The Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly feared that LeBron James was going to the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 2018 after delivering on his promise in bringing a championship to Cleveland, according to The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd. With James’ contracts in Cleveland being so short-term focused, this isn’t surprising, and it put the organization in a tough spot down the road as a result, and just look at the Cavs post-James round two.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are now the worst team in the NBA, unfortunately. Initially, the narrative surrounding the team (to which I also bought into) was that the club was going to competitive in the weaker Eastern Conference, and be on the cusp of a postseason birth with Kevin Love, Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman and others. They are now 2-14, though, and a recent report by The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd (subscription required) described how the Cavaliers’ organization feared that LeBron James would leave and join the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 2018 after the team won a championship over the Golden State Warriors in 2016.
The team was right, as James is now a member of the Lakers, who have now won eight of 10, and are now picking it up on both ends this month.
As Lloyd noted, Cleveland forecasted that “just a few months after the Cavs won the championship, that James would bolt to Southern California when his contract expired.”
James did amazing things in his second time in Cleveland; the Cavaliers went to four straight NBA Finals, and LeBron was his usual brilliant on a nightly basis. That being said, with the way he structured his contracts, it put the Cavaliers in a vulnerable position. James initially signed a two-year, $42.2 million contract in the summer of 2014 (per Spotrac), and the Cavaliers then promptly acquired Kevin Love in the Andrew Wiggins trade, as was the reported request.
From there, James opted out going into the next season, for a maximum deal the next summer, and then James declined his player option again, and then signed a three-year deal, but that resulted in him negotiating an opt-out possibility again in the summer of 2018.
Clearly, the Cavs thought that James did that so he could leave to the Lakers in 2018, and obviously, they were proven right, as Lloyd demonstrated.
The Kyrie Irving trade really hurt, too, though, in this case with James never giving the Cavs a long-term commitment. Granted, Irving reportedly did not want to get stuck on a team like the Cavaliers now have post-James if LeBron were to leave, but James could have been more hands-on in an urgent situation for the betterment of the Cavs, who were in a tough spot anyhow.
When that request happened, James, per Lloyd, “didn’t do much to heal the wounds.”
That news hurts, because although the Cleveland Cavaliers got all they could out of James for four years, and take nothing away, he was outstanding, losing him still predictably put them in an awful position. The Cavaliers have young pieces that can help them going forward in Cedi Osman, Collin Sexton and still Love, but Love has injury problems now every season, and the team is going to be rebuilding for the a number of years going forward post-James departure.
Seeing how James, who is now in his 16th season, jetted to L.A. and reportedly signed a four-year deal (worth $154 million and includes a 2021-22 player option) is giving the Lakers a minimum of three years with their young pieces playing prominent roles makes it still pretty hard to not disappointed.
I’ll always love LeBron for what he did in bringing us a ring, and I thought the applause for him was more than warranted, but him not committing to the Cavaliers at one point in his return for a four-year deal and then giving the Lakers that is still pretty rough.
If he would have tried harder to mend the fence with Irving last summer, maybe his word that he would retire a Cavalier would have held true.
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Write for us!That being said, maybe he still will. Anything’s possible with 23.
