Bird rule, and other than the Lakers (which just wouldn’t work) there isn’t a better team in the league. Even the if the Cavs were to let Shaq go at the end of the season, that would free up close to $20m in cap room to snag further help for Akron’s favourite son.
Dwayne Wade
Chicago Bulls. It’s ironic that the player who isn’t constantly compared to Michael Jordan might actually end up echoing his career best. Wade is from the south side of Chicago, and the Bulls nifty moves at the deadline have freed up enough cap space to make it worth his while. The current Chicago team is as good if not better than the stiffs he’s forced to play with in Miami, so it’s not like he’s going from the Penthouse to the Outhouse.
Chris Bosh
RuPaul...I think
New York Knicks. Following the humiliating failure to capture LeBron, the Knicks will panic and overpay for a player who Shaq once referred to as the “Ru Paul of Big Men”. Chris Bosh is a great athelete, but the truth is we just don’t know how good he is. Vince Carter and his cousin Tracy McGrady have both treaded the path that Bosh finds himself in Toronto, and both turned out to be just big fish in small ponds. Vince has never played in a Conference Final and as we know, McGrady has never made it past the first round. My point being that being a great scorer and a great athelete does not automatically make you a winner, and at this point I’m not sure Bosh is.
Joe Johnson
New York Knicks. Knowing that Bosh alone will not satisfy their fanbase, I see the Knicks making a run at Johnson but if succesful, it will be at the expense of another free agent, David Lee.
Amare Stoudemire
Miami Heat. Following in the footsteps of Shawn Marion, Stoudemire will move to South Beach and begin regretting the day he decided to sacrifice playing with Steve Nash as his point guard. The Heat will need to spend that money on someone when Wade flee’s and they showed plenty of interest in Amare prior to the trade deadline.
No doubt the destinations will change as we get closer, but if you put a gun to my head, that’s where I see this playing out right now.
